Shortly after 'The Man with 80 Wives' aired, the FBI raised the bounty on Jeffs to $100,000 and added him to their 10 Most Wanted List. 'The Man with 80 Wives' provides a thorough overview of Jeffs and his polygamous followers as leads are tracked down from Phoenix, Salt Lake City, British Columbia and Eldorado, Texas. In a documentary that aired July 2006, 'The Man with 80 Wives' follows a British journalist as he investigates the whereabouts of FLDS leader, Warren Jeffs. Two years before law enforcement raided the Yearning for Zion ranch, the documentary 'Banking on Heaven' showed what life was like behind closed doors in the FLDS.Īccording to the movie's website, 'Banking on Heaven reveals the corruption, the legislatures failure to help, the Mormon Church's role, and the plight of innocent members of the FLDS polygamous sect.' Jeffs also continues to play the role of martyr, to extend his control over his followers, to the point of having mockups of his jail cell erected at the entrances of the FLDS meeting house so that the faithful would experience the conditions of his imprisonment.Filmmakers had ample material to work with in telling the story of the FLDS under Warren Jeffs.Ī powerful religious figure wanted by the FBI, a reclusive sect of followers whose women dress as if they've stepped out of the pages of a history book, controversial marriage practices and people ruled both by fear and faith.Įven before our national attention pivoted sharply in April 2008 toward a small pocket of land just outside Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas, when 439 children were removed from the largest polygamous enclave in the United States, film producers had begun capturing life in the FLDS with these documentaries: Banking on Heaven, 2006 Warren Jeffs: The Godfather ('48 Hours').I kind of think that he has settled into that world.' 'I think he likes it that way - still being the boss with none of the worries. The putative head of the FLDS community now is Warren's brother, Lyle, but Brower says Lyle is just serving as a mouthpiece for his jailed sibling: 'I don't doubt that Lyle takes liberties now and then, but Warren is still running the show,' he said. Though Jeffs is serving a life sentence in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in Texas, with only an hour a day outside his cell for exercise and phone calls and visitors on weekends, 'he can send as much mail as he wants,' Brower said, 'so he is able to get a lot of information out' - including his 'revelations' about the future of his church. 'When you're kicked out, you're a lost soul.' 'There's more trauma when you're kicked out, too,' said Brower. They had all of their faith stripped away and lost everything so they had a better starting point.' She said that several of those who left willingly experienced a lot more guilt, due to their leaving families behind. Even years later, I spoke with people who'd been kicked out or left who are still wearing the clothes and still haven't quite shaken the whole thing yet.'īerg noted, 'The people that got kicked out of the church seem to have a little bit more motivation to rebuild their lives than the people that left. do it at a much quicker pace, but mostly it's a long process to slowly integrate themselves with the rest of the world. 'Some people leave, some were kicked out. 'For each person it's different,' Brower said of the path for former sect members. The film also contains harrowing interviews with former sect members who were indoctrinated in the teachings of Jeffs, and then left the fold, their faith and feelings of trust destroyed. There is also a recording of Jeffs' apparent rape of one of his many child brides. But while he is not interviewed directly, the film contains his chilling depositions from behind bars and the successful prosecution against him, as well as audio recordings of his teachings to FLDS members. She wrote letters to Jeffs twice a week for almost two years, with no response.

'I think there are a lot of similarities in the male-run institutions which practice power through exploitation and abuse,' said director Amy Berg, whose past films include the Oscar-nominated documentary, 'Deliver Us From Evil' (about abuse of children within the Catholic Church), and the Hollywood expose, 'An Open Secret.'īerg collaborated with private investigator Sam Brower (whose seven-year probe into the FLDS formed the basis of his bestselling book, 'Prophet's Prey') and journalist Jon Krakauer, for what is a truly harrowing look into the mindset of Jeffs and that of followers who'd either fled his enclave or were cast out. After his conviction was overturned, Jeffs was tried in Texas and convicted of child sexual assault in 2011.

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