America's most wanted: The man with eighty wives

[Laura]

Read this with a grain of salt. It is entirely possible that the guy is being smeared with an "anti-cult" campaign... Hard data needed.

Warren Jeffs is the brutal tyrant behind America's leading Mormon cult - as well as a prolific polygamist with a penchant for child brides. For two years he has been the target of an FBI manhunt.

Sanjiv Bhattacharya joined the chase
Published: 19 July 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1185364.ece

It is astonishing how much a cult leader can get done while he is on the run from the FBI. Witness the case of Warren Jeffs, leader of the largest fundamentalist Mormon cult in the US, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) whose members number in the region of 10,000.

In the two years Jeffs has been a fugitive from justice, he has built compounds in Colorado, South Dakota and Texas, the latter including a huge temple. He has rigorously controlled his followers, draining them of $5m (

 

[Ben]

I watched 'The Man With 80 Wives' last night, where a private investigator showed some of his 'recordings', which he occasionally sends back to his original community (where everybody thinks he is the Messiah, and seems to be completely brainwashed by him). He advocates white supremacy, killing in his name, and complete obedience to the prophet (himself). If that is him in the recordings, that is hard enough data for me. There was also an interview with the family of one of his victims of alleged sexual abuse.

Everything indicates to me that Jeffs is a psychopath (which the presenter FINALLY suggested towards the end of the show) who uses religion as a control mechanism. Of course, he may believe these things himself, in which case he has even more serious disorders.

 

[Laura]

Thanks for the input, Ben. I suspected as much but wanted to leave it open. Okay, so sounds like a psychopath...