Escape is Carolyn's touching and sensitively told personal story: At 18, Carolyn became the fourth wife of a 50-year old man in Utah. This was in the 1980s.
In 2003, when Carolyn was 33, she and her eight children escaped from her husband and the Polygamous FLDS sect, in the middle of the night. She had $20 to her name. Carolyn is the only woman to have escaped Polygamy, bringing all her children.
The FLDS is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The FLDS is the radical sect that split off from the Mormon (LDS) church and is not to be confused with the mainstream Mormon church.
Written with Laura Palmer, Escape is a best-selling book and a venture into a world of which many have never heard - this is an inside look at the horrors of the polygamous world of the FLDS.
The FLDS was started after the mainstream LDS church no longer allowed polygamy in the late 19th century. Polygamy is the issue that divides the FLDS from the LDS.
The FLDS sect in the twin city area of Hilldale, Utah/Colorado City, Arizona - is the sect into which Carolyn Jessop married.
Carolyn grew up in polygamy, from 6 generations of polygamy on her mother's side.
Many who grew up in Utah, such as myself, have such polygamy far back in our ancestry. In fact, virtually all of the original Utah Pioneer settlers had to have more than one wife. All my great and great-great grandfathers had at least two wives and one of my great-grandfathers had 6 wives and 54 children from the five surviving wives.
But that was in the mid-19th century. Progress has marched on for many of us, but it was not so for Carolyn and those still in the FLDS today.
During her childhood in the 1970s. Carolyn grew up with her parents, her father's other wives, and her siblings in Salt Lake, away from the FLDS community. Her mother was happy and her parents briefly had a Christmas tree and a coffeemaker in the house, both of which are taboo in the religion.
Once Carolyn's parents moved to the Colorado City FLDS compound, her mother grew desperately unhappy.
Colorado City was run by the then-Prophet Leroy Johnson (Uncle Roy). The Prophet was the leader of the FLDS and his word was the word of God. What the Prophet said was a matter of law. The Prophet was believed to speak directly with God.
In her acknowledgements to the book, Carolyn describes the FLDS:
"The FLDS is constructed on a scaffolding of lies. We were all brainwashed into believing that everyone in the outside world was evil."
Referring to her life now after her escape, Carolyn continues:
"Every Christmas, when I see the delight in my children as they unwrap presents from people they never met, I realize what a monstrous lie we were taught to believe."
In her book, Carolyn describes her escape.
"Escape. The moment had come. I had been watching and waiting for months. The time was right. I had to act fast and without fear. I could not afford to fail. Nine lives wee at stake: those of my eight children and my own."
..."At eighteen, I was coerced into an arranged marriage with Merril Jessop, a fifty-year-old man I barely knew. I became his fourth wife and had eight children in fifteen years...
"The first thing I did when I realized I might be able to escape was to go to my sister Linda's house to use the telephone. I couldn't call from my home because the phones were monitored. My husband's six other wives were suspicious. I had a reputation for being somewhat independent and thinking for myself, so the other wives kept tabs on me. "
..."When I was growing up in the FLDS, our lives had not been as extreme as they were becoming under Warren Jeffs. The children attended public schools. But that ended when Jeffs took over. He felt that teachers I the public schools had been educated by ‘gentiles' [non-FLDS] and were ‘contaminated.' "
So Carolyn's children attended the private FLDS schools. Warren Jeffs believed he was Christ incarnate, and spoke of moving the FLDS members to a walled-off area within the compound from which there would be no escape.
Jeffs believed the FLDS were the ‘chosen seed of God' and that it was his duty to protect them from everything unclean, such as the ‘outside' world. Jeffs ordered all secular [non-FLDS] books to be destroyed.
Carolyn had been a public school teacher before Jeffs took over. She had had more than 300 children's books, which were destroyed under Jeffs' rule.
One night in 2003, Carolyn returned home but could not find her oldest daughter, Betty, who was then 14. Warren Jeffs was known to marry off girls to older men - girls as young as 14. Jeffs himself had dozens of wives - at least 70.
[Since the writing of the book, Warren Jeffs was arrested, tried, and convicted of two felony counts of arranging under-age marriages of girls to older men. News updated November 10th include release of documents that Jeffs tried to hang himself in his jail cell in September while awaiting trial, and also confessing to ‘immorality' with a ‘sister' and a ‘daughter.' His nephew, Brent Jeffs, is suing Jeffs for sodomy when Brent was an underage student in one of the schools and Warren was the principal. Jeffs is awaiting sentencing for the two felony convictions. He could face life imprisonment.]
When Carolyn returned home one night to find 14-year-old Betty at a sleepover at Jeffs' house with other 14-year old girls, Carolyn knew she had to act fast: her worry was that Betty would soon be married off to an older man.
..."One by one, I put my children in the van and told them to buckle their set belts. I was frantic. I was also out of time. Harrison [severely disabled since birth] was the only one left...I strapped him into his car seat, turned on the ignition, and counted to see if my children were all there. Betty was missing."
Carolyn found 14-year old Betty in her room but Betty resisted Carolyn taking her into the car. After a brief skirmish, Betty acquiesced and Carolyn left southern Utah in her van with her eight children, bound for Salt Lake City.
On the escape drive, Betty saw that her mother had lied as to where they were going.
"You are stealing us! Mother, you are stealing us! Uncle Warren will come and get us."
"Betty, I can't steal my own children."
"We don't belong to you! We belong to the prophet! You have no right to us."
Five hours later, Carolyn and her children were in hiding in Salt Lake City, and her husband began to hunt them down like prey.
Carolyn describes what it was like to move to the FLDS community in Hilldale in the late 1980s, and to learn that the sunglasses the FLDS wives often wore usually covered black eyes.
Power was in the hands of the husband, and the wives and children's fate and rank within the family was determined by how obedient and subservient they were to him.
The prophet Leroy Johnson had announced that he had a revelation that Carolyn should marry Merril Jessop - Carolyn had been planning on going to college to become a doctor, but her father knew that once the prophet spoke that he must act quickly and marry Carolyn to Jessop.
There were no questions asked: Carolyn's family did what they were forced to do. Carolyn later learned she had been a pawn in a business deal between her father and Jessop.
When Carolyn married Jessop - who was very high up within the FLDS priesthood - she, at 18, had never had a previous relationship with a man, had never dated (dating was forbidden) and she did not love Merril - she did not even like this man whom many others called cruel.
On their wedding night, Carolyn was bound to wifely duty, as a possession of her husband. She cringed when he touched her, and was relieved when he was not able to consummate their wedding night. She later learned to use sex as a safety weapon in the relationships with the other wives and children. Sex was the one power the younger wives had over a more powerful wife.
Carolyn became Jessop's fourth wife - of the previous wives, only Barbara was still having sex with Merril, and Barbara was the wife to whom all other wives, children and Merril answered. Barbara made Carolyn's life miserable. Carolyn was watched wherever she went.
Jessop was later to add two more wives to his plural marriage.
Abuse against wives and against children was not only permissible, but a way of life.
"It was preached at church that if you didn't put the fear of God into children from the time of their birth, they would grow up and leave the work of God. Abuse was necessary to save a child's soul."
Encouragement was few and far between. One of the wives later approached Merril, and spoke up against him on behalf of Carolyn:
"Merril, it's wrong for you to use your daughters against your wives and encourage them to be hurtful and mean to us and your other children. "
At one point, Carolyn realizes she missed an important step in the teachings and blessings of the FLDS religion: She had never received a Patriarchal blessing. The Patriarch is third in line from the top - the prophet, Council of 12 Apostles and the Patriarch - (third in line - similar to an Archbishop's rank in the Roman Catholic church).
The importance of a Patriarchal blessing is that the Patriarch tells why you were put on this earth. When Carolyn did finally receive that blessing, she learned that she was born with the gift of discernment - that she could look at someone and know if they were good or evil.
It was that gift of discernment, among her many other gifts and strengths, that gave Carolyn the strength to escape, and to finally find happiness and peace.
Carolyn tells her gripping story in a matter-of-fact way that does not undersell the horror of the facts themselves - nor does it do short shrift to the beauty and the power of humanity that finally surfaces in her heroic tale.
A must read.
Escape by Carolyn Jessup with Laura Palmer, published by Broadway Books (October 16, 2007) hardcover.
ISBN-10: 0767927567
ISBN-13: 978-0767927567
List price is $24.95, but Amazon offers it at $16.47, and used for $12.
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Comments: 156 ( 4 removed by Kathryn E. )
Carolyn, in turn, was of great assistance to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtlieff in providing information about Warren Jeffs, which led to his 2006 arrest.
can get it. It is very hard to comprehend that this still goes on in America, but it does, and our laws, cannot even stop it.
I did see those other families on Oprah and their story was very interesting.
Carolyn herself said that cohabitation should be decriminalized because it leads to the abuses and crimes such as are found in the FLDS.
When I was 10, I was holding a copy of my grandparents' genealogy of my g-grandfather and his 6 wives and 54 children.
It hit me for the first time, that most people do not have this in their background. it was at that time, that I wanted to study all the stories of my ancestors (of which there are plenty, thank goodness) and to find ways to bring this most interesting heritage to light - warts and all.
I realized as I went into the world that my friends really wanted to learn more about the ancestry of Mormons. I love my relations, I love all the goodness that is inherent in the LDS church, but then there are the radical elements - such as the FLDS - that stymy belief.
brainwashing at it's best. I am so pleased she escaped this way of life. I wish her a happy life.
Nice review, K.
It's interesting how similar the Sunnis in the Middle East are to the FLDS.
Thanks for not getting into a "Mormon" debate because frankly, even though I am no longer active in the church, I am tired of Mormon-bashing. The FLDS are definitely NOT the same as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And polygamy, although once practiced in the LDS Church, is not sanctioned and hasn't been for quite some time. I appreciated the way you handled this topic. You did an excellent review of this book. I applaud this woman for her courage at escaping from a world where her rights and those of her children were taken from her, as was her free will - something the LDS Church and Christ would never have done to her.
Polygamy, particularly as practiced in the FLDS, is slavery. Nothing more, nothing less.
I had a neighbor who talked to me about how they would be arranging their daughters marriage as it was their custom in their country. She told me she would never arrange a marriage her daughter didn't want. She wanted her daughter happy.
you wrote a terrific review but I don't know if I'll read this book. Carolyn has gone through hell before she left earth and these books usually leave me disgusted and angry at mans' abuses.
Still, even reading your review disturbs me. It reminds me that, once more, Satan has used religion to destroy people's lives.
So many people who could be helped by those who have true religion, now draw back from anything to do with God because of such things as happened to this lady and her children.
Still, in the end of it all, God's love will win out over evil every time.
Shocking circumstances. One can only hope that the sordid, illegal cult behavior of these fringe offshoot religions will continue to be exposed to the mainstream public.
Reports and books such as this do help in that regard.
Great book review, Kathryn.You have quite a knack for them.
You find it in Guyana (remember??) as well as Waco (need I say more??) and in the Colonia Dignidad in Brazil. All "religious" leaders who stopped at nothing to wield power over others. And, more often than not, claiming the "freedom to exercise their religious beliefs."
Another woman and the wives and the husband - who did go on TV, live in Centennial Park, AZ - an FLDS community but not run by Jeffs. The husband did say his plural marriage is all about love and not power and they seemed happy.
Also, on Prime Time a few months back was a young husband and his two young wives and three children. The older wife (30) worked and the younger wife (20) stayed home to raise the children. Children are really communal property, which is why children refer to all the women as "mothers.' They seemed happy, too. What set these three families apart from our society is that they accepted things as normal that we do not accept. But, still, the fact that women have fewer rights and that many, many women and children are not happy and do not have the same exposure to the outside world is simply wrong.
Only in the Jeffs' communities in Utah-AZ, Texas and likely also British Columbia (actually run by the Blakemore family - which were Carolyn's fathers' families) do people face such horrific abuses.
The other communities - where people observe FLDS but are not part of the compounds - can people live with fewer restrictions but still live within FLDS rules.
My mind has such a difficult time wrapping around the whole polygamy/polygamist culture. With all the things life can throw at us, having just one spouse can be a complicated challenge...lol...I can't imagine having 54.
I think it's odd that Warren Jeffs would try to hang himself and admit to what he had done as being immoral. You would think if he truly believed he was Christ incarnate and his preachings to be righteous, he would defend his actions to the end?????
Someone asked why: the reasons were varied. Polygyny (one husband and multiple wives, which is probably a better term for what the FLDS practices since multiple husbands is not, I believe, practiced) often stems from a culture where wealth and power are carried down through the male line. In order to ensure offspring, multiple wives and/or concubines might be employed to improve the likelihood of heirs. These spouses/mates were often kept confined or closely watched in order to ensure paternity of their offspring. Establishing a link between mother and child is simple - between father and child, was more problematic and was generally inferred.
Additional factors include that the fertility of a wife or concubine may (a) not be detectable ahead of time, (b) may not jibe with physical beauty and/or dowry and (c) will eventually go away. Multiple wives reduced the presumed issue that the woman was at fault if not children were forthcoming. Men were also primarily involved in the numerous wars, so women were perhaps more common than men. In a world where women have little political of monetary standing alone, being one of many wives was often better than the alternatives for a single lady.
If this sounds inherently chauvinistic, I must say I agree. And, in generaly, polygyny was practiced in environments where women were considered property or at least a lower class person. However, not all polygamy was polygyny and there have been many places where polyandry (one woman many husbands) and, to a lesser extent, true polygamy (many of both) have been practiced. Additionally, in many societies where sexual openness is common, a polygyny and/or polyandry could be effectively a polygamy where no one worries where the children came from - everyone loves them.
I'm not here to judge. I personally abhor any relationship based on the subservience of any person(s) to another. However, friendly, consensual marriages between multiple partners of any gender doesn't inherently bother me. My father (who was a Mormon and a feminist if ever there was one) often wished he could find a second husband for my mother so that she could work (which she enjoyed), another husband could work to support the family, and my father could stay at home with the kids.
I don't have an inherent problem with groups of people who work well together, particularly if such a relationship works to the benefit of the children, even if I'm monogamous myself.
Very interesting, too, about your father. What a great man.
I am hoping this will become a movie. I have not heard anything and I have no way of contacting the author - understandably, she is likely living a very quiet life - she did go back to her town with Lisa Ling on Oprah, but no one answered the door - their windows were one-way mirrors - and they even harassed Carolyn by honking their horns, to get her out of town.
With 21-st century media, such as the Internet - (which these members DO NOT have), but now, with this ground-breaking book, the FLDS' days are limited.
Cohabitation SHOULD be decriminalized in Utah, so people can life outside of marriage, legally, whether with one significant other or with several.