FLDS: Author went undercover, lived with polygamists; confirms baby-abuse

[pnwmom]

Ellen Rose Beecham went undercover to write a novel based in the FLDS communities in Utah/Arizona. Her description of child rearing practices confirms the claims of Carolyn Jessop, the former wife of Merril Jessop, who is now in charge of the YFZ ranch. (Jessop has described how her husband would "teach" a baby not to cry by spanking it and holding its face under water.)


http://www.childbrides.org/abuses_AfterEllen_Rose_Beecham_goes_undercover_in_polyg_cult.html

RB: Virtually every detail of life among the FLDS presented in Grave Silence is as I witnessed it. Actually, I understated many elements because I thought readers would find it all so hard to believe.

Everything is true, from the little wall plaques emblazoned with "Keep Sweet, No Matter What," to the hoarding of weapons, to the instructions about food stamps on the walls of the supermarket and the shelves of lubricant gels, to the prayers by the head of the house, the reassignment of wives and children as punishment to keep men in line, the lack of education and contact with the outside world, and the systematic brutality and oppression.

The conventional wisdom in this community is that you can stop babies and small children from crying if you hit them hard enough or hold their heads under water — and they like their children to be silent. I saw children of 18 months and under punished this way routinely. Many of the young children I encountered seemed to be deeply traumatized, some almost catatonic, and there was a desperation about most of the women I encountered, a kind of numb unhappiness punctuated by rages — these usually directed at children or junior sister-wives.

The roundup and murder of every dog in the town was a real event. The banishment of young boys is true, and Uncle Warren's Sons of Helaman aka the God Squad are real — these thugs are the prophet's enforcers who go around terrorizing people. The approach to childbirth is exactly as I wrote it; they don't use doctors. I was involved in delivering a baby in filthy conditions — the woman was ill and should have been in the hospital. Had I reacted to any of this with the shock and horror I felt, I would have given myself away.

I think the memory that haunts me most to this day is that of the baby graveyard — those pathetic little earth mounds in a desert wasteland. I don't think there is any question that most of the children in these graves, many unmarked, were murdered by their parents. I included the graveyard among Detective Jude Devine's most upsetting recollections in Grave Silence.

SNIP

[annabanana]

1. profoundly disturbing. . .. . . . . n/t

[Marrah_G]

2. I havent read her book yet, but I am going to look for it tommorrow

[uppityperson]

3. k&r. Very sad.

[gollygee]

4. K&R

[roguevalley]

5. I wonder how long it will take the Flds shills on this board to get here

[CoffeeCat]

6. I am sick to death of the people who...

...somehow excuse away grown adult men who molest teenage girls.

I'm so sick of hearing, "Well, what if a teenage boy has sex with a teenage girl...does that mean he
goes to jail and..."

I want to say, shut the fuck up.

We all know what the females in this sick world endure. The author says it. They are traumatized into
silence from the time they are babies. They are cocooned in a world where they are powerless and where
they must take whatever abuse is being dished out. That includes sexual abuse.

The adult men are probably sexually abusing these females from the time they are toddlers. Does anyone
think that these child molesters don't start molesting until these teenagers are able to have children?

They drown babies. They physically abuse babies to stop their cries--in order to control them. These
people are ruthless, disgusting abusers and molesters.

These teenagers have no free will. They are traumatized into submission. So, not only is the
molestation illegal--it is even further immoral---because these girls have been socially bred to accept
being molested.

All around--this is so revolting, it's almost incomprehensible.

Anyone who sticks up for these raging molesters and serial abusers--is condoning the infliction of sexual,
physical and emotional trauma in children, that lasts a lifetime.

[uppityperson]

7. Indeed.

[scarletwoman]

8. Brava! Powerful post!

...these girls have been socially bred to accept
being molested.

That says everything.

sw

[Richard Steele]

10. Yes indeed. Very well said. nm

[knitter4democracy]

14. I agree entirely.

I just don't get why anyone would argue for these people.

[Lars39]

17. And the only thing I would add:

Why haven't they been banned already? Isn't being a frickin' troll enough for banning anymore?

[davidthegnome]

71. Because ignorance is not a bannable offense

It's not something to be proud of - but it's not a crime. Because many people are unaware of what is actually taking place in regards to this situation. Because many people see this as another government conspiracy - an attempt to demonize people who don't follow popular societal norms. Because many people simply don't believe what we're hearing/seeing/reading.

Insulting them isn't going to help matters... educating them will. The evidence at hand - links to videos and/or articles and books regarding the subject. I was one of them a very short time ago - and I am not a troll. I read far more than I post, but I have been here for more than three years.

That does not mean I am not often wrong, that does not mean I am not frequently ignorant in regards to many situations.

Patience and civility will serve us far better than outright hostility in these matters. If you'd rather alienate people who disagree with you (due to their ignorance) then that is your right and you may do as you wish. If you'd instead prefer to increase awareness, it might help to educate those who do not understand what is happening here.

It's your choice. Personally, I often find that people I have heated arguments with tend to become respected friends (or at least respected adversaries) later on in life.

Your choice... but if you are unwilling to educate the ignorant, do not expect them not to remain ignorant.

[NashVegas]

9. Bodies Have Memories of Their Own, They Store Them

And I have nothing but heartbreak for any of those children and young women, should the time come when they begin to decompartmentalize and their bodies release those memories back to them.

[CoffeeCat]

13. Yeah, talk about hell on Earth...

These abusers have narrowed down two choices for these teenage girls and women:

1.) Stay safe in a cloud of denial and live a 10 percent life

or....

2.) Spend tens of thousands of dollars in therapy, going through "emotional chemotherapy" to
purge themselves of decades of repressed horror, sorrow and trauma.

Two choices. That's all they've got.

Chances are--like most trauma survivors--they'll oscillate between these two choices in an
attempt to live a life and stay sane.

Sad. Really, really sad.

The fact that our society left these abusers alone, and allowed them to dehumanize human
beings, in the name of religion--is really grotesque.

I'm hoping that this event, shuts down the entire thing, once and for all.

[woo me with science]

23. Please do not bring repressed memory garbage into this argument.

We are talking about real abuse here, with apparently real evidence. We are now getting reports from CPS of underage pregnancies in more than half of these girls, and broken bones in many very young children.

If these reports are true, these children will never forget what happened to them.

We do not need pop psychology garbage about repressed memories, "body memories," EMDR, or any other "survivor" garbage that has no basis in fact. These children need a genuine investigation, not speculation about their "body memories," and not chiming in by the satanic ritual abuse/multiple personality/repressed memory crowd.

These are real children. These are not adults going into therapy and "discovering" at age 20 or 30 or 50 that Daddy ritually abused them and turned them into color-coded multiple personality sex slaves. Leave this crap out of this discussion, please.

[uppityperson]

27. There are false memories (and cult around that) and true body memory.

For instance, you don't forget how to ride a bike. That is a true body memory. This is very different from the cult of represssed/recovered memory bs.

I took that post to mean that these people are going to be suffering for a long time. CPS said they are giving foster parents special training to deal with special issues related to FLDS kids, and I'm assuming that some of them are about dealing with sexuality outlets, with being downtrodden, brainwashed.

That's how I took it, not the "recovered memory" crap.

[woo me with science]

29. "Body memories" is very specific pseudoscience jargon

used by the repressed memory crowd, and the original poster spoke specifically of recovering memories. "Decompartmentalizing" is probably code for integrating after dissociative splitting.

What you describe makes sense and is reality based, but "body memory" is not the term you want. You are thinking more of procedural memory versus declarative memory. I have no doubt that the original poster was speaking from the repressed memory camp. These cases always bring out the Believers, who want to use ACTUAL horrible things that happen to children as proof that their recovered memories might be true.

[uppityperson]

30. Got it. I'm not up on the jargon, but have used that term myself as in example.

Only real contact I've had with "recovered memories" was when a friend finally confronted a family member with something that happened when was a child and was dismissed saying "recovered memory". Friend had to explain that no, it wasn't recovered, it was always there, just finally talked about it. I did some research and they are scary, "recovered memory" cult.

Makes it difficult for people with true memories to be taken seriously, having to wade through the false memory crap.

[woo me with science]

31. Yes. They muddy up the investigation of actual cases.

The hysteria gets crazy, and they suck resources and credibility from the children who have actually been abused. Your friend never forgot, and neither will these children. Provided that they were old enough to encode the abuse in the first place.

I worry that the ones who were too young to encode memories will now be funneled to "Believer" therapists, who will traumatize them further by trying to unearth "repressed" infancy memories of beating and waterboarding. These repressed memory charlatans have infested the trauma treatment industry in this country and put people who have already been abused at risk for further abuse by being indoctrinated into the cult of survivorship and victimhood. That is why it is so important to speak out when you see the myths being spouted. These kids need support that is based in reality, compassion for what they have experienced, and belief that they can move beyond it. Not indoctrination into another cult.

Thank you for clarifying. What you wrote makes good sense.

[pnwmom]

37. There are also people who have truly forgotten very painful things.

But could remember them, under certain circumstances.

My relative told me he was the victim of violence when he was a teen. We talked about it a few times over the next decade. A couple other relatives had been present at the time, so there were witnesses, too. Of the four of us, my relative is the only one who now has completely forgotten what happened. I'm not going to push on him the note he wrote me at the time, because I think his brain probably wants him not to remember.

[knitter4democracy]

45. That's true. Hubby's done that over smaller things.

Once, after we were married, he and his brother had a long talk about their parents and why BIL had fought so long and hard with them. It turned out that Hubby just plain didn't remember things like when his parents almost got divorced or several of his mom's suicide threats, while BIL remembered all of it. When they talked about it, Hubby started remembering, but he admitted that things were fuzzy and he wasn't that sure about it. It was really weird watching him talk with his brother that day.

[uppityperson]

48. That is true also. I've recently remembered something that happened to me as a young child.

It all depends and it is really a shame that people have taken advantage of the possibility of people actually forgetting things to cause trouble like they have.

[cali]

33. body memory is quite real.

and actually children do indeed bury memories. but aside from that the body absolutely absorbs painful experiences in conjunction with memory. there's no hocus pocus to that.

[woo me with science]

34. Not as used by these cultists.

Yes, all memories have a somatic component. That is not what we are talking about here. I am talking about a specific group of people who build their lives around their recovered memories of abuse. It is a very specific cultural subgroup, a cultish sect in psychology, just like you will find the believers in past lives and alien abduction. "Body memories" is part of their jargon, used in a very specific way: to mean that specific memories are stored at a cellular level and just waiting to be recovered, physical signs and all. For example, the red handprint of Daddy's hands around your neck while raping you at age four can magically reappear when you are 27 and remembering it in your "survivor" group or therapist's office.

Burying memories, as in pushing certain thoughts back and not thinking about them, of course happens. That is very different from the pseudoscience garbage of massive and continual "repression" of an entire childhood filled with sadistic abuse, "dissociative amnesia," buried memories, multiple personalities, and satanic cults.

This is the pop psychology garbage that must be confronted, because it sucks resources from children who actually need them, casts doubt on the credibility of children who have experienced actual abuse, and poisons the institutions that are supposed to provide genuine help.

[pnwmom]

38. I don't agree with you that that's what the poster meant by repressed memories.

Many of us use the term in a much less specific way. I've never even heard of the "cult" definition you're giving (though I believe you that there are people who think like that.).

[woo me with science]

51. I hope not.

I am very familiar with the "survivorship" jargon, and I suspect strongly that this poster is coming from the repressed memory camp. If I am wrong, I apologize to him or her.

In any event, the jargon used here echoes the language of Believers in massive repression and dissociation of abuse. If the poster is not involved in memory recovery, it is distressing that the jargon (e.g., "body memories") seeps out into the general culture and is adopted by people who don't realize how it is used in these groups. It is important to challenge the pseudoscientific terminology and the beliefs that its use condones. We owe it to these children to be strongly focused on evidence and reality, and to exclude hysteria from these debates.

If you are interested in the recovered memory problem, I recommend the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Making Monsters," by Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters. It is a little dated now, but still the best clear sociological description of what is still happening in these therapy rooms and social enclaves.

[pnwmom]

35. Repressed memories can be quite real and I know that for a fact.

I have a relative who was the object of physical abuse when he was a teen. He told me about it at the time -- and so did two family members who witnessed the event.

Ten years later, he had no memory at all of what had happened to him, but the rest of us did. I'm sure he suppressed that memory along with others along the way.

[woo me with science]

50. People do forget events.

It sounds like your friend forgot an event, or even a few painful events, which is wholly understandable. I am not talking about an incident forgotten and then remembered later. People do also suppress events (your very good word: suppress), which is a deliberate pushing away and not thinking about them. That is very different from the massive "repression" and "dissociation" of abuse claimed by survivor groups. It doesn't sound like your friend uncovered an entire childhood of savage abuse never previously suspected, or that he is continuing to unearth more and more memories of ritual abuse and torture, or restructuring his identity around his victimhood. This is what these groups do. They destroy lives, and they suck away resources and credibility from children who have actually been abused.

"Survivors" involved in continuous memory recovery have a specific jargon and lingo and conceptualization of how abuse is processed in the mind and body, and they will attempt to inject these beliefs into discussions of actual abuse cases. It is important to confront the myths, because they allow the malpractice to continue.

[siligut]

73. I agree with you about the false memory garbage.

I think what Crisco is saying, is that sometimes trauma is repressed as a form of protection for the victim. Repression allows a person to continue on, despite having been damaged to the bone. And until the victim is in a safe environment, the memory of the trauma will not surface. I agree with you about the false memory crap though.

[Ilsa]

58. Very True. Counselling probably won't be enough.

Some sort of physical therapy will probably help release some of the trauma. I don't know what kind. All I know is that I have experienced the release of pain and frustration through massage therapy.

[Richard Steele]

11. K&R

[Canuckistanian]

12. What a miserable existence

The only way to vent your frustration and rage is to pass it down to the next generation.

A sick, sick society.

[Kitty Herder]

15. This just makes me sick. Literally sick! nt

[FloridaJudy]

16. I noticed the dead eyes

And robotic voices of the FLDS women on the news who were defending the leaders. Really creepy.

I think it's a clear case of "Stockholm Syndrome" - people who identify with their oppressors because they can see no other way of surviving. I just hope someone can get through to those kids before another generation gets that badly damaged.

[Hydra]

18. Always disturbing to be reminded that these people live in my state

I was traveling through a more obscure part of our state and had such an experience as she did. We stopped for gas and some pie in a small town on a small road. The whole time, we got a weird vibe, and when we got our pie, they were glaring at us as if to say "What are you doing here? You aren't welcome!"

We finished eating quickly and left as fast as we can. The experience was beyond creepy, since it was so close to where we lived(within 2 hours) and because this wasn't one of those 20 miles off the main road with keep out signs that my parents warned me about when we were traveling in Southern Utah.

[pnwmom]

19. And the state government just has a hands-off policy, I guess.

Same thing in Arizona. I understand that John McCain's consistent reply about the polygamists is "no comment."

[Hydra]

20. The hands off thing isn't surprising here

Utah is a blatant theocracy. Most people have no idea how scary it is when the church is the gov't, and they consider my fears of the Fundies gaining more power to be "overblown" at best.

As you probably know, it's no joke...and it's probably going to be more of a problem in the future. The Church/State wall is eroding.

[pnwmom]

21. Do you live in SLC, at least? I understand it's better than other places

if you're not Mormon.

The "gentiles" I know there all send their kids to Catholic schools (even though they're Jewish and Protestant) -- because the Catholic schools push religion less than the public schools!

[Hydra]

22. Disgusting

I live in a mormon town, but work in their version of Sodom and Gomorrah. No kids, so I don't have to worry about the bad influence except on myself.

Oddly, I got bugged more when I lived in SLC. Where I live now, there are enough non-mormons that they are generally polite to us.

[XemaSab]

24. My mom and I had the exact same experience:

we stopped for breakfast in a small town in Utah and it was like everyone who walked through the door just gave us the old sideways look. They KNEW we weren't Mormon from a mile away.

My best friend lived in a small town in Utah for about 4 years as a kid, and he said everyone treated his family REALLY oddly because even though they were Mormon, they were from California, and not "real" Mormons.

[Hydra]

26. Ya, blatent discrimination is natural around here

This was something different. We'd stepped into a secret...and it wasn't something we'd gone out of our way to find. We didn't even know what it was at the time. After the fact, it was obvious...they barely wanted to take our money- they wanted us gone.

Disgusting the open secrets that exist in America.

[yardwork]

25. Horrible that this is allowed to continue in the U.S. Read this part:

The conventional wisdom in this community is that you can stop babies and small children from crying if you hit them hard enough or hold their heads under water — and they like their children to be silent. I saw children of 18 months and under punished this way routinely. Many of the young children I encountered seemed to be deeply traumatized, some almost catatonic, and there was a desperation about most of the women I encountered, a kind of numb unhappiness punctuated by rages — these usually directed at children or junior sister-wives.

The roundup and murder of every dog in the town was a real event. The banishment of young boys is true, and Uncle Warren's Sons of Helaman aka the God Squad are real — these thugs are the prophet's enforcers who go around terrorizing people. The approach to childbirth is exactly as I wrote it; they don't use doctors. I was involved in delivering a baby in filthy conditions — the woman was ill and should have been in the hospital. Had I reacted to any of this with the shock and horror I felt, I would have given myself away.

I think the memory that haunts me most to this day is that of the baby graveyard — those pathetic little earth mounds in a desert wasteland. I don't think there is any question that most of the children in these graves, many unmarked, were murdered by their parents. I included the graveyard among Detective Jude Devine's most upsetting recollections in Grave Silence.

[pnwmom]

39. And considering normal toddler behavior, there is probably a great

deal of abuse going on in the effort to teach them to "keep sweet."

Probably explains the number of broken bones found among young children in the sect.

[defendandprotect]

28. Patriarchy again . . .

the whole purpose of which is to live out fantasies of domination and brutality -- often sexual --
vs women and children.

Sick people!!!

[lovuian]

32. Its sick and its been tolerated in America

over and over again

they were protected by the Republicans finally they got a gut full

[pitohui]

36. why wasn't this reported to law enforcement?

i'm having a lot of trouble with a woman went undercover and witnessed this kind of abuse, including a graveyard of murdered babies -- and her reaction is to make profit for herself by writing a mystery novel

my first stop would not be a publisher's, it would be the district attorney's office

between 1999 and 2008, that is 9 more years of murdered children while she told this as a work of fiction

[pnwmom]

40. The police dept. in those towns is run by the sect. So is the hospital.

And the state government in Utah has long looked the other way. That's something Sen. Reid was strongly protesting a few days ago.

Many women have left the cult with stories like this. Until recently, very little has ever happened. More often than not, when the police were contacted, instead of helping a runaway, they simply returned her to her parents.

[pitohui]

42. thanks, i didn't quite realize how pervasive it was

i was reading this interview and flabbergasted that she made no mention of contacting any authorities but perhaps she did and was told to go to hell

[LanternWaste]

47. I read today that two-thirds of the residents of Utah are Mormon

I read today that two-thirds of the residents of Utah are Mormon. That over 85% of ALL elected and appointed potions within the state are Mormon, too.

I could see not really wanting to go the the local authorities with the kind info the writer had. But like you mentioned too-- I could just as easily see her getting told to go away by those same local authorities.

Yeesh. This thing is getting more and more messed up every damn day.

[Dorian Gray]

57. I dont know about that...

LDSers are no fans of these Fundamentalist groups.

[Marrah_G]

41. since I couldn't find an answer...

... I emailed the author asking of she ever reported the abuse.

[pitohui]

43. thanks i'd be curious to know the answer

another poster points out the authorities have not been quick to act, i'm thinking now it's possible she wanted to protect her contacts who may have been in danger of their lives

[Marrah_G]

44. You are probably right .

I will let you know if/when she answers me, not until tomorrow though. It's 5:30 and I used my work email.

[uppityperson]

49. thank you for doing that. nt

[ZombieHorde]

46. She did more than any of us did. nt

[Marrah_G]

61. I received a reply!

Here is clip of the relevant part of her letter back to me.

To answer your question, I reported everything I learned to the FBI special agent who advised me on aspects of my book. I also left all the information about what I was doing with a reporter at the New York Times, telling him to call the FBI if I failed to surface.

The problem with talking to the police in Utah, is that the fox guarded the hen house when I went into Colorado City / Hildale. The police were polygamists and routinely brought back any girls and women who tried to run away, and chased strangers out of town. So there was no way I could talk to them. It would have been dangerous, and the FBI told me not to.

The Utah authorities have known for many years of the abuse in this cult and, at the time I researched, they already had the first-hand statements of women like Carolyn Jessop and many others about abuse they suffered and witnessed and yet, they did nothing.

What is different about this situation is that it is in Texas and the authorities there had the will to act on information and probable cause. In Utah, they simply don't have the will.

I'm absolutely thrilled by what has happened and thank God that these young women and children have been rescued. I'm sure the de-programming process will be extremely difficult for them. They are absolutely brainwashed and know next to nothing about the real world. I hope people are patient with them.

[pitohui]

63. makes sense and thanks for a fast reply ! EOM

,

[pnwmom]

66. I hope the rescue "takes." Thanks for posting this, Marrah.

How brave she was to do this.. . I can't imagine being able to stomach two weeks with these people -- even without the real issue of personal safety.

[uppityperson]

68. Thank you for writing her and posting this.

[treestar]

72. Credibility issues exist, too

She was doing it to write a work of fiction.

Traditional investigative methods might yield actual evidence.

[lolly]

52. Sorry to be so prurient, but

"Shelves of lubricant gels"--???

Because the girls were so young? I didn't read the original--this sounds really creepy--and definitely abusive.

Or am I reading this wrong?

[uppityperson]

53. I wondered also, had that thought too.

Recognizing that my middle aged body does better with some, still, it gave me pause when I read that also. At least FLDS doesn't believe in female circumcision. I'll give them that.

[pnwmom]

55. Next thing you know, Warren Jeffs will decree from his prison cell

that women should wear chastity belts.

[pnwmom]

54. That's how I read it, too.

There's probably also the fact that there's not any importance placed on getting the female spouse -- of any age -- in the mood.

[lolly]

60. Well, that might be a daunting task

How, exactly, would a 60 year-old man get a 15 year old girl in the mood, anyhow?

[GetTheRightVote]

56. I can only cry for all the lost of innocence in this way

[Cerridwen]

59. "shelves of lubricants"

So, if it weren't for the "need" of more children, many of these "men" would be happy with, what, a picnic table?

Yeah, I've gone beyond outrage, rage, and sadness to making sick jokes. It's one way to deal with what I feel about the "leadership" of this group.

[leftynyc]

62. All I can say after reading that

if that I want to throw up. It is my fervent hope that if hell actually does exist, there is a special circle for these monsters.

[SmokingJacket]

64. It's a massive cult, plain and simple.

No different from Heaven's Gate or People's Temple. I just read a non-fiction account of a different but obviously connected band of polygamists -- they basically just beat and murdered everyone they felt needed it, and no one talked because it was a cult. It went on for years: the killing of rival "True Sons" and of disobedient children and wives.

They should have rounded up the men and left the women and children alone.

[Marrah_G]

65. The problem with that is:

The cult has so many compounds in a number of states. The women would have taken the children and simply run back to one of the other compounds.

[pnwmom]

67. Many decades and tens of thousands of adherents makes this different

from the usual cult. Also, in Utah/Arizona, the involvement of local police, medical, and civil government personnel in supporting this regime.

[Beaverhausen]

69. kick

[uppityperson]

70. For those who missed it before.

Looks like this info should be kept up on pages.