I have put These Stats up before, but it seems that many missed its meaning or significance. The statistics I show here are directly from Texas Department of State Health Services.
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/CHS/VSTAT/annrpts.shtm
I originally put them up at the time that CPS put out their "final" report that was making the claim that "of the 439 children removed from the yearning for Zion ranch in West Texas earlier this year, 275 were abused or neglected" By their definition of "neglect", it is meant other children could SEE "married" teenagers.
So their definition of abuse is "married", or "pregnant" underage; and their definition of "neglected" is any other child who could SEE them. So using their own definition, how many children in the entire State of Texas should be considered "abused" and "neglected"? Just take into consideration the children who might "see" the following:
2001
Children born to abused mothers (underage 18) – 19,721
Infanticide murders to abused underage mothers (teenage) – 11,021 (302 under 15)
State (en)FORCED abuse (marriage) of underage (teenage) girls – 17,497 (109 under 15)
2002
Children born to abused mothers (underage 18) – 19,704
Infanticide murders to abused underage mothers (teenage) - 10,800 (264 under 15)
State (en)FORCED abuse (marriage) of underage (teenage) girls - 15,826 (90 under 15)
2003
Children born to abused mothers (underage 18) – 19,237
Infanticide murders to abused underage mothers (teenage) – 10,649 (264 under 15)
State (en)FORCED abuse (marriage) of underage (teenage) girls – 15,204 (75 under 15)
2004
Children born to abused mothers (underage 18) – 19,247
Infanticide murders to abused mothers (teenage) – 9,807 (185 under 15)
State (en)FORCED abuse (marriage) of underage (teenage) girls – 14,428 (76 under 15)
2005
Children born to abused mothers (underage 18) – 18,988
Infanticide murders to abused mothers (teenage) – 9,830 (207 under 15)
State (en)FORCED abuse (marriage) of underage (teenage) girls – 13,372 (49 under 15)
2006
Children born to abused mothers (underage 18) – (N/A)
Infanticide murders to abused mothers (teenage) - 10,253 (224 under 15)
State (en)FORCED abuse (marriage) of underage (teenage) girls - 10, 209 (6 under 15)
2007
Children born to abused mothers (underage 18) – (N/A)
Infanticide murders to abused mothers (teenage) - 10,210 (191 under 15)
State (en)FORCED abuse (marriage) of underage (teenage) girls - (N/A)
So from 2001-2005, (where the stats are complete), there were 148,997 teenage pregnancies, 62,360 of those ending in the killing of the unborn, and 1,446 of the infanticide murders were to girls 14 or younger.
Also from 2001-2006 (where the stats are complete) there were 86,536 State (en)FORCED abuses (marriages) of teenage girls, and 405 of those were to girls 14 and younger.
So, how many of these "victims" were taken into CPS custody? How many of their siblings, relatives, and neighbor children were also so "neglected" that they needed ripped from their mothers so their parents could take parenting classes? Do we need a group of Rozita Swinton's to "help" them with prank calls? Is that part of the "stimulus" plan?
The DSHS actually break down the State (en)FORCED marriage age stats even further; including the difference in age between the "victim" and the "abuser". This is state sanctioned ABUSE by their own definition.
For the last two years on record the breakdown is this:
(en)FORCED Marriage “abuse” to teen girls BY Texas, 2oo5:
Baby girl abuse victims 14 years old or younger-
27 girls married 15-19 year old men
19 girls married 20-24 year old men
2 girls married 25-29 year old men
1 girl married a 30-34 year old man
Children who were 15-19 year old abuse victims
3635 married 15-19 year old little boys
7673 married 20-24 year old men
1511 married 25-29 year old men
308 married 30-34 year old men
110 married 35-39 year old men
38 married 40-44 year old men
22 married 45-49 year old men
8 married 50-54 year old men
1 married a 55-59 year old man
1 married a 60-65 year old man
1 married a 65+ year old man
12 married men without the perpetrator even giving his age
(en)FORCED Marriage “abuse” to teen girls BY Texas, 2oo6
(After the law was changed to target the FLDS by raising the (en)FORCED age from 14 to 16)
Baby girl abuse victims 14 years old or younger-
2 girls married 15-19 year old men
2 girls married 20-24 year old men
2 girls married 25-29 year old men
(Undoubtedly many are being "abused" without being (en)FORCED )
Children who were 15-19 year old abuse victims-
3397 married 15-19 year old men
7691 married 20-24 year old men
1454 married 25-29 year old men
292 married 30-34 year old men
98 married 35-39 year old men
44 married 40-44 year old men
12 married 45-49 year old men
5 married 50-54 year old men
3 married 55-59 year old men
1 married a 65+ year old man
8 married men without the perpetrator even giving his age
The conclusions should be obvious. If they are not, and you still think there is no bigotry involved in the persecution of the FLDS, you need to go look in the mirror and ask yourself "Am I a bigot too?"
The definition of "marriage" to the general population is sexual and has the rational of sanctioning sexual activity. That is not the purpose or motivation for marriage in the FLDS; marriage sealing in the FLDS is a religious covenant of virtue.
Showing posts with label prank call. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prank call. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
How Texas Traced the Calls to Rozita Swinton
It must have been quite the day for ol Brooks Long, that Sunday, April 13th 2008. He had spent a week rounding up “victims” of “abuse” with his army of machine gun toting comrades, and just following orders by taking cell phones away from “guests” and breaking into buildings and confiscating children’s journals and computers, as well as breaking into a sacred Temple building safe and stealing the contents, all in his attempt to find Sarah Jessop Barlow, the victim who made all these desperate phone calls. Certainly he was enjoying his much needed day of rest. He was probably drinking his morning coffee when he realized that something was now troubling him, this tenth day after. Something he just needed to figure out that he had never thought about before.
He probably thought along the lines of “Hmm, you know what, maybe those guys at the gate ten days ago might have been on to something. They did prove to my buddy Doran that Dale Evens Barlow was a long ways away, but I didn’t want to stop this wonderful force that George Bush would be proud of from invading the “dirty plig” paramilitary compound. So when they said we aught to check the phone number and trace it, they might have been on to something. But I certainly don’t want to give them credit. They are the bad guys”
So he called up a perfect stranger in the Colorado Springs Police Department and asks him about it. Yes, it was no strange thing that he called the police department rather than the phone company; that is how all phone numbers are tracked down I am sure. If you want to know who is calling you on your phone, just call the police department of the area code on your phone silly.
It was all only a coincidence that he just happened to speak to the very guy who knew about a crime using the exact phone number he gave him too. That is just fantastic, this guy he calls on Sunday the 13th actually recognizes one of the phone numbers, wow!
It was a phone number that he was sure had been blocked ten days ago, but realized just that day, the 13th of April that it never had been blocked. It was just another fantastic coincidence that he was able to reach Sean on Sunday, as Sergeant Mandel was not even working out of the CSPD office, he was working for the FBI and was not associated with the rest of the force. But it was a coincidence for sure, for sure. Why would you doubt that?
Well this was great, Long discovers that what the men at the gate of the YFZ ranch said was exactly right, the phone call was a hoax, ruining all he was hoping was true about the raid. But being the honorable Ranger he is, he asks CSPD to arrest this woman named Rozita Swinton so they could pretend to begin an investigation, certainly now on the 13th she was a person of interest, having the same phone number and all. So Long speaks to Mandel and he tells his coworker that he doesn’t work with, Sergeant Hugh Velasquez in the sex crimes department, and Velasquez passes the info on to Detective Terry Thurmston, all on Sunday, the 13th of April. Certainly this is standard procedure. Thurmston goes the next day, on Monday the 14th, calls Brooks and verifies Swintons phone number ect, and arranges for the arrest warrant. Which they serve two days later when a couple of the Texas Rangers fly in.
Move along folks, nothing to see here…
From the Affidavit in the arrest Warrant for Rozita Swinton:
"On April 13, 2008, I [CSPD Detective Terry E. Thurmston] was contacted by [CSPD sex crimes division]Sergeant Hugh Velasquez (1514D) regarding information he had obtained from [CSPD, FBI task force] Sergeant Sean Mandel. Sergeant Mandel told Sergeant Velasquez he had been contacted by the Texas Rangers in regard to their investigation into the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch. Sergeant Mandel related Texas Ranger Brooks Long had advised he had two cellular telephone number listings from the Colorado Springs area (719-351-0913 and 719-243-2866). Sergeant Mandel was aware that the phone number, 719-351-0913, that was possibly related to the reporting party for the YFZ Ranch incident in Eldorado, Texas, was also identified in a prior CSPD case report.
“On April 14, 2008 I [CSPD Detective Terry E. Thurmston] spoke with Texas Ranger Long and confirmed telephone number 719-351-0913 was in fact a local Colorado Springs telephone number associated with Rozita Swinton. I informed Ranger Long that Rozita Swinton was known to make false reports of sexual abuse to the police and other agencies. The Texas Rangers advised they would be responding to Colorado Springs to conduct further investigation.”
P.S.
The “only” [cough, cough] problem with our story, is Hugh McBryde spoke personally with Sergeant Sean Mandel, and Sean told him that he had never even spoken to Brooks Long at all, but rather he was contacted by his boss at the FBI in Colorado, Steven A Smith, who had been contacted by an FBI agent out of San Angelo TX. Hugh also spoke to Steven A. Smith, who did not know the name of the FBI agent he spoke to and couldnt pin a date, the dates too are uncertain as to when they were contacted he says and he did not open a case when he gave the assignment to Sean. Certainly the Rangers hadn't found this out earlier, certainly it was all done in the short time of one or two days. Certainly it wasn’t early enough for them to stop the raid. And Certainly this was not a manufactured story to cover up the fact that Texas ALREADY knew it was Rozita, as much as a ten days earlier right?
Right?
Right?
He probably thought along the lines of “Hmm, you know what, maybe those guys at the gate ten days ago might have been on to something. They did prove to my buddy Doran that Dale Evens Barlow was a long ways away, but I didn’t want to stop this wonderful force that George Bush would be proud of from invading the “dirty plig” paramilitary compound. So when they said we aught to check the phone number and trace it, they might have been on to something. But I certainly don’t want to give them credit. They are the bad guys”
So he called up a perfect stranger in the Colorado Springs Police Department and asks him about it. Yes, it was no strange thing that he called the police department rather than the phone company; that is how all phone numbers are tracked down I am sure. If you want to know who is calling you on your phone, just call the police department of the area code on your phone silly.
It was all only a coincidence that he just happened to speak to the very guy who knew about a crime using the exact phone number he gave him too. That is just fantastic, this guy he calls on Sunday the 13th actually recognizes one of the phone numbers, wow!
It was a phone number that he was sure had been blocked ten days ago, but realized just that day, the 13th of April that it never had been blocked. It was just another fantastic coincidence that he was able to reach Sean on Sunday, as Sergeant Mandel was not even working out of the CSPD office, he was working for the FBI and was not associated with the rest of the force. But it was a coincidence for sure, for sure. Why would you doubt that?
Well this was great, Long discovers that what the men at the gate of the YFZ ranch said was exactly right, the phone call was a hoax, ruining all he was hoping was true about the raid. But being the honorable Ranger he is, he asks CSPD to arrest this woman named Rozita Swinton so they could pretend to begin an investigation, certainly now on the 13th she was a person of interest, having the same phone number and all. So Long speaks to Mandel and he tells his coworker that he doesn’t work with, Sergeant Hugh Velasquez in the sex crimes department, and Velasquez passes the info on to Detective Terry Thurmston, all on Sunday, the 13th of April. Certainly this is standard procedure. Thurmston goes the next day, on Monday the 14th, calls Brooks and verifies Swintons phone number ect, and arranges for the arrest warrant. Which they serve two days later when a couple of the Texas Rangers fly in.
Move along folks, nothing to see here…
From the Affidavit in the arrest Warrant for Rozita Swinton:
"On April 13, 2008, I [CSPD Detective Terry E. Thurmston] was contacted by [CSPD sex crimes division]Sergeant Hugh Velasquez (1514D) regarding information he had obtained from [CSPD, FBI task force] Sergeant Sean Mandel. Sergeant Mandel told Sergeant Velasquez he had been contacted by the Texas Rangers in regard to their investigation into the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch. Sergeant Mandel related Texas Ranger Brooks Long had advised he had two cellular telephone number listings from the Colorado Springs area (719-351-0913 and 719-243-2866). Sergeant Mandel was aware that the phone number, 719-351-0913, that was possibly related to the reporting party for the YFZ Ranch incident in Eldorado, Texas, was also identified in a prior CSPD case report.
“On April 14, 2008 I [CSPD Detective Terry E. Thurmston] spoke with Texas Ranger Long and confirmed telephone number 719-351-0913 was in fact a local Colorado Springs telephone number associated with Rozita Swinton. I informed Ranger Long that Rozita Swinton was known to make false reports of sexual abuse to the police and other agencies. The Texas Rangers advised they would be responding to Colorado Springs to conduct further investigation.”
P.S.
The “only” [cough, cough] problem with our story, is Hugh McBryde spoke personally with Sergeant Sean Mandel, and Sean told him that he had never even spoken to Brooks Long at all, but rather he was contacted by his boss at the FBI in Colorado, Steven A Smith, who had been contacted by an FBI agent out of San Angelo TX. Hugh also spoke to Steven A. Smith, who did not know the name of the FBI agent he spoke to and couldnt pin a date, the dates too are uncertain as to when they were contacted he says and he did not open a case when he gave the assignment to Sean. Certainly the Rangers hadn't found this out earlier, certainly it was all done in the short time of one or two days. Certainly it wasn’t early enough for them to stop the raid. And Certainly this was not a manufactured story to cover up the fact that Texas ALREADY knew it was Rozita, as much as a ten days earlier right?
Right?
Right?
Monday, July 7, 2008
Flora Jessop
The Troubled Woman Who Cost Texas $14 Million, and Hundreds of Innocent People Their Peace and Safety
July 1 2008
By Author Gary D. Naler
Flora Jessop, the outspoken media favorite and determined critic of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS), has had the advantage and luxury of accruing audiences who want to believe her or are understandably uninformed about Flora’s real life and the FLDS church itself. Therefore, she has been able to say what she wants; and since people are often hearing what they want to hear, she has gotten off scot-free without any accountability or recourse whatsoever for what we now know are an endless string of vicious lies.
But Flora’s days of unaccountability have come to an end. She has now been instrumental in causing the state of Texas to carry out an illegal invasion on an entire community at a cost to the state that carries a running tally of $14 million, and has hurt so many innocent people that these silent ones who know her well, have loved and cared for her, and endured her continual destructive behavior, are finally speaking out.
Martha Jessop, wife of the late Fred M. Jessop—beloved Bishop of the Colorado City/Hildale FLDS community for fifty years—has written a most revealing account regarding Flora’s life (“The Truth About Flora Jessop,” at truthwillprevail.org). From Flora’s birth, until she was sixteen years old, Martha was very closely associated with her. She is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and Certified Nurse Midwife. Because of this formal training, the state of Utah appointed her as Flora’s legal guardian at the age of fourteen when it was revealed that her father had molested her. Flora was under Martha’s direct care and supervision, living in their home, until she left at the age of sixteen.
In representation of the sentiments of others, Martha writes: “After listening to and hearing of the stories and lies that Flora has been telling and putting out to the world through the media—lies about how she was ‘abused’ and ‘escaped’ from her childhood home and religion, I feel compelled to tell the true story of Flora.” With Martha’s help and the help of many others who have never been interviewed about these matters or spoken out, as well as previous news accounts, interviews, and information, we will now tell the true story about Flora Jessop. And let it be noted that the account by Martha is corroborated by Flora’s mother, Patricia, who upon reading it stated, “That’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Flora’s Growing-Up Years
Flora was born to Joseph and Patricia (Pat) Jessop in the little FLDS town of Colorado City, Arizona. “Flora was a beautiful child, well loved and enjoyable,” Martha recalls. But she noticed “a tendency in her to exaggerate and embellish little incidents. She enjoyed being in the spotlight and the center of attention.” Martha recalls chiding her to “tell the truth and not make it bigger than it is,” a quality Flora never learned.
As Flora got older, she became “restless and wild, with unpredictable mood swings, sometimes seeming impulsive and aggressive, then swinging back to the happy and free-spirited Flora we knew and loved.” As early as the age of eleven, she began going out at night, prowling around, “looking for fun.” “She seemed to be dissatisfied with the family outings and social times with her friends and siblings,” Martha recalled.
Her mother and others tried to deal with Flora’s troubling behavior; but as her mood swings became more extreme, she soon developed a whole new set of “friends,” often coming home intoxicated and violent, and it was highly suspected that she was using drugs. Today, Flora often points a limp finger at the FLDS, and regarding her drug and alcohol use and loose living states: “The pain got so bad in heaven that I was willing to damn myself to hell to escape it.” But the fact is, Flora had already brought her own hell to heaven long before she left the FLDS. As is the case with many alcoholics and drug addicts or otherwise-troubled people, for Flora it has always been easier to point the finger and assign fallacious blame than to be honest and take personal responsibility.
By the early age of thirteen, Flora was completely out of control. On one occasion she was out all night and found with a fifteen-year-old boy having sex. “Such behavior went against everything Flora had been taught,” relates Martha. Even so, they did not give up on her.
• Quote: “I went to school with Flora.… It's true Flora had a very abusive upbringing, sex abuse, etc., but she was a wild child, loved to sneak out and go to parties.… In my opinion, she is clinging to the only thing she really knows—slamming her upbringing. Think about it—it pays their bills doesn’t it?… How would Flora like the world to know she was the easiest lay in town? The point is, I left there in 1986 and haven’t looked back. My life is great. Flora should do the same!!!!” (Laddie Dockstader, former FLDS classmate and friend)
When Flora was fourteen, Martha was talking with her about the impact of loose morals, when she blurted out, “Well, my father has raped me!” “It struck me like a thunderbolt,” related Martha. “That was terrible! I was sickened at the thought. I thought maybe she had made it up, but she insisted it was true.”
In Martha’s words, in their society “child molestation or abuse of any kind is unthinkable and unacceptable.” Flora’s father was turned over to legal authorities and subsequently excommunicated from the church. Despite this decisive correction that she is well aware of, when asked if incest was permitted in FLDS, she replied, “Incest is not only permitted, it is accepted.” Evidenced here and throughout her life, Flora’s habitual lies have been twisted ill-intended distortions of events.
• Quote: “She is a liar.… [Lying is] Flora’s life history.… She is not credible.… I do not see how any reasonable person can believe what she says.” (Benjamin Bistline, author of “The Polygamists – A History of Colorado City, Arizona,” who personally knew Flora as a child and is an FLDS critic)
One of the things I learned after examining the FLDS, from both the inside as well as the outside, is that they have a near-zero-tolerance policy for young men, fathers, and husbands when it comes to moral impropriety, evidenced by the action taken against Flora’s father. This high standard would certainly be one reason why there are fewer men than women in the FLDS. One man I communicated with extensively throughout the many days and hours of this careful examination was disfellowshipped for mistreating his wife. He said she and his two children could have gone with him, but decided not to, and that the present separation was best for both of them. What was his guilt? He had been looking at pornography. How many homes would be left in America today if the same standard the FLDS follow was practiced by the rest of society that so misguidedly judges them?
After Flora’s father was reported to legal authorities, she was taken from his home and placed into Martha’s care as the court-appointed legal guardian. In a joint interview I had with Flora on June 1, 2008, I mentioned to her that Martha had raised her after she had been taken away from her father, to which she replied, “Martha was just one of the other wives in the household.” I find it both shameful and remarkably untruthful that the woman who had reached out to her so much and was in fact her legal guardian assigned by the court, was regarded with so little respect or gratitude.
Martha, Fred, and others began trying to help Flora through the healing process. To limit destructive influences, she and her court-appointed counselor thought it best that Flora be homeschooled, which she was. For a while they thought she was healing, but once again she became restless and began to return to her prior ways. “Any little thing would make her fly into a rage,” recounts Martha. On one occasion she attacked Martha, scratching herself as she flailed away at her. Then, exhibiting a characteristic that would endure to this day, she called the counselor and accused Martha of beating her.
Finally, one night she left, just disappeared, and stayed gone for two weeks. When she did call, she was in Las Vegas, crying and wanting to come home. Fred drove 160 miles to get her, finding her scantily clad in bikini-type clothing.
But still they didn’t stop loving her. Because of their concern about her influence on the other girls, they made her a little room at the end of a wide hall, putting curtains across it. They tried to make it cozy and cute for her, said Martha. But consistent with her slanderous lies and total lack of appreciation, Flora would later repeatedly tell her enraptured and blindly sympathetic listeners that she had been locked up at the end of a hall, imprisoned behind a wall for “three years in solitary confinement.” “With curtains? Oh my!” replies Martha. “I spent three years in this room with them trying to beat Satan out of me for daring to stand up against God’s commandments,” Flora lavishly tells others. The little girl still cannot stop exaggerating and embellishing, taking it to unthinkable pathological levels.
Once back, her involvement in drugs, alcohol, sex, and unaccounted absences only continued. “Her behavior was quite oppressive,” relates Martha. “I felt like such a failure.” She continues, “One night she was out all night with a boy—a cousin. He came the next morning and told Grandpa [Fred] that they had had sex. So Grandpa asked him if he wanted to marry her. He said he did. Then Grandpa asked Flora if she wanted to marry the boy. She said she did. So he helped them get legally married. Flora was sixteen. The newlyweds left town to settle elsewhere, but I learned later that she left him several weeks after their marriage.”
The August, 2004, issue of “The Los Angeles Times Magazine” reported: “In May 1986, she [Flora] entered into an arranged marriage with a 19-year-old cousin, Philip Jessop.” “Arranged marriage”? The only thing arranged about it was that Flora and Philip arranged to be out all night and were caught having sex.
Phillip’s Sympathetic Marriage
Though the Times article was supposed to be favorable to Flora, it astutely noted, “Over the years, she has told conflicting stories about how [her ‘getaway’] happened.” One thing that she is consistent about is her repeated and convincing claim that she “escaped” from the FLDS, that she was a victim held in solitary confinement. Was she indeed a victim? This is evidently the case, insomuch that she lived in an abusive situation with her father. But beyond that, she in fact created her own world of difficulties, and the reality of an escape is framed solely within the walls of her own mind.
Many people undoubtedly reached out to Flora and tried to help her. Were their efforts sufficient? Evidenced by her life, clearly not; but at some point people have to take responsibility for their own actions. One of those who sought to be her “savior” was Phillip. I talked with him by phone several times. No one before had ever contacted him so as to verify Flora’s statements. I was the first. In fact, Flora has never been questioned regarding her life accounts. Up to now, what she has said has been blindly accepted carte blanche. The name that Phillip goes by is Phil, and here is his account.
Phil was eighteen years old when he married Flora. He said that for two years they had been “sneaking out” together. Martha was right in that they were caught one night in a sexual affair, by a night watchman; but Phil did not immediately go to Fred. He related that he was first confronted by his older brother about the incident. He admitted to it, and his brother, for whom he worked, was prepared to carry out retribution for his actions. Once again we see that the idea propagated by FLDS critics that irresponsible behavior, such as Phil’s out-of-wedlock sexual relationship, is accepted is unfounded. As evidenced here and in other instances, the FLDS take swift remedial action.
Phil said that two weeks afterwards, his stepfather, Bill Shapley, came over and left a note for Phil to contact him. Two days later Phil met with him. Bill asked him if he wanted to marry Flora. At the age of eighteen, Phil said he had a “savior complex” regarding Flora—he wanted to “draw her out of the negative @#*! she was in.” Bill even tried to talk him out of marrying her. In Phil’s words, Flora “had a rebel streak in her that was a mile long.” But he made a commitment to be a friend to her and to always be there. Obviously Flora felt this as well, for she later related, "He was my friend and he helped me leave."
The next day, Phil and Flora met with Fred in his office. As Martha has noted, they both wanted the marriage. So on May 3, 1986, Phil, Flora, Fred, Phil’s mother and stepfather, and Flora’s father and stepmother, rode in a limousine to Las Vegas and the two were married.
After the wedding, they were taken to a motel in St. George, followed by moving in with his brother. The marriage lasted only ten days. Phil said Flora became very cold—their marriage was “like sleeping with an iceberg.” He no longer wanted to be married to her and asked her what she wanted. He said she was confused and wanted to be young. Phil made arrangements for Flora to stay at his friend’s house in St. George, where she remained for two to four weeks. From there, he said she went to Las Vegas, and from there to Kansas City. The next time he saw her was about six months later in Phoenix, where she was with another man, supposedly a TWA executive.
“[Flora] learned how to work people,” Phil relates. “She was a topless dancer and worked for an escort service.” Ten years later she finally filed for a divorce. He never remarried.Phil maintains a great deal of compassion for Flora, and retains his commitment to be her friend. “The sad part,” he said, “is that her motives are for the hurting who have experienced pain and betrayal. But she has a tainted perspective, and her methods are destructive from her pain and anger.” When explaining why he married Flora, he said, “She has told a lot of lies and did manipulative stuff, but she needed someone to believe in her.” Phil gave Flora that chance.
• Quote: “Flora Jessop was possibly abused as a child either by her brother or her father, both of whom were excommunicated from the FLDS church and lost their families. She moved in with Uncle Fred, whom her mother married.… She was never mistreated by Fred Jessop; he only wanted to help her. Flora left in 1986. I do not blame her one bit for being angry for what happened to her as a child, but she found identity and notoriety by blaming the church for her pain. I don’t blame her, but she is wrong.” (Allen Holm, former FLDS member and older brother of Fawn Holm who was a part of a huge media spectacle generated by Flora in 2004)
Martha Continues
Flora tells her eager listeners that she was not prepared for life on the “outside,” that she was “naive to the point of being socially retarded.” Hardly! From the young age of eleven, to the age of sixteen when she married Phil, she was entirely experienced in the aberrant lifestyle outside of the FLDS community’s high standards. She had already brought her hell into this heaven, and now she was ready to drink its cup fully.
In the years that followed, Flora freely fed her tragic lusts with drugs, alcohol, sex, prostitution, and stripping—with one brief interruption. Within a year after leaving, once again she called Fred. “She said she wanted to repent and come home,” wrote Martha in her account. And once again this kind and caring man who loved her and gave her every chance to do good, took her back. He got her a room in Cedar City and paid for it. Yet today Flora shamefully accuses him of imprisoning her. He also paid several thousand dollars for dental work for her, and visited and encouraged her. Everyone was kind to her, said Martha. Phil said he came to see her a couple of times as well. But then one day, once again, she just disappeared, leaving without saying a word and giving no indication as to where she had gone.
On Court TV Flora stated in an obvious pathological prevarication, “I was married as a child bride to my cousin. Stayed with him for about three weeks, then ran like crazy. They chased me for five years after I left. I had no support, I lived on the street, I know what it's like to try and get out of this cult and to have no one there for you. That is why I now try to help those who want to escape.“Yes. They chased me for five years, and I just hitchhiked back and forth across the U.S. for those five years. I did get pregnant towards the end of those five years, with my daughter, and she is the reason that I stopped running from them. I realized that I could not continue to run and protect my baby, so I stood up and told them if they wanted me, to come and get me, because I was not running anymore. At that point, I realized that the men from this cult are like schoolyard bullies. They only like to pick on people who are weaker than they are, and that power comes from the fear that they have instilled in the people.”
It is increasingly obvious that Flora’s lies are without depth or breadth, and this is recognized by all who know her. No one ever chased her. In fact, she freely returned to seek their help. In closer examination, her bizarre account serves to describe herself—always running from the truth, pressing her own distorted and corrupted agenda, and instilling false fear in others regarding the FLDS. For years Flora sold her body to destructive vices and prostitution—today she does no less with the truth.
• Quote: “I was very much a part of what Flora was doing before she ever left.… She was not forced to stay there. She could have gone anytime, just like you and I could.… She was not forced to stay in this community.… She could have gone at anytime.” (Reply of James Zitting, right-hand man to Fred M. Jessop, when questioned by his brother, Les, concerning Flora)
“For many years now I have kept quiet about what I knew,” relates Martha, “thinking Flora was just hurting herself. But now, since her lies and influence with authorities is affecting the lives of many innocent people, I think the truth should be told. The stories she tells have no credence and are fabricated. Her lies about being ‘locked up’ and being ‘used’ by men in our religious group are outrageous! She was never locked up in our community. When she chose to leave home, she walked out without difficulty—of her own free will and choice. Flora has not been a part of our religion or community for over twenty years. We have never hunted her or tried in any way to interfere in the life she chose to live. We have only helped her when she asked for help and did it without any thanks on her part.“I forgive her,” continues Martha, “but her lies and deceit should not be allowed to continue on as fact.”
“Ruby is a Hostage” [AKA "Where's Ruby Jessop?]
Let’s now move forward to 2001 when Flora began to dramatically enhance her public slander of the FLDS, becoming its chief persecutor. Like the written account from Martha and the interview with Phil, what you are about to read is the first ever account of actual events that unfolded regarding Flora’s oft-touted sister, Ruby, whom she alleged was brutally raped at the age of fourteen. This first-hand information comes from my personal phone conversations with Ruby and her husband, Haven; with Martha; and email correspondence with Ruby’s mother, Pat. For the first time, the veil of silence, misunderstanding, and false information will be lifted.
Back in Colorado City, Flora’s younger sister, Ruby, made some decisions that would bring her life into an unwelcomed examination and falsely-reported public spectacle, all because of the painful intrusion of her activist sister. On the day that Flora was married, leaving the FLDS, Ruby was born. “Ruby gave me my freedom,” Flora later said. “She was born the day I left Hildale. May 3, 1986.” Flora certainly did not find freedom when she left Hildale, but rather an even greater bondage to the ever-increasing lusts that controlled her life. In reality, the freedom Flora needs from Ruby and others is her freedom from living a life of continual lies and of inciting wrongful harm.
On April 23, 2001, Haven and Ruby had a church wedding ceremony in Caliente, Nevada. But she was being torn at the time as to whether this was what she truly wanted. “I needed time just to find myself,” she said. Her two older brothers had already left the FLDS, and three weeks after the wedding she went to be with them. But she was there for only one week and was already regretting leaving. Joseph, a friend of hers, contacted her and offered the opportunity to return. She gladly accepted and stayed in the home of the always-benevolent Fred Jessop. “I was never so glad to be home,” she rejoiced!
But what about Flora? When Ruby left her two brothers, they called Flora and told her that Ruby had gone back home. This infuriated Flora and she sprang into action to try to force Ruby to leave, uninvitedly intruding into her life. Her plan? She stirred up others and called Child Protective Services (CPS), and in her characteristic style told them an aggrandized lie. Does she believe her own agenda-driven lies? Undoubtedly so. But when CPS interviewed Ruby and her mother, they found no credibility whatsoever in Flora’s accusations. “[Ruby] was wonderful—gave no information of any concern, for anything,” stated CPS director Gene Ashdown to Flora, “and that really, I guess, isn't a surprise.” In our phone conversation, Ruby told me, “CPS wanted to have Flora there at my questioning, and I said no. I did not want to have anything to do with her.”
Upon her return, Ruby turned to the same home and security that Flora herself had often fled to for help in her own times of trouble, the home Flora later fallaciously described as imprisonment for three years in solitary confinement. But now Flora sought to accomplish the same disparaging accusations relative to Ruby. With ever-mounting evidence, Flora’s reports of events are more than exaggerations, but have all indications of being pathological lies.
• Quote: I don’t know what information you’ve got, but [Ruby’s] been around [since she came back]. And I know one thing, and that is that I was there personally the day after she came back. She was sittin’ there with her family and she was in tears and she says, “You guys don’t know how glad I am to be back.” That’s what she said, and I listened to it. So people that say that she’s there against her will—not true, not at all.… I know for a fact that, yes, there was a time there where she thought that maybe she wanted to leave; but after she was gone for how ever many days she was, SHE WAS MIGHTY GLAD TO BE BACK. She says, “I found out that that isn’t what I want.” (James Zitting, right-hand man to Fred M. Jessop, June 17, 2001)
• Quote: Since [Ruby] went back to Fred’s, you’ve seen her around?… Have you seen her around in the last two weeks?… Well that’s weird. Somebody’s lying to us.” (Les Zitting, James’s older brother who is anti-FLDS and asked him about Ruby, June 17, 2001)
Always an opportunist, in classic Flora fashion all of this made great fodder for falsely and wrongly inciting others against the FLDS, garnering great media attention and financial support. Flora’s efforts, as well as the efforts of other avid FLDS critics, are agenda-driven, media-driven, predominated by flagrant wrongful exaggerations and lies, have included fraudulent Attorney General documents (re., 2002 Napolitano investigations), and serve only to hurt the innocent. In 2004, Flora’s media-grandstanding and intrusive actions regarding Fawn Holm and Fawn Broadbent not only devastated families, but also infuriated other anti-FLDS crusaders, and even resulted in a court ordering her to stay away from the two girls. In 2006, Flora wildly alleged that there was an FLDS baby graveyard with 200 baby graves that were dug in one month and that “night burials” were being practiced, claims that were all proven to be totally false. Even so, she has continued to tell these lies to this day. Continually, she has proven herself to be the proverbial woman who cries “wolf.”
Repeatedly, Flora appealed to her willing listeners, “This is about every Ruby that's in there that wants to be free." But the freedom Ruby needs is to be free from the threats of her obsessed sister and those like her who make their lives more difficult and threatened, to be free to raise her family, and for Flora to be free from her own torturous bondage. The revealing fact is, none of Flora’s eleven sisters, or even her own mother, will have anything to do with her. “The reason I dislike seeing Flora is because it is too stressful for me to see and hear what she is doing with her life,” laments Pat.
But with standard purposes of attracting attention, Flora went so far as to file a missing person report on her mother and make it a media issue. In an interview, when asked in typical demonizing questioning if her family suffers retribution among the FLDS members for her public attacks, she stated, “I‘ve been given messages that my mother is paying the price for everything I do.” She is, Flora, but not by virtue of the supportive and caring FLDS members. Rather, she pays the price of a mother’s broken heart for a recalcitrant wayward daughter.
Beginning in 2001, and as recent as this year, Flora has boldly claimed that on the night of Haven and Ruby’s wedding, at the age of fourteen, Ruby “was raped so brutally [by Haven] that she almost died from the hemorrhaging,” and that her mother, only “a couple of doors down,” was not allowed to intervene. Yet Flora is never obligated to tell her source of these repeated outrageous lies. I asked Haven and Ruby specifically about these stunning accusations; and even knowing all that I know about Flora, I was not prepared for their answer. Frankly, based on what I had read and heard, in my own mind I had formed more gracious possibilities, though still surrounding these purported accusations. But I was totally taken aback that the facts were not anywhere near what Flora has viciously spread.
Did Haven brutally rape Ruby and did she almost hemorrhaged to death? When I asked them if this was true, Ruby quickly answered, “Absolutely not! I was never raped.” Haven added, “I absolutely wouldn’t do that. I’d give my life to protect her.” Even before hearing this, two men who personally know Haven assured me that there was no way he would have done that. It was totally contrary to his nature, his character, and his upbringing.
When I wrote Pat about this accusation, she confirmed: “Yes, I was there at the ceremony. Haven would not do these kinds of actions, let alone hurt anyone, and there is no truth in Flora's claims of any brutality.” The fact is, Haven and Ruby had no sexual relations whatsoever that evening, or even in the days to come, and not even in the months that followed.
Following the ceremony of April 23 and a brief honeymoon in Phoenix, Ruby was not settled with either herself or with marriage. As she stated, she needed time to find herself. She related, “I wanted to wait a little more time and see what I wanted.” “It was something Ruby needed,” responded Haven, “a little more time; and we gave it to her.”
Over the next six months, the two of them communicated very little. When Ruby was more comfortable and sure of what she wanted, their relationship began to progress. One year later, on May 5, 2002, they were married before a judge in St. George, Utah. Ruby was sixteen years of age, and Haven was twenty-one. Only after this marriage did they ever have conjugal relations.
Despite Flora’s repeated lies and accusations that marriages are forced in the FLDS and that men abuse the women, clearly this is far from true. Ruby was in fact given all the time and freedom she needed in order to make her own choice, one she was comfortable with. And consistent with the FLDS lifestyle, there was no abuse whatsoever.
However, during this time when the community was showing patience and care, a dark storm brewed outside. In stark contrast to this peaceful people who prefer the sanctity of silence, the brutally vicious lies of Flora and others flew like hot embers from troubling firebrands. In addition to the rape allegations, other wild claims were made, including that Ruby was being brainwashed, re-educated, even whisked off in secrecy to Canada or Idaho. But by and large, Ruby stayed right there in Hildale. She said she and her mother did take a little vacation and went to visit some friends.
Today, Haven and Ruby remain happily married. And despite the unwelcomed willful intrusion of Flora and others like her, they are living the life they have chosen. Looking back at the struggles she went through in 2001, today Ruby is now able to say with gratefulness, “This is my life, and I would never go back to the world.”
Frankly, I was stunned at their account. It was not at all like what I had read and heard, and I could not grasp how Flora could contrive something so profoundly different. Puzzled, I asked them, “Where could Flora get such a story?” “Where she gets all her other stories,” replied Ruby, “from her head.”
Does the FLDS have flaws? Of course they do. Do they have difficulties within community life. Certainly they do. Would there be conflicts and hard feelings on the part of some individuals? That is inevitable, especially when dealing with teens when they hit those infamous distressing and troubling years. But what I have seen in all my examinations is that, even so, they are a people who strive to do what is right, and who excel immeasurably better in wholesome and right living than society that exists outside of their lives. And most certainly, I have found that the accusations made against them by anti-FLDS critics hold no weight. In fact, the best characterization of these acrid critics is that their accusations are as worthy to be trusted as the testimonies of rebellious troubled teenagers who rant about their parents.
There are many who have left the FLDS who we never hear from, those who could provide a much more realistic assessment of FLDS life without the embittered accusations. But the problem is that no one, especially the feeding-frenzy media, wants to hear from them. They are much closer to reality, even with some of their criticisms. But this is a lynching mob, and the voice of the reasonable is drowned out.
One twenty-three-year-old young man who was raised in the FLDS and had been away for three years wrote on a blog regarding his experience: “I had a very happy childhood free from television, drugs, and abuse.… 95% of the men I knew were honorable and trustworthy.… I personally know every man on that [YFZ] Ranch in Texas. Search the world over, you will not find men more dedicated, more committed, and more focused on living in Peace and living their religion than within that group.” He continued, “half [a figure that is probably closer to twenty to thirty percent] of the children raised within the FLDS end up leaving [of] their own free will and choice,” and “95% of them you will never hear from again.” But, he noted, “5% seem to spread rumor[s] and false accusations everywhere they turn, either because they are lonely and need someone or something to blame, or because they really were hurt or abused and somehow think it's the church's fault.”
A common mantra of both FLDS critics and CPS is that the men are “perpetrators” of sexual crimes. But as we just read and saw regarding Haven and Ruby, nothing could be further from the truth. My experience in talking with FLDS men confirms this. One man had waited six months before he even had sexual relations with his wife, another several months as well. The latter man stated, “You have to wait until you are comfortable with one another. You love one another. You respect one another. It is very important that it is the lady’s idea and she is comfortable with it. It is not our place and is repulsive to force ourselves on women. It goes against our moral fabric and goes against everything we have been taught. That is how every FLDS man that I know has been raised. Something of this magnitude in your life is important and comes from love and not lust.”
Despite this reality regarding these peaceable and moral people, Flora sought to incite others with the oft-repeated claim, “Ruby is a hostage.” But Ruby was not and has never been a hostage. Rather, she is the happily-married mother of four young children, two boys and two girls, who love her very much and whose lives are threatened by people like their venomous aunt. Ruby is not the hostage. But rather, it is Flora who is the hostage—hostage to her own blinding hatred and willful pursuit to gainfully destroy those who tried to help her so many times.
If there is anyone who was born and raised in Colorado City who needs to be set free from a “compound,” it is Flora Jessop, the little girl who was “a beautiful child, well loved and enjoyable,” who is held captive by her own walls of bitterness and self-gratifying destructive pursuits. Flora lived a lifestyle that was self-destructive, and now she seeks to destroy those who, even now, still love her. In all my contacts and interviews with FLDS members, I have yet to find a single person who is bitter towards her; they all want only the best for her.
I asked Haven and Ruby one last question: If you knew Flora was telling these vicious lies about you, then why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you speak up and refute them? “In our culture,” answered Haven, “we’re not out to find problems, or to find fault with other people. We try to mind our own business, and others can live their own lives. If some say something bad about you, you forgive them, turn the other cheek, and move on with your life. Flora really does have family here that love her…,” then Ruby interjected, “but we don’t appreciate what she is doing…,” and in a seamless sentence between the two of them, Haven continued, “and she needs to come out and be honest.”
Somehow Flora missed this instruction about forgiving and moving on with your life, the very thing she desperately needs to do. She is in fact in every way the antithesis of the culture she was raised in, a paradox of all the good and virtue they seek to practice. And instead of adopting their pacifism, she has taken advantage of this quality evidenced in her people as a freedom to tell all her lies undisputed. As a result, she has hurt too many and caused far too much trouble. “Ruby and I were both betrayed,” wrote Flora. No, Ruby survived the insidious attacks of her bitter sister, and Flora betrays herself, her people and loving family, truth, and justice.
The Yearning For Zion Raid
It’s one thing to stand under a high-wire and try to catch those who might fall, and quite another to climb the pole and cut the wire.If Flora’s purpose is to help those who want to leave the FLDS, and some indeed leave and have the freedom to do so at their own will, then why is it that she seeks to enforce a destructive control for which she herself accuses them? But if her purpose is to grandstand, to lead the uninformed into deception, and to foment unjust actions so as to destroy peaceful innocent lives, then it is she who needs to be called into question and disregarded.
• Quote: Flora is a publicity-hungry "fanatic" whose "demands to have control over someone else's children are becoming eerily similar to the dictatorial attitude of her sworn nemesis, Warren Jeffs." She is "misguided and devious." (“The Phoenix New Times”)
When the state of Texas and CPS invaded the YFZ Ranch with substantial militant force, removing all of the innocent children, they did so illegally. This has been the ruling of both a Texas Appellate Court and the Texas Supreme Court. So what was it that prompted Texas and CPS to take this highly extreme and costly action that has now blown up in their faces?
In March of 2004, Flora traveled to Eldorado, Texas, where she met with local law enforcement officials and held a press conference. Here she found a very receptive ear in Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran. “Flora has provided us with a lot of information and I find her to be very credible,” said Doran. This relationship continued over the next four years, leading up to the YFZ raid. In fact, after the raid Doran confidently stated, "I have had a good informant who has given me good information over the past four years. This person has been assisting us as we've gone forward on this operation." A court affidavit unsealed on April 9, 2008, stated that "on more than 20 occasions" Doran's informant had provided him with supposed details about life at the ranch. He has also stated that the informant was a former member and was "instrumental in teaching me the group's ways."
Putting all the facts together, it is quite obvious that Sheriff Doran’s trusted informant was none other than inflammatory Flora Jessop. She is the only former-FLDS person who had been with him for four years. Later he said that there was more than one informant. Indeed, subsequently there were other anti-FLDS former members who provided biased information, but Flora was the first and foremost.
Flora had stated prior to these events, “One day [the FLDS] will go to war with law enforcement and the streets will run red with the blood of the enemy. We were taught that from the time we could walk.” She said the “compounds” aren't like homes in that they are fortified, built with thick walls. “They are very much armed. They have many, many weapons," she warned, and even went so far as to say that Warren Jeffs is “David Koresh, Jim Jones, and 9-11 all wrapped up in one nice little package. These guys are very dangerous." How then would this kind of information affect Sheriff Doran?
It is now evident who is the more dangerous—Flora. These views of Doran’s trusted informant explain why he called in such a dramatic show of law enforcement with extensive firepower and militant might. With SWAT-team methods they crashed through doors and entered into homes with machine guns raised in an invasion so large and with so much might that it cost Texas $5.3 million to carry out. But what kind of resistance did they encounter? Was it Flora’s forewarned apocalyptic bloodbath? No, they encountered nothing more than shocked adults and scared crying children. Where were all of Flora’s promised weapons? Once again we see why Flora Jessop cannot be believed. Truth is as elusive in her life as were the purported weapons—they did not exist whatsoever.
At the October 13, 2006, Exmormon Foundation annual conference, Flora related her own purported personal experience with these gun-slingin’ FLDS men. “The way these guys work, they’re not gonna come after me, although they do. I’ve had many fun instances where we’ve dealt with bullets flying and things like that; but, hmm, I just think they need to get a better target to shoot at.” Her account is nauseating. This blatantly outlandish statement reinforces the reality of Flora’s rampant fantasy for violence, and her willingness to propagate it. And this infection of misinformation has not been limited to Sheriff Doran. The Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, ranted in an interview, “Here’s a man [Warren Jeffs} who had a whole army supporting him, who thumbed his nose at the law for years, who ran from us, who had people surrounding him with guns, threatening to go down with him.” Really? And where have we heard this before? And when Jeffs was arrested, where were all those guns as well? And who, once again, was telling Shurtleff this false information? And as a state official, why was he one of these eager gullible listeners?
And remember those wildly false accusations Flora made about the baby graveyard? What then could also have been expected during the raid, compliments of this same source? Reported in a press conference on June 2, 2008, by FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop, “They brought in cadaver dogs and raided all the flower gardens to try to find babies and carcasses. It’s how sick their information has been.” The source of that information is clearly evident. Of course, once again, they found no babies.
In a letter of June 17, 2008, to Utah officials, including [Attorney General] Mark Shurtleff, FLDS attorney Rod Parker noted, “Moreover, as investigations proceed, Texas authorities are acknowledging that in conducting this raid they reacted to erroneous intelligence.” He chided Utah officials for repeatedly providing Texas authorities irresponsible information “from unreliable sources,” characterizing these as “hate groups who wish to see the FLDS destroyed.” As a remedy to these false insular ideas that have brought about so many unjust and excessive actions, Parker urged them, “It would take very little investigation on the part of your office to realize that your sources are unreliable.” Unreliable indeed.
• Quote: “I have a begrudging respect for [Flora].… She does more harm than good, is an unpredictable bad source, and not credit worthy.… She talks a good ball game, but when you look at her…. She rules over anybody who gets in her way, including me.” (Bob Curran, founder of the anti-polygamist organization, Help the Child Brides, and who personally worked with Flora)
So much more could be said about this raid. As a much-touted public figure, how is it that Flora’s lies could have incited Rosita Swinton, the bogus caller who sparked the raid? Rosita had made similar calls prior to this, going back to June, 2005, but never relative to the FLDS. So where did she get all of her information? And what inspired her to create stories in the identical pattern of Flora’s stories? Many questions arise concerning this that beg to be answered.
Furthermore, one must also ask where the responsibility lies with the media. What grave part did they play in this drama as well? Why were they also so irresponsible in too eagerly and repeatedly parading a pathological witness before this nation without validating her authenticity?
When Sheriff Doran was asked about his part in the raid on YFZ, he replied: “I did not bring this on them. The call came in to assist Child Protective Services. We always assist. We pulled in the law enforcement due to the size of the operation. We pulled in the law enforcement that was necessary to carry out the operation.”
Given the track record of CPS, it is likely that this is true. But given the source of Doran’s information that he was operating on—Flora—we can see why he used so much militant might, and why CPS’s actions were so extreme. But one has to also ask how much Doran, with his errantly skewed position, even influenced CPS’s initiation of the raid? Undoubtedly, in all realms, Flora Jessop was the major influence for this despicable, erroneous, and illegal YFZ invasion.
There is no question that Flora stirred the pot and brought this entire matter to the fevered destructive lawless frenzy that it became, including Rosita Swinton’s part. As she has done for most of her life, Flora pressured, cajoled, and lied until her fomenting stories became perceived reality. And one must ask in conclusion: If what Flora has repeatedly stated—that these girls are indeed entrapped abused prisoners who desperately want out—then why was it that not a single one of them fled to her once they were separated from there? Why was it that there was not a single defection, but rather a unanimous yearning to return to Zion?
After hearing Flora’s tragic story—and as you would suspect, we have not nearly addressed the host of all her lies and inflammatory actions—some might be inclined to feel sorry for her and dismiss her perpetually vile and destructive behavior. This is what the FLDS community did for many years. But Martha’s reply is a fitting answer to this, as she has concluded: “I forgive her, but her lies and deceit should not be allowed to continue on as fact.” For too many years Flora has had free reign to lie, and this has been done to the unjust harm and detriment of the innocent lives of others, particularly of late. That time has come to an end.
• Quote: Flora has been swept up in “the TV interviews, the fame, and the glory. … She loves the attention. She's craved it her whole life.… Nobody wants anything to do with Flora.” “Flora's been getting away with these [false] stories for a long time now, and it’s time to shut her down.” (Pennie Petersen, anti-polygamy activist who grew up with Flora in FLDS)
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July 1 2008
By Author Gary D. Naler
Flora Jessop, the outspoken media favorite and determined critic of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS), has had the advantage and luxury of accruing audiences who want to believe her or are understandably uninformed about Flora’s real life and the FLDS church itself. Therefore, she has been able to say what she wants; and since people are often hearing what they want to hear, she has gotten off scot-free without any accountability or recourse whatsoever for what we now know are an endless string of vicious lies.
But Flora’s days of unaccountability have come to an end. She has now been instrumental in causing the state of Texas to carry out an illegal invasion on an entire community at a cost to the state that carries a running tally of $14 million, and has hurt so many innocent people that these silent ones who know her well, have loved and cared for her, and endured her continual destructive behavior, are finally speaking out.
Martha Jessop, wife of the late Fred M. Jessop—beloved Bishop of the Colorado City/Hildale FLDS community for fifty years—has written a most revealing account regarding Flora’s life (“The Truth About Flora Jessop,” at truthwillprevail.org). From Flora’s birth, until she was sixteen years old, Martha was very closely associated with her. She is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and Certified Nurse Midwife. Because of this formal training, the state of Utah appointed her as Flora’s legal guardian at the age of fourteen when it was revealed that her father had molested her. Flora was under Martha’s direct care and supervision, living in their home, until she left at the age of sixteen.
In representation of the sentiments of others, Martha writes: “After listening to and hearing of the stories and lies that Flora has been telling and putting out to the world through the media—lies about how she was ‘abused’ and ‘escaped’ from her childhood home and religion, I feel compelled to tell the true story of Flora.” With Martha’s help and the help of many others who have never been interviewed about these matters or spoken out, as well as previous news accounts, interviews, and information, we will now tell the true story about Flora Jessop. And let it be noted that the account by Martha is corroborated by Flora’s mother, Patricia, who upon reading it stated, “That’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Flora’s Growing-Up Years
Flora was born to Joseph and Patricia (Pat) Jessop in the little FLDS town of Colorado City, Arizona. “Flora was a beautiful child, well loved and enjoyable,” Martha recalls. But she noticed “a tendency in her to exaggerate and embellish little incidents. She enjoyed being in the spotlight and the center of attention.” Martha recalls chiding her to “tell the truth and not make it bigger than it is,” a quality Flora never learned.
As Flora got older, she became “restless and wild, with unpredictable mood swings, sometimes seeming impulsive and aggressive, then swinging back to the happy and free-spirited Flora we knew and loved.” As early as the age of eleven, she began going out at night, prowling around, “looking for fun.” “She seemed to be dissatisfied with the family outings and social times with her friends and siblings,” Martha recalled.
Her mother and others tried to deal with Flora’s troubling behavior; but as her mood swings became more extreme, she soon developed a whole new set of “friends,” often coming home intoxicated and violent, and it was highly suspected that she was using drugs. Today, Flora often points a limp finger at the FLDS, and regarding her drug and alcohol use and loose living states: “The pain got so bad in heaven that I was willing to damn myself to hell to escape it.” But the fact is, Flora had already brought her own hell to heaven long before she left the FLDS. As is the case with many alcoholics and drug addicts or otherwise-troubled people, for Flora it has always been easier to point the finger and assign fallacious blame than to be honest and take personal responsibility.
By the early age of thirteen, Flora was completely out of control. On one occasion she was out all night and found with a fifteen-year-old boy having sex. “Such behavior went against everything Flora had been taught,” relates Martha. Even so, they did not give up on her.
• Quote: “I went to school with Flora.… It's true Flora had a very abusive upbringing, sex abuse, etc., but she was a wild child, loved to sneak out and go to parties.… In my opinion, she is clinging to the only thing she really knows—slamming her upbringing. Think about it—it pays their bills doesn’t it?… How would Flora like the world to know she was the easiest lay in town? The point is, I left there in 1986 and haven’t looked back. My life is great. Flora should do the same!!!!” (Laddie Dockstader, former FLDS classmate and friend)
When Flora was fourteen, Martha was talking with her about the impact of loose morals, when she blurted out, “Well, my father has raped me!” “It struck me like a thunderbolt,” related Martha. “That was terrible! I was sickened at the thought. I thought maybe she had made it up, but she insisted it was true.”
In Martha’s words, in their society “child molestation or abuse of any kind is unthinkable and unacceptable.” Flora’s father was turned over to legal authorities and subsequently excommunicated from the church. Despite this decisive correction that she is well aware of, when asked if incest was permitted in FLDS, she replied, “Incest is not only permitted, it is accepted.” Evidenced here and throughout her life, Flora’s habitual lies have been twisted ill-intended distortions of events.
• Quote: “She is a liar.… [Lying is] Flora’s life history.… She is not credible.… I do not see how any reasonable person can believe what she says.” (Benjamin Bistline, author of “The Polygamists – A History of Colorado City, Arizona,” who personally knew Flora as a child and is an FLDS critic)
One of the things I learned after examining the FLDS, from both the inside as well as the outside, is that they have a near-zero-tolerance policy for young men, fathers, and husbands when it comes to moral impropriety, evidenced by the action taken against Flora’s father. This high standard would certainly be one reason why there are fewer men than women in the FLDS. One man I communicated with extensively throughout the many days and hours of this careful examination was disfellowshipped for mistreating his wife. He said she and his two children could have gone with him, but decided not to, and that the present separation was best for both of them. What was his guilt? He had been looking at pornography. How many homes would be left in America today if the same standard the FLDS follow was practiced by the rest of society that so misguidedly judges them?
After Flora’s father was reported to legal authorities, she was taken from his home and placed into Martha’s care as the court-appointed legal guardian. In a joint interview I had with Flora on June 1, 2008, I mentioned to her that Martha had raised her after she had been taken away from her father, to which she replied, “Martha was just one of the other wives in the household.” I find it both shameful and remarkably untruthful that the woman who had reached out to her so much and was in fact her legal guardian assigned by the court, was regarded with so little respect or gratitude.
Martha, Fred, and others began trying to help Flora through the healing process. To limit destructive influences, she and her court-appointed counselor thought it best that Flora be homeschooled, which she was. For a while they thought she was healing, but once again she became restless and began to return to her prior ways. “Any little thing would make her fly into a rage,” recounts Martha. On one occasion she attacked Martha, scratching herself as she flailed away at her. Then, exhibiting a characteristic that would endure to this day, she called the counselor and accused Martha of beating her.
Finally, one night she left, just disappeared, and stayed gone for two weeks. When she did call, she was in Las Vegas, crying and wanting to come home. Fred drove 160 miles to get her, finding her scantily clad in bikini-type clothing.
But still they didn’t stop loving her. Because of their concern about her influence on the other girls, they made her a little room at the end of a wide hall, putting curtains across it. They tried to make it cozy and cute for her, said Martha. But consistent with her slanderous lies and total lack of appreciation, Flora would later repeatedly tell her enraptured and blindly sympathetic listeners that she had been locked up at the end of a hall, imprisoned behind a wall for “three years in solitary confinement.” “With curtains? Oh my!” replies Martha. “I spent three years in this room with them trying to beat Satan out of me for daring to stand up against God’s commandments,” Flora lavishly tells others. The little girl still cannot stop exaggerating and embellishing, taking it to unthinkable pathological levels.
Once back, her involvement in drugs, alcohol, sex, and unaccounted absences only continued. “Her behavior was quite oppressive,” relates Martha. “I felt like such a failure.” She continues, “One night she was out all night with a boy—a cousin. He came the next morning and told Grandpa [Fred] that they had had sex. So Grandpa asked him if he wanted to marry her. He said he did. Then Grandpa asked Flora if she wanted to marry the boy. She said she did. So he helped them get legally married. Flora was sixteen. The newlyweds left town to settle elsewhere, but I learned later that she left him several weeks after their marriage.”
The August, 2004, issue of “The Los Angeles Times Magazine” reported: “In May 1986, she [Flora] entered into an arranged marriage with a 19-year-old cousin, Philip Jessop.” “Arranged marriage”? The only thing arranged about it was that Flora and Philip arranged to be out all night and were caught having sex.
Phillip’s Sympathetic Marriage
Though the Times article was supposed to be favorable to Flora, it astutely noted, “Over the years, she has told conflicting stories about how [her ‘getaway’] happened.” One thing that she is consistent about is her repeated and convincing claim that she “escaped” from the FLDS, that she was a victim held in solitary confinement. Was she indeed a victim? This is evidently the case, insomuch that she lived in an abusive situation with her father. But beyond that, she in fact created her own world of difficulties, and the reality of an escape is framed solely within the walls of her own mind.
Many people undoubtedly reached out to Flora and tried to help her. Were their efforts sufficient? Evidenced by her life, clearly not; but at some point people have to take responsibility for their own actions. One of those who sought to be her “savior” was Phillip. I talked with him by phone several times. No one before had ever contacted him so as to verify Flora’s statements. I was the first. In fact, Flora has never been questioned regarding her life accounts. Up to now, what she has said has been blindly accepted carte blanche. The name that Phillip goes by is Phil, and here is his account.
Phil was eighteen years old when he married Flora. He said that for two years they had been “sneaking out” together. Martha was right in that they were caught one night in a sexual affair, by a night watchman; but Phil did not immediately go to Fred. He related that he was first confronted by his older brother about the incident. He admitted to it, and his brother, for whom he worked, was prepared to carry out retribution for his actions. Once again we see that the idea propagated by FLDS critics that irresponsible behavior, such as Phil’s out-of-wedlock sexual relationship, is accepted is unfounded. As evidenced here and in other instances, the FLDS take swift remedial action.
Phil said that two weeks afterwards, his stepfather, Bill Shapley, came over and left a note for Phil to contact him. Two days later Phil met with him. Bill asked him if he wanted to marry Flora. At the age of eighteen, Phil said he had a “savior complex” regarding Flora—he wanted to “draw her out of the negative @#*! she was in.” Bill even tried to talk him out of marrying her. In Phil’s words, Flora “had a rebel streak in her that was a mile long.” But he made a commitment to be a friend to her and to always be there. Obviously Flora felt this as well, for she later related, "He was my friend and he helped me leave."
The next day, Phil and Flora met with Fred in his office. As Martha has noted, they both wanted the marriage. So on May 3, 1986, Phil, Flora, Fred, Phil’s mother and stepfather, and Flora’s father and stepmother, rode in a limousine to Las Vegas and the two were married.
After the wedding, they were taken to a motel in St. George, followed by moving in with his brother. The marriage lasted only ten days. Phil said Flora became very cold—their marriage was “like sleeping with an iceberg.” He no longer wanted to be married to her and asked her what she wanted. He said she was confused and wanted to be young. Phil made arrangements for Flora to stay at his friend’s house in St. George, where she remained for two to four weeks. From there, he said she went to Las Vegas, and from there to Kansas City. The next time he saw her was about six months later in Phoenix, where she was with another man, supposedly a TWA executive.
“[Flora] learned how to work people,” Phil relates. “She was a topless dancer and worked for an escort service.” Ten years later she finally filed for a divorce. He never remarried.Phil maintains a great deal of compassion for Flora, and retains his commitment to be her friend. “The sad part,” he said, “is that her motives are for the hurting who have experienced pain and betrayal. But she has a tainted perspective, and her methods are destructive from her pain and anger.” When explaining why he married Flora, he said, “She has told a lot of lies and did manipulative stuff, but she needed someone to believe in her.” Phil gave Flora that chance.
• Quote: “Flora Jessop was possibly abused as a child either by her brother or her father, both of whom were excommunicated from the FLDS church and lost their families. She moved in with Uncle Fred, whom her mother married.… She was never mistreated by Fred Jessop; he only wanted to help her. Flora left in 1986. I do not blame her one bit for being angry for what happened to her as a child, but she found identity and notoriety by blaming the church for her pain. I don’t blame her, but she is wrong.” (Allen Holm, former FLDS member and older brother of Fawn Holm who was a part of a huge media spectacle generated by Flora in 2004)
Martha Continues
Flora tells her eager listeners that she was not prepared for life on the “outside,” that she was “naive to the point of being socially retarded.” Hardly! From the young age of eleven, to the age of sixteen when she married Phil, she was entirely experienced in the aberrant lifestyle outside of the FLDS community’s high standards. She had already brought her hell into this heaven, and now she was ready to drink its cup fully.
In the years that followed, Flora freely fed her tragic lusts with drugs, alcohol, sex, prostitution, and stripping—with one brief interruption. Within a year after leaving, once again she called Fred. “She said she wanted to repent and come home,” wrote Martha in her account. And once again this kind and caring man who loved her and gave her every chance to do good, took her back. He got her a room in Cedar City and paid for it. Yet today Flora shamefully accuses him of imprisoning her. He also paid several thousand dollars for dental work for her, and visited and encouraged her. Everyone was kind to her, said Martha. Phil said he came to see her a couple of times as well. But then one day, once again, she just disappeared, leaving without saying a word and giving no indication as to where she had gone.
On Court TV Flora stated in an obvious pathological prevarication, “I was married as a child bride to my cousin. Stayed with him for about three weeks, then ran like crazy. They chased me for five years after I left. I had no support, I lived on the street, I know what it's like to try and get out of this cult and to have no one there for you. That is why I now try to help those who want to escape.“Yes. They chased me for five years, and I just hitchhiked back and forth across the U.S. for those five years. I did get pregnant towards the end of those five years, with my daughter, and she is the reason that I stopped running from them. I realized that I could not continue to run and protect my baby, so I stood up and told them if they wanted me, to come and get me, because I was not running anymore. At that point, I realized that the men from this cult are like schoolyard bullies. They only like to pick on people who are weaker than they are, and that power comes from the fear that they have instilled in the people.”
It is increasingly obvious that Flora’s lies are without depth or breadth, and this is recognized by all who know her. No one ever chased her. In fact, she freely returned to seek their help. In closer examination, her bizarre account serves to describe herself—always running from the truth, pressing her own distorted and corrupted agenda, and instilling false fear in others regarding the FLDS. For years Flora sold her body to destructive vices and prostitution—today she does no less with the truth.
• Quote: “I was very much a part of what Flora was doing before she ever left.… She was not forced to stay there. She could have gone anytime, just like you and I could.… She was not forced to stay in this community.… She could have gone at anytime.” (Reply of James Zitting, right-hand man to Fred M. Jessop, when questioned by his brother, Les, concerning Flora)
“For many years now I have kept quiet about what I knew,” relates Martha, “thinking Flora was just hurting herself. But now, since her lies and influence with authorities is affecting the lives of many innocent people, I think the truth should be told. The stories she tells have no credence and are fabricated. Her lies about being ‘locked up’ and being ‘used’ by men in our religious group are outrageous! She was never locked up in our community. When she chose to leave home, she walked out without difficulty—of her own free will and choice. Flora has not been a part of our religion or community for over twenty years. We have never hunted her or tried in any way to interfere in the life she chose to live. We have only helped her when she asked for help and did it without any thanks on her part.“I forgive her,” continues Martha, “but her lies and deceit should not be allowed to continue on as fact.”
“Ruby is a Hostage” [AKA "Where's Ruby Jessop?]
Let’s now move forward to 2001 when Flora began to dramatically enhance her public slander of the FLDS, becoming its chief persecutor. Like the written account from Martha and the interview with Phil, what you are about to read is the first ever account of actual events that unfolded regarding Flora’s oft-touted sister, Ruby, whom she alleged was brutally raped at the age of fourteen. This first-hand information comes from my personal phone conversations with Ruby and her husband, Haven; with Martha; and email correspondence with Ruby’s mother, Pat. For the first time, the veil of silence, misunderstanding, and false information will be lifted.
Back in Colorado City, Flora’s younger sister, Ruby, made some decisions that would bring her life into an unwelcomed examination and falsely-reported public spectacle, all because of the painful intrusion of her activist sister. On the day that Flora was married, leaving the FLDS, Ruby was born. “Ruby gave me my freedom,” Flora later said. “She was born the day I left Hildale. May 3, 1986.” Flora certainly did not find freedom when she left Hildale, but rather an even greater bondage to the ever-increasing lusts that controlled her life. In reality, the freedom Flora needs from Ruby and others is her freedom from living a life of continual lies and of inciting wrongful harm.
On April 23, 2001, Haven and Ruby had a church wedding ceremony in Caliente, Nevada. But she was being torn at the time as to whether this was what she truly wanted. “I needed time just to find myself,” she said. Her two older brothers had already left the FLDS, and three weeks after the wedding she went to be with them. But she was there for only one week and was already regretting leaving. Joseph, a friend of hers, contacted her and offered the opportunity to return. She gladly accepted and stayed in the home of the always-benevolent Fred Jessop. “I was never so glad to be home,” she rejoiced!
But what about Flora? When Ruby left her two brothers, they called Flora and told her that Ruby had gone back home. This infuriated Flora and she sprang into action to try to force Ruby to leave, uninvitedly intruding into her life. Her plan? She stirred up others and called Child Protective Services (CPS), and in her characteristic style told them an aggrandized lie. Does she believe her own agenda-driven lies? Undoubtedly so. But when CPS interviewed Ruby and her mother, they found no credibility whatsoever in Flora’s accusations. “[Ruby] was wonderful—gave no information of any concern, for anything,” stated CPS director Gene Ashdown to Flora, “and that really, I guess, isn't a surprise.” In our phone conversation, Ruby told me, “CPS wanted to have Flora there at my questioning, and I said no. I did not want to have anything to do with her.”
Upon her return, Ruby turned to the same home and security that Flora herself had often fled to for help in her own times of trouble, the home Flora later fallaciously described as imprisonment for three years in solitary confinement. But now Flora sought to accomplish the same disparaging accusations relative to Ruby. With ever-mounting evidence, Flora’s reports of events are more than exaggerations, but have all indications of being pathological lies.
• Quote: I don’t know what information you’ve got, but [Ruby’s] been around [since she came back]. And I know one thing, and that is that I was there personally the day after she came back. She was sittin’ there with her family and she was in tears and she says, “You guys don’t know how glad I am to be back.” That’s what she said, and I listened to it. So people that say that she’s there against her will—not true, not at all.… I know for a fact that, yes, there was a time there where she thought that maybe she wanted to leave; but after she was gone for how ever many days she was, SHE WAS MIGHTY GLAD TO BE BACK. She says, “I found out that that isn’t what I want.” (James Zitting, right-hand man to Fred M. Jessop, June 17, 2001)
• Quote: Since [Ruby] went back to Fred’s, you’ve seen her around?… Have you seen her around in the last two weeks?… Well that’s weird. Somebody’s lying to us.” (Les Zitting, James’s older brother who is anti-FLDS and asked him about Ruby, June 17, 2001)
Always an opportunist, in classic Flora fashion all of this made great fodder for falsely and wrongly inciting others against the FLDS, garnering great media attention and financial support. Flora’s efforts, as well as the efforts of other avid FLDS critics, are agenda-driven, media-driven, predominated by flagrant wrongful exaggerations and lies, have included fraudulent Attorney General documents (re., 2002 Napolitano investigations), and serve only to hurt the innocent. In 2004, Flora’s media-grandstanding and intrusive actions regarding Fawn Holm and Fawn Broadbent not only devastated families, but also infuriated other anti-FLDS crusaders, and even resulted in a court ordering her to stay away from the two girls. In 2006, Flora wildly alleged that there was an FLDS baby graveyard with 200 baby graves that were dug in one month and that “night burials” were being practiced, claims that were all proven to be totally false. Even so, she has continued to tell these lies to this day. Continually, she has proven herself to be the proverbial woman who cries “wolf.”
Repeatedly, Flora appealed to her willing listeners, “This is about every Ruby that's in there that wants to be free." But the freedom Ruby needs is to be free from the threats of her obsessed sister and those like her who make their lives more difficult and threatened, to be free to raise her family, and for Flora to be free from her own torturous bondage. The revealing fact is, none of Flora’s eleven sisters, or even her own mother, will have anything to do with her. “The reason I dislike seeing Flora is because it is too stressful for me to see and hear what she is doing with her life,” laments Pat.
But with standard purposes of attracting attention, Flora went so far as to file a missing person report on her mother and make it a media issue. In an interview, when asked in typical demonizing questioning if her family suffers retribution among the FLDS members for her public attacks, she stated, “I‘ve been given messages that my mother is paying the price for everything I do.” She is, Flora, but not by virtue of the supportive and caring FLDS members. Rather, she pays the price of a mother’s broken heart for a recalcitrant wayward daughter.
Beginning in 2001, and as recent as this year, Flora has boldly claimed that on the night of Haven and Ruby’s wedding, at the age of fourteen, Ruby “was raped so brutally [by Haven] that she almost died from the hemorrhaging,” and that her mother, only “a couple of doors down,” was not allowed to intervene. Yet Flora is never obligated to tell her source of these repeated outrageous lies. I asked Haven and Ruby specifically about these stunning accusations; and even knowing all that I know about Flora, I was not prepared for their answer. Frankly, based on what I had read and heard, in my own mind I had formed more gracious possibilities, though still surrounding these purported accusations. But I was totally taken aback that the facts were not anywhere near what Flora has viciously spread.
Did Haven brutally rape Ruby and did she almost hemorrhaged to death? When I asked them if this was true, Ruby quickly answered, “Absolutely not! I was never raped.” Haven added, “I absolutely wouldn’t do that. I’d give my life to protect her.” Even before hearing this, two men who personally know Haven assured me that there was no way he would have done that. It was totally contrary to his nature, his character, and his upbringing.
When I wrote Pat about this accusation, she confirmed: “Yes, I was there at the ceremony. Haven would not do these kinds of actions, let alone hurt anyone, and there is no truth in Flora's claims of any brutality.” The fact is, Haven and Ruby had no sexual relations whatsoever that evening, or even in the days to come, and not even in the months that followed.
Following the ceremony of April 23 and a brief honeymoon in Phoenix, Ruby was not settled with either herself or with marriage. As she stated, she needed time to find herself. She related, “I wanted to wait a little more time and see what I wanted.” “It was something Ruby needed,” responded Haven, “a little more time; and we gave it to her.”
Over the next six months, the two of them communicated very little. When Ruby was more comfortable and sure of what she wanted, their relationship began to progress. One year later, on May 5, 2002, they were married before a judge in St. George, Utah. Ruby was sixteen years of age, and Haven was twenty-one. Only after this marriage did they ever have conjugal relations.
Despite Flora’s repeated lies and accusations that marriages are forced in the FLDS and that men abuse the women, clearly this is far from true. Ruby was in fact given all the time and freedom she needed in order to make her own choice, one she was comfortable with. And consistent with the FLDS lifestyle, there was no abuse whatsoever.
However, during this time when the community was showing patience and care, a dark storm brewed outside. In stark contrast to this peaceful people who prefer the sanctity of silence, the brutally vicious lies of Flora and others flew like hot embers from troubling firebrands. In addition to the rape allegations, other wild claims were made, including that Ruby was being brainwashed, re-educated, even whisked off in secrecy to Canada or Idaho. But by and large, Ruby stayed right there in Hildale. She said she and her mother did take a little vacation and went to visit some friends.
Today, Haven and Ruby remain happily married. And despite the unwelcomed willful intrusion of Flora and others like her, they are living the life they have chosen. Looking back at the struggles she went through in 2001, today Ruby is now able to say with gratefulness, “This is my life, and I would never go back to the world.”
Frankly, I was stunned at their account. It was not at all like what I had read and heard, and I could not grasp how Flora could contrive something so profoundly different. Puzzled, I asked them, “Where could Flora get such a story?” “Where she gets all her other stories,” replied Ruby, “from her head.”
Does the FLDS have flaws? Of course they do. Do they have difficulties within community life. Certainly they do. Would there be conflicts and hard feelings on the part of some individuals? That is inevitable, especially when dealing with teens when they hit those infamous distressing and troubling years. But what I have seen in all my examinations is that, even so, they are a people who strive to do what is right, and who excel immeasurably better in wholesome and right living than society that exists outside of their lives. And most certainly, I have found that the accusations made against them by anti-FLDS critics hold no weight. In fact, the best characterization of these acrid critics is that their accusations are as worthy to be trusted as the testimonies of rebellious troubled teenagers who rant about their parents.
There are many who have left the FLDS who we never hear from, those who could provide a much more realistic assessment of FLDS life without the embittered accusations. But the problem is that no one, especially the feeding-frenzy media, wants to hear from them. They are much closer to reality, even with some of their criticisms. But this is a lynching mob, and the voice of the reasonable is drowned out.
One twenty-three-year-old young man who was raised in the FLDS and had been away for three years wrote on a blog regarding his experience: “I had a very happy childhood free from television, drugs, and abuse.… 95% of the men I knew were honorable and trustworthy.… I personally know every man on that [YFZ] Ranch in Texas. Search the world over, you will not find men more dedicated, more committed, and more focused on living in Peace and living their religion than within that group.” He continued, “half [a figure that is probably closer to twenty to thirty percent] of the children raised within the FLDS end up leaving [of] their own free will and choice,” and “95% of them you will never hear from again.” But, he noted, “5% seem to spread rumor[s] and false accusations everywhere they turn, either because they are lonely and need someone or something to blame, or because they really were hurt or abused and somehow think it's the church's fault.”
A common mantra of both FLDS critics and CPS is that the men are “perpetrators” of sexual crimes. But as we just read and saw regarding Haven and Ruby, nothing could be further from the truth. My experience in talking with FLDS men confirms this. One man had waited six months before he even had sexual relations with his wife, another several months as well. The latter man stated, “You have to wait until you are comfortable with one another. You love one another. You respect one another. It is very important that it is the lady’s idea and she is comfortable with it. It is not our place and is repulsive to force ourselves on women. It goes against our moral fabric and goes against everything we have been taught. That is how every FLDS man that I know has been raised. Something of this magnitude in your life is important and comes from love and not lust.”
Despite this reality regarding these peaceable and moral people, Flora sought to incite others with the oft-repeated claim, “Ruby is a hostage.” But Ruby was not and has never been a hostage. Rather, she is the happily-married mother of four young children, two boys and two girls, who love her very much and whose lives are threatened by people like their venomous aunt. Ruby is not the hostage. But rather, it is Flora who is the hostage—hostage to her own blinding hatred and willful pursuit to gainfully destroy those who tried to help her so many times.
If there is anyone who was born and raised in Colorado City who needs to be set free from a “compound,” it is Flora Jessop, the little girl who was “a beautiful child, well loved and enjoyable,” who is held captive by her own walls of bitterness and self-gratifying destructive pursuits. Flora lived a lifestyle that was self-destructive, and now she seeks to destroy those who, even now, still love her. In all my contacts and interviews with FLDS members, I have yet to find a single person who is bitter towards her; they all want only the best for her.
I asked Haven and Ruby one last question: If you knew Flora was telling these vicious lies about you, then why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you speak up and refute them? “In our culture,” answered Haven, “we’re not out to find problems, or to find fault with other people. We try to mind our own business, and others can live their own lives. If some say something bad about you, you forgive them, turn the other cheek, and move on with your life. Flora really does have family here that love her…,” then Ruby interjected, “but we don’t appreciate what she is doing…,” and in a seamless sentence between the two of them, Haven continued, “and she needs to come out and be honest.”
Somehow Flora missed this instruction about forgiving and moving on with your life, the very thing she desperately needs to do. She is in fact in every way the antithesis of the culture she was raised in, a paradox of all the good and virtue they seek to practice. And instead of adopting their pacifism, she has taken advantage of this quality evidenced in her people as a freedom to tell all her lies undisputed. As a result, she has hurt too many and caused far too much trouble. “Ruby and I were both betrayed,” wrote Flora. No, Ruby survived the insidious attacks of her bitter sister, and Flora betrays herself, her people and loving family, truth, and justice.
The Yearning For Zion Raid
It’s one thing to stand under a high-wire and try to catch those who might fall, and quite another to climb the pole and cut the wire.If Flora’s purpose is to help those who want to leave the FLDS, and some indeed leave and have the freedom to do so at their own will, then why is it that she seeks to enforce a destructive control for which she herself accuses them? But if her purpose is to grandstand, to lead the uninformed into deception, and to foment unjust actions so as to destroy peaceful innocent lives, then it is she who needs to be called into question and disregarded.
• Quote: Flora is a publicity-hungry "fanatic" whose "demands to have control over someone else's children are becoming eerily similar to the dictatorial attitude of her sworn nemesis, Warren Jeffs." She is "misguided and devious." (“The Phoenix New Times”)
When the state of Texas and CPS invaded the YFZ Ranch with substantial militant force, removing all of the innocent children, they did so illegally. This has been the ruling of both a Texas Appellate Court and the Texas Supreme Court. So what was it that prompted Texas and CPS to take this highly extreme and costly action that has now blown up in their faces?
In March of 2004, Flora traveled to Eldorado, Texas, where she met with local law enforcement officials and held a press conference. Here she found a very receptive ear in Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran. “Flora has provided us with a lot of information and I find her to be very credible,” said Doran. This relationship continued over the next four years, leading up to the YFZ raid. In fact, after the raid Doran confidently stated, "I have had a good informant who has given me good information over the past four years. This person has been assisting us as we've gone forward on this operation." A court affidavit unsealed on April 9, 2008, stated that "on more than 20 occasions" Doran's informant had provided him with supposed details about life at the ranch. He has also stated that the informant was a former member and was "instrumental in teaching me the group's ways."
Putting all the facts together, it is quite obvious that Sheriff Doran’s trusted informant was none other than inflammatory Flora Jessop. She is the only former-FLDS person who had been with him for four years. Later he said that there was more than one informant. Indeed, subsequently there were other anti-FLDS former members who provided biased information, but Flora was the first and foremost.
Flora had stated prior to these events, “One day [the FLDS] will go to war with law enforcement and the streets will run red with the blood of the enemy. We were taught that from the time we could walk.” She said the “compounds” aren't like homes in that they are fortified, built with thick walls. “They are very much armed. They have many, many weapons," she warned, and even went so far as to say that Warren Jeffs is “David Koresh, Jim Jones, and 9-11 all wrapped up in one nice little package. These guys are very dangerous." How then would this kind of information affect Sheriff Doran?
It is now evident who is the more dangerous—Flora. These views of Doran’s trusted informant explain why he called in such a dramatic show of law enforcement with extensive firepower and militant might. With SWAT-team methods they crashed through doors and entered into homes with machine guns raised in an invasion so large and with so much might that it cost Texas $5.3 million to carry out. But what kind of resistance did they encounter? Was it Flora’s forewarned apocalyptic bloodbath? No, they encountered nothing more than shocked adults and scared crying children. Where were all of Flora’s promised weapons? Once again we see why Flora Jessop cannot be believed. Truth is as elusive in her life as were the purported weapons—they did not exist whatsoever.
At the October 13, 2006, Exmormon Foundation annual conference, Flora related her own purported personal experience with these gun-slingin’ FLDS men. “The way these guys work, they’re not gonna come after me, although they do. I’ve had many fun instances where we’ve dealt with bullets flying and things like that; but, hmm, I just think they need to get a better target to shoot at.” Her account is nauseating. This blatantly outlandish statement reinforces the reality of Flora’s rampant fantasy for violence, and her willingness to propagate it. And this infection of misinformation has not been limited to Sheriff Doran. The Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, ranted in an interview, “Here’s a man [Warren Jeffs} who had a whole army supporting him, who thumbed his nose at the law for years, who ran from us, who had people surrounding him with guns, threatening to go down with him.” Really? And where have we heard this before? And when Jeffs was arrested, where were all those guns as well? And who, once again, was telling Shurtleff this false information? And as a state official, why was he one of these eager gullible listeners?
And remember those wildly false accusations Flora made about the baby graveyard? What then could also have been expected during the raid, compliments of this same source? Reported in a press conference on June 2, 2008, by FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop, “They brought in cadaver dogs and raided all the flower gardens to try to find babies and carcasses. It’s how sick their information has been.” The source of that information is clearly evident. Of course, once again, they found no babies.
In a letter of June 17, 2008, to Utah officials, including [Attorney General] Mark Shurtleff, FLDS attorney Rod Parker noted, “Moreover, as investigations proceed, Texas authorities are acknowledging that in conducting this raid they reacted to erroneous intelligence.” He chided Utah officials for repeatedly providing Texas authorities irresponsible information “from unreliable sources,” characterizing these as “hate groups who wish to see the FLDS destroyed.” As a remedy to these false insular ideas that have brought about so many unjust and excessive actions, Parker urged them, “It would take very little investigation on the part of your office to realize that your sources are unreliable.” Unreliable indeed.
• Quote: “I have a begrudging respect for [Flora].… She does more harm than good, is an unpredictable bad source, and not credit worthy.… She talks a good ball game, but when you look at her…. She rules over anybody who gets in her way, including me.” (Bob Curran, founder of the anti-polygamist organization, Help the Child Brides, and who personally worked with Flora)
So much more could be said about this raid. As a much-touted public figure, how is it that Flora’s lies could have incited Rosita Swinton, the bogus caller who sparked the raid? Rosita had made similar calls prior to this, going back to June, 2005, but never relative to the FLDS. So where did she get all of her information? And what inspired her to create stories in the identical pattern of Flora’s stories? Many questions arise concerning this that beg to be answered.
Furthermore, one must also ask where the responsibility lies with the media. What grave part did they play in this drama as well? Why were they also so irresponsible in too eagerly and repeatedly parading a pathological witness before this nation without validating her authenticity?
When Sheriff Doran was asked about his part in the raid on YFZ, he replied: “I did not bring this on them. The call came in to assist Child Protective Services. We always assist. We pulled in the law enforcement due to the size of the operation. We pulled in the law enforcement that was necessary to carry out the operation.”
Given the track record of CPS, it is likely that this is true. But given the source of Doran’s information that he was operating on—Flora—we can see why he used so much militant might, and why CPS’s actions were so extreme. But one has to also ask how much Doran, with his errantly skewed position, even influenced CPS’s initiation of the raid? Undoubtedly, in all realms, Flora Jessop was the major influence for this despicable, erroneous, and illegal YFZ invasion.
There is no question that Flora stirred the pot and brought this entire matter to the fevered destructive lawless frenzy that it became, including Rosita Swinton’s part. As she has done for most of her life, Flora pressured, cajoled, and lied until her fomenting stories became perceived reality. And one must ask in conclusion: If what Flora has repeatedly stated—that these girls are indeed entrapped abused prisoners who desperately want out—then why was it that not a single one of them fled to her once they were separated from there? Why was it that there was not a single defection, but rather a unanimous yearning to return to Zion?
After hearing Flora’s tragic story—and as you would suspect, we have not nearly addressed the host of all her lies and inflammatory actions—some might be inclined to feel sorry for her and dismiss her perpetually vile and destructive behavior. This is what the FLDS community did for many years. But Martha’s reply is a fitting answer to this, as she has concluded: “I forgive her, but her lies and deceit should not be allowed to continue on as fact.” For too many years Flora has had free reign to lie, and this has been done to the unjust harm and detriment of the innocent lives of others, particularly of late. That time has come to an end.
• Quote: Flora has been swept up in “the TV interviews, the fame, and the glory. … She loves the attention. She's craved it her whole life.… Nobody wants anything to do with Flora.” “Flora's been getting away with these [false] stories for a long time now, and it’s time to shut her down.” (Pennie Petersen, anti-polygamy activist who grew up with Flora in FLDS)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Lest We Forget
A story from one of the fathers:
"When the mothers and children were taken, the CPS took all the herbs and medicines from them.
"One young girl, a diabetic, was not even allowed her insulin. She was suppose to go to CPS and ask for the insulin when she needed it. This young girl went up to them to get her insulin. CPS dropped the vial, and it broke. The mother of this girl said, "You need to get her another one." They said, "No we don't!" She said, "Yes you do." CPS again answered, "No we don't!" Again the mother said firmly, "Yes You Do!" And once again CPS answered, "No we don't."
The mother said, "You're going to have a dead little girl here if you don't!"
The mother said, "You're going to have a dead little girl here if you don't!"
"CPS still refused!
"There was a doctor on the scene. He talked with CPS without any luck. CPS would not buy anymore insulin for her. The doctor left. When he returned, he had four vials of insulin with him. He had charged them to his credit card, at $100.00 a piece. This kind doctor gave this young diabetic girl the vials of insulin she need so dearly.
"They never saw this doctor again.
"Anyone who was good to them was never seen after they had been kind to any of the FLDS.
"I feel the stories need to come out, about the real child abuse CPS did and is doing to these children. "
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Press Confrence from Willy
http://www.azfamily.com/video/?z=y&nvid=251003&shu=1
FLDS Statement on Marriage
The church's policies regarding marriage have been widely misrepresented and misunderstood. Indeed, much of the misinformation circulating on this subject seems designed intentionally to fuel the flames of prejudice against the church.
The church's practices in this regard continue a long tradition of marriage in this country that would have been found to have been unremarkable in 19th century America. In the FLDS church all marriages are consensual. The church insists on appropriate consent, including that of the woman and the man in all circumstances.
Nevertheless the church is clarifying its policy toward marriage. Therefore, in the future, the church commits that it will not preside over the marriage of any woman under the age of legal consent in the jurisdiction in which the marriage takes place. The church will counsel families that they neither request nor consent to any underage marriages. This policy will apply church-wide.
The church believes in purity, cleanliness, and innocence. Our children and families are the cornerstones of our lives and our religion. We hope that this modest clarification in policy will alleviate recent concerns and allow the church and its families to reside in peace among our neighbors.
"There is nothing off the table"
FLDS Statement on Marriage
The church's policies regarding marriage have been widely misrepresented and misunderstood. Indeed, much of the misinformation circulating on this subject seems designed intentionally to fuel the flames of prejudice against the church.
The church's practices in this regard continue a long tradition of marriage in this country that would have been found to have been unremarkable in 19th century America. In the FLDS church all marriages are consensual. The church insists on appropriate consent, including that of the woman and the man in all circumstances.
Nevertheless the church is clarifying its policy toward marriage. Therefore, in the future, the church commits that it will not preside over the marriage of any woman under the age of legal consent in the jurisdiction in which the marriage takes place. The church will counsel families that they neither request nor consent to any underage marriages. This policy will apply church-wide.
The church believes in purity, cleanliness, and innocence. Our children and families are the cornerstones of our lives and our religion. We hope that this modest clarification in policy will alleviate recent concerns and allow the church and its families to reside in peace among our neighbors.
"There is nothing off the table"
Monday, June 2, 2008
Lest we Forget
Ruth Edna Fischer was first allowed to see her 2-year-old daughter, from whom she had been separated after the raid on their polygamist ranch in Texas, at the child’s hospital room. The child had been taken there because of severe dehydration and malnutrition, Ms. Fischer said.“Hannah looked like a little orphan sitting on the couch,” Ms. Fischer said. “Her hair was stringy and she was in a diaper, a pair of dirty socks and a hospital gown.”
The second visit two weeks later at a state office in Angleton, Tex., was worse. The girl would not even meet her mother’s gaze. “It was like she hardly remembered me,” said Ms. Fischer, who has four children in state custody.
Many child-welfare experts across the nation, who have as a group watched the high-profile Texas case closely, say the raid on the polygamist ranch diverged sharply from the recommended practices both in Texas and elsewhere in the country.
They say a growing body of research supports the contention of the mothers that forceful removal can have both significant short-term and long-lasting harm, particularly for younger children. Some studies have found that the wide-ranging effects include anxiety, extreme distrust of strangers and, in the future, higher rates of juvenile incarceration.
Through their lawyers and in personal interviews, the mothers have been spilling tales of toddlers who have forgotten toilet training and 3-year-olds who cling to them frantically during visits.
“They made no effort to keep the children there at the ranch,” said Johana Scot, executive director of the Parent Guidance Center in Austin, which helps advocate for the rights of parents who have had their children taken into foster care.
“And even worse, they did not give the families individual hearings, which they are also required to do by the code,” Ms. Scot said. “They’ve really botched this.”
“Breaking all of the ties to several parental figures and siblings, and taking them to a remote and unfamiliar place raises many red flags about trauma and its effect on children,” Mr. Cohen said
Experts say younger children, who often do not have a sense of the passage of time, can be particularly hard hit by such separations. About 100 of the children removed from the sect were 2 years old or younger.
Shelly Greco, a court-appointed lawyer for a 14-month-old girl removed from the ranch, says the child had been up crying uncontrollably many nights because she was so abruptly weaned.
But Lori Jessop, one of a few mothers from the ranch who were reunited with their children in a court-brokered agreement last Friday, said she had already seen the impact of this situation. Ms. Jessop said her three children were suffering from night terrors and a fear of strangers, among other problems.
She said that when her 4-year-old daughter recently saw a picture of a bus, like the one used to transport the children when they were in foster care, she started to cry.
“It’s affected her a lot,” Ms. Jessop said. “Everybody that she sees, especially adult men, she calls them policemen.”
-From the New York Times
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Excellent Radio Interview
Listen to this: http://www.theedgeam.com/political/main.htm
Thanks SAM!
Some notes:
My aunt Susan was five and died in the raid in 1953
Every one of the disputed minors are not minors.
The name of the town Rozita was from is Colorado Springs
The 23 year old who was taken as a child was interviewed by the Associated Press before she was taken. (As well as Dan Jessop) Watch it here: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=CPDpuxFluf0
They have been forced to “incriminate” themselves with the DNA testing garbage; the mothers have been telling the truth all along
Couple things that are slightly inaccurate about the interview:
-There was no informant inside the ranch, the sherriff David Doran had a "former member" as his informant, likely Flora Jessop (How do you tell she is lying? Her lips move)
-There was a slight confrontation between the kneeling and praying men and the police at the temple. Two men were arrested for getting in the way of them, the rest were held “at bay” with machine guns as they prayed.
-I saw the CPS in Arizona do an admirable job when Flora got my sister Fawn to claim abuse, so not all of the CPS are “sadistic”
Link to article with mental health worker letters:
http://www.sltrib.com/polygamy/ci_9238520
Link to petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/free-the-innocent-flds
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Crime
A few weeks ago a phone call was made to Child Protective Services. The caller on the phone said in hushed whispers that she was a teenage girl being physically abused and sexually assaulted by her polygamist husband 20 years her senior. She identified herself as a “new” wife of one of the men who was publicly prosecuted for statutory rape in Arizona.
You may think I am speaking about Texas, where a huge raid occurred on the YFZ ranch owned by members of the FLDS church. The place where little children were ripped from their loving parents, and their sacred homes and sacred temple were broken into because of the phone call. But I am not. I am speaking of the same female making the same call to CPS in Arizona ; only the officials in Arizona treated them like human beings.
Having been subject to these numberless hosts of accusations and allegations by bitter ex-members of the FLDS church (and the media toadies who think everything they say is God’s truth) for years, and having done meticulous investigations into abuse, forced marriage, welfare fraud, school funds fraud, etc. that they (the bitter ex-members) claim to be rampant, the state of Arizona has only brought charges of under age marriage and polygamy, because these are the only “crimes” that have ever occurred with sanction of church leaders.
I do not ask anyone to ever turn a blind eye to a phone call where someone may be being abused, NEVER! I would not ask you to do something I would never do. But I do ask, with all sincerity, for you to realize the level of hatred that some former members have of the church most of their own family loves, and know without blinking as I do, that they are obviously behind this. You have probably seen those behind these phone calls on television railing against the "abuses" within the church, she has likely become the star witness against the church. Rozita Swinton, the 33 year old woman in Colorado who made the phone calls did not act alone. She was on the phone with one of the "expert" ex members for over forty hours before the raid, and only when they traced her to Colorado, did this “expert” turn her in to authorities, or even report the abuse she was alledging. Much worse abuse than what was reported to CPS.
As a child I loved to sit at my grandmother’s feet while she told us about her life. The stories she told and the life she lived inspired all of us, and most of my sisters decided to do just like she did. Despite what you hear of overwhelming forced marriage of young girls, I have over a dozen married sisters, and only one was under 18 when she married her sweetheart. The others did not wait because they did not want to get married sooner, but my father, the protective softy that he is, did not want to let them to get married any sooner than he had to.
The life of a lady is not over when she gets married. Marriage is not slavery to my mothers, who both went to College and had jobs after they married my father. They did it because they wanted to, and they only had the children that they wanted to. I am very glad they wanted me.
I ask all of you mothers, is there a greater relationship in your life that the one between you and your child? It should be the greatest, because it is for your child. For me, my mother was second only to God. She represented God to me. She taught me who God was. She taught me how to pray. She taught me to look to my honorable father for direction in my life. She was my first and most favorite teacher. She still is the greatest woman on this earth to me; when I think about the word love, I think about my mother. Every day is Mothers Day to me.
I ask sincerely, should I have not been born? Should I not exist? Should I not have the father and mother that I do? Would the world be a better place had I not been born? Do you not want me to exist? Am I a crime?
You see, my mother was a teenager when I was born. And my father is as good a man as there is on this earth. He is as good or better than yours. Yes we were on food stamps sometimes, yes the government paid for much of our medical care, but is the government wrong for doing it? Am I a fraud? Am I a crime?
CPS would have taken me from my mother and father if this would have happened when I was small. Do you think I would have appreciated it? I would not have been able to grow up with my wonderful family. I would not have been able to sit at my grandmothers feet. I would not have graduated from a highschool where there was no drugs or guns. I would not have been given the choice whether to stay in the Church or leave as I have. Does anyone on the planet think I would be better off now? GOOD HEAVENS NO!
You may think I am speaking about Texas, where a huge raid occurred on the YFZ ranch owned by members of the FLDS church. The place where little children were ripped from their loving parents, and their sacred homes and sacred temple were broken into because of the phone call. But I am not. I am speaking of the same female making the same call to CPS in Arizona ; only the officials in Arizona treated them like human beings.
Having been subject to these numberless hosts of accusations and allegations by bitter ex-members of the FLDS church (and the media toadies who think everything they say is God’s truth) for years, and having done meticulous investigations into abuse, forced marriage, welfare fraud, school funds fraud, etc. that they (the bitter ex-members) claim to be rampant, the state of Arizona has only brought charges of under age marriage and polygamy, because these are the only “crimes” that have ever occurred with sanction of church leaders.
I do not ask anyone to ever turn a blind eye to a phone call where someone may be being abused, NEVER! I would not ask you to do something I would never do. But I do ask, with all sincerity, for you to realize the level of hatred that some former members have of the church most of their own family loves, and know without blinking as I do, that they are obviously behind this. You have probably seen those behind these phone calls on television railing against the "abuses" within the church, she has likely become the star witness against the church. Rozita Swinton, the 33 year old woman in Colorado who made the phone calls did not act alone. She was on the phone with one of the "expert" ex members for over forty hours before the raid, and only when they traced her to Colorado, did this “expert” turn her in to authorities, or even report the abuse she was alledging. Much worse abuse than what was reported to CPS.
As a child I loved to sit at my grandmother’s feet while she told us about her life. The stories she told and the life she lived inspired all of us, and most of my sisters decided to do just like she did. Despite what you hear of overwhelming forced marriage of young girls, I have over a dozen married sisters, and only one was under 18 when she married her sweetheart. The others did not wait because they did not want to get married sooner, but my father, the protective softy that he is, did not want to let them to get married any sooner than he had to.
The life of a lady is not over when she gets married. Marriage is not slavery to my mothers, who both went to College and had jobs after they married my father. They did it because they wanted to, and they only had the children that they wanted to. I am very glad they wanted me.
I ask all of you mothers, is there a greater relationship in your life that the one between you and your child? It should be the greatest, because it is for your child. For me, my mother was second only to God. She represented God to me. She taught me who God was. She taught me how to pray. She taught me to look to my honorable father for direction in my life. She was my first and most favorite teacher. She still is the greatest woman on this earth to me; when I think about the word love, I think about my mother. Every day is Mothers Day to me.
I ask sincerely, should I have not been born? Should I not exist? Should I not have the father and mother that I do? Would the world be a better place had I not been born? Do you not want me to exist? Am I a crime?
You see, my mother was a teenager when I was born. And my father is as good a man as there is on this earth. He is as good or better than yours. Yes we were on food stamps sometimes, yes the government paid for much of our medical care, but is the government wrong for doing it? Am I a fraud? Am I a crime?
CPS would have taken me from my mother and father if this would have happened when I was small. Do you think I would have appreciated it? I would not have been able to grow up with my wonderful family. I would not have been able to sit at my grandmothers feet. I would not have graduated from a highschool where there was no drugs or guns. I would not have been given the choice whether to stay in the Church or leave as I have. Does anyone on the planet think I would be better off now? GOOD HEAVENS NO!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Call
I am sure that it is pretty much common knowledge now that Rozita Swinton of Colorado Springs, Colorado made the phone calls to the Texas Child Protective Services. She claimed to be a 16 year old girl named Sarah who had a child and was pregnant with another. She told authorities that she was being beaten and raped by her 5o year old husband while her sister wife held her baby.
While I do not blame the CPS for wanting to investigate such an allegation, I am completely disgusted that they would believe anyone would protect a man who would do such a thing. I knew it was a hoax immediately after hearing about it, just because the allegation included the claim that her sister wife held her baby and knew it was happening. But I don't blame them for investigating.
What I want to know is why Flora Jessop did not report her "abuse" to authorities before. Flora Mae claims she has over 40 hours (I repeat, 40 HOURS) of recordings she got from this lady. After she was traced back to Colorado Springs, Colorado, then Flora comes out with the story of having known all along. On one clip from CNN it even seemed that Flora was coaching her what to say. "Remember you told me that your dad hits your mom too?" she asks the "girl" on the phone.
Flora Jessop does not tell the truth. Her own personal story was a work in progress every time she was interviewed on televison. Many times she claimed to have run away from being married to a 5o year old man when she was 16. But she now at least uses the boy she ran away with as her "forced" husband. I honestly have no resentment toward her, but I have alot of resentment toward what she has lied about. "O well", they say; because of her "good cause" her lies are looked past, and the fact that she kidnapped Fawn Holm and Fawn Broadbent, with two TV crews in tow, is completely forgotten about.
While I do not blame the CPS for wanting to investigate such an allegation, I am completely disgusted that they would believe anyone would protect a man who would do such a thing. I knew it was a hoax immediately after hearing about it, just because the allegation included the claim that her sister wife held her baby and knew it was happening. But I don't blame them for investigating.
What I want to know is why Flora Jessop did not report her "abuse" to authorities before. Flora Mae claims she has over 40 hours (I repeat, 40 HOURS) of recordings she got from this lady. After she was traced back to Colorado Springs, Colorado, then Flora comes out with the story of having known all along. On one clip from CNN it even seemed that Flora was coaching her what to say. "Remember you told me that your dad hits your mom too?" she asks the "girl" on the phone.
Flora Jessop does not tell the truth. Her own personal story was a work in progress every time she was interviewed on televison. Many times she claimed to have run away from being married to a 5o year old man when she was 16. But she now at least uses the boy she ran away with as her "forced" husband. I honestly have no resentment toward her, but I have alot of resentment toward what she has lied about. "O well", they say; because of her "good cause" her lies are looked past, and the fact that she kidnapped Fawn Holm and Fawn Broadbent, with two TV crews in tow, is completely forgotten about.
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