All language subtitles for Keep.Sweet.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

[Wind blowing]

[Terrill musser] We were always
taught we were special, okay?

We were these special people and
we got to come to this special place

and we were going to build
like a heaven on earth here.

[Lori Barlow] If you were thinking
of a place to start a homestead,

it wasn't really
an attractive one.

It was, you know, high desert
and it'd need a lot of work.

[Laughs] But heavenly
father had his purpose

in bringing the community
here and offering that.

That... that's why
it... It's special.

[Musser] It was one
big family in... in a sense.

And their idea was to build a
place where we were all equal.

It's peace on earth
basically. A utopia.

[Indistinct conversation]

We have so much data go through.

We've only
scratched the surface,

so I don't even know
what's going to be there.

But it's archives of everything.

[Chorus singing]

This is the 1987 love at home,
there at our meeting house.

- [Band music playing]
- This is 1989.

There's things like that. There's the...
the parade. The pioneer day parades.

[Marching band playing]

- [Kids shouting] - [Woman]
Woah, that's a big crowd.

This is mostly for people
to see what it really was like.

This shows who we really
were before the craziness.

My childhood,
like, was so happy.

Like... like there
wasn't a place i'd...

I would rather have grown up.

This community was
amazing. It was awesome.

I mean, we could roam the
hills, we could play in the crick.

You know, the crick
was my backyard.

[Shirlee draper] It was plays and programs
and dances and community celebrations.

There were all these artistic
expressions available to us.

[Musser] This town
was a busy town.

You got to realize there was almost
at one time 18,000 people out here.

We worked together
to build our town.

That sense of community of,

"hey, we can all 200 of us go
over here and build this house."

[Woman] Raise up the bucket.

- [Machine rattling]
- [Kid humming]

[Musser] And we would. We'd
go build a whole house in a day

and give it to a family
that was in need.

Be like, "hey, let's go
do a big 4th of July."

It wasn't the city that put
it on. It wasn't the county.

It was we, the people,
who put everything on.

We had so much community pride.

[Draper] We were safe
and we were happy.

And we were
fundamentalist mormons.

[Esther bistline] We still
consider ourselves mormon.

We believe in the
book of mormon,

but we believe in the original
teachings of Joseph Smith.

The biggest drift between
the lds and the fundamentalists,

the flds, is obviously
going to be plural marriage,

which is the term
we like to use.

[Norma Richter] When the lds church
decided not to sanction plurality of wives,

we continued on
with the fundamentals

that the prophet
Joseph set forth to live.

[Musser] That's where
we kind of broke off

our church and
started this town.

[Richter] My grandfather was one
of the first pioneers that came here.

He had his homestead

and then a group of them
dedicated the land to the church.

And that's how it began here
and it was with my grandfather.

The people could have a place

where they could live the united
order as brigham young taught.

[Richter] The united order is
to have everything in common.

There is no rich,
there is no poor.

We all share what we have without
having to rely on the outside world.

[Musser] And so
the united effort plan

was everybody was
going to donate all the land

so that nobody could take it
and we could divide it equally

because that was the
dream. We were all equal.

And so, the first united
effort plan was a...

Was a bunch of land that
was put together in a trust.

[Lori] When that
trust was formed,

the land was then
dedicated to heavenly father

and to the building of the
peace kingdom on the earth.

- Build up that kingdom.
- [Kids] Build up that kingdom.

- Say, "build up Zion."
- [Kids] Build up Zion.

So everybody, at the time
they were building their homes,

had the understanding that they were
consecrating, were the words that we used,

these materials to the trust.

[Musser] We didn't
own anything out here.

Everything was
god's and the trust's.

Everybody here
believed the same thing.

[Draper] You know, we believed
this was how god wanted us to live.

If you had warned me, I
would have gone ahead

and, you know, cleaned
my laundry room. [Laughs]

[Dryer whirring]

Do you want to help?

You're no good at pretending the
camera doesn't exist, are you? [Laughing]

There you go. You
want to help me?

Oh, you're... you've never
been so willing to help before.

You are quite a little actress.

Yeah, that's yours too, huh?

This is my baby girl,
angel. Hi. [Laughs]

Angel will be 18 this month and,
uh, she has cerebral palsy. Yes.

So, um, I have three older sons.

My oldest son, John, has autism.

And my two middle
sons are brilliant geniuses

who walk on water
and have always taken

really good care of
us, huh? Huh, angel?

[Tape clicking]

I have no idea what's on that.

[Draper] That was... That was one
of your favorite places, wasn't it John?

You loved that park
and it had the train.

[Indistinct shouting]

This is in 2000. Wow. Boy,
that would be interesting.

[All laughing]

- [Woman 1] Watch the...
- [Woman 2] Is there a happy face?

There they are. There
are all of the happy people.

[Draper] I had no problem
with plural marriage.

I mean, born and raised into it.

Born and raised to people who
had been practicing for a long time.

I had no problem with it
because it's what I knew.

I grew up believing that
god would choose my partner.

That god had the right
person in mind for me.

And that the prophet would
know and that was my expectation.

I got the call that the
prophet was going to

place me and so, it
was a Monday morning.

I did not know who I
was going to marry.

And we were married
at 5 o'clock that night.

First time I had
ever kissed anyone.

The man I was told to marry.
We were both in the choir.

Um, I did know him.

It wasn't like I was horrified at the thought
of marrying him or being told who to marry.

And at the age of 22, you know,
making a conscious decision

to marry the person that
the prophet told me to marry.

You know, it's not like I was a 15-year-old
and didn't know what I was getting into.

It was part of our culture.

[Draper] Here we are
outside the honeymoon suite.

They just got home.

- Okay [giggling]
- [Draper] here they come.

- This is so embarrassing.
- [Grunting]

Hey, that's cute.

[Draper] Marge was brought into
our family and it was fairly natural.

♪ There is beauty all around ♪

♪ when there's love at home ♪

[Draper] I had ten biological
siblings and Marge was one of them.

By then, it was really common
for younger sisters to marry

into the family
of the elder sister.

And so, I kind of assumed
that would happen.

And I could see some of
the benefits of plural marriage.

In fact, I benefited greatly
from plural marriage.

From having my sister, who
I already loved in my home

taking care of my children
after my little girl was born

I think, you know,
nine months later,

and I ended up spending three
years in the hospital with her.

And my younger sister was home,
loving and caring for my children

how I wanted them
to be taken care of.

That was a huge benefit.

You know, I think
this is one of the topics

that really trips
up a lot of people.

They feel like that because
polygamy receives so much attention

that that is the
tenet of our religion

and it's really
only one of them.

It's a small piece
of the religion.

I don't think it's fair
that the hegemonic gaze

of mainstream gets to
define a culture. Any culture.

But when it comes
to populations that are,

you know, created
to be deviants,

then that is absolutely
accepted and that's the way it is.

They put them all in a basket and
this is how we understand them.

The big line of police cars were
like lining the street, coming this way.

And that went all the way out to
the highway, which it doesn't now.

And so, when they came,
they were facing this way.

[On tape] We come today to
the subject of the 1953 raid.

It's very important that
you young people see

how the prophets
and other good people

have defended
you, protected you.

How the government
of the United States

persecuted this priesthood
through the years.

The 1953 raid was made
to destroy our families.

[Bistline] In 1953, the
state of Arizona did come in.

They arrested all the men.

[Draper] They were planning
to release the women.

They thought that women were
here not of their own accord,

and they thought that they
were going to open up the cage

and allow the women to fly
free and they would be grateful.

And to their surprise, the
women were not grateful.

[Warren Jeffs] They wanted to take
the children away from the parents.

Adopt the children out, and then
in a few years, destroy the records.

So the children wouldn't
know their lineage.

The 1953 raid was always
talked about when I was growing up

because both of my parents
were taken away as children.

My own father was eight
years old and was dragged out

from under a bed by a
uniformed police officer,

whose intent was to separate from
him from his parents and adopt him out.

[Jeffs] They wanted to
stamp out polygamy forever.

But the mothers would
not leave their children.

And they got onto the
buses with the children.

Went with the children and
were scattered throughout Arizona.

The state of Arizona
wanted to erase us.

The state of Utah
wanted to erase us.

We are an annoyance to
them. A big Thorn in their side.

Why? I don't know other
than that we're different.

And there were stories the women
had written. I mean, we have books of it

because we want to
keep this alive in the minds

of not only us, but our children,
and our children's children.

[Jeffs] I realize this raid took place
before you young people were born.

I ask you to go home
today and imagine tonight

all of you taken away and
placed among the gentiles.

Having to live among
them and their ways.

[Draper] That raid
really defined for us

of how the government's
not to be trusted.

How law enforcement is
specifically not to be trusted.

And so, we get into this idea
that anybody new that comes in

they're coming to
gather information.

They're coming to
hurt us in some way.

So we work together even closer

more determined to not let
the world in to hurt us anymore.

[Interviewer] So,
first order of business,

tell me who you are and
what you do for a living.

Uh, my name is Glenn
meehan and I am a TV producer,

showrunner, um, lover of life.

[Laughs] I don't
know what else to say.

I've done documentaries. I've
done court shows, talk shows.

I co-created a couple
of reality shows.

This was probably 12 years
ago, maybe even longer.

There was this amazing
article on, um, the phenonium

of the lost boys from the flds.

About how Warren Jeffs,
who was the prophet,

he basically told these, um,
families to kick their boys out

and send them away
at 14, 15, 16 years old.

So the older men could have some
of the younger women as wives.

So they didn't want the
competition with the younger men.

I was fascinated with this.

So, I got a plane ticket and
I went to look into the flds.

[Meehan] This town is on the
other side of the Zion mountains

on the border of hildale, Utah,

and um, Colorado city, Arizona.

It is just stunning.

But yet, beauty is
only so deep there.

We met Sam brower, a private
investigator working with the government.

And I remember Sam telling me that
they're aware you're here. Be careful.

[Brower] This guy right
here is one of the spies.

[Meehan] He's a spy for who?

When I heard that, I was
like, "okay, this is fucked up."

[Brower] Where that balcony is.
And then, there's the rain gutter

and there's a lipstick
camera right next to it.

That's a bell camera.
It's a motorized camera

that they can watch
and see who comes up.

See all these fences?
They weren't here before.

- This is just...
- [Donia jessop] No.

[Brower] This is
just recent paranoia.

Two year ago, all these
fences weren't here.

[Jessop] No. None
of it was this way.

[Meehan] Get
some of those signs.

You know, just get them.
No trespassing. Uh-oh.

- [Cameraman] Are they coming after us?
- [Meehan] Yeah.

And I remember
when we were followed.

-Let me give you my card. It's just in the trunk, okay?
-Okay.

- And are all you guys from Massachusetts?
- [Jessop] No.

Are you part of the paper or?

- [Jessop] No, we're just riding around...
- magazine?

[Jessop] ...Looking at
the beautiful scenery.

Beautiful scenery.

We had rocks thrown at us and
people were spitting on the car.

[Women screaming]

The interesting thing about this town
that Sam taught me is like, you know,

if you get in trouble here you can't
call the police 'cause they're all flds.

[Meehan] You
just got to get out.

I remember one girl that I met

um, who said, "I will
meet you in a parking lot.

I've got some stuff for you."

She didn't get out of the car.
She rolled the window down

and she handed
me tapes of Warren.

[Jeffs] Keeping sweet is an
exertion to remain clean and pure.

If you're ever not keeping
sweet, then you're not pure.

And I still get chills. Chills
hearing that guy's voice.

It is the most eerie... You
couldn't cast a voice like that.

[Jeffs] We give this
lesson today, young people.

We have to teach you how to
think and how to live in a pure way.

You purify your heart by
first cleaning up your mind.

And Warren talked about
the children must obey.

Talked about women always
must obey their husbands.

[Jeffs] And knowing you're
pleasing your husband, your head,

brings you a heaven.

But realize, young ladies, the
best thing is to leave your life

in the hands of god
through his prophet.

That's when I
realized be careful.

You got to be real careful. I mean,
these people were absolutely crazy.

[Bistline] When I was growing up, we
didn't have a lot of outsiders coming in.

There wasn't a lot of scrutiny.

And it got to a
point later on when

you'd come outside and a
camera would be poked in your face.

You know, there
was always somebody

that wanted to know
what was goin' on.

[Richter] Every time
we turned around,

they want to make
us look horrible

that we were these
demonic people

in this horrible cult, you know.

This is absolutely the most
lawless community in the country.

It's run by a madman.

And he has total power
over the people here.

They will do literally anything he
says, and I mean anything he says.

Warren, you might say in the eyes of
some people, became very unpopular.

[Clears throat]

[Piano playing]

♪ I desire here today ♪

♪ to sincerely point the way ♪

[Draper] When rulon Jeffs
had is stroke in about 1998,

Warren Jeffs had taken over.

Things that were suggested and
encouraged before kind of became mandatory.

And, um, and then started really
becoming a lot more strict on things

like language and whether
or not we could dance.

[Jeffs] Evil powers get in control
over us when we are having fun

when we relax our prayers.

[Draper] He started, um, saying we
couldn't wear certain colors and patterns.

Um, women had to wear
their hair certain ways.

No tvs, no radios.
Can't have the Internet.

[Jeffs] I know you
young people are tempted

by the things of this earth.

And some of you have tasted of the
wicked entertainment of the gentiles,

the movies, the music.

[Musser] Children books
were started to be edited.

They would go in
and color long sleeves

until it got to where there
were so many books.

Warren just got rid
of books all together

because he couldn't
edit everything.

[Draper] Warren stood up in church and
announced that they needed to shut down

the public schools because we had
to associate with apostates too much.

That was, you know, two things
that were really horrifying to me.

First of all, that we
had to shun and hate,

which was not
part of our religion,

and that we were going to
deprive children of schooling,

which was really,
really troubling to me.

[Jeffs] In priesthood, we know
that the lord owns everything.

And the priesthood, the prophets,
the bishops have the right to tell

who should have what
and what they should do.

[Draper] One of the things that
growing up in this community

was pretty sacrosanct
was the family.

That was one of the big changes
that Warren started to make,

just taking women away from a
man that he was trying to punish.

And he would give women to
a man that he was rewarding,

destroying family
units that way.

[Jeffs] You ladies
belong to the prophet

as far as the lord placing
you where you belong.

[Draper] Ah, it became very
troubling, you know, sending men away

in public meetings,
reassigning children around.

And sending mothers away.

And he started just moving people
around from home to home to home.

So there was literally no
structure or safety anywhere,

not physically, not
emotionally, not psychologically.

He really kinda set
himself up as god.

[Jeffs] Any feelings against your
priesthood had is death to you.

This is the law of god through
the prophet to this people now.

It will divide us to be
obedient or disobedient.

[Man] Mother...

[Children talking]

- hi.
- [Mouthing] Hi.

[Draper] As I started to
really look at Warren's actions,

I started asking questions.

I was telling people, you
know, we don't worship a man.

How does it come about that he's
asking us to worship him as god?

They were not voicing any
kind of disagreement or disbelief.

And so everybody just, you know, we
got in lockstep and marched behind him.

- [Child giggles] - [Man praying]
Dear god, to help Warren.

[Draper] That made me just start
looking around and thinking this is it.

This is the
beginning of the end.

They're gonna
trot in the kool-aid.

I need to get out of here.

And I was worried about
my children at that point.

I had four children, two
of them had special needs.

And I had no income.

And all of my sense of identity and
belonging was inside of the community.

And all of my family,
and all of my friends,

and all of my support structure

was inside the community.

By then Warren had... He'd
put in these fail safes, right?

If somebody didn't believe,
they were sent away.

And the cost of exit
was that they lost

their families, their community,
their sense of belonging.

I would bleed to death
internally to give up my family.

So I would think, "well, maybe
I'll just keep my mouth shut

for a little while."

And so for four years, it
kind of went on like that.

And those are some of
the darkest years in my life.

- Everyone say, keep sweet.
- [Children] Keep sweet.

- We are grateful.
- [Children] We are grateful.

- We are grateful.
- [Children] We are grateful.

[Draper] For four years, ya know,
letting my children become indoctrinated.

- [Man] Keep sweet.
- Yeah.

[Man] How come?

[Draper] My husband was saying all the
right things and doing all the right things,

and I was not.

[Man] So we?

[Man] We could get what?

[Man] Wonderful.

It was only after, you know,
they were coming to my home

to ask if I believed
in Warren Jeffs.

I thought I really got to make this
move and take my children and leave.

Honestly, I really believe
it was angel that saved me.

The fact that she was born,
and I had to be in the hospital

with her a lot gave me the excuse
to be away and not going to church.

It gave me that space from that
really, you know, terrible structure.

[Man] She can do it.

[Draper] She can do it.

[Man] Nice.

[Draper] Kay, step. Kay, step.

[Draper] She also has the most
incredible nature and personality.

And she is only love.

She is unadulterated love.

I've never experienced
unconditional love before in my life.

[Woman squeals]
Did you see that?

She lets go of her cane and
walks to me with one cane.

[Woman laughs]

She is just so full of love.

This little girl, I think
she keeps me alive.

[Whispers] Yeah.

Yes.

And it was because of her, and it
was because of all of the circumstances

that I was with her in my
life that actually enabled me

to make the
decisions that I made

and to drive away
and to support myself.

And so I've...

She saved me.

We're gathering what we call
Indian marbles or sandstone marbles.

We're gonna be making
things out of them.

Look at this. I found you
some coasters for your...

- Coasters.
- Yeah. Look.

For your what?

- There's ya coaster set.
- [Chuckles]

For what?

That's to put your hot
drinks on the coffee table.

[Lori] Why do you do what you do?
Why do you dress the way you do?

Why do you live the way you do?

Why don't you have any,
you know, entertainment here?

Why don't you have skating rinks?
Why don't you have movie theaters?

Some people felt like
that, "yeah, why don't we?"

[Chuckles] You know?

And the rest of us were
like 'cause we don't want 'em.

We don't want this kind of stuff
that comes with those places.

That, you know, for sure this
community wasn't set up to handle it.

How many people have
actually met us individually

and thought, "oh, goodness,
they're horrible people,"

that actually got to
know us that said hello.

And got to know me as a mother.

Would they say I'm
a horrible person?

I don't think so. I hope
not. [Chuckles] You know.

Uncle Warren...

All he did is want to protect
us from some really yucky stuff

that's out there.

Whether it be, you know, the kind
of music that comes in and just...

I watch it even still
with my children.

If they get too much of certain kind
of music, it's like their brain is fried.

You know, or they
get these ideas,

and you're like, where're you
comin' from, girl? [Chuckles]

The only thing he did that probably
got some people little bit agitated

was that he says, "hey,
guys, we've been told to do this

by every single prophet. We've been
told that this is how we need to live.

We've been told this.
Why don't we do it now?"

[Richter] Some didn't
want to live the ways

that we've, you
know, we should live.

And we had to send
some people away

that were very close to me too.

This is my...

father.

He wasn't here in the community.

He was sent away.

He was making
restitution for some things

that he knew better than to do.

And, um, I love him.

I still love him.

Even though it was very, very
hard for everyone. We all went there.

The shock, you know.

But at the same time,

we could see the good.

In my mind, when some of these
people started getting sent away,

I felt like the town was
being made more safe.

[Richter] Uncle Warren
was just like his father.

They were just genuine,
concerned, loving people.

I don't know what else to say.

I mean, that's my truth.

And I'll hold to it.

But...

people may say
what they believe.

We kinda grew up
in a different culture

'cause everybody else grew up
and mtv, and your like, what is mtv?

Who's that?

Who's nirvana?

What?

Warren just slowly controlled
everything by information.

You couldn't have the Internet.

No tvs. You couldn't travel.

You couldn't be educated.

And he'd always bring in some sort
of revelation of why you couldn't it.

[Jeffs] The lord has
a message to me.

He will not protect
an unclean people.

And if you set a bad example

one day in the day of judgement

you will have to pay for it.

[Musser] At that point, you realize
he's just down there playing around.

He's just, let's see what they'll
do next. See what they'll do next.

No would stand up
and say, "that's wrong."

My dad had taken
me into Warren's office.

He wanted all the elders to
go in and swear their allegiance.

Where you go in and say, "I will
follow you. I will do everything you say."

And get on a knee.

I had no idea
that's what you did.

And I didn't want to do it.

I'll swear my allegiance
to god, to something else,

but not a man.

And that's what
all the books said.

In fact, they say if you
do that, you're stupid.

I mean, you see the
results of history every time.

And he got really pissed.

He says, "I'm your
only way to salvation."

And I says, "well, that sure shoots
the shit out that Jesus Christ theory

I was raised my
whole life to hear."

And that pissed
him off even more.

He is just raised up on his
tippy toes over me yelling.

And my dad's behind
me 'bout to pass out

'cause my dad does
not do confrontation.

He does not like to go against
anybody, especially at that time.

And he was just white.

He didn't say one
thing. And I walked out.

I got in my blazer,
drove to st George.

And that's where I stayed for in
my blazer for the next three months

trying to learn
how to navigate life

because I didn't know how to
do anything outside this world.

And I was one of the
first to leave in my family.

My dad gathered up all the kids,

said that I was no longer their
brother, no longer their sibling.

They burned all my pictures.
They threw everything away.

I was no longer
part of the family.

And, uh, I never had
contact with them.

I'm the apostate now.

I'm an apostate. I'm
the worst of the worst.

I knew...

knew the truth, and I
turned my back on 'em.

In their eyes,

and they even say it,
you'd been better off to die.

[Meehan] You know, it was pretty
fascinating 'cause from the time

I read the article about how
Warren Jeffs told these, um, families

to kick their boys out till the time I
arrived was literally about 48 hours.

Back in those days
there wasn't Google.

And I just kinda basically had
the article and a few other people

that I was talking
to on the phone.

So I went over to
this woman's office

and, uh, she said,
"okay let's get in the car.

I'm taking you to this apartment
building about 25 miles north

to find our own group of lost
boys that were recently kicked out."

[Interview] Are
you the main cook?

Uh, yeah, I guess you'd call
me another Martha Stewart.

[Chuckles]

[Meehan] So the first person I
met was Ethan... Uh, Ethan Fisher.

He was one of the
first that Warren Jeffs...

Asked his parents
to take him home.

I was, uh, told I was not, uh,
performing like I should've been.

I guess from a
religious standpoint, so.

So I was just told to... Try and
do better from a different place.

[Meehan] He was a father
figure, because he was...

The first out.

So we moved in here with, uh,
three, and... That turned to five, and...

Then six, then seven,
and then it just varies.

Varies during the
week to the weekends,

depending on who even just needs
a place to land, and something to eat.

I really do...

Uh, go out of my way to try to care
for anybody that really does need help.

Especially somebody
that I, uh, can relate to.

It's almost like you
consider them...

A brother or a sister, just because you've
shared a lot of the same experiences.

I remember the first kid that I met
besides Ethan was this kid parley.

My name's parley dutson. That's
spelled p-a-r-l-e-y. That's d-u-t-s-o-n.

[Meehan] I think he asked if I
knew Arnold Schwarzenegger

and Tom Cruise.

Uh, you know, because of course,

everybody thinks
that if you live in la,

your next-door neighbor
is Tom Cruise. [Laughs]

[Meehan] Why do you think
was... Was it your father's doing,

was it somebody else's doing
that you were asked to leave?

Well, Warren told them that...

They'll be asked
out if they don't...

Tell their rebellious children
to get out of the house.

To leave town. The
whole family will have to go.

[Meehan] So your father...

Listened to Warren, and
decided he didn't want to leave,

- so he asked you to leave.
- Yeah.

[Meehan] He was probably
one of the most lost boys there.

When I first left, I didn't have
anything to look forward to, really.

Kinda sucks, because you don't
have family, real family to go to.

No one to hang out
with, stuff like that.

So I missed that a lot.

[Meehan] They took us
on a tour of the community.

[Boy 1] Uh, they used to have,
like, uh, some of these booths are...

Set up for a lot of those, uh,
park-type days, where they'd have...

- [Boy 2] Waffles.
- Hamburger lines, and waffles...

And... and it was, it
was really a lot of fun.

We never had any harvest fests
when Warren was the prophet.

- Never had any activities here.
- When he was the prophet,

he shut all of it...
Everything down.

You couldn't say
the word "party."

Because it would
turn into "fun,"

and I think even fun
became a bad word.

So he's kind of a fun-hater.

Fun is... you're supposed
to call it "enjoyment."

- Yeah, "enjoyment."
- You're there, you're not even supposed to say fun out here.

We're just going to go
to my house, because...

[Meehan] I remembered
Leroy, he wanted to go home.

He needed to get...
something, at the house.

The house he was kicked out of.

And I remember we drove up to
the house and Leroy was mic'd.

And I asked him if he
wanted to take his mic off.

I wanted to give him
privacy. He said "no.

You can hear what's
going on inside, right?"

And I said, "okay."

[Leroy] Sylvie!

- [Sylvie exclaiming]
- Hey!

- Leroy, there's Leroy!
- Hey.

- Hey there.
- [Sylvie squealing]

[Meehan] You can hear the joy in his brothers
and sisters. "Leroy's home! Leroy's home!"

And I started to
cry... Hearing this.

At one point, one of his younger
brothers said, "are you gonna stay?"

[Boy on recording] Why
won't you stay over here?

[Leroy] Because I can't.

He said, "no, I can't."

"No, I can't."

And he got back in the Van, and we looked
at these kids looking out the window.

That was probably one of the most memorable
moments. That's when it hit home to me.

Here's a kid, that was
probably 16 at the time...

Kicked out, in the
name of... A prophet,

and the parents
didn't even question.

I was, all of a sudden, somebody
witnessing something that...

I couldn't believe was
happening in this country.

[Richter] We are
a kind, loving...

Forgiving people.

There's things
we won't tolerate.

We won't tolerate, um,
immorality. We won't tolerate deceit.

We just don't tolerate that. And when we
find someone among us that's doing that,

then they're asked to leave.

The people that caused...
have caused us the worst harm...

Are the ones that
have... Left our religion.

And, they become...

Empty, I guess? I don't know.

They just become...
They're out of water.

They're like a fish out
of water, and they're...

They're trying to
figure out who they are.

So in that, they become
sometimes very...

Hurtful.

Joining us are two women
who have escaped the flds,

and what they say
was a living hell.

Elissa wall spent 18
years in an flds compound.

She was forced by Warren Jeffs to
marry her own cousin when she just 14.

[Richter] They just...
Try to bring a lot of

- injury upon our culture.
- [Indistinct]

I had to go through
all the horrors of...

Being in that
abusive relationship.

Of watching the women around me,

watching the men around me, watching
the people around me, be abused.

The church, and Warren,
and the other church authorities

were bombarded with...

Uh...

Lawsuits.

[Intense music playing]

[Musser] All the court cases,

all the subpoenas, and... Him
thinking he's above the law...

Finally, the people were gonna
see this man for who he really is.

Oh, no.

They twisted the story
of... Just like Joe Smith.

They're persecuting prophet.

The truth of the matter is
it's been going for 200 years.

And every prophet and bishop,

clear back to Joseph Smith,
and brigham young, John Taylor...

They've been blamed.

"Just like Joe Smith, see,
we... we are the chosen people.

The same things are happening."

Of course the same
things are happening.

You're doing the same stupid
shit, you're pissing people off!

[Laughs] You're
breaking the law!

[Lori] Before
he... He started...

You know, moving
to different locations,

he had told us,

"I love you.

And I care about
every one of you.

And they're going to tell you

that I don't care about you.

And they're going to tell you
that I have abandoned you.

But, don't... Don't
believe them.

And... if you believe
something is true,

then live it."

[Richter] The day that
uncle Warren was arrested...

Oh.

It was like...

A very sinking feeling.
Extreme sadness.

It's unbelievable. [Laughs] I
mean, all these feelings are just...

Coming up and
through, and it... ugh.

You know, why would
they do that to us? Why?

[Inhales] What are they trying
to do? He's done nothing wrong.

As things go on,
they start saying

why they had him there, and
what they were accusing him of.

Uh, he has been indicted
for first-degree felony,

uh, sexual assault of a child...

[Reporter 1] Jeffs is charged with
felony bigamy, aggravated sexual assault,

and assault.

[Reporter 2] Jeffs is accused
of sexually assaulting two girls

and could go to prison for life.

They found, uh...

You know, whatever...

Circumstantial evidence
or whatever it was,

that they had convicted...
Convicted him on.

[Reporter 1] Damning evidence that Jeffs
had sexually abused a 12-year-old girl,

and fathered a child with a
15-year-old he'd taken as a wife.

[Man 1] There was audio tapes,
there was forensic evidence...

[Man 2] Toward the end of the tape,
after what sounds like heavy panting,

Jeffs is heard saying, "in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen."

To which the 12-year-old
echoed, "amen."

[Man 3] His DNA is
inside the DNA of a baby,

inside of a child.

That's it. We're done.

Ms. Wall, what do you hope
will come out of this trial?

I really do hope that
the truth can come out.

That through this, we can...

See for the public, but also for the
people within the flds community,

that they can see the truths about what
Warren has done, and what he is capable of.

I'm trying to think of some
other stuff they accused him of,

I tried to kind of just
shut it out, because...

I know him personally,
and I know that...

That's... that's just not him.

He didn't do it. [Laughs]

I... I personally don't
believe the stories.

I've heard them.

It's not that I
haven't heard them.

It's that I don't... I knew him.

And I... They're not true to me.

[Man] Do you believe that they
could be true to other people?

- Is that something you'd...
- Um...

Other people may
feel that way, but I...

I don't know, because
I honestly feel like

that there were stories
that were made up.

Just to make problems.

[Reporter] A jury has sentenced
polygamous Warren Jeffs

to life in prison,
plus 20 years.

[Richter] It was
heartbreaking. It was hurtful.

And the whole
people, we all felt it.

He was important to us.

[Voice shaking] I know
people don't like to hear that,

because they... They don't
even know the person we know.

They know... Some
fictional... character.

Every time we get to
hear about him now...

We just pray for him.

[Somber instrumental
music playing]

[Meehan] What... what...
Help me understand

what "not worthy" meant
in the eyes of Warren Jeffs.

Not... didn't have your top button
buttoned up, your shirt tucked in...

No, you just didn't believe.

From a religious standpoint,

maybe you disagreed
with a few points.

And so, you weren't 100%...
submissive, I guess you would say.

[Meehan] Well, at one time, uh,

our idea behind this was
originally just a documentary.

And we'd go out and
pitch it as a documentary,

and we'd hear from
everybody, "this is fascinating.

But... what's the ending? This happened
so many times, what's the ending?"

So we kind of put it away.

About a year or two after,

I remember the...
Like it was yesterday.

I got a phone call from
Ethan, and he said...

"Parley's in trouble."

My name's parley dutson.
That's spelled p-a-r-l-e-y.

[Meehan] Didn't
sleep last night.

Thinking of parley
and the visit, and I...

I always feel this way, I always
get kinda sick to my stomach

before I go there, because
it's... scary, to go into a prison.

The story is... very sad.

I guess everybody came
over to the house that night.

And... parley was...

Making, uh, mushroom tea, and
he was on every drug imaginable.

And he was whacked
out of his mind.

And at one point, I'm told,

that he was extremely paranoid.

So he went into
his bedroom, and...

Got a gun.

[Parley on recording]
Well, I was already... [sighs]

Pretty high from the mushrooms I
consumed, and the alcohol, but...

It crept up on me pretty quick,

and I started getting
paranoid holding the gun,

and it all went down from there.

Lot of the people laughed,
because he was supposedly...

Swinging the gun around.

He had a girlfriend,
Kara Hopkins.

She stayed.

[Woman] Parley,
I know this is hard,

but do you remember
firing the gun?

Did you mean for it to go off?

[Parley] I had no idea that
I was gonna kill somebody.

I didn't even... Appreciate
the fact that I had

a loaded firearm in
my hand, and that...

I was gonna take
someone's life. [Sniffles]

I wish people could see
that it was an accident.

That I'd give my life
to bring hers back.

[Meehan] Well, when parley
went to gunnison, I, um...

Still had my producer
hat on. And... was still...

"Doing research"
to go and visit him.

And then I remember
watching him,

as he walked through the
door, and seeing a man that...

I knew.

In a jumpsuit, and in shackles.

And...

All of a sudden,
something shifted.

So this is a book that I keep
with all of parley's letters,

I... wanna make sure
that I don't lose them.

I realized...

He wasn't just a subject
matter in a documentary.

He was somebody that...

I knew before.

The incident.

I knew he wasn't a monster. I
knew he did something terrible.

And I kind of put that
producer hat away,

and just sat there
and talked to him.

And... furthermore, I sat
there and listened to him.

[Reading] "You and a
few others are my friends.

And with you guys, I'll be okay.

I'm moving forward in life,
not looking back too much."

That was the moment

when it all of the sudden
just became a friendship.

He was, um,
somebody I cared about.

[Richter] Uncle
Warren was in prison,

and everybody is entitled

to their story and their truths.

I mean, my perception
of what happened

is my perception.

The next person
over has there's,

and they may have left
our religion, and all that,

and that's fine.

We live in our world

without having to rely
on the outside world,

and that's how we want it.

Uh, we're still
trying to survive.

Our prophet's in prison.

And we're still going
to just stay focused

on building and
blessing each other,

and living as close
to god as we can,

and let the united order.

And then they came
after us for the land.

[Jeff] The trust, it's a very
controversial issue out here,

depending on who
you sit down with.

The uep trust came
from religious connotation,

with, you know,
everybody working united

to try to build up the trust.

That, you know, if a
young man 18, 19, years old

was ready to build a house,

he would go to the
religious leaders and say

"I'm ready to build."

They would, they
would assign him a lot,

and give him permission
to build his home on the lot.

But he never got
ownership, there was never

a transfer of deed, and in fact

it was made quite clear
that as you built the home,

the church, who controlled
the uep trust at the time, uh,

owned the homes, and
they had legal right to it.

Ten years ago, you
know, Warren Jeffs

was kicking families
out of this community

by the hundreds
and the thousands.

So when Warren Jeffs
was in legal trouble,

what you saw was sort
of a reverse migration,

you had all these people

that had been kicked
out of their homes,

say, "well, wait, I wanna
get my home back."

And so people started
moving back into the community

by the hundreds
and by the thousands.

[Lori] What makes
this place so significant,

to so many that
believe the way I do,

is because when you dedicate

or consecrate something
to heavenly father,

you don't take it back.

It's his, it's for keeps.

[Draper] I think the
people who are saying,

"they have taken over our
town and they have done this,"

really suffer from a whole lack
of information in the first place.

Um, most of them do not know

that Warren Jeffs is
why the trust ended up

not being in the
control of the church.

Well, in 1998, Warren Jeffs
decided to take the uep trust

from a private trust
to a charitable trust.

Why would Warren
Jeffs suddenly decide

that it was a good
idea to transfer

from a private trust
to a charitable trust?

In a private trust you have
trustees and beneficiaries,

the beneficiaries
have legal rights.

In a charitable trust,

there's just a
charitable purpose,

and the trustees can
do anything they want.

So by changing it from a
property trust to a charitable trust,

there would be nobody
that he had to account to,

except he failed to recognize
that, in the state of Utah,

a charitable trust is
under the auspices

and the direction of
the Attorney General.

Which was really his fatal flaw.

[Jeff] In the early 2000s,

when Warren Jeffs
was in legal trouble,

lawsuits had been filed
against the uep trust.

No one was
protecting the uep trust.

No one was responding
to the lawsuits,

and, uh, and doing the
business that needed to be done.

So the state of Utah,
because it was now

a charitable trust, stepped in.

[Musser] The state
sees that he's liquidating

all these assets without
anybody else knowing.

That was the whole
reason it was set up,

was to protect the assets.

So that nobody could
ever liquidate them off,

and sell the people's land.

The people didn't know this,

and a lot of them argue
today that it never happened.

But you can, you can
go to the state of Utah,

and you can get on,
it's all public records,

and you can see where
he's liquidating assets off.

And the state's like no, your not
just gonna take everybody's land.

So they stepped in and
actually took over the trust.

And since 2006, it's
stayed a charitable trust,

but became a new version
of the charitable trust

that was void
any religious test,

or any religious purpose.

And that's the trust, that
I'm now the director of

is the reformed trust.

The judge who was in charge

of the probate
case for the trust,

called me and asked me
to be on the uep trust board,

which would bring me
back into the community.

[Musser] And that
created so much tension

with the people, even today.

The trust is the enemy
now, it's the apostates.

[Richter] Ex-flds,
which we call apostates,

were now governing
over our land.

The land that my
family gave to god,

and now they think
they're god over it?

[Lori] It felt like, we want your
town, we want your houses,

we want your businesses even,

we want everything...

But you. We don't want you.

[Glenn] So here we
are back in Colorado city

when I was here 10
years ago, it was all flds.

The town has changed, you can...

See how much it's changed.

You know, these buildings,
they just leave them...

To rot.

A lot of the buildings
are just abandoned.

[Glenn] The interesting
thing about this documentary

is that it started off as a
completely different film.

We were...

Thinking we were doing
a story back in those days,

on just the lost boys.

And when I look
at parley's story,

it was a big lesson
for me to try to...

See people differently,

and, and, I have to
say that his letters

made me look at some of
the fld members differently

I just realized my job was to

just listen and
tell their stories,

about a town divided.

Knowing we were gonna
go in this new direction,

everybody's like "you
need to talk to Christine,

you need to talk to Christine!"

Everybody I talk to says,

"have you talked to Christine?"

And I was like, who
the hell's Christine?

Oh, they're ripe. Yay.

My name is Christine Marie,

and I moved to the
town of short creek.

Like the garden of Eden.

Coming here from the
city and Las Vegas lights,

I get to walk out
my yard, and...

Pick apricots from an orchard.

It's like living in heaven.

When we moved here,
we started seeing trailers

heading out of town.

One after another,
after another,

semi-trucks, we
started taking pictures.

What's going on here?

It's like an entire
town is moving.

Then we saw an eviction

of elderly people
with oxygen tanks,

handicapped people
in a wheelchair.

People crying, just
mobbed around this house,

and I took photos.

[Katas] Who in the world, evicts a
grandmother with an oxygen tank?

I'm sorry, I don't care
what the legal thing is,

you don't do that
to a grandmother

who is an American citizen.

[Christine Marie]
My husband tolga

posted some of the
photos of the evictions.

And we got attacked.

When the children are being
deprived of their education,

and they're being
taken from their parents,

and farmed out
from house to house,

and abused and malnourished,

where were you, calling
for the government, then?

They could stay there, if
they signed a lease agreement

and paid the back-taxes,

just like anyone
else in america.

Then I meet two flds ladies

at a gas station.

[Richter] Christine came
around the little island there,

and she just says,

"I'm so sorry, what's
happened to you."

I told them, "we
just got attacked

and slaughtered on Facebook

by people who live in this town,
because we posted these pictures

saying, 'how is this right?'"

it was an outsider,

it wasn't just us saying,
"help, they're hurting us!"

It was an outsider
saying, "what is going on?"

And that began the beginning
of my friendship with Norma.

[Richter] About a month
later, I was in my room,

and then I could hear the sound of
equipment and things being moved.

And I thought, "oh, no...

The business next
door is being evicted."

I just called her up, and
I says, "are you ready?

'Cause I'm coming to get ya."

She took us over
there, this is our first time

ever going into a building
with flds, and we saw

all this crazy stuff happening.

And they were
just running around

women and children everywhere,
just trying to save the food.

And, uh, it really
touched me, really...

[Katas] The flds
processing plant,

they have till midnight
to get the stuff out.

This is absolutely
insane and ridiculous.

We started live-streaming it, because
we couldn't believe what we were seeing.

[Katas] Can you explain
what's going on, Christine?

This is the processing
plant, they were just evicted.

This is where they
make their food,

and, you know, they
store it for the future.

So it's taking away their
livelihood and their food.

[Katas] This is the
United States of America,

stuff like this should
not take place.

The flds built this building,

they paid for this building,

and they're kicked
out of this building.

So whose side do I take?

The people who used to
live here, who were sent away

or kicked out,
deserve something.

Don't they?

But what about
the people still in?

They get nothing?

Whether we agree with it,
or not, they have rights too.

This town has an
invisible civil war.

That has been their
home and a safe haven.

Yeah, but now,
many flds families

being evicted from Colorado
city, Arizona and hilldale, Utah.

[Reporter some are saying these
evictions are a form of genocide.

Others believe it is a self-inflicted wound
brought on by following Warren Jeffs.

Representatives of the uep
trust say no one has to be evicted,

if only the flds families would sign
what's called an occupancy agreement.

[Landlord] I know. I work
with the trustees every day.

I know they have
absolutely no intention

of trying to drive a
certain group of people out

and invite another
group of people in.

The criteria's very neutral.

The courts require
three basic things:

The first is you have to have
some sort of an agreement.

And right now, there's a little
two-page occupancy agreement.

The second is the court has... Is
requiring a $100 occupancy fee.

And the third is, keep
your property taxes current.

[Christine Marie] I have tried to get
them to sign so they can save their houses.

Not one of them has budged.

We're not signing any
occupancy agreement. I will not.

To me, that is like telling me... Telling...
Everybody, the whole world and them,

I agree with you and I don't agree
with my convictions and my religion.

So why don't I just
sign away my religion?

[Christine Marie] They'd rather
lose $100 million in property

than violate their religion.

The worth in money
means nothing.

It's the worth in our family
and our soul and our... our faith.

[Jeff Barlow] This valley is
ripe for a really solid economy.

I mean, we're talking,
uh, 750 houses,

150 commercial properties.

I'm a capitalist. I believe in
order to have any good economy,

you have to have houses being sold
and purchased and for new businesses,

for new construction.

I think it's necessary. I think it's a
little painful but it's really necessary.

[Richter] So this
was the granaries.

These were some of the first items that
were taken from us, which only makes sense.

If you want to, uh, discourage a
people, go take their food source.

This is where we had a dairy.

And it's just weeds.

Why take something if
you're not going to use it?

It's hard to watch
them just take over.

It almost feels like it's an
infestation coming [Laughing] through.

Maybe I shouldn't
say it that way.

But that doesn't
sound very forgiving.

[Draper] We are
taking the walls down.

You know, that's one of the things
that I love about all of the buildings

that we're using and
that we're turning...

You know, taking a storehouse
and turning it into a school,

and taking that other warehouse and
turning it into a social services place,

is that we're taking down
these walls and we're saying,

hey, this building was
used to harm you before

and now we're gonna use
this building to heal you.

This is disgraceful.

It's good. We... We gotta get
rid of all of this out of our town.

[Richter] No, it's not.

You went and left your
family. You destroyed them.

[Katas] We kinda
start telling them

that the only protection
you guys have is the camera.

The camera will help you. I said,
you guys gotta film your evictions.

- What happened, Lori?
- When we got up here, they had the backhoe right here,

scraping the rest of the
foundation from the house.

This was my great
grandfather Elmer's homestead.

That's just totally heartless.

They don't need this.

[Filmmaker shouting] I am so upset. I
am so upset by the actions of this uep.

This is gonna sit here empty
while you destroyed another life.

[Katas] It wasn't just
an eviction of a building.

It's going into a culture, destroying
their food, destroying their schools.

- Their economics, their businesses.
- Their economics.

So it was very heart
wrenching to see.

[Christine Marie] America's
secret ethnic cleansing.

[Draper] Honestly?

I believe that there was a cultural
cleansing that happened there

and it was Warren
Jeffs that did it.

You know, the health aspects, the
poverty aspects, the lack of education,

the early childhood traumas. The
social structure, the physical structure.

There's not anything about this
community that Warren Jeffs left intact.

I think there was a picture
of Warren Jeffs right here.

What's happening now

is not a cultural
cleansing. [Laughing]

What's happening
now is business.

You know, if they're
paying their property taxes,

if they've signed an
agreement with the trust,

they can continue to
live and live their religion

and they can worship
Warren Jeffs day and night.

This is your town, it's
not my town. It's our town.

Your grandpa and my
grandpa showed up here

to build this town for family,
protection, and freedom.

Not walls, bullshit and
what we're doing today.

I'm telling you, they'd be pissed
off today if they knew what we did.

Because we created
everything they didn't want.

It's the same damn
piece of earth, dude.

It's just two miles. This
land doesn't care about us.

It never has. It never will. It's
gonna be here when I'm gone.

We define it.

You gotta realize I've
been gone for 15 years.

I had set foot in this town maybe
three times in that whole 15 years,

had just started my second
company trying to be successful.

And was so sick with the
disease that I was born with

and a lot of other diseases
it was compounding it.

So I was born with a disease called milroy's
and it's kind of a really rare disease

and it's... What it does is my
lymph system in my body don't work.

And then with my disease, it'll
attack my big organs, my main organs,

my... sometimes they hit
in my heart, my kidneys,

and it leaves a
lot of scar tissue.

It's destroyed my blood
veins, it's destroyed my bones.

It's destroyed my circulation.

I spent half my life in the hospital.
I spent half my life in medical care.

I finally got successful in my business
and lost it because of my health issues,

it felt just like leaving the crick again
and just having everything taken away.

And I'm living in the
garage going through chemo,

my wife's pregnant on bed rest.

Here I am, I'm gonna
die in a few months.

I'm just making peace,
trying to do the best I can with,

you know, what the
time I had left, really.

And at that time, after the
state had taken the trust,

there was a process and they said
that anybody that was born out here

had a right to come
out and claim a house.

To come home.

I just remember coming out
here and like, man, this town just...

Looks just like I feel. It's
been just screwed, just...

Drove past my dad's old house where
I grew up and there was nobody there.

It was empty and just run
down. I'm like, well, hell,

I don't wanna take it from anybody,
but if nobody's in there, I'm homeless.

I'm sitting in the garage down
in Saint George, gonna die.

Let's come out and get you a house and
get you and the kids somewhere settled

and I'll come home
and die, and you...

You'll get a place at least out
of the whole shitty part of my life,

at least something good
will come up out of it.

You gotta realize, I'm an
apostate that came back

to the motherland of
where all this started.

It was just surreal.

You're home but
you're not home, kind of.

You know, it's like... Don't
know if this is really happening.

You fantasize
this all your life,

'cause this town was such
an amazing place to grow up.

It didn't need to be dead.
These walls weren't here.

I didn't grow up with these
stupid-ass walls everywhere.

Warren Jeffs was
here for six years.

He doesn't get to define
us. It's our story now.

[Draper] So when I first
started going back to town,

uh, after I was put
on the trust board,

we set down and
sketched out our strategy.

We can blame people and we
can say we shoulda coulda woulda,

but we're here now.

I don't care who got us
here. It's time for us to just fix it

and own it and say this
does not work anymore.

This train track that we're on?

People need to stop
putting trains on this track.

[Draper] At that time,

whoever was in charge of the
church would appoint city council.

And my very first public
meeting with the trust,

I started telling
people, register to vote.

Candidates in an flds
community are preparing

for one of the biggest political
elections in hildale in years.

Now, I never knew what
politics... I knew that the pol...

That the government was
bad. I could tell you that.

Your local government

is the most powerful form of
government in the United States.

It's your local government,
if it's done correctly.

I didn't know any of this.

I come home and go, we just want
a city that represents the people.

[Draper] Donia, my best friend and
sister-in-law, chose to run as mayor,

and it was such an
incredible choice,

but the symbolism of the
choice was beyond incredible.

[Reporter] Donia jessop was a
fundamentalist latter day Saint.

When she left the flds sect,
she made the tough decision

to leave behind the town and the
people she grew up with and loved.

But then she returned
as an outsider.

[Anchor 3 on TV] Donia jessop
says when she was in the flds church,

she was told who to vote for.

I know. [Laughing] It's so
UN-American and unconstitutional.

It's like, how does this
happen here in america?

But that's what's
been happening.

So that is the change that i'm
talking about that needs made.

I have a lot of support.

I have definitely some
who are not in support.

Behind me is a vandalized
campaign poster.

There are a lot of 'em in
this town, and this election,

it could be one for the
hildale history books.

[Puppet] Oh,
there's the alphabet.

[Christine Marie] Yeah,
there's the alphabet, all right.

I wanna eat a "a."

Can you find him an "a"?
Can you feed him an "a"?

[Gasping] Okay, pull it out.
Feed it to him. [Laughing]

That was really good. Yummy.

All right, can I have a...

[Christine Marie] In this town,
there has to be give and take.

But it should not require the
flds to violate what they believe.

People say, you're enabling
them, they're in a dangerous cult.

Yeah. I want a "s."

[Christine Marie] I just wanna
promote education and empowerment.

That's not enabling
them to stay in harm.

That's giving them options.

I keep pushing the limits
for the flds and for the trust.

We got this
crappy little building

as a very first "reclaim."

It was sort of a test
to see if the trust

would let me kind of pull a
building out of the eviction

and repurpose it for
the flds. It worked.

The flds all pitched in to
remodel it and restore it,

and it... To me it seemed symbolic of
what's happening in the town in some ways.

My goal is to see
them all come together,

not to violate their religion and
start big happy family reunions.

I mean, I'd love to see
that, but I don't expect that.

[Christine Marie] But at least if
they can show mutual respect

and start doing

communications of
love here and there.

You know.

If you went to St. George,

cedar city to you know, London.

Had to go to another country.

And, and you see
kids and, and mothers

who are, are being displaced

that don't have anywhere to go.

The whole town, community
would be running to help them.

[Christine Marie] Right.

And I think here we have

a really unique
misunderstanding.

The stories out there are like,

"these people will
never get along it's

you know, never ever,"

but it's not true.

I see something different.

I see steps.

I can stand up right now,

and I can walk over here

and I can give her a hug.

[Katas] Aww.

Just like that.

And you know

that before

you guys came into
that town, this town

that was impossible.
[Katas] Yeah.

[Christine Marie] It's
got to take somebody

who is never flds

or ex-flds,

like me.

I grew up in a small
town in Michigan.

My parents were against it,

but on my 18th
birthday I was baptized.

So I became mormon

and it was the
happiest day of my life.

Here we are at the
children's art festival

and I have pat here, "hi, pat."

- Hi.
- And what has...

[Christine Marie] So I became
what's known as a Molly mormon.

Which is the person who tries
to live Mormonism perfectly.

- You know our...
- Puppet?

- Yeah.
- Did you say puppet?

And when I went to college

I majored in children's theater.

S o I created this

interactive TV show.

I was developing my
children's characters,

my puppet dream.

And then,

I met somebody,

you know, he turned
into Mr. Charming

started courting me,

and now he could
tell me the truth.

The truth was

that he had translated

the sealed portion

of the book of mormon.

In the book of mormon,
there's a prophecy

that in the last days, the
rest of the book of mormon,

which has been engraved
on these gold plates,

will come forward.

All mormons believe this.

So he sent me eight chapters.

It felt the same to me

as the book of mormon

that I loved, and I studied,
and I read 32 times.

I decided,

he was telling me the truth

and that made him

the new Joseph Smith.

My dearest sister
and fellow servants

I received your letter

on the sixth of may which was

sent from your indicated address

at a downtown hotel

ran exclusively
for the homeless.

Downtrodden, sick, afflicted
and needy of our society

and I ask you my dear sister,

"where else would
a true disciple

of Christ be found?"

Not only was he the new prophet

but I had to pass lots of tests.

I had to live among
the poor and needy.

When men got out of prison

they went to this like,
halfway house, resident hotel.

That's where I had to be.

This is

how decrepit

the walls were
and the floors were.

This is the toilet.

It was just like out of
an... Out of a horror movie.

It was filled with ex-cons,

murderers, rapists

and I

was an innocent girl

from the country
who had lived a...

Wholesome mormon life

and I was like

a lamb among wolves.

I was raped,

I was beaten,

I was robbed,

I was trafficked.

So I found one picture of me

that was provided to

my prophet

as proof.

This... the photo
was taken by the man

who had just

used me.

To think...

It was all just a big fat hoax.

I have something
that finding proof

can mean without
a shadow of a doubt.

What religion

can do to people

and Julie might have
mentioned it to you.

I wrote the sealed portion
of the book of mormon

and I presented it to mormons

who are more fanatical than you,

and they took it
hook, line, and sinker.

Thought I had the gold plates.

And so right there
I proved to myself

that need a man to
know what he was doing

could write scripture

when he had no
inspiration at all

just knew what
people wanted to hear.

Write the scripture

present it as such

have these people pray about it

and accept it.

Well you laugh, I'm sorry...

[Christine Marie] The
prophet was a fraud,

he was an atheist,

and it was just
a big experiment.

And when they told me this

I just was rocking,

and wailing.

Because it was like my
life flashed before my eyes.

Like just rocking and I screamed

"why?" you know, "why
wouldn't, why didn't you..."

Why didn't you help me?

I was psychologically fractured,

and I just wanted to get a job

and I wanted to get out.

The church didn't help me,

the state of Utah
didn't help me,

law enforcement didn't help me.

They said,

"you believed him?

You deserved it."

S o that's why I'm here.

When I help the flds,

my goal

is harm reduction

and empowerment.

Because I know what it's like

to believe in something
that other people

ridicule you for.

And as a result,

you don't get any help.

[Meehan] When I first came here

we drove by these homes

and tried to... Kind of,
look behind the gates.

We got shots of kids
running away from us

and screaming at us

and I didn't regret that because

I look back now

and those kids weren't
asking for that life.

But yet, here I was

and CNN and everybody else

doing the same thing.

[Meehan] I looked at
these people as the enemy.

It has totally changed.

[Meehan] When you
and I started working on

this documentary again

yes, everybody
knows Colorado city,

the flds, and Warren Jeffs.

But nobody is telling
this story from both sides.

I never thought I would ever

play with these
kids, be with their...

Their mothers and their fathers.

They are pretty amazing people.

On a personal level

they have really welcomed
me with open arms.

[Children chattering]

- Oh, my gosh. Let me...
- Please stand.

[Boy] You can sit on that.

- [Meehan] Did you make that?
- Yeah, from scratch.

- [Girl] I want presents.
- [Meehan] Oh.

- Can I open them?
- Go ahead.

[Meehan] These kids
gave me these letters.

A lot of artwork,

that I'll always treasure.

[Meehan reading]
Be happy, keep sweet.

You gave me hair.

I'm so happy you gave me hair.

Rosa may.

You do have a little teeny bit.

[Chuckles softly] Aw, thank you.

[Meehan] Oh, wow.

[Meehan] Little letters,
like "thank you for

being kind to us."

Who couldn't be
kind to those kids?

[Girl] I think you love us.

[Meehan] Yes.

Bff forever.

Aw, these are really wonderful.

Yeah, because you're my bff.

[Meehan] That's right.

You see these
kids too, and you...

You, you have to say,

"they didn't choose this life.

They were born into it."

And you can't help,
but look at these children

and not think
about their future.

[Musser] It's like going through a
haunted house where every room,

kind of had its own
story of growing up.

It's like a time machine in here

coming back in here again after

19 years.

This is when they
moved into town

and you can see John
y. Barlow and uncle Roy

uniting the people.

We sat here,

and when I first
started going to church

this stage was always full

of the patriarchs and the
people that built this town.

And over the time

it got to where there was just

Warren up there, and
his counselors in the end.

He literally just of
rid of all the influence

all the patriarchs,

all the people that
really built this town

he slowly got rid
of off of that stage.

I mean you can literally watch

watch our downfall from a stage.

If you look at it like that.

[Christine Marie] Today this

chapel has been opened up

to the public
for the first time.

Probably in forever

and they're letting
the people walk

through the building.

So they can

experience it,

see it one last time

before they remodel it,

and turn it into

a non-religious
community center.

So for the people
who left the church

this is an exciting
moment to heal.

For people who
are still in the church

this is a trauma.

[Lori] You know, it feels like

if they

you know, taken everything

they could possibly take

that's... that's the...
That's the last one.

There's nothing else
left for them to take.

They know what that
building means to us.

How can they do that?

[Children chattering]

[Boy]

But there's a purpose in it,

I needed to learn how
to trust the lord more.

If I can just

let my faith carry me over

this one next step.

How do I know

that... that the goal isn't just

beyond my next step?

He knows what he's doing,

and I don't.

If I can just trust him.

So, I was able to get some of the
portraits from the meeting house.

And they need a place to stay
until you get a new meeting house,

so pick one.

[Lori] We've never asked anyone
to believe something they don't.

We just ask that they let us.

That's really all we want.

We just want to

worship as we believe.

I mean, is... is that a crime?

[Draper] It was a few
weeks before the election.

You're in there running against a
regime that has won all of these years.

People just kept saying,
"oh, we'll never have a chance,

it's always been this way,
it's never going to be different."

[Musser] This town is
one, big survivor group.

It is terrible what we've all gone
through, but how do you move on

without some sort of change?

[Draper] It seemed like the citizens
weren't that motivated to make sure

that everybody on their
block was registered to vote,

and I certainly could not
go do all of that personally.

And sometimes, I just
sat there and thought,

"well, you know, if you don't want
it, why are we working so hard?"

Because I knew that
it would be that close,

that we would need all of
the voters to be registered

and for them to turn out.

[Jessop] If I win today,

it's gonna be a true testament
that people really are stepping up,

taking care of their
civil responsibilities

to make the change
happen that is necessary.

[Voter] I think it's
really good. I think, uh,

our community
kinda needs a change.

[Female reporter] But,
not everyone is on board.

Those of the flds faith
who spoke to abc4 Utah,

all who declined
to go on camera,

said they felt Barlow
had their best interest,

and that is where they
were casting their vote.

Just a couple more hours
until we know the results,

and when we do know, we'll
have those on our website.

The trepidation, you know,
right before election about

is this going to work?
Is this going to work?

And watching the
numbers come in.

[Male reporter] Incumbent
mayors were ousted

across the valley
on election night.

Results so far showed big
changes could be coming

to the polygamist
border town of hilldale.

Donia jessop is the projected
winner from the mayor's race.

And having it turn out to be,
you know, that we had won,

and I just... I remember
where I was sitting

and I was screaming and
hollering and, "it worked! It worked!"

[Female reporter] It
was a historic victory

over a longtime incumbent mayor.

But one can argue the victory
heard across the beehive state

was also a victory
against patriarchy.

[Jessop] We' ve been beaten
around by Warren Jeffs for 15 years.

So to come out from
under his dictatorship,

and make the
decisions that are...

That are the best decisions
for the people living there,

not the best decisions
for Warren Jeffs,

is one of the most
important steps.

[Musser] We're not
done. We're just...

We're just almost
getting started.

We're almost done with the prelude
or the story, so we can start writing.

I don't know if
we're gonna make it,

I don't know if
we're gonna fail.

I know that we're doing
something different.

Our kids gonna remember
it's their town when we tell 'em,

"this is your town. We're simply
getting it ready for you guys,

so that you guys don't have to fight
this damn fight when you're our age,

and not have broken bodies and
broken mind and broken dreams."

[Lori] When they held the, uh,

swearing in of the new mayor,

I went to that with
Christine, Esther and I.

We decided we
were gonna go, and...

I don't know if that was a
very good decision on my part.

Wow, there goes donia.

I literally did not
recognize her.

I didn't recognize her husband,

and they were very,
very close friends of mine.

It was kind of overwhelming.

In all of this, what my goal
is is to create community.

That we can come together
under the community banner.

We can all have
our different beliefs.

We can all have, um,
everything we want.

In the end, we all
came from the same dirt.

And I am just so
glad to be here,

and to be a part
of this community,

and I thank each one
of you for being here.

She's like, "we're
gonna start by singing

a song that we always
sung at our dances."

And you may recognize the song
as something we sang at our dances.

So, in the spirit of
creating community...

- I'm not gonna bawl.
- [Audience laughing]

In the spirit of creating
community, please join us.

If you don't know how to
sing, you just go, "la-la-la-la."

[Audience laughing]

[Accompaniment begins]

[Lori] They start
playing the music to

"give me a home in the
heart of the mountains,"

♪ give me a home in the
heart of the mountains ♪

[Lori] W hich is a song that we would
sing sometimes at the end of our dances.

Our church dances.

The church that now she was

participating in dissolving.

And I... I tried to sing
the song and I... I couldn't.

[Singing continues]

Even someone like
donia and her family,

you never really
stop loving them.

Even though they can, you
know, do things that hurt,

really hurt,

there's always, you know,
something in your heart

that remembers
what they were to you.

And you'll always love 'em.

Right around the
time of the election,

we were served with
an eviction notice.

There's something
that comes with

the idea that

we want your stuff,
but we don't want you.

But, by that time, they had
evicted the storehouse buildings,

they had evicted
the processing plant,

they had evicted

just home, after
home, after home,

after home, after home.

There really wasn't a
desire to fight to stay here.

[Meehan] Since day
one, I've just gone with it.

From the night I met the boys
down in St. George and talked,

and started filming right then,

I didn't know where
it was gonna go,

and here we are,
over ten years later.

You got dust on the
lens, I think. Is that dust?

[Cameraman] Eh, it's alright.

All right, as long
as you can still see.

It's probably a good filter
for my face, but... [laughs]

I've met some wonderful people
doing documentaries and other things,

but this is the
one I can't shake.

This is... This is
the group of people

that will always be in
my heart and my head.

[Children] Glenn,
watch! Glenn! Glenn!

[Children chatter excitedly]

Mush!

Come on!

Go! [Both laughing]

[Meehan] Because, you know,
what's really been interesting for me,

is I come in here,

and I think, "I'm
with the flds families,"

and I'm thinking, "yes, right!

All those people outside
are... They're horrible!"

And then I go and I meet these
wonderful people that have left,

and I'm like, "oh, boy! Those
flds people have it all wrong!"

And then the next day, I'm back
with them, and the next day...

And it's been this
ping-pong match in my heart.

And what I've realized

is there hasn't been anybody
we talked to that I don't like,

that I don't love,
that I don't feel for.

And I think the world
needs to hear these stories,

and really understand
what's happening here,

not just in a sound bite,

and not just in an agenda.

This town, everybody has
their story, and that's their truth.

And everybody just
needs to accept that.

Independence day has a whole new
meaning for us here in short creek.

And I just want to
honor each one of us,

each one of the soldiers,

each one of us that have stood
up and claimed our independence.

And I want to honor all
the family that isn't here,

all the fallen soldiers,

and each one of us.

And I ask each one of you today

to reach out to someone
that you may not know,

because they're probably family.

And we all need each
other. We belong here.

Thank you all for being
here. Welcome home.

[Crowd cheering]

You'll never find a community
again like this anywhere.

It's just old school, people
coming together, hanging out,

not a lot of phones, or...

It's just, you'll see groups of
people talking in circles all day.

You'll see moms and
dads, uh, sisters and siblings

that haven't seen
each other for years.

So, it's jus t a big old,
like a family reunion, really.

I just came home to die in
a town that just, felt like I did.

But, at the same
time I was like, why?

You know, coming home
almost gave me purpose.

It almost saved, saved my
life, it did, in so many ways.

The very thing I was
doing just saved me.

Was to come home and just have
purpose. Because, this is home to me.

And this town is such
an amazing place.

[Draper] All of the fences are
gone, they're, down from the park.

Anyone can walk in
and everyone's welcome.

This is us. This is our home.

And so, I think it's a beautiful
transition that's happened

that we don't have to declare
anything. We're here. We're home.

There's a function
over at the park.

Uh, I've heard people
say that it's supposed to be

a recreation of what
it used to be like

and, uh, quite frankly, I
don't see how it can be

what it used to be like

when the people aren't what
they used to be like anymore.

[Interviewer] And how
does that make you feel?

Oh, lonesome.

[People cheering]

[Bistline] Things have changed.

People have changed.

["Wobble" by v.I.C. Playing]

♪ Let me see you just ♪

♪ get low n scrub the
grown let me see you just ♪

♪ push it up, push it
up let me see you just ♪

♪ wobble baby, wobble baby,
wobble baby, wobble, yeah ♪

[Bistline] There's not
very many of us left.

But, some of us don't
have anywhere else to go.

[Man] So good to see ya.

[Bistline] We don't get involved
with the celebration that they do now

because it feels like they're
celebrating the fact that they've

ripped it away from us

and they're taking
over the community.

[People cheering]

[Both singing] ♪ there's
a special little place ♪

♪ called short creek ♪

♪ far, far away ♪

♪ that's where my heart
starts turning ever ♪

♪ longing to be whole again ♪

[No audible dialogue]

[People cheering]

[Lori] We're about an hour, to an
hour and a half drive from short creek.

The best thing about
it is no one bothers ya.

[Chuckles]

When we first moved
here, then, it was quiet.

Not even our neighbors
bother us so it's always peaceful.

That's one thing
I like about it,

is that we're never bothered.

It was hard to just leave
there but we had to.

Like heavenly father said,

if we're, you know,
pure and clean,

then we'll always get to live
back into where we wanted to live.

[Man] We've had many,
many opportunities

to give up our beliefs.

Zion is, is... here

with me. I mean,
it's inside it's not

what everybody
else thinks they know.

I mean, my
religion is right here.

Right down in here.

And what I believe,
no one can take away.

[Man] We've always been a believer that
the heavenly father is testing his people,

the people that he's chosen, to
be the leaders in Zion will be tested.

It says that in the Bible,

the lord will have
a tried people.

Well, I believe that's a
test. Absolutely, absolutely.

I think that we will, under
the right circumstances,

that we will eventually
move back there.

I mean, none of the promises that the
lord has placed on the place have changed

because god doesn't lie and
he doesn't change his promises.

It's just, kind of hard
to go there right now.

[Chuckles]

[All singing] ♪ give me a home
in the heart of the mountains ♪

♪ out in the hills of
the glorious west ♪

♪ nursed in the arms of
her crystalline fountains ♪

♪ playfully hurrying
down to their rest ♪

♪ hurrying down hurrying down ♪

♪ playfully hurrying
down to their rest ♪