Posted on 04/28/2008 8:18:23 AM PDT by dead
I have read that affidavit several times also have read the first affidavit several times. The informant is clearly someone not on the “inside” at El Dorado.
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- When authorities moved to search the large white temple on the polygamist compound in West Texas, about five dozen of the sect's men prayed and cried around the structure, state investigators said Thursday.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran also said he had been working with a confidential informant for four years who was feeding him information about life inside the polygamist sect.
Doran declined to say whether the informant was in Texas or other sect compounds in Utah or Arizona. It wasn't until after the search had begun that Doran learned about marriage beds in the temple and the forced marriages of underage girls to older men.
"It was instrumental in teaching me the group's ways," Doran said.
Exerpt. Read the rest at source: CNN.Com.
There is a very big FLDS graveyard for FLDS babies on the Utah/Arizona border. (at the old Warren Jeffs FLDS settlement before they moved to Texas)
It is referred to as Babyland.
This may be the one the Jessop ladies are speaking off.
here are some pictures of the unmarked graves at the Utah/Arizona Babyland FLDS graveyard.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00088.htm
Thanks, that’s very informative.
eyewitness account of the FLDS Colorado City Graveyard
I found an open gate that I thought led to a public park. It had the base of a monument praising FLDS leaders past. But there was no monument. Then I noticed that in fact this was a graveyard with almost all the names from a small group of families: Barlow, Steed, Jessop and Jeffs.
Of the graves in Colorado City, many are marked as stillborn or very young. There has been a lot made of all the dead children here. I don’t know how much credit to give those suspicions, but considering the extraordinary adult-to-child ratio I saw last Friday (kids wandering about unattended or kids, with no adult in sight, playing in the filth) the authorities should spend some time checking in on the kids who are still alive there. Are they getting any education? Last time I was there I met a teen who was not clear on who the President was. I did, however, find a tape of the sort of teaching Jeffs was giving to sixth- and eighth-graders. In November 1995, Jeffs explained to students why only the prophet can decide wedding matches:
“If you young people were to marry a Negro, you could not be a priesthood person, even if you repented. You could not stay in this work.... Today, you can see a black man with a white woman.... A great evil has happened on this land because the devil knows that if all the people have Negro blood, there will be nobody worthy to have the priesthood. The devil is trying to get people to go out and marry and mix with the world, even different colored people. That is why we marry only who the prophet says — because if you marry anybody out in the world, there’s a chance they could have Negro blood in them.”
more at:
http://vegasblog.latimes.com/vegas/2006/09/visiting_colora.html
That may explain the lack of boys
Child sacrifice was used to control women in Biblical times.
Tomorrow’s WE Special mentions the graveyard...
WE TV Examines ‘Polygamy Cult’ in ‘Secret Lives of Women’
Airing April 29 At 10pm Et/9c
One-Hour Episode Features In-Depth Interviews with Former Members of FDLS
From the recent raid of the Eldorado, Texas compound to the trial and conviction of the FBI’s Most Wanted infamous Polygamist leader, Warren Jeffs, the hidden truths about Polygamy are just starting to be revealed.
On April 29 at 10pm et/9pm, WE tv’s critically-acclaimed series, “Secret Lives of Women” presents an original episode, “Polygamy Cult,” about female FLDS escapees who share inside knowledge of the inner-workings of this controversial cult, while telling their personal stories surrounding forced marriage, sexual abuse, and child abuse. This exclusive episode features never-before-seen footage and testimonials from women and children recounting their intense experiences as victims, survivors and ultimately heroes.
Personal stories revealed in footage include:
Carolyn Jessop, who escaped from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) four years ago and wrote the bestselling book called Escape. The ex-wife Merrill Jessop, the head of the El Dorado compound Carolyn talks about the first time she heard about the Texas compound being built and shares secrets about its design. While in the FLDS which until recently was run by Warren Jeffs, who’s serving two consecutive sentences of five years to life for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old wed to her cousin in Utah, she was in a house with many other wives and was a virtual slave to her husband, Merrill Jessop (who is 32 years her senior and has 54 children), and his first wife who terrorized everyone in their home. With eight children, one of whom is severely disabled, Carolyn Jessop saw an opening to save her family one night and escaped from the community. After being on the run, Carolyn is trying to find her footing along with help from caring individuals who are helping her and her kids find a life for themselves in modern society. “It’s a nightmare experience and I didn’t want my kids to have the life that I had.”
Flora Jessop escaped from the FLDS Polygamist cult after enduring 16 years of abuse at the hand of her own father. She is now the Executive Director of the Child Protection Project that helps women and children living in Polygamy find a safe passage out of it when they decide to leave, or are kicked out by its leadership. Flora Jessop lives a life of danger, risking her personal safety everyday in order to investigate and break the dirty secrets about Polygamy and the abuse that exists in this community. Exclusive footage includes a tour of a hidden baby graveyard, where it is speculated that children who are victims of “blood atonement” (the FLDS term for paying for sins with blood) are brought to rest.
Michelle Benward runs a safe house for Polygamy’s forgotten young men, known as the ‘Lost Boys’. As Polygamy requires more girls than boys, they are literally tossed away from their community and left to fend for themselves at unbelievably young ages. Michelle helps them get back on their feet by attending school and holding jobs. In the footage, we see some of the boys she has taken in and hear them talk about the petty teenage reasons they were forced out of their homes and/or why they chose to flee the community in order to avoid arranged marriages and other injustices forced upon them.
http://newsblaze.com/story/20080414114137tsop.nb/topstory.html
Thanks again.
One disturbing thing which I hadn’t come across in my readings before, but which has apparently come to light in the last year, is the existance of the “Babyland” graveyard in Colorado City. Here are the quick statistics on it:
425 graves
56 entirely unmarked child graves
227 child graves all together for a total of 53% children under 10
A high number of children suffering from strange accidents. A disproportionate number of children who just happened to be “run over”. A number of children who have just “disappeared”. The death rate is particularly high among boy children, ages 11-20.
http://www.utterz.com/~u-NDk1NTk0MQ/utt.php
The disappeared may be the lost boys.
My wife opined that they may have killed the boys at birth and called them “stillborn”.
They work the young boys on the compound. Many die in labor related accidents.
The ones that survive into their teens are ran off the compound.
In March, 2006, the federal government fined one contractor over $10,000 in child labor law violations for using FLDS boys.
High child fatality rates
The child fatality rates in the FLDS also raise concern and questions. In 2005, Flora Jessop and Linda Walker, director of the Child Protection Project at www.childpro.org, went to the Isaac Carling and “Babyland” cemeteries in Hildale and Colorado City, videotaped all marked and unmarked graves, and compiled all available information about the deaths. Children are buried in both, but Babyland is exclusively for babies.
Among the 324 marked graves were 180 of children under the age of eighteen. In addition, there were 58 unmarked graves of babies.
Jessop and Walker also list 74 FLDS members who they know have died, but whose headstones are not in the Carling or Babyland cemeteries. Among them are 18 minor children plus eight stillbirths. Some of these children may be in the unmarked graves, they note.
Many deaths and birth defects
Jessop says she saw and heard of many deaths of children while she was growing up in the FLDS towns. After she and her grandmother went to the police and reported that Jessop’s father was sexually abusing her, Jessop was held in solitary confinement from age 13 to 16. Her room was next to the sect’s birthing center, which her uncle was in charge of; Jessop says she became aware during that period that many babies died and were buried in the backyard of the birthing center.
She also has seen many children with severe birth defects. Two of her siblings have cleft palates. Another sister was born with dislocated hips. Nothing was done about it until the baby was about 18 months old. Then both of her hips had to be broken, and she was put in a body cast for months.
Two defectors claim that some FLDS women pray to have Down’s syndrome children because such children have docile temperaments and because the mothers get $500/month in public assistance for a handicapped child.
Are causes of death recorded?
CHILD wrote to the Utah Attorney General asking if there were death certificates and causes of death recorded for all the children buried in the FLDS cemeteries. If not, we asked, “shouldn’t criminal charges be filed for improper disposal of remains? And if some of the babies died from abuse or neglect, shouldn’t that also be a criminal matter?”
The Attorney General’s office replied that they did not have the resources to investigate those concerns, but there is no statute of limitations on homicide, so if we have evidence of homicide, we should bring it to their attention.
Washington County prosecutor Brock Belnap says his office and other law enforcement agencies are investigating the deaths.
Jessop charges that the Mohave County, Arizona, coroner signed off on many FLDS deaths without even seeing the bodies.
Jessop says that until about seventeen years ago the FLDS opposed medical care. Today they have their own pharmacy as well as state-licensed physicians and nurses who are church members and live in Short Creek. Indeed, some women get far too much medication today, Jessop and others charge. They say that women are put on high doses of psychotropic drugs to keep them subservient.
http://www.childrenshealthcare.org/polygamous.htm
ping to post 53
just heartbreaking!
Two defectors claim that some FLDS women pray to have Down’s syndrome children because such children have docile temperaments and because the mothers get $500/month in public assistance for a handicapped child.
sorry...
ping to post 52
Yes, it is heartbreaking. I really appreciate your effort in providing this information. Obviously, the answer to my original question is, Yes, there are corroborating witnesses and other evidence supporting the information given by Carolyn and Flora Jessop.
bonfire had some information on baby graveyards at one point.
Did you ever find it bonfire?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1999328/posts?page=250#250
I’ll try to find it later. I have some stuff to take care of for now.
Thanks, but what “stlnative” has already put up is, in my opinion, quite impressive. My Real Life needs attention, too :-).
True, human sacrifice has existed for thousands of years; however the FLDS are not practicing human sacrifice, nor are they cannibals, nor are they doing anything remotely like this. Only about 1/3 of them practice polygamy , which is illegal - yet 100% of them have had their children forcibly removed. Consider this for a moment, about 2/3 of the members have homes just like yours - they are either divorced or living with a single spouse. Yet all of them have been treated as criminals, without evidence, without trial, and without redress.
We have a right to worship as we please, whether or not someone agrees with your religion is immaterial. If you worship a flying spaghetti monster, that is your right. For those young girls who are 'married' off before the legal age of consent; nail the adults responsible. I have no defense, nor will provide one for that rehensible act.
However, we have a case where due process has been thrown out the window, and every member who belongs to the FLDS is immediately accused and forced to prove their innocence, furthermore their children have been kidnapped by the state - all at the whim of a single CPS person (who is not an elected official, who has given no proof for the 462 children being incarcerated, and has admitted in court that at least 35% of the children that have been taken have no indication that they have been, or would be abused by their parents. Yet, here it is nearly 2 weeks later and the kids are being moved further and further from their parents.
And we have people who justify this Nazi-like behavior because they don't like the faith. Get beyond the FLDS issue; we are setting a horrible legal precedent. The state can apparently arbitrarily take YOUR kids from you, for any reason they may, or maynot have. You have no legal recourse. You, like the FLDS mothers , would have your children taken to a place you can neither visit, phone, nor are you allowed to even write a letter. If the state can do this to the least of us, they certainly can do it to us as well.
sorry for all the pings... Your question made me want to do the research on it as I had no idea the FLDS baby graves were so numerous. I was just posting what I had found. I should have added ALL to the recipient list when I posted as I figured others may be interested in it.
BTW... you have a awesome large family. My hubby comes from a large family of 9 siblings.
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