Don't Mess With (you know the rest.) More on the YFZ Ranch/FLDS Bust up.

[stoney321]

Long time readers of my polygamy rants (click here to read back-posts, or read my Mormon rants) are most likely NOT surprised by all the stories coming out since yesterday's release of the Gag Order on investigators to the Yearning For Zion Ranch in El Dorado, Texas. Did you read about the pre-teen girls being pregnant? What did I tell you two days ago? [Insert "I told you so" comment here.]

The thing that's upsetting me the most is that I feel in my bones that the original 16 year old girl that called in abuse is dead. (Let's hope she's just been banished to Bountiful, Canada and the Blackmore plyg clan.) Warren Jeffs originally had a high-temperature furnace installed on the property, with the instructions that it would burn hot enough to destroy DNA evidence. The original engineer of that furnace had this to say on the (apparently) secret blog of a former YFZ/FLDS member

He said:

Warren Jeffs did not tell me directly to build a furnace for destroying DNA. Charles Olds told me Mike Emack needed a furnace built and needed our help. I had no idea where Mike was at the time. It never crossed my mind it might be illegit because it came from Mike (I trusted Mike, but I was starting to get suspicious of Warren even then). Coming from Mike, I would have expected a steel mill before a crematory. I never got further with Charles than deciding a few circuit details with him when it then became an urgent need for radio scrambling.

No one from Texas or anywhere else ever talked to me about a furnace; only Charles.Charles showed me an infrared sensor for the furnace that could sense up to 2700F and we needed to interface it to an SCR bank. He showed me a three-phase SCR bank he was using for controlling the heater. I was starting to think about how to interface to the SCR. I was pushing for a graphic LCD display and control, but Mike told Charles, "No, we need a lit LED because where it is going, it will be dark." (An LED is like an alarm clock with several figure 8's. A graphical LCD is like what you see at gas pumps with the little squares) Mike's only comment to me through it all is "we are working for a good cause, but I can't tell you anything, except that I was called on a mission."

The timeline was autumn 2003.

Robert Richter

Later on, in further blog comments, Richter says he *did* originally think it was for a crematorium, but then worried he'd be considered an accomplice for building it, without knowing what it truly was for. Chicken shit.

One person said [to me] "I was in a conversation with Warren and he said 'Brethren, we have got to find a place and a means to blood atone those that need blood atoning."

Robert Richter

Now, Duff Bristline was a big name in the original Colorado City Plyg group, before Warren Jeffs took over. (It's his blog I follow.) He was kicked out, his wives and children "reassigned" to other men (HI, CULT.) and wasn't allowed to contact them. But he does in secret, and once Jeffs was arrested, was able to get back in contact with everyone at the YFZ Ranch (where his families were moved.) He has all of these pictures of the compound, and one of them is a "potato shed." He speculates (and I believe him to be right) that it's the location of the high-temp furnace.

New reports are coming out that a jackhammer was brought in, and there has been speculation that they're looking for bodies under newly poured concrete. Nope. (See, that's what the high temp furnace was for.) They're opening safes. More charges are being applied to Warren Jeffs, and any documentation that DEFINITELY there will help. One of the Texas Rangers said that once they got into the "temple" they finally had all the information they needed. Guess what's kept there? Marriage records. Birth records. That stuff is NOT filed with the state, because bingo! A 13 year old being married to a man in his 50s? Then having a baby? Yeah, they've never kept that stuff in public, and if you've read any of the books written by the women that came out of that culture, they've never had birth certificates. Only the first wife's kids get those, because they're the only legit ones.

So now they're getting their hands on all sorts of wonderful evidence. The first man arrested, by the way, was Jeff's brother, the one with him in the Cadillac at his arrest. He was "tampering with evidence and interfering with an investigation." Trying to hide that stuff, or destroy it, apparently.

It's also interesting to note that all of the people I read online who secretly keep blogs (keep in mind FLDS are forbidden from using media unless to spread their message, listen to hymns - created by Jeffs, or read anything not Jeffs-approved) are all men who are apologists. No women. None. The only women who ever respond are either out of the religion and are pariahs, or people like me stumbling across and asking these people how the hell they can continue to think this way.

This is NOT a religious issue. This is a civil rights issue. This is about the very essence of what it means to be an American: life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness, being taken away from generations of women and children. You cannot pursue happiness when you are taught to live in fear, when your womanhood serves as a means of power and control for a man, when you are denied access to knowledge, to education, to proper health-care.

I have to say it again: this is NOT about grown ups deciding to live together in a sexual and emotional commitment with multiple adults. AT. ALL. This is not the fun, sexy face of "Big Love." (The non-Juniper Creek part.) This is about girls beginning their periods, then forced to marry and have sex with older men, even if that man is her uncle, her first cousin, her grandfather. IT IS REAL. I'm just relieved beyond belief that people are finally paying attention to this. Guys, this has been around for over one hundred and fifty years. My family was polygamist, and some cousins still are.

Oh, and here's my guess at all the family names that will crop up, because there's only a handful of these folks from Colorado City/Hilldale:

• Bristline
• Barlow (the prominent family with all the power, aside from the Jeffs)
• Jeffs
• Jessop
• Grubler
• Harmon
• Nicholson
• Taylor (the family my cousin's married to, the original law breakers once LDS said "No more! ...in public. Now make us a state!")
• Nielson (one of my old college roommates was a Neilson, and her family was polygamist. She was trying to flee. I don't know if she made it.)

I gave a wry laugh at a report from one of the sweet little Baptist church ladies who hollered out to another woman recording names, "Watch out, I've already had a couple of Barlows. I don't think they're telling us their correct names." Nope, that's what you get with an inbred, incestuous community. (And let's hear it for those folks pitching in with their own resources to help out these people. This is what you get when the Texas Rangers are on the case, instead of the Feds.)

And I hate to say it, but the best way to keep these women and children from going off the deep end would be to integrate them with Mormons. They have the same vernacular. Good hell, if some of those Pentecostals and Baptists try and witness to them? They'll freak the hell out. They won't know what on earth is going on.

Comments

[beanbeans.livejournal.com]

I still have no words. I certainly shouldn't be surprised at the newest news coming out, because I have been reading your rants for a while, but nevertheless, I still find myself nauseous while reading the news reports.

If Richter did suspect that furnace might be used as a crematorium, why didn't he report it? Or, even better, not make it and THEN report it?

GAH. Where the hell is personal accountability?

ETA: Sorry, that was rhetorical. *breathes*

Please do share flower pics and recipes, and anything else sunny and happy. Bring the spam, girl- I look forward to it.

[drusplace.livejournal.com]

All of that polygamy stuff is just disturbing...The fact they think it's ok and JUST to treat little girls like that. Sad.

My crocus' are starting to come up! *bounces* It'll still be a bit before I get any flowers, but yay for sprouting!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

He didn't report it because Warren Jeffs believes in Blood Atonement. He'd be killed, and maybe even his wives and children. Like I said, chicken shit.

(here's an explanation) Note that most Mormons outside of Utah are converts and have NO IDEA about any of this stuff. This is old school, hardline doctrine, that the old timers (and the FLDS) hang on to, but to my knowledge, only the polygamists practice it.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

It's so sad. I've been frustrated for YEARS that these people have been allowed to thrive and flourish in the desert. GAH.

Crocuses! I need to plant some this fall, I miss having them in my garden! See, you may have to wait longer for spring, but you GET a spring! Ours is more of a SPR-wait, no, Summer. :D

[anelith.livejournal.com]

Horrible, horrible... Ron and I were talking about these girls this morning. Gave us the shudders.

I'm reminded of that book Devil in the White City where the killer had the furnace installed. Not so different from Jeffs, yes?

[beanbeans.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sorry about that. I've just read the reference to that in the article you linked in this post. But I knew that was the danger, even without reading that. It's pretty clear that the whole thing is rife with murder, abuse and fear.

My heart hurts for all those girls. And there are no easy or simple answers for any of them, in terms of recovering from the abuse.

Just... GAH.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oh, I completely forgot about that man! And yep - the crazy isn't too far-fetched, unfortunately.

I'm just glad people are talking about it. So many women have come forward over the past 10 years, and only now is the media picking up on it and holding on. It has to have been the religious angle, right? Which... that's no excuse in my book. (Where are the hardline feminists with their fists raised??)

[drusplace.livejournal.com]

I don't understand it. And I don't really want to.

It's pretty much spring now although we are supposed to have a high of 66F which is a bit higher than normal. This is my first year doing crocuses so I hope they come up ok. I think one has been munched by a bunny already.

[bastardsnow.livejournal.com]

Your posts on this matter (and those like it) are always enlightening and often disturbing, and I hope you continue to do them, to shed light on the goings-on for those of us who are unfamiliar and uninformed.

And yay for your garden.

[pernickety.livejournal.com]

I just had to seriously lower my opinion of myself. I was clicking around one of those FLDS blogs and they posted pictures of women who were loaded in buses and my first thought was: What's with the hair? Ftf, self.

Is it me or is the engineer saying: "I was afraid to be thought an accomplice" code for: "I didn't want to risk the opportunity for more contracts in the future." Maybe I'm just a cynic and he's a good man in a bad situation.
ETA:Ah, ok, I'm a dipshit. That engineer's family was in actual danger, that's something that may make you keep your mouth shut.

On a brighter note, YAY garden pictures! :)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not boring y'all to tears... It's just one topic I'm crazy-passionate about (and frustrated that more people aren't expressing their outrage. BAH.)

I'm about to shamble (but I'm not a zombie!!!) out there and enjoy the scent of my alyssum, etc. Bliss.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oh the HAIR! They're not allowed to cut it, so they do this swoopy thing in front to look like a fringe, and it's called "an angel bang." !!! Can you imagine wearing those clothes (and the women wear trousers or leggings underneath so no leg/ankle shows, not to mention "sacred undergarments" that go from neck to wrist to ankle) in the desert heat? We're talking 40+ centigrade! Feh.

And yeah, his family was in danger, but there would have been ways to tip off the authorities and sneak out family members, imo.

YAY GARDENING! Your post yesterday made me SO HAPPY. (And you should totally join that garden group - cataloging would be fun!)

[marenfic.livejournal.com]

The whole thing just makes me sick to my stomach.

[tabaqui]

*Gods*, the who thing just makes me sick to my stomach. And i'm outraged and horrified that our stupid, stupid government just lets this all go on, year after year.

*And* the other thing, the boys being abandoned because they're 'too many' so they just dump them like unwanted puppies. Jayzus.

Yeah, where the hell are all the people who scream about misogyny in tv shows while *this* shite is happening?

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

ME TOO. (And angry as all get out.)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

They do - they do. It goes back to the '53 raid on SHort Creek where the US public just turned against the police/authorities because it was played out to be consenting adults living quietly and cleanly, raising families. (Not to mention the mindset in the 50s about putting people on welfare forcibly was... not too kind.)

But now that there's a YOUTHFUL face on these mothers, that people are seeing that it's child abuse, my hope is that the pendulum won't swing back the other way.

EXACTLY! We've got psychos yammering about how Joss Whedon's wife is raped everytime they have sex (because of Joss' portrayal of women in his shows, uh... what a wackadoo) and all that shit, yet there's no outrage for this? This isn't a group of adults living together in a house in the PNW/other liberal regions because they're involved emotionally and sexually. This is FORCED SLAVERY. In the US!!! Good hell.

[tabaqui]

YES!
This is people who are raised so insulated from the world that they fear for their lives from the nutjobs who are in charge. People - women and female children - who have *no* power, no voice, no say and nowhere to turn, and young boys who see no future for themselves because the 'elders' get best/first/whatever. It's sick and insane and loathesome.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I wish more women/children who'd escaped would publicly talk about this, and not on dumb-ass shows like 'Tyra' but on fucking Sixty Minutes. And, gods, just for the publicity it would generate, on something like Oprah and Bill O'Riley, because at least they have a big audience and get a lot of attention.

Just...why the *fuck* aren't we doint something about this?

[botias.livejournal.com]

I've got no words. My heart goes out to the 16-year-old whistle-blower. What an incredible hero.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Not putting the rock back over those slugs is something, so we can keep talking about it. I'm glad it's still being reported on all the major news channels. I mean, their leader was on the FBI's most wanted list with Bin Laden! Good lord.

I hope the public isn't too squeamish to tackle this "religious" (no it isn't) issue.

What drove me nuts was how many women tried to talk about this on CNN, etc, but they'd get cut off so the newscasters could talk about more "interesting" topics. Like Paris Hilton? Christ.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I know, right? And it breaks my heart that she called back the next day after her distress call to say, no no, I'm fine, ignore me. Poor scared thing. Stupid culture that threatens whistle-blowing with DEATH. Jeez.

[flyingichthyo.livejournal.com]

OMG, I just read up on a few FLDS stories online, and --

--WTF 'KEEP SWEET'?!?!?

*FUCK*. *THAT*.

I am so. Angry. No words.

[flyingichthyo.livejournal.com]

Also, what happens to the gay and lesbian members of the FLDS people?

[tabaqui]

Yeah. All you can do is talk about it, keep it in the spotlight and hope that eventually people will freaking *get a clue*.

Paris Hilton needs to just go the fuck away and stay away. Gods, such a waste of air.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

!!!!

There *aren't* any. Meaning, no one would EVER come out. The LDS church (which, let's face it, the FLDS group are hardline Mormons with even more crazy) has an incredibly high suicide rate among their youth - they'd rather die than come out.

It's all incredibly terrible.

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

This is so weird for me to actually be ahead of the game on current events for once, thanks to having read your ongoing posts on this.

*directs roomie towards your tagged posts*

The scope of what this guy and the extended group have gotten away with just boggles the mind.