ELDORADO, Texas — Hundreds of miles from the prison cell where polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has been moved to serve his life sentence for raping two underage girls, he has a 100-bedroom mansion waiting for him.
Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe the imprisoned prophet will transform himself and miraculously escape from behind bars, where he’s been since he was arrested in 2006 on separate charges. And so, this spring, they finished the new mansion at the Yearning for Zion Ranch here, replacing the 31-bedroom dwelling built just seven years ago for Jeffs, his 79 wives and their children.
The massive new structure is just one of several erected during a building boom that hasn’t stopped at the ranch, even after a 2008 raid that led to the conviction of Jeffs and seven other church leaders.
“It’s the second-largest building on the ranch, only second to the temple,” said Willie R. Jessop, a former church spokesman involved in a leadership battle with Jeffs.
“They’re constantly doing new construction out there,” said Sheriff David Doran of Schleicher County, the dusty desert county where Jeffs ordered the 1,700-acre Yearning for Zion Ranch to be purchased and built up for his most devoted followers in 2003.
The sect continues to plant deep roots in Texas, the state that has convicted many of its leaders. FLDS-linked buyers have purchased at least two other properties in the county since the raid, including a separate, 242-acre farm where children toil away in a cotton field and metal gets crushed into scrap, a neighbor said. And they’ve set up at least 23 businesses in Texas, ranging from a shipping company to a printer, according to state prosecutor Eric Nichols and state documents.
Tuesday morning, Jeffs was transported to his 60-square-foot protective custody cell at the Powledge Unit in Palestine, Texas, where he will begin serving his sentence of life plus 20 years for his Aug. 4 conviction of sexually assaulting two minors who he took as “spiritual wives,” said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark.
With Jeffs now locked up 340 miles away and only allowed limited phone calls and visitation with his list of 10 people — excluding minors who are not his children — it’s unclear why his followers have kept moving to Schleicher County, population 3,500, dotted with rickety houses and conservative Christian churches that operate out of trailers and small industrial buildings.
County tax records show that in 2009, three houses totaling 37,674 square feet were built at Yearning for Zion, which is blocked off by two sets of barbed-wire fences and a guard tower. Another 23,000-square-foot, H-shaped house was finished the following year.
Water usage on the ranch rose 27 percent between 2009 and 2010, suggesting that the population has grown, said local water district manager Jon Cartwright. An application to drill a sixth well was denied, he said.
Jeffs told his followers in 2003 that he received a proclamation from God to relocate his most chosen to Texas, which had a legal marriage age of 14 at the time. They purchased the ranch for $1.2 million that November, and were greeted by a Texas Ranger carrying a copy of the state penal code, with the bigamy and sexual assault section highlighted. State legislators increased the marriage age in 2005 to stave off the influx of polygamists.
Undeterred, Jeffs’ followers have erected at least 48 structures assessed at $14.8 million as of early 2011. The buildings include a dairy, a cheese plant, a tannery, a machine shop, a cement plant, a sewage treatment system, orchards, gardens and, as the centerpiece, a threestory white limestone temple.
After a police raid in 2008, more than 400 minors, including several girls who were pregnant, were put into foster care for months as the state tried to determine whether they had been abused.
Truckloads of evidence also were seized, which Texas has used to convict Jeffs and seven other church leaders. More are awaiting trial.
Nobody knew there were so many women and children living at the ranch before the raid. Jeffs instructed them to huddle completely silently inside their homes with the shades pulled when any outsider came on the ranch, according to a priesthood record.
“These places of refuge were designed to conceal these young girls from law enforcement,” said Nichols.
Doran said he was told 200 people lived on the ranch, but found 600 during the raid. “We’ve always asked — not to be nosy, but asked if there was an incident out there that needed emergency services,” said the sheriff. “We wanted to know what kind of numbers we’re dealing with.”
Ex-members have speculated that the raid would have turned into a bloody showdown if Jeffs hadn’t already been jailed in Nevada on separate charges.
He had instructed his men “to fight to the death rather than let the wicked desecrate that house,” referring to the temple, according to priesthood records.
The church has sat empty since law enforcement “desecrated” it by entering, Lyle Jeffs, Warren Jeffs’ brother, confirmed to The Daily.
Since 2004, 17 of the 22 underage marriages Jeffs presided over were performed at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, as were Jeffs’ last five marriages to underage girls, including three 12-year-olds.
Forrest Roubinson, who lives next door to the FLDS’ newest property in Schleicher County, the 242-acre farm, said there are as many as 10 travel trailers lined up at the farm, and as many as 100 children picking cotton at all hours. There are also three trailer houses that have been connected and “made into a dormitory where all the kids stay,” two double-wide trailers and a large ranch house.
“It looks like a carnival has come to town,” Roubinson said.
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Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe the imprisoned prophet will transform himself and miraculously escape from behind bars, where he’s been since he was arrested in 2006 on separate charges. And so, this spring, they finished the new mansion at the Yearning for Zion Ranch here, replacing the 31-bedroom dwelling built just seven years ago for Jeffs, his 79 wives and their children.
The massive new structure is just one of several erected during a building boom that hasn’t stopped at the ranch, even after a 2008 raid that led to the conviction of Jeffs and seven other church leaders.
“It’s the second-largest building on the ranch, only second to the temple,” said Willie R. Jessop, a former church spokesman involved in a leadership battle with Jeffs.
“They’re constantly doing new construction out there,” said Sheriff David Doran of Schleicher County, the dusty desert county where Jeffs ordered the 1,700-acre Yearning for Zion Ranch to be purchased and built up for his most devoted followers in 2003.
The sect continues to plant deep roots in Texas, the state that has convicted many of its leaders. FLDS-linked buyers have purchased at least two other properties in the county since the raid, including a separate, 242-acre farm where children toil away in a cotton field and metal gets crushed into scrap, a neighbor said. And they’ve set up at least 23 businesses in Texas, ranging from a shipping company to a printer, according to state prosecutor Eric Nichols and state documents.
Tuesday morning, Jeffs was transported to his 60-square-foot protective custody cell at the Powledge Unit in Palestine, Texas, where he will begin serving his sentence of life plus 20 years for his Aug. 4 conviction of sexually assaulting two minors who he took as “spiritual wives,” said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark.
With Jeffs now locked up 340 miles away and only allowed limited phone calls and visitation with his list of 10 people — excluding minors who are not his children — it’s unclear why his followers have kept moving to Schleicher County, population 3,500, dotted with rickety houses and conservative Christian churches that operate out of trailers and small industrial buildings.
County tax records show that in 2009, three houses totaling 37,674 square feet were built at Yearning for Zion, which is blocked off by two sets of barbed-wire fences and a guard tower. Another 23,000-square-foot, H-shaped house was finished the following year.
Water usage on the ranch rose 27 percent between 2009 and 2010, suggesting that the population has grown, said local water district manager Jon Cartwright. An application to drill a sixth well was denied, he said.
Jeffs told his followers in 2003 that he received a proclamation from God to relocate his most chosen to Texas, which had a legal marriage age of 14 at the time. They purchased the ranch for $1.2 million that November, and were greeted by a Texas Ranger carrying a copy of the state penal code, with the bigamy and sexual assault section highlighted. State legislators increased the marriage age in 2005 to stave off the influx of polygamists.
Undeterred, Jeffs’ followers have erected at least 48 structures assessed at $14.8 million as of early 2011. The buildings include a dairy, a cheese plant, a tannery, a machine shop, a cement plant, a sewage treatment system, orchards, gardens and, as the centerpiece, a threestory white limestone temple.
After a police raid in 2008, more than 400 minors, including several girls who were pregnant, were put into foster care for months as the state tried to determine whether they had been abused.
Truckloads of evidence also were seized, which Texas has used to convict Jeffs and seven other church leaders. More are awaiting trial.
Nobody knew there were so many women and children living at the ranch before the raid. Jeffs instructed them to huddle completely silently inside their homes with the shades pulled when any outsider came on the ranch, according to a priesthood record.
“These places of refuge were designed to conceal these young girls from law enforcement,” said Nichols.
Doran said he was told 200 people lived on the ranch, but found 600 during the raid. “We’ve always asked — not to be nosy, but asked if there was an incident out there that needed emergency services,” said the sheriff. “We wanted to know what kind of numbers we’re dealing with.”
Ex-members have speculated that the raid would have turned into a bloody showdown if Jeffs hadn’t already been jailed in Nevada on separate charges.
He had instructed his men “to fight to the death rather than let the wicked desecrate that house,” referring to the temple, according to priesthood records.
The church has sat empty since law enforcement “desecrated” it by entering, Lyle Jeffs, Warren Jeffs’ brother, confirmed to The Daily.
Since 2004, 17 of the 22 underage marriages Jeffs presided over were performed at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, as were Jeffs’ last five marriages to underage girls, including three 12-year-olds.
Forrest Roubinson, who lives next door to the FLDS’ newest property in Schleicher County, the 242-acre farm, said there are as many as 10 travel trailers lined up at the farm, and as many as 100 children picking cotton at all hours. There are also three trailer houses that have been connected and “made into a dormitory where all the kids stay,” two double-wide trailers and a large ranch house.
“It looks like a carnival has come to town,” Roubinson said.
RELATED ARTICLES
PERV 'PROPHET' GETS LIFE PLUS 20
I WILL BREAK YOU
PERVERTED BRAINWASHER
INSIDE THE CULT
