Rulon Jeffs (L) the father of Warren Jeffs (R) Credit: Netflix How many children does Jeffs have? (Per his New York Times obituary, Rulon also had roughly 60 children, as well as hundreds of grandchildren, at the time of his death.) Jeffs' father, Rulonknown to the community as Uncle Rulonwas the original head of the FLDS from 1986 to 2002. Warren Jeffs is in prison, convicted of raping two girls, one 12 and the other 15. Warren Jeffs was the second sole leader of the FLDS church, which traces its roots to a 1912 statement published by Lorin Wolley, who went into hiding when the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints renounced polygamy in September 1890. Heres what you need to know about Warren Jeffs many wives, some of which were underage and are why he is currently in prison. The church itself had approximately 10,000 members living in compounds in Colorado City, AZ; Eldorado, TX; and Hildale, UT. Stephan Gladieu/Getty Images. Their main belief is that the more wives a man has will ultimately lead him to the highest salvation. He wanted to stay, hoping Warren Jeffs eventually would let him be with his mother again. This is because, as the leader of the group, only Jeffs had the right to decide which woman should marry which man. Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey interviews people who courageously left the FLDS after . The kind of pedestal I had him on kind of disintegrated, he said. The show was dedicated to helping people escape from different compounds in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, and on it, Rachel opened up about her own experiences within the FLDS. Today the three of them live on their own, free from Jeffs' control. The statistics often vary as most of them were not legal wives but 'spiritual wives.' Hence, the exact numbers are not known. I had seen some of the Texas trial evidence and kind of brushed it off as fabrication, Roy Jeffs said. Before he landed behind bars, he welcomed over 60 children. He has 54 full and half siblings. At the time of his death in September 2002, it was reported that Rulon had more than 75 wives and fathered approximately 60 children. Warren Steed Jeffs (born December 3, 1955) is an American religious leader and convicted child rapist. Roy Jeffs, now 24, does see a benefit to the raid that splintered his family. Now, Netflix is highlighting his terrifying story in a new documentary titled Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey. But the raid also was traumatizing, turning the childrens strictly structured lives into chaos and proving Warren Jeffswarning that the rest of the world wanted to persecute and ruin the church. Jeffs is currently serving a life sentence for sexual assault in Palestine, TX. "He didn't spend time with me," said Jeffson. Roughly a century ago, the FLDS broke away from the Mormon Church (also known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS) in a dispute over polygamy. Found in the YFZ temple vault were audio tapes of Warren Jeffs raping the preteen just weeks after her 12th birthdayas well as Warren Jeffs having a group sex session with at least a dozen underage girls, Dusek said. 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Now, he is forced to reapply for the permits. He had been put on trial in 2007 in St. George, Utah, but the Utah Supreme Court reversed his conviction, and he faced charges in Arizona that ultimately were dismissed. The FLDS church also has small settlements in Canada in a town called Bountiful, British Columbia; near Crawford, Colo.; near Las Vegas; near Mancos, Colo.; near Pioche, Nev.; and near Pringle, S.D., the Deseret (Utah) Newsreported in 2008. He also claimed that he could marry his father's wives because he was the "renewed" or reincarnated version of his father, Rulon Jeffs. Known as "Uncle Rulon" to his followers, he was . May 29, 2018. I genuinely believed I would be destroyedbecause my dad told me that constantly, Roy Jeffs said. Keeping track of his charges is as tedious as keeping track of the family tree. One of his children was Roy, who abandoned FLDS as a young man and spoke to CNN in 2015 about the fear he felt about his sudden freedom to make his own decisions. In it, she sought the help of the women on the show in contacting one of her sisters and possibly helping her get out of the FLDS. In many of these circumstances, teenage girls were often married off to become plural wives of community members, who were then sexually abused. According to Jeffs's estranged son, Roy, Jeffs banned Internet access as well as the use of TV to keep his members as isolated as possible from the world outside of the FLDS. "And I remember thinking, if my father is doing this and the world is wickeder, are the worlds fathers even worse than this? Warren Jeffs may have had between 70 to close to 80 wives and 60 children. A son of convicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs who accused his father of molesting him as a child has killed himself, some four years after speaking out against the alleged abuse, a relative said. Per Wikipedia, he told followers of the church at the time, "I won't say much, but I will say this hands off my father's wives. The program covers the story of the FLDS church and how Jeffs, its supposed Prophet, controlled the lives and marriages of all within the religious sect. Roy, then 23, told CNN's Lisa Ling: "I can see with how crazy my dads getting, with all his revelations (and) weird rules theyre so brainwashed by how my dad is, and I worry sometimes that it could end up in a mass suicide because of how much control he has.". Seth Jeffs serves as an official in the FLDS church. For Roy Jeffs to leave the FLDS church, It definitely took a couple of years of thinking about it before I got the nerve to do it," he said. Through interviews, Rachel has continued to speak out against her father and the church overall. As that number sharply rose, Dusek was appointed as one of two coordinating attorneys for Texas' largest child-custody removal to date. Copyright 2023 Distractify. It might be interesting to know that her grandfather was married to twenty women and had sixty children. As of now, the price of her book is $10.69, including hardcover ($1.99), audio, and Kindle ($8.07). Rachel Jeffs came to the limelight as the daughter of Warren Jeff. Roy Jeffs said his father also had sexually abused him, but he hadnt thought of it that way until after hearing his sisters talk about their own experiences. Most of Jeffs' children have sought to stay out of the limelight. READ NEXT: Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Warren Jeffs made his position on monogamy quite well known throughout his life, taking an estimated 87 wives prior to his incarceration, per Wikipedia. Warren Jeffs had dozens of wives. Be free to be happy and life will take you on your fast-forward journey.". Leaving was, basically like going into a whole new world, Raymond Jeffs said. Keep reading for all of the known details. How Many Children did Rulon Jeffs Have? Published 2 March 23, Here's what fans need to know about Dom and Georgia's break up. It's quite challenging to tally them. Dateline Episode Trailer: Unbreakable | Dateline NBC, Keith Morrison reports Friday, May 8 at 9/8c on NBC. August 2016:3 in polygamous sect rearrested in Utah food-stamp case July 2016:Ex-polygamous sect members sue Warren Jeffs, former lawyers. The arrest, which led to the first of Warren Jeffs's convictions, is one of many gripping moments recounted in Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, a new Netflix documentary dedicated to Jeffs and the . Warren Jeffs is already in prison on separate charges of being an accomplice to rape. Currently, Jeffs stars in the reality series, Escaping Polygamy. Warren Jeffsinstilled in FLDS members the belief that disobeying his orders would mean eternal damnation, causing a constant fear of being unworthy, Raymond Jeffs said. He is a member of the board of trustees for FLDS. He had bought 40 acres of property in Pike Lake Road. ), Is Daisy Jones and the Six based on Fleetwood Mac's ups and downs? Copyright 2023 Distractify. Some incidents she discussed include one teenage mother to her who had cancer, which Jeffs claimed was her punishment for immoral thoughts.. Mar. That conviction was eventually overturned by the Utah Supreme Court on the grounds of erroneous jury instructions, but Jeffs was later convicted in Texas on two counts of sexual assault for his celestial marriages to a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl, the latter of which birthed his child. I can do anything I want.' Of the estimated minimum of 60 children who share Jeffs as a parent, only a handful have publicly spoken out against his behavior. The court wrote that a belief system by itself does not put children in physical danger.. If it weren't for the bravery of two of Jeff's children who left the FLDS, Jeffs' crimes may never have been exposed. In addition, he also headed the trust funds later.