This was my thought... Its Texas... Kill'm

Theyre all part of the cult, and he's the supreme leader...

- Peter.

[QUOTE=pj67coll;2772591]Theyre all part of the cult, and he's the supreme leader...

- Peter.[/QUOTE The penitentary will put Jeffs out of circulation, but will someone else step in to take his spot.

Of course someone will step in. This is not a cult of poor people. The Hillside/Colorado City Trust or whatever it's called is worth many millions of dollars. They ain't just gonna wander away. They'll find somebody else to "submit" to.

Yep. They've been around for a while. In fact I think a few decades back the state attempted to do something about it by forcibly removing a bunch of kids from the cult and placing them with foster parents in the "normal" community. It was traumatic for the kids and if I remember correctly many of them wound up back with their original families in time.

I know someone who had a contract up in Colorado city a few years ago. His descriptions of the place were interesting to say the least. Lots of money, and non whites decidedly not welcome. Though reading between the lines I got the impression from him that just about anyone outside of the cult was probably unwelcome.

- Peter.

Exactly right. I used to go thru there several times a year. What you're referencing is the "Short Creek Raid". It happened back in the 50's. If I remember the story correctly there was an ambitious state attorney general who had his eye on the governorship who decided to prosecute them. They rounded up all the women and kids and took them off to some camp and arrested all the men and charged them with bigamy. Only problem was, bigamy requires an illegal marriage. All the men were legally married to their first wives, but were only spiritually married to the rest, and so the bigamy charges didn't stick. Everybody was released, went back home and changed the name of the town from Short Creek to Colorado City. It was an expensive, embarrassing boondoggle for the politicos who tried to pull it off.
On passing through the place, I always noticed that it was sorta like a "planned community", with nobody apparently at home. No kids playing in the road, no bikes scattered around, curtains drawn. Kinda like your average HOA controlled subdivision, only with great big houses with multiple front doors. Lots of the historic old houses in Utah have multiple front doors too. One for each wife. Colorado City looked like what Utah would look like today if the LDS fathers hadn't got a message from god the father almighty shortly before the U.S. Congress allowed statehood that he was just kidding about plural marriage and it was really OK and in fact preferable to only have one wife.

Great description. This place sounds like the 'Twilight zone'.
I am just wondering if initially this Mormon sect started out wholesome-and had good intentions-and somewhere over time-it got distorted, and is now out of hand.

Good. And prison should be an interesting experience for them.

I'm not sure, but isn't that pretty common in many multi-wife cultures (under-aged wives in some African and Asian cultures for example)? I don't think that it's just a Mormon thing. I could certainly be wrong, though, and doesn't make Jeffs and his ilk any less despicable.

I can't even begin to imagine.:eek: The grief and aggravation one woman brings is quite enough. Why the heck would you want to deal with more??? :D

That's the impression I have. There was a TV movie made about the Short Creek raid quite a few years ago. It viewed them sympathetically. Articles I've read that were written around the time of the raid didn't mention child brides, only polygamy. Growing up, it seems to me the general feeling regarding these folks was simply that they were different and wanted to be left alone and besides they live way up there in Bumf##k so who cares?

I like how you descibed this area. Made me feel as if I were there.

Someone else commented earlier that child brides are common in other coultures/and this is true.

However, in most of the places where this occur, they are third-world impoverished backwards society's. And do not have the laws that the U.S. has.

This being the case..I personally feel it is hypocritical of some folks to point out and criticise other country's/coultures..when this same thing is going on in the U.S.

But was that an accurate portrayal or just a societal convention of the time. Were talking about half a century ago now remember.

- Peter.

I think you were just making a general statement but just for clarification, I certainly don't condone it in any country or culture.

It's possible. There were lots of things not spoken about back then.