Click here for Mobile Site: http://m.cbs4denver.com
  • Font Size    
Advertising
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Former FLDS Member Remembers Abuse

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +    Comments
Nov 12, 2008 10:22 pm US/Mountain

Former FLDS Member Remembers Abuse

Written by Rick Sallinger

 Sallinger's Account: How I Got That Story

WESTCLIFFE, Colo. (CBS4) ― The polygamist group the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, has acquired at least eight properties in four Colorado counties.

CBS 4 reporter Rick Sallinger became the first TV reporter allowed inside one of their of their compounds and he spoke with the women living there.

They say they are yearning for heaven and outside Westcliffe, they perhaps feel they have found Heaven on Earth.

"I love it. Very invigorating and the atmosphere is just lovely," one member of the FLDS church told CBS4.

Those in the compound consist primarily of widows who have spent their lives in polygamy, like Dorothy Barlow.

"When we were children they would call us "plyg" ... polygamist, and that was just something we got used to, but it wasn't fun; it was something we got used to," Barlow said.

They were in what they call plural marriages. Some of the women were married to now deceased FLDS Bishop Fred Jessop.

Sallinger asked Barlow, "What is it like having all these wives and one husband?"

"It's really quite exciting if you want to bless him and want him to have the best; want him to be cared for, then how can you feel bad," she responded.

Wearing their prairie dresses with their hair in a French braid, they live in a communal setting. When CBS4 visited, they were passing the time canning fruits. Their daily needs are met by an FLDS caretaker and his family. They rarely venture out.

Rose Jessop says she was never mistreated while in a polygamous marriage.

"I had a happy childhood. I never knew anything but sweet love in the home. I saw beauty, heavenly beauty around," she said.

That is not what Laura Chapman saw. Her memories include abuse against women and children.

"I had four mothers and one father and 31 siblings; and I was number 25 of 31," Chapman said.

Chapman fled the FLDS in 1991.

Earlier, at age 18, she was almost being forced into a marriage to a man she had never seen before.

"My dad took me by the hand said this is my daughter Laura, she's ready to get married," Chapman said. "I didn't even know he was going to do that and suddenly I am handed over like merchandise to the prophet to decide my fate who will be my husband."

Chapman ended up marrying another man and left with their five children. She now provides training for officials who want to learn about the FLDS.

FLDS member Debbie Steed calls the talk of forced marriages "misconceptions."

"Our religion is to be good and do right and if there were evils and force and dreadful things we are accused of, why would any of us stay a part?" she said.

A religion challenged and tested through the generations.

How I Got That Story

Read Rick Sallinger's account of the events that led to his reporting of this story.

(© MMX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Curious & Controversial News

Add Comment

here. here. Need a log in? Register here
  •  * Will not be displayed with comment
  •  * e.g. (http://www.mywebsite.com)
  •  
  • Click here to refresh with new letters

Show Comments (0)

Close Window Login


Close Window Flag Comment


loading...
You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Investigates

Top News Stories

© MMX, CBS Television Stations Inc. All Rights Reserved.