Prophet’s Prey – By SAM BROWER

A Review

Sub title

My Seven-year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the

Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints.

Preface by Jon Krakauer

            Prophet’s Prey shows us Sam is not only a fabulous detective but a good writer.  What it essentially does is fill in the blanks not covered by all the newspaper articles, especially about what Warren Jeffs was doing while on the run and incarcerated.  It also gives us an inside look at the Texas CPS and how overwhelmed they became when they removed 416 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch.         

            I think a reader who already has knowledge of the Mormon subculture, how the doctrines have distorted the thinking of adherents, will get more out of the book than the reader who is learning about Mormon fundamentalism for the first time.  The reader who is familiar with the FLDS will be able to read between the lines, especially concerning the political ramifications that not only indirectly subsidized FLDS power with grants but attempted to quash a certain and lasting disposition of the FLDS criminal enterprise.  I experienced the same tepid reaction from the Federal Government in attempting to get IRS criminal complaints against the Defendants in Hill vs. Allred, AUB, et. al.  The IRS Criminal Investigator, who was more than cooperative and in agreement, approached the local US Attorney who declined prosecution.  I learned that the fallout from Waco and Ruby Ridge was still strong and politically debilitating as it apparently was in prosecuting FLDS leaders.  The Feds were simply afraid of another standoff with a radical religious cult. 

            There is one unsung hero in Prophet’s Prey that apparently only rated a couple of pages, which may be because there is still a lot of mystery surrounding her.  I suspect the Texas Rangers have penetrated the mystery but aren’t talking, and why should they?  In case you haven’t guessed, it was 33-year-old Rozita Swinton, a young African American lady living in Colorado Springs.

            As I read Sam’s account, while trying to remember what I had read in the newspapers, I thought one of the first questions I would have asked Sarah if I was CPS is how she was able to have access to a telephone.  She was apparently able to talk for as long as an hour, a puzzling situation for a young, abused girl confined in the Yearning For Zion Ranch.   Something else that is puzzling?  According to a newspaper article Rozita had researched the Yearning For Zion Ranch and had literature in her possession that affirmed that. At the time little was known about the Ranch and the people in it.  But the information she was able to give the Texas CPS was extremely accurate which included a lexicon of phrases, names and sound bites indigenous to the FLDS.  It was so convincing that the CPS and Texas Rangers would have been extremely derelict had they not acted and raided the ranch.  But then why look a gift horse in the mouth?  I find it ironic that a Black lady, multiple personalities or not, triggered the event that has sent several pedophiles to prison, including the megalomaniac, Warren Jeffs.  For those that are not familiar with the archaic, racial Mormon decree, the African race is supposed to be a cursed, inferior race. 

            Megalomaniac means a “mental disorder marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur.”  Omnipotence means “having unlimited authority or influence.”  Warren Jeffs also thought he was omnipotent, meaning, all powerful – and of course he was to the true believers.

            Sam did a good job in tracing Warren’s activities while on the run.  I was amused to learn that he made two trips to New Orleans and on one trip he took in the Mardi Gras, a sinful, hedonistic festival.  He apparently also  spent a lot time in Las Vegas, colloquially known as Sin City.  In the hotels Warren and his confident wife, Naomi, would watch pornography on TV.  Of course after indulging in sin, what he was really doing is obeying a divine duty to observe so he could condemn, which he did by shaking the dust off his heels and calling down destroying angels from on high.  Of course all this sin searching had nothing to do with God or protecting his true believers.  What Warren was doing is fighting the very thing that turned him on. 

            You don’t have to be a psychologist to see that Warren Jeffs is a narcissist.  Paranoia is often associated with the narcissist personality, especially when he has doubts about his effectiveness to control.  He is therefore constantly testing his follower’s loyalty.  Testing is also a creative way of obtaining the feedback that he craves.  The more ridiculous the test like trashing children’s toys and forbidding the color red, the more gratifying is the feedback. And apparently, Warren has a never-ending supply of ridiculous edict with which to test his true believer, and the true believers never question or fail to obey. 

            Joe Darger in his book Loves Times Three claims Warren Jeffs is an anomaly.  Not so!  Narcissistic tendencies are found in all cult leaders which includes those phony prophets who build upon Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.   James D. Harmston and Ervil LeBaron are examples.

            It is my opinion that the very nature of Mormon fundamentalism, the power, ego, sex and money to be had contributes to or encourages narcissistic characteristics.  Put another way, the fundamentalist doctrines provide an environment where a narcissistic personality can grow to the extreme. The more isolated and insulated the environment or organized community, the more extreme the acting out.  Mass murderer Ervil LeBaron and Warren Jeffs the pervert, are examples of what can happen when fundamentalists isolate and insulate.  If you think it is the statutes against polygamy that forces the polygamists to seek isolation you are wrong.  They isolate so information can be controlled.  The robotic behavior of the FLDS laity is proof in the pudding. It is my opinion that if AUB, TLC and the Kingstons could isolate like the FLDS they too would be much more radical.  As it is the all-seeing, inhibiting eye of mainstream society is peeking over their shoulders.  Even still, they attempt to dictate austere styles, language and association.  All fundamentalists hate apostates and use hate to unify.

            Sam does a good job in expanding upon the newspaper accounts describing Warren’s mental status while incarcerated.  Warren’s self-deprecation goes with his personality.  His masturbating in plain sight of his jailors is more than a perverted reaction to fantasy; it is a method of relieving stress, although he may not realize it.  A sex offender is more apt to act out while under stress. 

            What Prophet’s Prey does is support and validate Elissa Wall and Carolyn Jessop’s books regarding the submission and vulnerability of the FLDS laity.  Where Elissa and Carolyn were somewhat sympathetic with the FLDS followers, no doubt because they both have family still under the spell of Warren, Sam has no such inhibitions.

            It may be difficult for some readers to imagine the power an unscrupulous, narcissistic leader has over a people, especially in the USA.  But it goes to show what brainwashing can do when polygamist prophets control information from birth to adulthood. 

            What lessons are to be learned from Prophet’s Prey?  Foremost, that organized polygamist groups are criminal enterprises. Secondly, when they are allowed to govern themselves by their own rules corruption and abuse are inevitable.  Thirdly, when sexual intercourse, a biological, DNA driven instinct is accepted as a religious mandate, it is only a matter of time before there is trouble.  Fourthly, anytime a religious doctrine defines women as inferior and should be submissive with little to no rights, abuse and oppression results.

            Chief Justice Robert Bauman in Canada got it right when he ruled that more harm than good comes from Mormon polygamy.

            In conclusion, Prophet’s Prey is informative, well written and moves along like a novel.