When Men Become Gods

As the head of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, a sect of Mormonism based in isolated southern Utah, Warren Jeffs held sway over thousands of followers for nearly a decade. His rule was utterly tyrannical. In addition to coercing young girls into polygamous marriages with older men, Jeffs reputedly took scores of wives, many of whom were his father’s widows. Television, radio, and newspapers were shunned, creating an isolated community where polygamy was prized above all else. But in 2007, Jeffs was convicted of rape as an accomplice for his role in coercing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old first cousin. After a two-year manhunt that landed him on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, Jeffs reign was forcefully ended. When Men Become Gods traces his rise and fall, offering new revelations into the nearly impenetrable world of the FLDS, a place of 19th century attire, inbreeding, and eerie seclusion, providing readers with a rare glimpse into a tradition that’s nearly a century old, but that’s only now beginning to gain wide exposure.