Tapes of Jeffs illuminating
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
Law enforcement involved in the manhunt for Warren Jeffs have been learning more about him — from the fugitive Fundamentalist LDS Church leader himself.

Hundreds of hours of tape recordings of Jeffs' sermons are in the hands of the Utah Attorney General's Office and investigators in Arizona. Some recordings obtained by the Deseret Morning News provide more insight into the mindset of the polygamist prophet. The sermons go on for hours, with Jeffs speaking in a monotone. The only break is the occasional hymn or a baby's cry.

Some of the Sunday sessions were secretly recorded just before Jeffs began mass excommunications of his flock.

"We are under attack," Jeffs proclaims in an Aug. 10, 2003, sermon, "We need the Lord's protection."

The recordings are poor quality. They were recorded by Ross Chatwin just before he was ousted from the church. Chatwin told the Deseret Morning News he hollowed out a Book of Mormon and slipped a digital recorder in there. He also slipped it in his shoe.

"I wanted to believe everything was going to go right, but I started to figure out that it wasn't going to go right," Chatwin said.

In the August 2003 sermon, Jeffs urges his followers to "keep sweet" and obey God's commandments. Then he claims to have received a revelation from God.

"Verily I say unto you, my servant Warren," Jeffs said, recounting his revelation to the crowd: "My people have sinned a very grievous sin before me, in that they have raised up monuments to man and have not glorified me."

Jeffs goes on to say that God is angry over a monument that had been erected in Colorado City, Ariz., memorializing the 1953 raid on Short Creek, which resulted in dozens of polygamists being jailed. Jeffs ordered the monument destroyed and the pieces scattered in the hills.

Within weeks, the monument was destroyed.

"My people must need repent for their idolatry, which is covetousness loving anything more than God," Jeffs said. He urged FLDS faithful to build up God's kingdom, storehouse and priesthood on earth. "If you do not, I shall bring a scourge upon my people to purge the ungodly from among you."

At the end of the meeting, Jeffs made an announcement canceling church meetings until further notice.

"Priesthood meetings, general meetings on Sundays, Monday morning meetings," he said. "We are to continue building the storehouse and teaching our families."

A few months later, dozens of FLDS members were excommunicated by Jeffs. Some were told to "repent from a distance" and lost their homes on land owned by the FLDS Church's United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust.

Jeffs has made hundreds of tapes himself, espousing racist beliefs, promoting polygamy and child bride marriages. Many of them were recorded when he was principal of the Alta Academy, a now-defunct FLDS school in Little Cottonwood Canyon. They caused a stir when they were publicized last year when the FLDS Church began construction on its temple in Eldorado, Texas.

The Deseret Morning News has also recently obtained video clips of Jeffs introducing children's plays at the Alta Academy, recorded in 1993.

Speaking in a monotone, Jeffs' sermons sound almost robotic. Gary Engels, a special investigator with the Mohave County Attorney's Office, believes it is by design.

"You go around town (Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.) you'll hear people listening to them all day every day," he said. "You can imagine how that affects people."

Chatwin handed over his tapes to the Utah Attorney General's Office.

"I hope they can learn from them and understand how a dictator like Warren works, so it doesn't happen again," he said. Some tapes that Jeffs made have shown up on the Internet auction site eBay.

Engels said listening to Jeffs' tapes has been helpful in the investigation into the polygamous prophet.

"I have access to hundreds of his tapes. I've listened to probably 50 or 60 of them," he said Friday. "It basically tells me what he thinks, what he's been thinking."

Detectives believe that Jeffs continues to make the tapes while still on the run, giving instructions to his followers.

"He still needs to communicate with his people and pass on his words and his wisdom, if you want to call it that," Engels said.

On Wednesday, Jeffs was charged in Washington County with two counts of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. He is accused of forcing a teenage girl to marry an older man in a spiritual marriage and threatened her with damnation if she did not stay with her husband. Jeffs is also facing sexual misconduct charges in Mohave County, Ariz., in connection with arranging child bride marriages. He is on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

In an affidavit filed by Washington County Sheriff's deputies, reference is made to some of Jeffs' audiotapes. Deputies said that in 2002, Jeffs spoke of "spiritual marriages."

"Jeffs said, 'Our prophet and the celestial law — the principle of revelation are under attack. There is a combined effort in the state of Utah and the state of Arizona to come against our prophet and this people trying to stop the work of God. I'll call on Brother Sam Barlow (former Colorado City town marshal) to give this report with any instructions he feels impressed to give,' " the affidavit said, adding that Barlow called upon the people to "withstand the pressure" of law enforcement.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff hopes the search for Jeffs intensifies now that Washington County has filed such serious charges. Shurtleff told the Deseret Morning News he has spoken with Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials about increasing border patrol awareness about Jeffs.

"He's been in Canada," Shurtleff said. "He's been back and forth."

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Sunday, April 9, 2006
 
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