Practicing Polygamists In Texas
 
By Ellen McNamara
KXAN 36 - Austin, Texas
 
Warren Jeffs, the leader of a practicing polygamist group, sits in a Utah jail Wednesday night.

He's accused of demanding a 14-year-old girl marry her 19-year-old cousin in 2001.

Even with Jeffs in prison, a group of his most loyal followers continue to thrive in the small Texas town of Eldorado, about 200 miles west of Austin.

Talk of the town revolves around the temple.

What was supposed to be an estimated 1,700-acre hunting retreat developed into a home for a few hundred members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

It's a home that local newspaper man Randy Mankin watches closely.

"When they're as reclusive as this group is, and when there as insulated from outside opinions and views, and different points of view you worry," said Mankin, editor of the Eldorado Success.

Behind the gate, girls marry as soon as their bodies are able to bear children, and potential husbands are usually a relative of some kind.

"There are plural marriages going on, which is their phrase for polygamy," Mankin said.

"It's normal to them; we think it's strange," said Jimmy Doyle, Schleicher County justice of the peace. "Only a few men are seen ever leaving the ranch."

Women are only spotted by plane or when town officials like Jimmy Doyle are allowed in for approved visits.

"We've had people ask, 'Why don't you just kick the door in and run them off?' But we can't do that," Doyle said.

Despite polygamy, law enforcement won't break through the gates, because members of the group aren't leaving.

"Somebody has to come to my office and raise their hand and swear that something has happened to them," Doyle said.

A world under lockdown makes it difficult for those trying to look in.

"Private property is a big deal out here," Mankin said. "What a person does on his property is his business."

Some fear that fact is appealing to other members and groups looking to buy land in Texas.

"If they think they can find refuge in Texas, and that Texas will let it happen, I have no doubt that they would look to come here, maybe not to Schleicher County or Eldorado, but maybe to Round Rock," Mankin said.

Despite all the uncertainty on the outside, there have been no reports of violence on the inside, and no weapons have been found.

KXAN was declined entry to the ranch and did not receive any comment from anyone inside.

KXAN contacted Warren Jeffs for an interview, but his attorneys declined.

Jeffs pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of rape by accomplice.

His trial was postponed because of appeals filed by his attorneys.
 
KXAN.com
Originally broadcast May 9, 2007
 
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