When Men Become Gods

Book excerpt: As the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, a sect of Mormonism based in southern Utah, Warren Jeffs held sway over thousands of followers for nearly a decade. In addition to coercing young girls into polygamous marriages with older men, Jeffs reputedly took scores of wives himself. The media were shunned, creating a hidden community where polygamy was prized above all else. But in 2007, after a two-year FBI manhunt, Jeffs was convicted as an accomplice to rape. Journalist Singular traces Jeffs's rise to power and the concerted effort that led to his downfall. It was a movement championed by law enforcement, but more vocally by a group of former wives seeking to liberate young women from the arranged marriages they'd once endured. The book offers new revelations into a nearly impenetrable enclave--a place of inbreeding and eerie seclusion, and a tradition almost a century old.--From publisher description.