The Secret Lives of Saints, page 42
CHAPTER 12—THE LOST BOYS
I interviewed close to a dozen lost boys in Canada and the United States between 2005 and 2007. Some interviews were done in Salt Lake City, others were done in St. George and still others in Cranbrook and Creston. I have also interviewed Dan Fischer on several occasions as well as Elaine Tyler, executive director of the HOPE Organization, Jane Blackmore and Lorna Blackmore. Some of the information comes from the so-called Lost Boys’ civil suits filed in the third judicial district court, Salt Lake County (Civil No. 040918237).
CHAPTER 13—FALLEN PROPHET
Winston Blackmore’s North Star newsletter and court documents filed in the B.C. Supreme Court case of the Bountiful Elementary-Secondary School Society v. J. R. Blackmore & Sons Ltd. and Winston Blackmore are key sources. Interviews with people who have left both Bountiful and the FLDS provides the context of the times as did CBC-V’s documentary, The Bishop of Bountiful, which first aired on Jan. 15, 2003.
Blackmore’s financial worth is based on reporting I did for The Vancouver Sun with the invaluable assistance of librarians Joel Minion, Sandra Boutilier and Kate Bird and staff at the land titles office in Bonner’s Ferry.
The description of Warren Jeffs’s ordination and quotes from his sermon were taken from Ben Winslow’s Aug. 30, 2006 profile in the Deseret Morning News titled “From Nerd to FLDS chief,” while the information about the Mancos ranch and the quote from Deputy County Assessor Scott Davis is from a July 16, 2005 story in the Rocky Mountain News.
CHAPTER 14—BORDER BRIDES
Rose Matjasic did the reporting on Winston Blackmore’s news conference in October 2000 for the Cranbrook Daily Townsman. I relied on my notes and digital recording from Blackmore’s news conference in May 2006 and interviews with Roger Hoole, Sam Brower and U.S. consular officials.
I first reported on the marriage of Lorraine Johnson and Shalina Palmer in January 2006 based on information provided to me by a number of sources.
CHAPTER 15—CALL TO ARMS
Tom Green’s story is a compilation of material taken from various sources including Jon Krakauer’s book Under the Banner of Heaven, a transcript of the Sally Jesse Raphael show and the Arizona Republic.
Utah Attorney-General Mark Shurtleff has spent many hours speaking to me about polygamy and the laws in his state. Arizona’s Attorney-General Terry Goddard has also spoken to me several times about various legal issues as has Buster Johnson, the Mohave County supervisor.
Jancis Andrews is the person who urged me to write my first column about Bountiful and the fundamentalist Mormons. I have spent hours speaking to her over the years and she provided me with access to her unpublished book manuscript, The Bountiful Conspiracy, about the efforts she has made to end polygamy as well as her voluminous files.
Audrey Vance and Linda Price have spent hours sharing what they have learned about Bountiful, while Nora Mennie and Nick Ronaldson have spoken to me numerous times about the financial hardships they’ve suffered because of the polygamists undercutting logging contractors.
CHAPTER 16—LYING FOR THE LORD
Several people directly involved in helping Roger Hoole and Joanne Suder described the atmosphere at the Grand Hotel that week.
The description of Marlene Palmer’s public-relations drive is the result of her inviting me to Bountiful, which resulted in my first trip there. The quotes and descriptions from the Beyond Borders conference on child brides and the Creston polygamy summit come from my notes, a tape of the proceedings and interviews at those meetings.
The B.C. Vital Statistics Agency’s report on teen births in Bountiful was first reported by CBC Radio reporter Gregor Craigie, who got the information under the B.C. Freedom of Information Act.
Dozens of interviews with people who do not wish to be named were used to piece together what has happened to the women and girls who were such outspoken advocates at the polygamy summit, but have since left.
CHAPTER 17—FLDS UNDER SIEGE
Gary Engels introduced me to Lori Chatwin, who generously invited me into her home during my first visit to Colorado City in 2005. She and her husband, Ross, have since spoken to me several times during various court hearings in Utah.
Fawn Broadbent filled in some of the details of what it was like the day that Warren Jeffs began excommunicating men. Broadbent and her friend, Fawn Holm, were both sixteen that day, which was the same day that they ran away.
The diligent reporting by the Deseret News, Salt Lake Tribune, St. George Spectrum and Arizona Republic provided the information about the marshal being decertified and the judge disbarred.
Descriptions and quotes from the August 2005 hearing on the United Effort Plan trust is from my notes and interviews I did at the Salt Lake City courthouse.
Details of Seth Steed’s arrest are from a U.S Department of Justice press release dated July 14, 2006.
The turkey-baster quote is from an interview with Mark Shurtleff while he was in Vancouver. Other quotes and descriptions from the Utah attorney-general’s meetings that day are from my notes and from digital recordings.
CHAPTER 18—THE ROAD TO PURGATORY
My Vancouver Sun colleague Chantal Eustace was responsible for getting Eddie Dutchover’s detailed description of Warren Jeffs’s arrest. Her information is supplemented with subsequent police reports and other news reporting from that day by Reuters, BBC and the Deseret News.
The descriptions and quotes from the preliminary hearings in St. George are from my notes.
CHAPTER 19—WHOSE RIGHTS?
The information is taken from my notes from the day-long training session, the evening townhall meeting and interviews with Deputy Sheriff Darrell Cashin, Utah Attorney-General Mark Shurtleff and Arizona Attorney-General Terry Goddard, pro-polygamy activists and anti-polygamy activists at the meeting.
The definition of cult and a description of French laws comes from work done by the Montreal-based Info-Cult, while information about the riots in the fall of 2005 are from BBC News and the Financial Times.
Information about Ontario’s flirtation with sharia law comes from my own reporting at the time for The Vancouver Sun as well as news reports by the Canadian Press, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and CBC.
Both B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal and special prosecutor Richard Peck spoke to me at length about Bountiful and their concerns about the success of a prosecution and the rationale for doing a reference to the court versus a test case.
EPILOGUE
Interviews with B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal and special prosecutor Richard Peck done in September 2007 as well as news releases from the Criminal Justice Branch of the Attorney General’s Ministry are the sources for the section on British Columbia.
The descriptions and quotes from Warren Jeffs’s trial are from my notes taken in the courtroom and interviews done in St. George, while I was reporting on the trial for The Vancouver Sun and the CanWest News Service.
The information about Afghan women and girls comes from several sources. Asne Seierstad’s fine reporting in her internationally acclaimed The Bookseller of Kabul provided a general understanding, while an Oct. 7, 2007 Canadian Press report provided the details about the schools. The number of allied troops in Afghanistan was reported by The Associated Press in a story on Oct. 7, 2007, while the Canadian number is from the National Defence Department.
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Award-winning journalist Daphne Bramham has been a columnist at the Vancouver Sun since 2000. She won a National Newspaper Award for her column in June 2005. She was honoured by the non-profit group Beyond Borders in 2004 for a continuing series of columns on the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C. Born in Saskatchewan, Bramham lives in Vancouver with her partner, John Skinner.
VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2009
Copyright © 2008 Daphne Bramham
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2009. Originally published in hardcover in Canada by Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2008. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House of Canada Limited.
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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Bramham, Daphne
The secret lives of saints: child brides and lost boys in a polygamous Mormon sect / Daphne Bramham.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37161-4
1. Blackmore, Winston, 1956–. 2. Mormon fundamentalism—British Columbia—Creston Region—History. 3. Polygamy—British Columbia—Creston Region. 4. Child sexual abuse—British Columbia. 5. Freedom of religion—Canada. I. Title.
BX8680.M535C3 2009 289.3'71162 C2008-903683-2
v1.0
FOOTNOTES
*1 Ruth Chatwin is a pseudonym.
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Daphne Bramham, The Secret Lives of Saints
