Former Bishop of Bountiful, Winston Blackmore is rumoured to have 26 wives and 80 children. Download the Bountiful family tree. (.pdf file)

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BUST-UP IN BOUNTIFUL

Late October 2005, just off Interstate 25 in Pueblo, Colorado – 150 miles south of Denver, local police observe a late model SUV swerving through a stop sign.

The vehicle is stopped, its two occupants detained. Thirty-two-year-old Seth Jeffs is arrested for solicitation of a male prostitute. Nathaniel Steed Allred, twenty-seven, is arrested for prostitution when he admits that he had been paid $5,000 by Seth Jeffs for sexual services. Hidden inside the van police find a box containing $140,000 in cash, cell phones, $7,000 in prepaid credit cards. They also find a donation jar labeled 'Pennys For the Prophet.'

Upon further investigation police establish that the two men are couriers on a supply run to assist a fugitive named Warren Jeffs (see photo above), the self-proclaimed prophet and supreme leader of a polygamous sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). The FLDS is a break-away Mormon splinter group that believes that if a man wants to find salvation, enter the celestial kingdom of God and possibly become a God himself, he needs at least three wives. It is rumored that Warren Jeffs has 50 wives.

Warren Jeffs is also on the FBI's Most Wanted list, a fugitive who has been indicted on charges including two counts of sexual assault with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.

The 10,000-member FLDS church has been based in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. The Canadian chapter of the FLDS is located in a community named Bountiful, located just outside Creston, British Columbia and headed by Winston Blackmore.

In 2003, the fifth estate's Hana Gartner sat down with the then-Bishop of Bountiful in an exclusive interview to talk about his life there, his 26 wives and 80 children, his faith, and allegations of child brides and of abuse in the church's chapter in Canada.

At the time, the picture Winston Blackmore painted of Bountiful was of an idyllic, although secretive, existence. But, in three years, Blackmore's world has changed dramatically. Long considered a rival to Warren Jeffs, Blackmore was finally ex-communicated from the FLDS church for questioning Jeffs' predictions that the world was going to end. This split the Bountiful community into two, those choosing to follow Winston Blackmore and those that remained loyal to the new prophet, Warren Jeffs.

The split has turned brother against brother, sister against sister, and ultimately family against family in Bountiful. Winston Blackmore is clear who is responsible for the situation, Warren Jeffs. "He has ruined our faith structure, he has ruined our marriage system. He has ruined our educational values. It is almost hypocrisy to consider that someone is the prophet, the president of a church and they literally spoil and destroy their people."

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