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REPORTER: Hana Gartner
PRODUCER: Oleh Rumak

WEB EXCLUSIVE

Once the most powerful man in Bountiful, Winston Blackmore is rumoured to have 26 wives and some 80 children. He sat down for an exclusive interview with the fifth estate's Hana Gartner three years ago. At the time he portrayed Bountiful as an idyllic, peaceful community.

Since then much has changed. Blackmore sees Warren Jeffs, head of the FLDS in the U.S. and wanted by the FBI for sexual assault, as a false prophet who is giving polygamy a bad name. For his lack of devotion, Blackmore was ex-communicated and stripped of his title of the Bishop of Bountiful. Two of his wives who were loyal to Jeffs left him.

Winston Blackmore talks with Hana Gartner again, this time, about Jeffs and Bountiful, now a divided community.

The self proclaimed prophet of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, 49, snatched the leadership of the 10,000 member polygamist sect upon the death of his father Rulon Jeffs.

Followers grew alarmed when Warren Jeffs started ex-communicating more and more of the faithful, splitting up families, and reassigning wives and children to other men. Winston Blackmore, of the FLDS Canadian chapter, was ex-communicated and removed as Bishop of Bountiful.

Last year, Warren Jeffs directed 400 faithful to leave Colorado City and build a new religious compound on 2,000 acres of brush land near Eldorado, Texas. Within a year the chosen faithful worked around the clock and established a new self sufficient community - comprised of dozens of large log homes, warehouses, industrial buildings and a 29,000 sq.ft. mansion for their prophet Warren Jeffs. At the center of the compound stands an imposing temple called "Yearning for Zion".

In 2005, Warren Jeffs was indicted in Mohave County, Arizona, on two counts of sexual assault on a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor for marrying a 16-year-old girl to a much older married man. When he evaded authorities Federal officials stepped in and charged him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution – placing him on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list.

Sam Brower is a private investigator based in Cedar City, Utah. He was hired as an investigator by a firm representing a number of victims of Warren Jeffs in a civil law suit.

Brower has tracked Jeffs from Colorado City, Arizona to Mancos, Colorado to Eldorado, Texas – he's even traveled to Bountiful Canada. It was in Bountiful that he tried to serve court papers on Mac Blackmore and Jimmy Oler believing that they had been at one time harbouring the elusive Jeffs.

Brower's law firm has successfully put pressure on Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to make a move and take over the UEP Trust, which has long been viewed as the source for Warren Jeffs financial reservoir in building up the new FLDS community of Eldorado in West Texas which houses his most fervent supporters and believers.

Sam Brower sees Warren Jeffs as a dangerous felon – one who has turned the FLDS movement into a cult and who wields a 'tribal' like control over the believers in his fold. Brower fears that Jeffs will even sacrifice his believers to keep him free and distant from the law.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff was re-elected for a second term as Utah Attorney General in November, 2004. Shurtleff is the first Utah official to take on polygamy since a disastrous raid in 1950. When first elected AG in 2000 he decided to take on the polygamists and end generations of abuse.

Shurtleff feels very passionately about this issue and met with British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal in December 2005 to share what he has learned about polygamy and offer help. At the press conference in Vancouver they admitted they have to work together if they are going to take on polygamy.

Polygamy/bigamy is criminal in Utah but Shurtleff says he doesn't have the resources to convict every polygamist in Utah and put 20,000 kids in foster care. His focus is on crimes against women and children, tax fraud and other crimes involving misuse of public money. The most pressing issue for Shurtleff is the international warrant issued for the arrest of Warren Jeffs, he brought it along with him when he visited B.C. in case Jeffs is found in Canada.

In the last couple of years Shurtleff worked with the Utah legislature to tough up the law for polygamists who take underage brides, and with a group of Utah polygamist women to draft a manual called The Primer for social service workers to improve the services to women and children from plural families. Shurtleff says he is committed to wiping out the crimes that are being committed in the name of polygamy. "I'm absolutely convinced crimes are being committed in my state. It keeps me awake at night." Utah authorities seized the FLDS's biggest asset the United Effort Plan Trust, registered in that state. It controls ¾ of Bountiful's land—all the farms, ranches, and homes.

As the first of his 26 wives Jane says she lived a privileged life and stood by Winston during their 17 years of marriage bearing him 7 of his reported 80 children.

In an interview with Hana Gartner three years ago she talked about growing up as a woman in Bountiful and revealed why she decided to leave it all behind. She has since divorced Winston Blackmore.

Raised in polygamy Debbie was only 15 when her father gave her away to a 57 year old man. She would become his 6th wife and stepmother to 32 other children. It was only after her third 'celestial marriage' that she found the courage to run from the community with her 8 children.

After years of silent suffering she has emerged as a leading activist against polygamy. In an interview three years ago, she spoke out against the abuses she saw and experienced in Bountiful.