The Witness Wore Red
The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice
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4.5 • 486 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
You've watched Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, the top 5 true-crime docuseries on Netflix. Now discover the revealing memoir of one woman featured in the series who was forced into polygamous marriage and her brave struggle to protect others from the same fate.
Rebecca Musser grew up in fear, concealing her family's polygamous lifestyle from the "dangerous" outside world. Covered head-to-toe in strict, modest clothing, she received a rigorous education at Alta Academy, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' school headed by Warren Jeffs. Always seeking to be an obedient Priesthood girl, in her teens she became the nineteenth wife of her people's prophet: 85-year-old Rulon Jeffs, Warren's father. Finally sickened by the abuse she suffered and saw around her, she pulled off a daring escape and sought to build a new life and family.
The church, however, had a way of pulling her back in-and by 2007, Rebecca had no choice but to take the witness stand against the new prophet of the FLDS in order to protect her little sisters and other young girls from being forced to marry at shockingly young ages. The following year, Rebecca and the rest of the world watched as a team of Texas Rangers raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a stronghold of the FLDS. Rebecca's subsequent testimony would reveal the horrific secrets taking place behind closed doors of the temple, sending their leaders to prison for years, and Warren Jeffs for life.
The Witness Wore Red is a gripping account of one woman's struggle to escape the perverse embrace of religious fanaticism and sexual slavery, and a courageous story of hope and transformation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Those lulled into a vague tolerance for polygamy as depicted on reality TV will be shocked by the author's harrowing account of her years growing up in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Musser's story is filled with familiar elements: young women in prairie girl clothing; a cloistered compound called Short Creek where men could safely live with their dozens of wives; and a prophet Rulon Jeffs, who orders Musser to be his 19th wife when she is eighteen and he is in eighties. Rulon's demands on his young bride and her subsequent escape from the FLDS form the backbone of the first half of the book. After Rulon's son Warren takes over, Musser is compelled by her conscience to help law enforcement uncover, investigate, and prosecute the men of the FLDS for bigamy, underage marriage, and statutory rape including crimes committed against her own sisters. Musser and coauthor Cook have a complex story to tell with an at times overwhelming cast of characters. Overall, they manage to portray these events in an authentic yet suspenseful manner just try to put this book down when Musser is shown the horrifying "temple" that Jeffs was building in Texas at the time of his arrest.
Customer Reviews
Good book, got off track towards the end
I recently have been interested in learning more about the FLDS Church and went to this book to answer some of my questions. The author, in my opinion, is a true modern day heroine. The beginning of the book gives an account of the church in her words. I loved the beginning. Towards the end it began to feel like a diary. I would have liked it to turn less personal/more evidence at the end, but I guess that is the style of this book.
Soul shattering & moving
This book, this woman’s journey and story moved me beyond any words I can honestly put together to form a sentence. I laughed at some things I cheered this woman on in her realization and the changing in her soul that’s things weren’t right, I cried. I cried so much. I felt like after reading the overview of this book it was meant to read this and hear her story and the struggle of so many lost within this organization under the evil and INSANE and disgusting Warren Jeffs.
The Witness Wore Red
I must admit to joining the mindset that thought the women who lived in this polygamist sect had a choice...and how ignorant I was. If this is a lifestyle you simply cannot wrap your mind around, or you are just curious, this is a must read. I had no idea. Could not put it down!