John R. Llewellyn has appeared on
Larry King Live, ABC Primetime, The Today Show
with Matt Lauer
& Katie Couric; NBC Nightly News with Tom
Brokaw; Fox News Channel's "The Edge" with Paula Zahn; MSNBC; Inside Edition; Good Morning America,
& is contacted frequently by local and foreign press.
A TEENAGER'S TEARS – When Parents Convert To Polygamy
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By John R. Llewellyn
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List Price $14.95
Copyright - Feb 2001 Soft Cover 5.5 x 8.5 144p
Agreka™ Books ISBN 188810659X Library of Congress 00-108807
Introduction Preface
About John Llewellyn
Numbers of people are entering polygamy today. Travel that world through a
modern day family who leaves traditional Mormonism and enters polygamy, the father excited, the
mother and teenagers deeply troubled. Meet the adult and teenage cliques of the
governing "elite" families, the "second-class" families, the
"obedient" women who believe they must be subservient in every way,
and finally the strong-willed women who use their intrinsic powers to develop a
life of freedom and choice within the group. Meet the men and their different
uses of religious power over the women whose lives they control—and
those they only think they control.
In the end will these teenagers and their mother give up the "good
life" they have created—and their very freedom?
Laura Chapman, who grew up in the Colorado City Polygamist Group as the 25th
child of 31 children, has been featured on CBS/48Hours, ABC 20/20, and in
The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and in London newspapers.
Believing education critical to understanding life and with double degrees in
Sociology and Human Development, and a minor in Psychology, Mrs. Chapman is
deeply concerned with the Colorado City group forcing all their children to
withdraw from public schools.
"Llewellyn accomplishes the incredible task of
exposing the many diverse dynamics of Utah polygamist groups and their members
in A Teenager's Tears. The characters of the women, children, men and
self-proclaimed apostles are both astounding and precise. The display of male
privilege, abuse of power in leadership, and struggles within families, is
triumphantly accurate. The "feminists" within the groups, however, are
still captured in the basic belief that without a man there is no heavenly glory
in the hereafter."
Rena Mackert, formerly of the Colorado City Polygamist Group, appeared on A
& E’s "Inside Polygamy" documentary.
Mr. Llewellyn has effectively presented the fears of a young
girl entering a lifestyle she does not understand. An excellent representation
of what women face in sharing their husband with other women. Hats off to Mr.
LLewellyn for courageously presenting the issue of pedophile behavior so rampant
in these cults, and the lack of action taken against the perpetrators by
polygamist leaders."
Rowena Erickson, a founding member of Tapestry Against Polygamy and a former
polygamist wife, was quoted in a Salt Lake Tribune article, Mar.8,
2000, about his
first book Murder of a Prophet, "I kept looking at the women and the
girls he writes about and how real they are. He knows the life."
Greg Burton, who wrote the Tribune article, stated: " Llewellyn
is everything he purports to be and more. . . ."
With a law enforcement investigator’s
trained and objective eye, Llewellyn explores the positives and the negatives of this lifestyle.
As a
Mormon he came to believe the doctrine of plural marriage, entered polygamy as
an adult, lived the life for many years, and then chose to leave because of
corruption among the priesthood leadership. As additional
research, he interviewed many people: men and women still in polygamy, women who
have left, and teenagers who had the option to leave, and did.
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Preface
The publication of Murder of a Prophet, The Dark Side of Utah Polygamy
outraged the Mormon fundamentalist subculture. Utah polygamists feared the book
portrayed all polygamist men as exploiters, potential murderers, and female
abusers. In the cities of Colorado City and Hildale the book was banned. In
direct opposition to this book, three matriarchs in the polygamist subculture
decided to publish a book of their own that showed the positive side of
polygamy. They circulated a proposal to several hundred polygamist women
explaining their objective and asked them to contribute anecdotes showing the
positive side of polygamy to counter, they said, what had been written about the
"occasional" bad side. The contributors were told their names would be
kept confidential.
I personally know two of the women, both are intelligent and outstanding
writers. As women and mothers, I rank them among the best, and as
representatives of plural marriage, they are more virtuous, knowledgeable and
spirited than most polygamist men. I e-mailed these plucky ladies, wished them
the best, and told them it is the women and not the men who ought to hold the
priesthood key because women in general are more gutsy, intellectually superior,
and morally better equipped. I believe women are more capable of managing the
polygamist groups. If they were in charge, there would be less larceny, less
spouse abuse, fewer child molests, deception would decline and subterfuge held
to a minimum.
In a short telephone conversation with one of the women, she said their
response from other polygamist women had been excellent and so far they had
received seventy replies. I told her it validated my contention that there are
good and honorable polygamists in Utah. I suggested they go public with the
book. I had to make that same hard decision knowing that if Murder of a
Prophet were published, it would open me up to public scrutiny and my past
polygamist lifestyle.
She said their book was for those inside the subculture. I was disappointed.
Their stories should be told to balance out the negative and mythical side. As
for me, I make no apologies or excuses for my past involvement. I received many
personal blessings as an active polygamist, and I learned a great deal more
about myself and how various people handle religion. I don’t recommend the
lifestyle to others, and I discourage my children from following in my
footsteps. The lifestyle is severe, demanding, exhausting, cruel at times, and
contains some unsavory leadership predators who take advantage of good and well
meaning people.
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Introduction
In the Allred Group, known as Apostolic United Brethren, of the children born
in the "principle" of plural marriage, many more leave than stay. For
example, of 48 children sired by the late Rulon C. Allred, only about 17 stayed
in the principle. This figure is consistent with the other large polygamist
groups. In talking with leading members of the Allred Group, they estimated that
between 65 and 80 percent of their children apostatize.
A few of these dissident children contacted me after reading
my novel, Murder of a Prophet. Their stories, together with my own
observation and experiences, inspired me to contact other dissident children and
write a second fact-based novel explaining why so many of these children leave.
Their stories deserve to be told.
Apostolic United Brethren, the least oppressive sect of them all, is the
basic model for my new novel, but I have also incorporated events and incidents
from the other major groups, and from independent polygamists who belong to no
group. I have created fictitious characters to represent the various types of
teens and adults found in polygamy.
Visualize, if you will, what it would be like for an
attractive, seventeen year old girl to have her parents suddenly join a
polygamist sect. It happened to Emma. One day her life was normal, the next day
she was thrust into a polygamist subculture. Emma’s experiences, and the
experiences of her friends, are typical of hundreds of young people living in
cult-like Mormon polygamist sects.
The story is told from Emma’s point of view, and from her
perspective she sees little of the polygamist lifestyle to be desired. But as
she moves about in the culture, she meets girls and women who find plural
marriage desirable, secure, spiritual, and compatible in ways that satisfy their
present needs and desires. If it were not so, there wouldn’t be so many of
them.
Women are the backbone and adhesive element that is
indispensable to the success of polygamy. Many find plural marriage enriching,
adventurous, more free and rewarding than monogamy. However, in some groups
women are brainwashed and herded around until cut out like cattle. Others are
skillfully programmed with inferiority complexes, making them dependent upon
unscrupulous, lecherous leaders. Still others are raised in isolation making
them ill-equipped to compete and survive in a modern cosmopolitan society. Some
are by nature content to allow what they perceive as powerful, righteous men to
take control of their lives.
To understand contemporary polygamy, one needs to see into the minds of these
women. To understand the men in polygamy, one needs to study their need of
power, dominance, and the male sex drive. To understand the polygamist sects, one must
know that their theocratic leadership is more political than religious. Each
sect is a monarchy ruled by a despot who is a juggler of love and fear, molding
and manipulating the true believer to his advantage.
Top
Review Murder of a Prophet—Llewellyn's
first book.
Salt Lake Tribune, Greg Burton—Mar. 23 2000
John R Lewellen looks every bit the
part he plays in real life: father, retired cop and storyteller, a tweed-coated
66-year-old brimming with the miscellany of crime and impropriety in Utah. He is
a character in many of the tales he tells—stories
drawn from his days as a sheriff's detective. So it is a bit surprising that his
first book is not "real," but a fictionalized drama of doomsday
polygamists and that Llewellyn is nowhere to be found on the 180 or so
pages.
Or is he?
Murder of a Prophet: The Dark Side of Utah Polygamy—published
last month by Agreka Books of Sandy—has angered some of the region's
polygamists. Leaders in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hilldale, Utah—where the
old-time Mormon tenet of "celestial" or plural marriage
prevails—have reportedly banned the book.
Elsewhere, the story, a chronicle of a violent plot to unite
all polygamists and topple the Mormon Church, has drawn praise for its
true-to-life portrayal of the social fabric of Utah's religious subculture.
Llewellyn is everything he purports to be and more. . .
."
Investigator John R. Llewellyn was a deputy sheriff for
twenty-three years in the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. Considered an
expert, he spent a number of years in prolonged investigation of polygamy cults.
He was often placed on loan to do special investigations for the
County Attorney, District Attorney, and Attorney General.
Conducting the preliminary investigation of mass
murderer Ervil LeBaron, who was convicted of ordering the murder of Dr. Rulon C.
Allred in 1977, Deputy Llewellyn complied an extensive intelligence profile of
the infamous polygamist. He also assisted French, British, and local television
companies—all wanting to film documentaries—make contact with appropriate
members of polygamist groups. Mr. Llewellyn writes feature articles on the
subject for newspapers and magazines.
The author pioneered the Morals Squad of the Sheriff
Department, which handled the investigation of polygamous complaints. He also
wrote a sex crimes manual for the Utah State Police Academy, where he taught Sex
Crime Investigation, Interview, and Interrogation.
He is currently the lead investigator in two
highly publicized lawsuits against Utah polygamist groups. Read
more about John LLewellyn.
John may be contacted via e-mail:
jrllewellyn@apcomp.com.
His web site:
http://www.polygamyversuscommonsense.com/
Books
on polygamy. Click to read more.
1)
A Teenager's Tears: When Parents Convert to Polygamy
2)
Murder
of a Prophet: Dark Side of Utah Polygamy
3) Polygamy Under
Attack: From Tom Green to Brian David Mitchell
4) The Polygamists:
A History
of Colorado City, Arizona As seen on CNN
March 2004.
5) Colorado City Polygamists: An
Inside Look for the Outsider
6) Polygamy's Rape of Rachael Strong: Protected Environment for Predators
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