Carolyn Jessop; Laura Palmer (15 page)

Arthur and I together when he was four years old.

Harrison and I had just come home from the hospital with his feeding tube.

Betty, LuAnne, and Merrilee at the motel in Caliente.

My first child, Arthur, holds his baby brother, Bryson, my eighth child and my last.

My karate crew after we escaped. From left to right: Andrew, Merrilee, Patrick, and LuAnne.

Betty (on the left) and LuAnne skiing in Salt Lake City.

Princess Merrilee’s first birthday party ever.

Betty, at seventeen, on a hiking trip we took to Donut Falls.

Here I am with Brian, the love of my life. This was taken during the intermission of
Hairspray,
the first Broadway musical I ever saw!

I knew that the only way I could protect myself in my marriage was by remaining of value to Merril. Like every other polygamist wife, I had no say in whom I would marry and no way to divorce my husband if it did not work out. Sex was the only currency I had to spend in my marriage—every polygamist wife knows that. Once we are no longer sexually attractive to our husbands, we are doomed.

A woman’s value is assigned in marriage, not earned. We all knew that a woman who is in sexual favor with her husband has a higher value than his other wives. This has enormous significance because a woman’s sexual power determines how she will be treated by other wives and how she will be respected by her stepchildren. And because of this, our sex lives were not our own. People knew when you were in favor, and everyone spoke about who was and wasn’t sleeping with her husband.

A woman who possesses high sexual status with her husband has more power over his other wives. This means he will listen to her complaints more seriously and will discipline wives she might be angry with. Knowing her husband will enact retribution for her is an enormous weapon for a wife to wield.

Sexual power also will often exempt a wife from physical labor or other family responsibilities. She can make sure that the wives she dislikes or feels might be sexual competitors are assigned the worst jobs and made to work the hardest in the family.

A woman who is no longer physically attractive to her husband is stranded on dangerous grounds. She often winds up as a slave to the dominant wife. She has no voice to report on any shortcomings or abuse in the family. The sexually favored wives will often recruit the children of the less powerful wives and reward them for turning on their biological mothers. It is nothing short of ruthless vengeance.

Every member of a polygamous family knows which wives hold power. When a new wife enters a family, it is imperative for her to establish power with her husband sexually. While there are exceptions, most men routinely change their favorite wives and don’t remain loyal to any woman indefinitely.

A woman without any sexual currency to spend may find it difficult to have children. This undermines her future completely. Without children—or with even just a few—a woman has little long-term value to her husband or status within his family. Children are a woman’s insurance policy. Even if her husband takes a new and younger wife, a woman who has produced a bevy of beautiful children for him will have respect and status within the family.

The news that Merril was marrying Cathleen made me
fear I’d never become a mother.
Merril had been having frequent sex with me in the seven months we’d been married and I’d not become pregnant. There was no chemistry between us. Sex between us was always cold and devoid of feeling. Merril never removed his long underwear when we had sex. Mine stayed on, too. The bedroom was completely dark. In my seventeen years of marriage, Merril only saw me naked a few times. I never saw him completely unclothed.

He would come to my room late at night after I was asleep and climb on top of me. The sex was perfunctory—without either passion or intimacy. I thought the problem was that Merril was not attracted to me. The news that he was marrying Cathleen so soon after our wedding only confirmed my undesirability.

When the phone call with Merril ended, I sat down on the steps and stared blankly at the wall. I felt as shocked and powerless as I had when I was pulled out of bed at 2
A.M
. to hear my father tell me I was going to marry Merril. It felt like my life was at another dead end. Children were the only happiness I could count on.

I knew Merril was lying when he said he hadn’t known about the marriage before he went to Salt Lake City. He’d known. Now I understood why Barbara had been so nervous and upset before they left that morning. She must have known about the upcoming nuptials and hated the thought that her husband was marrying again. She had great power with Merril, but not enough to stop him from pursuing his plans. Ruth was too unstable to be suspicious or register what was going on.

It was customary in the FLDS to have a man’s wives witness his other weddings. This was called the Law of Sarah, after Abraham’s wife, who gave her slave, Hagar, to her husband after she failed to conceive. The presence of the other wives is a way of demonstrating—or pretending—that they are willing to give their husband to another woman.

There is tremendous prestige in marrying a former prophet’s wife. It demonstrates to the community that after his death, the prophet sent a divine revelation about whom his wife should marry. For a prophet of God—even a deceased one—to have enough confidence and love for a man to give him one of his wives indicates a man of exceptional character.

In fact, what was beginning to play out was the power grab between Merril and his cousin Truman Barlow. They knew they could enhance their prestige and status within the FLDS by quickly marrying several of Uncle Roy’s wives after his death.

Uncle Roy had led the community for thirty-two years. His stepsons preached that he would never die. According to them, he would be at the Second Coming of Christ, when he’d turn over the keys to the priesthood. Uncle Roy had a better grasp on reality and had told my father that he would die and that all men had to as part of the earthly process. Uncle Roy proved to be correct. After his death, Rulon Jeffs took over the sect. He was, at that time, the only one who could do so. He was the only living apostle who had not been excommunicated. The mantle of leadership could go only to him.

Merril and Truman were no fools. A quick marriage to several of Uncle Roy’s widows could catapult them into leadership roles in the FLDS hierarchy by signaling that these were the men Uncle Roy loved and trusted most. If they acted fast, his wives would still be in shock and not have a chance to think of whom they might like to marry. As if their wishes mattered!

A prophet’s widow generally is not allowed to remarry below the status of her husband. She’s usually married off to the new prophet. This tradition goes all the way back to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church. When he died he left an abundance of young wives. Those who were willing to do the will of God were remarried to the new prophet, Brigham Young.

Uncle Roy was adamantly opposed to a son marrying one of his father’s wives. If his son had taken over the sect, Merril and Truman would have been legally entitled to marry Uncle Roy’s wives. But his successor, Rulon Jeffs, was no relation to Uncle Roy. Jeffs was so new that he’d not yet focused on his predecessor’s widows. Merril, who’d been Uncle Roy’s nephew, and Truman, his stepson, were violating FLDS tradition and practice when they made their move.

As I would soon learn, when Merril and Truman arrived in Salt Lake City, where Uncle Roy had been living, they gathered up the widows they planned to marry and took them to the new prophet, Uncle Rulon. They said the widows wanted to marry them, which was not true. Truman had been the late prophet’s right-hand man and insisted he wanted these marriages to happen. Truman had so much credibility because of his close connection to Uncle Roy that Rulon Jeffs sanctioned the marriages.

Merril insisted on the phone that I come to Salt Lake City the next day. He said he’d already made arrangements for my father to drive me there. I balked and said I didn’t want to go.

He exploded and said I had no right to challenge him, the man who was my priesthood head. “Do you want to have your way or do you want to be in harmony with your husband? I would think you would want to do the will of the one you belong to! I won’t allow you to insist on something else. It will cost you heavily if you do. Falling out of favor with me is not something you want to have happen.” When he calmed down he pretended that it was a compliment from my loving husband to include me in the celebration of his newest marriage. He said that as an obedient wife I surely would want to come and please him. I felt like he was tightening the chains around me. I also realized that if I didn’t go to Salt Lake City, it would appear that I was angry that my husband had married another woman. One of the worst sins a woman can commit in the FLDS is to resist the will of the prophet in giving her husband another wife. Even
appearing
to be unhappy about the new wife could reflect badly on me.

After Merril’s explosion on the phone, I didn’t want anything to do with him ever again. I could not have imagined that we would have eight children together. Not then.

The peace of the day was shattered. The relaxing evening at home that I’d looked forward to was ripped apart.

Merril’s daughters came home just as I was sitting down to dinner with the small children. We were having soup and rolls that I’d baked. Sheets of unbaked cookies were ready to go in the oven. They noticed the shining house and the children’s clothes and bedding hanging on the line. Several of them said God must have inspired me and something wonderful was about to happen.

When they heard that their father had taken a fifth wife they were thrilled. The world had just rotated in their direction. The girls had hoped that their father would marry again. They couldn’t stand being dominated by Barbara, and now her reign of terror might be over. This new marriage had the potential to tip the balance of power in their direction. All I did was get in the way of their relationship with their father.

They made it clear to me that they knew their father hadn’t fallen in love with me. I came from a family of no importance. They felt it was a pity that their father had had to marry such a dud. I had intruded on their lives without bringing a solution to their bondage. A widow of the late prophet was a woman of real stature. Surely she would come into the family and improve things. What delight it gave them to think of how upset Barbara would be at being replaced by a woman who was younger, prettier, and more powerful than she! The girls hated Barbara not only for her meanness but also because her ascendancy in Merril’s life had driven their mothers, Ruth and Faunita, into oblivion. Cathleen could spell an end to her supremacy.

As I listened to Merril’s daughters prattle on I began to rethink my situation. Merril was much older than my father, and I’d always known the chances of our ever having a real relationship were almost nonexistent. In my heart of hearts, I’d always known that there would never really be love in my life. This was a grief I’d already contemplated.

But I despaired at this new possibility of never having children—not that I was certain I wanted to create life in such a loveless environment. If Merril became consumed by his new marriage, I could go to sleep at night knowing I would never again awaken with his torpid, clammy body over mine. His abuse would be less humiliating if I wasn’t also having sex with him. I would just concentrate on college and becoming a teacher. That was the most I could hope for.

Merril’s daughters delighted in what looked to be my demise. I was now consigned to the pile of wives who no longer were in favor.

My father and I made the five-hour trip to Salt Lake City that Sunday morning. Merril told my dad not to bring me to the hotel. We met somewhere else for lunch. When we finished eating, my father left Merril and me alone. Merril looked at me and told me he’d married yet another wife late on Saturday night.

Merril said he was back at the hotel when the call came from Uncle Rulon to marry Tammy, another of Uncle Roy’s widows. He acted as though it had come as a bolt out of the blue.

In the coming days, I’d learn the truth. Merril had been planning to marry Tammy and Cathleen at the same time. But Tammy had balked and refused to come to Salt Lake City. He married Cathleen Saturday morning and kept the pressure on Tammy to relent.

Tammy, as I would later learn, had gone to her father shortly after Uncle Roy died and demanded that she be allowed to marry an FLDS bishop who was living in Canada. The Canadian FLDS community was far smaller than our community in Colorado City. It had fewer than a thousand members. It began with a small group of converts who left the mainstream Mormon Church to live the principle of plural marriage.

Tammy had been in love with the Canadian bishop. When he came down to Uncle Roy’s from Canada, he’d spend a lot of time in the evenings talking to her. Tammy’s father didn’t like him at all. Her father refused to let her think of marrying him and said there was a good man in Colorado City whom she belonged to and with whom she would fulfill the work of God. Tammy was incensed. After a decade of marriage to Uncle Roy, she was now twenty-eight and had never had sex, let alone children. If she was sealed for all eternity to the prophet, why couldn’t she make a life with the man of her dreams?

In the end, Tammy buckled under the pressure, was whisked to Salt Lake City, and married Merril late Saturday night. Even though she had been to college and was a teacher, she never mastered the ability to stand up for herself. She had a mouth and would often complain about things no one else would, but Tammy also felt the need to please people.

I felt blindsided by the news and said little. Merril took me back to the hotel. Barbara was prancing around, trying to appear as though she was in complete control. Ruth was veering into a nervous breakdown. She blinked uncontrollably, her eyes seemed not to focus, and they danced when she talked. There was little coherence in her words. Her jaw shook with palsy as she spoke. When I arrived, she gave me a hug and in slurred speech said, “For our husband to be given this honor of marrying two new wives is a blessing to us all.” But it was clear she didn’t believe a word of what she was saying.

Cathleen was sitting by herself on the bed, her eyes so red from crying they were almost swollen shut. The tension in the room was pulsating.

I was eighteen and Cathleen was about twenty. I knew exactly how she felt.

Merril announced that he had business to take care of, and he and Barbara left together. I was left with the mess his marriages had created.

I said a few gentle words to Cathleen and she opened up immediately. She told me she’d had no warning that she was about to marry Merril. The order came out of the blue. She’d been told that all of Uncle Roy’s wives were going to be married off to two men. The late prophet didn’t want his family separated. Truman was her uncle, so she couldn’t marry him. That left Merril.