Carolyn Jessop
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| Carolyn Jessop | |
| Born | January 1, 1968 Hildale, Utah |
|---|---|
| Residence | West Jordan, Utah |
| Home town | Hildale, Utah |
| Known for | First woman granted full custody of children in contested suit involving FLDS |
| Religious beliefs | Former FLDS |
| Spouse | Merril Jessop, fourth wife, 1986 - 2003 |
| Children | Eight (8) |
Carolyn Jessop (b. January 1, 1968) is a former Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints member who wrote Escape, an autobiographical account of her upbringing in the polygamist sect and later flight from that community.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Autobiography
On April 21, 2003, when Jessop was 35, she left her husband's family and the FLDS church, fleeing to a safehouse in Salt Lake City. Subsequently, she sued for custody of her children, and became "the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS".[2][3][4]
In 2007, she co-authored her book Escape with Laura Palmer and chronicled her life in the FLDS organization, her adulthood and disillusionment, and her eventual flight. It was published by the Broadway division of Random House.[5][6][7] She followed its publication with a book tour.[8] In 2008, actress Katherine Heigl announced she had signed to star in and produce a feature film based on the memoir.[9]
According to the autobiography, Jessop was born Carolyn Blackmore and raised in Hildale, Utah with her parents, older sister, and younger siblings. She claims to be a 6th-generation descendant of a polygamous family who were faithful members of the FLDS church. Jessop describes her relationship to her parents as emotionally distant, with her father domineering her mother, and her mother taking out her anger on the children with such regularity that the children soon devised a strategy to get their beatings "out of the way" in the mornings.[1]
The autobiography continues to describe a yearlong stint in Salt Lake City, Utah, which gave her a taste of the world outside her religious community, spending most of her childhood in Colorado City, Arizona.[1]
After she completed her middle school education, Jessop describes a rift in her religious community which led to the leaders pulling children out of the local high school. She graduated from high school at the age of 17. Jessop claims that she intended to continue on to college and then to medical school for pediatric medicine, but that she was forced to acquiesce to an arranged marriage to Merril Jessop, at the age of 18, instead.[10] Merril Jessop was 32 years her senior and already had three wives.[10] Carolyn Jessop describes that she continued her education, while her husband decided that she would study elementary education, not medicine.[1]
In her book, Carolyn Jessop stated that she endured regular rape in exchange for better emotional treatment. In the later stages of her marriage, Jessop also said that her children received some protection from abuse by other members of the family if she allowed her husband to sleep with her. Jessop had 8 children with her husband. The final four pregnancies, she states, were risky, the last becoming life-threatening and requiring an emergency hysterectomy. Jessop contends that the resulting freedom from pregnancy helped her escape what she considered a highly abusive marriage and volatile home situation.[1]
[edit] April 2008 YFZ Ranch raid
Texas law enforcement officers began a raid of the YFZ Ranch on April 3, 2008, following a phone call (allegedly a hoax) with allegations of physical and sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl.[11] Children from the community had been placed in state custody because authorities believed they "had been abused or were at immediate risk of future abuse," a state spokesman said.[12] As of April 8, as many as 533 women and children had been removed from the ranch by authorities.[13]
Jessop arrived on-site Sunday, April 6, in hopes of reuniting two of her daughters with their half-siblings. She stated her opinion that the action in Texas was unlike the 1953 Short Creek raid in Arizona.[14] On April 8 she was interviewed by the NBC Today Show regarding the event, and described life at a FLDS community.[15] Jessop had also been in Texas the prior month at a speaking engagement, where she said, "[i]n Eldorado, the crimes went to a whole new level. They thought they could get away with more" but "Texas is not going to be a state that's as tolerant of these crimes as Arizona and Utah have been."[16]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Palmer, Laura; Carolyn Jessop (2007). Escape. New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-2756-7.
- ^ "After fleeing polygamist community, an opportunity for influence", New York Times, 29 June 2005.
- ^ "Escape from polygamy", Vancouver Sun, 3 December 2005.
- ^ "CNN Interview transcript", CNN, 2 September 2006.
- ^ "Polygamy survivor Carolyn Jessop", Time in conjunction with CNN, 24 October 2007.
- ^ "One Woman's 'Escape' From Polygamy", ABC News, 29 October 2007.
- ^ "Carolyn Jessop: "Escape"", KUSA-TV 9News, 6 December 2007.
- ^ "Video: Carolyn Jessop on her Escape from the FLDS", FORA.tv, 5 December 2007.
- ^ "Star Shuns Emmys, Angering Producers", NY Times, 14 June 2008.
- ^ a b Celizic, Mike. "Woman describes ‘escape’ from polygamy", MSNBC, 2008-04-08. Retrieved on 2008-04-09.
- ^ "52 children taken during raid", The Eldorado Success, 4 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
- ^ "219 children, women taken from sect's ranch", CNN, 6 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
- ^ "Affidavit: FLDS raid spurred by girl's reports of physical, sexual abuse", Deseret Morning News, 8 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-04-09.
- ^ Adams, Brooke. "People who have left sect go to Texas to help", The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
- ^ "Woman describes ‘escape’ from polygamy", NBC's Today, 8 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
- ^ Winslow, Ben. "Hildale and Colorado City worry over Texas raid", Deseret Morning News, 5 April 2008. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
[edit] External links
- Excerpt - "Escape," by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer. The Denver Post.
