The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice

This book was so interesting. It was really interesting to learn about the case from an 'insider' and such a good read. Highly recommend!

Audio version read by the author and the former FLDS wife to the FDLS "Prophet"--leader of the supposedly religious sect, which seems nothing more than a cult, with people following blindly. This is not the Mormon LDS church and religion we know. It's an offshoot of zealots following their own brand of religion for their own reasons, nothing to do with God and goodness.Rebecca got out, and I admire her courage and convictions for doing so, and even more for the backbone it took to keep going after the FDLS to change the appalling practices. She helped criminally prosecute the leaders and perpetrators. She tells her own story. From her story you can surmise that the higher ranking FLDS men and the "Prophet" --the leader of the "cult" --that women and girls were nothing. They were there to perform labor, keep the higher men of power happy thru sex and reproduction, and being subservient and ignorant, blindly forever. And many stayed that way. Some of them should have known better, the sheep leading the sheep. Others were born into it, and became a product of their environment and never knew different.Boys got the short stick too, because the FLDS leaders--men--picked the wives they wanted and married so many, I don't know how there were ever enough to go around to all the males. The Jessops--Willy Jessop particularly, but another clan of this sect's "church" leaders--procreated children with IQs of 25 or less, from limiting their gene pool to their own flawed genes. Willy Jessop and Warren Jeffs ...or his father Rulan--were not nice in any sense. It did not start when Warren took over, it just worsened.Rape, incest, polygamy, and turning out young boys with no where to go, were all common. Many women and men and parents blindly followed ridiculous teachings for the promise of eternity in the afterlife with their Proffet. Jeffs and his father had close to a hundred wives.I found the media stories back then horrific, and the book gives even more candid views. It's sickening and a gross misuse of power in the name of a false God. I don't think they should have been left alone, the world was entirely too passive. Adults had a choice, the children do not. These people were brought up to be passive sheep.Rebecca is articulate. The book is a bit drawn out, but it's a well told compelling story. I'm not Mormon, or particularly religious. But the book gave a good overview of the FLDS lifestyle and the people good and bad who followed this warped "faith". I'm not sure I could have done what Rebecca did--in her relentless support of Warren Jeffs' criminal proceedings over the years. I'm glad she was strong enough to get out, and to make a new life for herself.

Rebecca Musser was born Rebecca Wall in 1976. Her mother Sharon Steed was the second wife of Rebecca's father. Sharon was also a cousin to Warren Jeffs (his maternal Grandfather was the brother to Sharon's father) and Sharon's two sisters Ruth and Barbara were married to Merrill Jessop who was a high up in the FLDS (several of Merrill's daughters ended up marrying Warren)Rebecca's home life was not easy thanks to her fathers first wife who used to beat Rebecca and her full siblings since according to their step mother their mother was a bitch and they were bastards. Things only got more difficult as Rebecca got older, and her mothers niece married her father. When Rebecca was about 18 the whole family went to the Jeffs compound so that her father could meet with Rulon Jeffs. This meeting led to Rebecca marrying him when she was still a teenager and he was in his 80's. She was not happy being married off to Rulon, but made the most of it teaching at Alta Academy and being mother and grandmother to Rulons numerous offspring. After Rulon past away in 2003 his son Warren tried to consolatate his power and married many of the women who had been his step-mothers. Warren tried to get Rebecca to marry him, but she refused. Around this time she had met Rulons grandson Ryan Musser and they became friendly. He helped her escape the compound and they made their way to Oregon to live with her brother. Things started to heat up between the two and shortly after leaving she became pregnant with their son. They got married and had a daughter together, but ended up divorcing.The big reason that they got divorced was because of what had been going on in the FLDS. Girls were being forced to marry men 2,3,4 times their age. Shortly after Rebecca escaped her sister Elissa (who wrote her own book) escaped as well after being forced to marry their 19 year old first cousin when she was 14. Rebecca was involved in the court case that Elissa had brough against Warren Jeffs and the UEP. Her husband's family did not like that she was testifying against Warren (considering that Warren was his Uncle) and that caused a great strain on their marriage. After Elissa's court case there was a raid on an FLDS compound in Texas and because of this several men (including her Uncle Merrill and several of his sons and other Steed relatives) were tried for crimes connected to underage marriage and polygamy which was the tipping point to her marriage.All in all an interesting look at the FLDS, though I wonder what will happen when Rebecca's children are told that she was once married to their great-grandfather. That will be an interesting conversation!

An incredible book. Men who are far from normal arrogantly believe that they can tell others how to lead their lives. They took up this attitude in order to make a lot of money to carry out their building projects and to provide them with a life of plenty. For religious, God fearing people this was bad enough, but these men added forced marriages to girls as young as twelve, making sure they had obedient sex shaves fulfilling their fantasy of life with their own private whores.. By being made to feel inadequate and worthless, women and girls in this religion worked tirelessly without complaint. I was hoping that some of the victims would rise up and break a few heavy chairs over the beads of their male oppressors. But they didn't.

When Rebecca Musser was barely nineteen, she became one of Rulon Jeffs' (the then so-called "Prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) "young wives". As one of the first young women to be sacrificed to Jeffs (he married more than forty other women and girls after her, two within days of the wedding), she was at the heart of the FLDS, able to see Warren Jeffs' rise to absolute power and the rapidly-decreasing age of marriage.Throughout the book, you see the control the men have over the lives of the women. The women have no control over who they marry, or over their bodies when they do marry, and their salvation is held above their head as the stick to force them to total obedience.It's heart-breaking to read, and shocking that people can be so subjugated in a Western country such as the United States: young girls forced to marry men older than their fathers, even as they're sobbing, and having their spirit "bred" out of them (as the FLDS phrase goes). With her place at the top of the cult (apparently "privileged", but with no ability to travel freely, and constantly-monitored, I'd question the term), she was able to see the machinations of the cult up close, making her testimony incredibly valuable for anybody reading about the FLDS.It's an absorbing but horrific read. It's very emotionally-difficult to read some of the details, especially regarding the abuses of notorious cult-leader Warren Jeffs, whose rise to power and manipulation is laid bare here.Musser writes very well, and it's inspiring to see how she overcame a background of such abuse to speak against the leaders of the cult, and against oppression in general.Recommended for scholars and people interested in the FLDS, but expect an emotional punch.

Yes, its an interesting and utterly fascinating story and presumed insight into the life of Rebecca Musser. However, having read bother her sisters account of her own experiences and upbringing and her fathers rebuttal of events one wonders how much of this particular book is actually accurate. I read Elyssa's book first and enjoyed it immensely, I then read this one and throughout the first part covering the childhood I certainly noticed very loudly that certain things did not tally. Surely the experiences and history of 2 sisters cannot be so vastly different! Rebecca talks about constant abuse from her mothers sister-wives and yet Elyssa mentions none at all, in fact almost the opposite at times. Once or twice she mentions slight tension but nothing out of the ordinary surely in the lets face up, abnormal lifestyle situation. Elyssa's book STOLEN INNOCENCE is utterly absorbing and down to earth, it shouts honest at the reader and yet this one seems to say.. Sensationalized!YES.. I enjoyed it but please, read the other 2 books as well before you believe everything you see!

It takes a special person to stand up not only to a religious tyrant but his mass of brainwashed followers. Going against her upbringing and large extended family was a brave but necessary move. These men prosecuted were little more than paedophiles exercising control in the name of religion and instilling fear in their faithful flock should they fail to adhere to the rules of a self appointed messenger from God. May the faithful few of the FLDS learn to be less gullible and open their eyes to the truth of what has happened and learn from this.

I have read the book 'Escape' written by Rebecca's sister Elyssa and just like that book I often found myself open mouthed with shock at the treatment of women within the FLDS movement. Despite that, Rebecca writes with no bitterness that I could discern and simply tells the story like it is. I've really become interested in the many tv programmes that now deal openly with this subject and the former members who try to liberate those who want to leave. Freedom to think our own thoughts, live our own lives and make our own choices, is a privilege we are all entitled to.