Carolyn Jessop

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Carolyn Jessop
Born January 1, 1968 (1968-01-01) (age 41)
Hildale, Utah
Residence West Jordan, Utah
Nationality American
Other names Carolyn Blackmore
Home town Hildale, Utah
Known for First woman granted full custody of children in contested suit involving FLDS
Title Miss Carolyn Blackmore
Mrs Merril Jessop
Mrs Carolyn Jessop
Religious beliefs Former FLDS
Spouse(s) Merril Jessop, fourth wife,
1986 - 2003
Children Eight (8); Arthur, Betty, LuAnne, Patrick, Andrew, Merrilee, Harrison & Bryson
Parents Arthur & Nurylon and Rosie Blackmore
Relatives Arthur, Darrel, Karen, Annette, Linda, Carl, Christopher, Jennifer and Winston, Flora Jessop

Carolyn Jessop (born 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] She is the cousin, by marriage, of Flora Jessop, another former FLDS member and advocate for abused children.

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 produce, and star in, a feature film based on the memoir.[9]

Jessop was born Carolyn Blackmore and raised by her parents in Hildale, Utah with her older sister and younger siblings. She is a sixth-generation descendant of a polygamous family, all of whom were faithful members of the FLDS church[citation needed]. Her father became a polygamist when he married his wife's niece when Carolyn was a child. 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 year-long stint in Salt Lake City, Utah, which gave her a taste of the world outside her religious community. She spent most of her childhood in Colorado City, Arizona.[1]

As Jessop describes, a rift in her religious community at about the time she completed middle school led to the leaders pulling children out of the local high school. She graduated from high school at the age of 17. Jessop intended to attend college and then to medical school to study pediatric medicine; instead, she was forced into an arranged marriage to Merril Jessop at age 18.[10] Merril Jessop was 32 years her senior and already had three wives and more than 30 children, several of them older than his new wife.[10] Once married, Carolyn Jessop did get to attend college, but her husband decided that she would study elementary education, not medicine.[1]. Just months into the marriage, the FLDS's new leader, Rulon Jeffs, gave Merril two new wives.

In her book, Carolyn Jessop stated that she endured regular rape in exchange for better emotional treatment. Jessop had eight children with her husband. The final four pregnancies 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 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] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Palmer, Laura; Carolyn Jessop (2007). Escape. New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-2756-7. 
  2. ^ "After fleeing polygamist community, an opportunity for influence". New York Times. 29 June 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/national/29polygamy.html. 
  3. ^ "Escape from polygamy". Vancouver Sun. 3 December 2005. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/observer/story.html?id=0ff3d621-4d12-4f18-9c71-623d777061e7. 
  4. ^ "CNN Interview transcript". CNN. 2 September 2006. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/02/smn.03.html. 
  5. ^ "Polygamy survivor Carolyn Jessop". Time in conjunction with CNN. 24 October 2007. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1675126,00.html. 
  6. ^ "One Woman's 'Escape' From Polygamy". ABC News. 29 October 2007. http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id=3787253&page=1. 
  7. ^ "Carolyn Jessop: "Escape"". KUSA-TV 9News. 6 December 2007. http://www.9news.com/life/programming/shows/mornings/article.aspx?storyid=82303. 
  8. ^ "Video: Carolyn Jessop on her Escape from the FLDS". FORA.tv. 5 December 2007. http://fora.tv/2007/12/05/Carolyn_Jessop_on_her_Escape_from_the_FLDS. 
  9. ^ "Star Shuns Emmys, Angering Producers". NY Times. 14 June 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/arts/television/14heig.html. 
  10. ^ a b Celizic, Mike (2008-04-08). "Woman describes ‘escape’ from polygamy". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24009286/. Retrieved 2008-04-09. 
  11. ^ "52 children taken during raid". The Eldorado Success. 4 April 2008. http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080405/NEWS01/804050310. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 
  12. ^ "219 children, women taken from sect's ranch". CNN. 6 April 2008. http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/06/texas.ranch/. Retrieved 2008-04-07. 
  13. ^ "Affidavit: FLDS raid spurred by girl's reports of physical, sexual abuse". Deseret Morning News. 8 April 2008. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695268544,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-09. 
  14. ^ Adams, Brooke (7 April 2008). "People who have left sect go to Texas to help". The Salt Lake Tribune. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_8835442. Retrieved 2008-04-07. 
  15. ^ "Woman describes ‘escape’ from polygamy". NBC's Today. 8 April 2008. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24009286/. Retrieved 2008-04-11. 
  16. ^ Winslow, Ben (5 April 2008). "Hildale and Colorado City worry over Texas raid". Deseret Morning News. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695267615,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-11. 

[edit] External links

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YFZ Ranch raid
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