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Ex-Child Bride In Warren Jeffs' Cult Who Was Married To Cousin At 14 Speaks Out
At 14, Elissa Wall was forced to marry her cousin by cult leader Warren Jeffs.
Former child bride Elissa Wall was forced to marry her 19-year-old cousin when she was just 14. She is now speaking out against the false prophet that married her on a new A&E documentary called “Warren Jeffs: Prophet of Evil.”
According to Fox News, the show details how Jeffs used to rule his 15,000 followers of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Jeffs, 62, is now in prison after being sentenced to life in 2011 for sexually assaulting two child brides. One was 15 while the was only 12. It is believed that in all Jeffs had 78 wives and had over 50 children.
Wall, now 31, was the lead witness that helped put Jeffs behind bars.
“I really think at the time it was about submission,” Wall told Fox News about being a child bride. “I could have become a really big problem for the community and for Warren. I was a little more outspoken than the average girl. But I really think it was about pounding me into submission. [...] I was just the next player he wanted to eliminate and to quickly get control over.”
She told the outlet that from a young age she had a feeling that her upbringing wasn’t the healthiest.
“We led a very secret lifestyle,” she said. “We didn’t interact with the outside world. We didn’t go to public school. We were educated, cultivated and bred to be products of the church and the religion. [...] I have this one vivid memory being at a beach in northern Utah. I was watching this family play about 500 yards away from us. They looked loving, kind and caring. The mother was hugging and holding her children. They were laughing and they didn’t look like these evil disciples of the devil like I have been told they were. So I think my questions really started early on.”
Wall is no longer part of the cult. She lives in Utah with her two children, where she runs a clothing company. Her mother is still entrenched in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
[Photo: NBC Dateline]
