Triumph: Life After The Cult A Survivor's Lessons

Description

The author of "The New York Times" bestseller "Escape" returns with a moving and inspirational tale of her life after she heroically fled the cult she'd been raised in, her hard-won new identity and happiness, and her determination to win justice for the crimes committed against her family. <br>In 2003, Carolyn Jessop, 35, a lifelong member of the extremist Mormon sect the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), gathered up her eight children, including her profoundly disabled four-year-old son, and escaped in the middle of the night to freedom. Jessop detailed the story of her harrowing flight and the shocking conditions that sparked it in her 2007 memoir, "Escape." Reveling in her newfound identity as a bestselling author, a devoted mom, and a loving companion to the wonderful man in her life, Jessop thought she had put her past firmly behind her. <br> Then, on April 3, 2008, it came roaring back in full view of millions of television viewers across America. On that date, the state of Texas, acting on a tip from a young girl who'd called a hotline alleging abuse, staged a surprise raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a sprawling, 1700-acre compound near Eldorado, Texas, to which the jailed FLDS "prophet" Warren Jeffs had relocated his sect's most "worthy" members three years earlier. The ranch was being run by Merril Jessop, Carolyn's ex-husband and one of the cult's most powerful leaders. As a mesmerized nation watched the crisis unfold, Jessop once more was drawn into the fray, this time as an expert called upon to help authorities understand the customs and beliefs of the extremist religious sect with which they were dealing. <br> In "Triumph," Jessop tells the real, and even more harrowing, story behind the raid and sets the public straight on much of the damaging misinformation that flooded the media in its aftermath.

Author description

Carolyn Jessop was born in 1968 into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a splinter-group from the Mormon church. At 18 she was forced into an arranged marriage with Merril Jessop, a man 32 years her senior. During her 17-year marriage Carolyn had 8 children, withstood psychological abuse from her husband and his 6 other wives and was denied the right to make any decisions for herself. She escaped in 2003 with all 8 of her children and $20 to her name. In 2006 her testimony played a crucial part of the case that led to the conviction of the notorious cult leader Warren Jeffs. Carolyn lives in Utah with her children.