Summary
Carolyn Jessop's "Escape" is a harrowing memoir of her life within the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist sect. Born into a family with six generations of polygamists, Carolyn grew up believing that plural marriage was the only way to salvation, a belief instilled in her by her devout grandmother. Despite this religious upbringing, her early childhood was marked by her mother's severe depression and violent abuse, experiences that shaped Carolyn's survival instincts and made her hyper-vigilant to shifts in mood and power dynamics. These skills would become essential tools for navigating the complexities and cruelties of the polygamist world she was destined for.
At eighteen, Carolyn's life took a dramatic turn when she was forced into an arranged marriage with Merril Jessop, a man thirty-two years her senior, becoming his fourth wife. She found herself thrust into a family riddled with dysfunction, where Merril's volatile and manipulative wives competed relentlessly for his favor, often using the children as pawns in their power struggles. Carolyn's early married life was marked by shock, fear, and a constant state of instability as she navigated the bizarre dynamics of Merril's household, enduring emotional abuse, manipulative tactics, and the constant threat of violence. Despite these hardships, she found a degree of independence through education, earning a bachelor's degree and pursuing a teaching career. Her children became her primary focus and motivation, providing an anchor in a world that often felt like it was spinning out of control.
The rise of Warren Jeffs within the FLDS brought a wave of increasingly extreme and oppressive doctrines, turning the community into a totalitarian society governed by fear. Jeffs' decrees about education, personal freedoms, and the rules of sexual intimacy stripped the community of its remaining autonomy. The forced marriages of young girls to much older men became increasingly commonplace, and public schools were abruptly closed in favor of religious indoctrination centers. Carolyn was targeted by Jeffs after complaining about her husband's abuse. Her protests were twisted into evidence of her supposed immorality, and she was shunned by the community and admonished to repent. The birth of her son Harrison, who was severely disabled by cancer, added a new dimension of suffering to Carolyn's life. As she fought relentlessly for Harrison's care, enduring countless hospitalizations and navigating a complex regime of medication and treatment, she realized the depth of her isolation and the cruelty of the religious system that condemned her son's illness as a punishment from God.
The final turning point came when Carolyn was put in mortal danger by Merril, who brought a violent criminal into their motel business and then accused her of fabricating her fears. This, coupled with the near-death experience she endured during her last pregnancy and the birth of her eighth child, gave her the resolve to escape. On April 21, 2003, Carolyn seized a moment of opportunity when Merril was out of town and fled with all eight of her children, starting a new life in Salt Lake City with only $20 to her name. The escape was a harrowing ordeal as her children, indoctrinated by the FLDS, were terrified of the outside world and believed they were being dragged to hell. The subsequent custody battle became a landmark case as Carolyn fought for the right to raise her children in freedom, challenging the FLDS' power and becoming one of the first women to successfully escape with all her children and win custody.
As Carolyn rebuilds her life, she discovers not only freedom but also love, finding a new partner who cherishes her and her children. She also witnesses the downfall of Warren Jeffs, who was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List and ultimately arrested. While Jeffs' capture marked a significant turning point, it did not end the suffering or the complexities faced by those still trapped within the FLDS and its oppressive system of beliefs. Carolyn's story is not only a personal testament of resilience, but a powerful indictment of the abuses of power that can take place within religious communities when blind obedience is conflated with spiritual purity.