Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs - Softcover

Wall, Elissa; Pulitzer, Lisa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061628034 ISBN 13: 9780061628030

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2012

Synopsis

In September 2007, a packed courtroom in St. George, Utah, sat hushed as Elissa Wall, the star witness against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, gave captivating testimony of how Jeffs forced her to marry her first cousin at age fourteen. This harrowing and vivid account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of this closed community and the lengths to which Jeffs went in order to control the sect's women. Now, in this courageous memoir, Elissa Wall tells the incredible and inspirational story of how she emerged from the confines of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and helped bring one of America's most notorious criminals to justice. Offering a child's perspective on life in the FLDS, Wall discusses her tumultuous youth, and detailing how Warren Jeffs's influence over the church twisted its already rigid beliefs in dangerous new directions. But even in those bleak times, Wall retained a sliver of hope that one day she would find a way out, and one snowy night that came in the form of a rugged stranger named Lamont Barlow. Their chance encounter set in motion a friendship and eventual romance that gave her the strength she needed to break free from her past and sever the chains of the church. In "Stolen Innocence", Wall delves into the difficult months on the outside that led her to come forward against him, working with prosecutors on one of the biggest criminal cases in Utah's history, so that other girls still inside the church might be spared her cruel fate. More than a tale of survival and freedom, "Stolen Innocence" is the story of one heroic woman who stood up for what was right and reclaimed her life.

About this title

Review:

"Wall's story couldn't be more timely. Her descriptions of the polygamous sect's rigidity are shocking, but what's most fascinating is the immensely likeable author's struggle to reconcile her longing for happiness with her terror of it's consequences." --People

About the Author:

Elissa Wall is a former member of the FLDS church who was forced into marriage at age fourteen. She left the FLDS at age eighteen and she currently resides with her two children and her husband, Lamont. Lisa Pulitzer is a freelance writer. She lives on Long Island, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0061628034
• ISBN 13: 9780061628030
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480