Escape: A Memoir

Carolyn Jessop's memoir recounts her life within the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a radical offshoot of the Mormon Church. At eighteen, she was coerced into an arranged marriage with a man thirty-two years her senior who already had three wives. Over fifteen years, Jessop had eight children while enduring her husband's psychological abuse and competition among his wives for dominance. Fearing her children would be taken from her if caught, Jessop remained trapped for years. In 2003, she fled with her eight children and only $20. The memoir describes the FLDS as operating like a prison camp, where religious leaders deprive followers of personal choice, indoctrinate children in church schools, and enforce female subservience to men. Jessop became the first woman to win full custody of her children in a contested FLDS case. In 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general regarding church abuses contributed to the case against FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who was later convicted and sentenced. This edition includes a new epilogue by the author.