Stephen Singular

I've read several books on the FLDS including under Warren Jeffs - books by women who have escaped his dreadful tyranny that he says is divinely inspired because he is the Prophet and infallible (like the Pope, eh?) Those books were individual stories and stories relating (mostly) to the awful subjugation of the women. Interesting as they were, I was looking for an unemotional account of Jeffs leadership and his misuse of power.

This book is it. It's told from the legal point of view. How show more Jeffs manipulated himself into power and deprived others, equally and more entitled to it, the pursuit of Jeffs, the tax evasions practiced, the casting out of people in order to take over their homes and other illegal activities. Mostly enabled by the local Police, themselves members of the religion wishing to remain in good standing with their Prophet. But worst of all, was the passing around of women and children in marriage. How he told wives they were no longer married to this man, but must go and live with this other one, sometimes, often sisters were 'married' to the same man. And children, little girls, he made them marry whom he wished and if the ensuing sex was against the girl's consent, it wasn't rape, it was an act of conjugal love.

There is another perspective written about in all the books, but not in detail. The fact that in order the men to have their quorum of wives and be able to produce the something like 50 children necessary for them to become gods and rule their own planets in the afterlife (seriously) there can't be too many men around. So they throw the teenage boys out at the slightest excuse. I want to hear their stories and I think I've found the book, [b:Lost Boy|10598246|Lost Boy|Brent W. Jeffs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298713277s/10598246.jpg|6499941] by [a:Brent W. Jeffs|2867694|Brent W. Jeffs|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg].

It's a good book, an excellent read, even from the point of view of watching someone absolutely power-hungry exercise it in every way, cruel or kind, but always self-serving and somehow or other hypnotises the people out of their senses so they let him get away with it. Dictators work that way too. Both of them have their cliques and cadres who are generously rewarded. It's all very Machiavellian - the control, the fear, the distancing of the powerful from the ordinary, the sheep.

The book is a real window on the world of this strange, dangerous and awfully sad cult. show less

I have long admired John Douglas's work as a criminal profiler with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit through his true crime books. His first book, Mindhunter, was actually influential in my own career choice. As a young adult, I devoured true crime, but once I began working with offenders in a rehabilitation setting, I rarely picked up the genre. I needed other kinds of reading to restore my energy. Now that I'm settled into retirement, I'm finally ready to dive back into the true crime show more books I've continued to collect over the years.

John Douglas's Anyone You Want Me to Be: A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet has been sitting on my bookshelf since its 2003 publication. It's a true crime account of John Robinson, one of America's first known internet serial killers. A seemingly upstanding family man and businessman in Kansas, Robinson used early online chat rooms in the 1990s to prey on vulnerable women, luring them with promises of jobs, romance, and new beginnings — before murdering them. The book follows the investigation that eventually brought him down, drawing on Douglas's legendary career as an FBI criminal profiler to examine Robinson's psychology, his carefully constructed double life. It's a disturbing and fascinating look at how a predator adapted his methods to exploit emerging technology — and how investigators had to adapt right along with him.

Some might see this story as dated because of the vintage technology involved, but I found it more like a history lesson in the early days of the internet. It was nice to reminisce about a time period I lived through. I was also interested in how law enforcement had to work to catch up with the technology Robinson exploited, both in the investigation and the eventual prosecution.

I appreciated how Douglas traced Robinson's criminal career from its beginnings all the way to his arrest. He highlights the key moments that contributed to the escalation of his crimes — most notably the failure to hold him properly accountable for his earlier offenses. From my professional experience working with offenders, I was reminded again of the importance of holding people accountable for their actions. When individuals don't face real consequences, their behavior rarely changes. Douglas does a good job showing how Robinson's earlier crimes were not taken seriously enough, which allowed him to escalate.

The crimes themselves were deeply disturbing, and I felt real sorrow for the women Robinson victimized. I was shocked by how willing some of them were to leave their homes and relocate to Kansas based on his promises. It was surprising — and sad — how trusting people can be. I was particularly troubled by the portrayal of Robinson's wife. Her role was especially nuanced — she initially came across as frustrating for staying with him despite his infidelity and for refusing to believe he was a killer. But Douglas makes a convincing case that she was manipulated too, essentially groomed over the years for her role as wife and mother.

The book concludes with appendices that include statistics (now obviously outdated) along with practical safety suggestions from Douglas for interacting with strangers online and for parents whose children use the internet. Many of those recommendations still feel relevant and helpful today.

True crime isn't for everyone, and this one in particular carries heavy content warnings due to the violence that befell these women. That said, the authors handled the material with great respect and care for the victims and their families, even as Robinson's crimes grew increasingly horrific.

Anyone You Want Me to Be was a solid re-entry into true crime for me, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Douglas's work now that I have the mental space for it again.

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog show less

This is an amazing detailed and revealing study of the psychopath next door - or maybe hiding in the closet - drawn from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his detailed thirty-two-hour confession. The true bogeyman of homicidal home invasion while also working at ADT and (later) a canine officer and even Lutheran congregation chief officer is all too much and very American, somehow. This is the kind of monster show more that is truly fearsome: fitting in and hiding in plain sight.

For the closing material, I think some where-are-they-now stories would have been good, since the crimes are so recent. However, a lot was given over to discuss the possible physiological basis for criminal motivation without being able to connect it to BTW, like it was successfully to Arthur J. Shawcross in The Misbegotten Son. This is a needed line of inquiry and makes me think of Kurt Vonnegut ('Dwayne's bad chemicals made him take a loaded thirty-eight caliber revolver from under his pillow ...), but possibly more relevant and related here is the popular Christian mysticism that allowed him to self-justify within a matrix of demonic possession and acceptable levels of repentance. show less

Stephen Singular does a great job of showing how domestic terrorists are using the issue of abortion to widen their influence over America. Groups like Operation Rescue constantly push out messages of hate and encourage the murder of abortion providers in hopes that they will suck in bipolar or schizophrenic people like Scott Roeder to commit the actual violence. "News" casters like Fox News Bill O'Reilly help to spread the message, then both groups deny they have any part in causing the show more violence. Karen Armstrong says that fundamentalist groups are usually misogynist which applies well to the domestic terrorists in America who want more than anything (other than the destruction of representative US government) for women not to have any control over their sexuality. Dr. George Tiller's motto of Trust Women is mentioned several times and is the antithesis of what the terrorists support.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the workings of domestic terrorism in America. show less