This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Taken as a whole, the life and fall of Warren Jeffs is proof that possession of absolute power is corrosive, even maddening, to those in its thrall.
As we know, Jeffs' power over some 10,000 men, women and children is as vast as his sexual appetite for innocent girls who never were given the knowledge to understand what would happen to them and why.
Nor were their parents, who willingly gave their daughters to a man they believe to be their prophet, one who claims to channel the voice of God.
This is a man who has 78 wives, 24 of them under the age of 17. Tape recordings played in court caught him grooming girls to give him sexual pleasure.
During the 13 years he has led his followers from his walled compound in southern Utah, and even when he was on the run, he expelled men who displeased him. He reduced his people by assigning them little more than homes they couldn't own and keeping them in stunning ignorance of the rest of the world. He took women and children from their husbands and fathers and gave them, as mere chattel, to other men.
Born and raised in the faith, Jeffs definitely was a product of his environment, as his defense attorney told a Texas jury on Friday. But he brought an ethos of punishment and debasement to a people self-isolated in redoubts throughout the West — and they accepted it.
This world has known many tyrants, but Jeffs stands in a league of one.
All of that will be stripped from him when he arrives at a Texas prison to serve a term that could be up to life — at press time, the jury was still hearing evidence for the sentencing phase.
As he did in a Utah jail, he'll trade his somber suits for a prisoner's clothes. He will follow orders, not give them. It's likely no one will listen to his words or care about them if they did.
Jeffs will have to cede some power to the wardens, corrections officers and even their dogs. He will be told when and what to eat and the time the light in his cell goes out. Little, if anything, will be in his power to influence or change.
And, as a sexual predator, he likely will be housed with men just like himself. Could it be that he'd look into their eyes and see the depths to which he has sunk?
Not a chance. Jeffs sees himself as the master of his people and his world, as the voice of God, and almost assuredly always will.
Peg McEntee is news columnist. Reach her at pegmcentee@sltrib.com and facebook.com/pegmcentee.