Polygamist Added to FBI Most Wanted List
May 7, 2006 — -- Warren Jeffs' followers call him "the prophet." They believe he speaks for God.
"I love uncle Warren with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul," one of Jeff's followers told ABC News' "Primetime."
The FBI, however, has labeled him a menace to society and has now added him to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
"He is part of a group, leader of a group, that promulgates this theory, this activity, that sexual relations with children is OK," said FBI spokesman John Miller.
Arizona officials charged Jeffs as a child sex offender. He heads a fundamentalist Mormon group with about 10,000 members. Jeffs preaches that polygamy is a holy duty.
The sect, called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, split after the Mormon church renounced polygamy in 1890.
"It's a mind control cult, it's an oppressive cult. Women are oppressed in this group more than any other cult," said John Llewellyn, the author of "Polygamy's Rape of Rachel Strong."
Total Control
Jeffs, 50, dominates the lives of his followers, banning TVs and radios, deciding who marries whom, and enforcing a strict dress code. Officials believe he's fled his walled compound in Colorado City, Ariz. The sect is also based in the neighboring community of Hildale, Utah.
"He would be a danger to any law enforcement official that tried to arrest him because he's got his bodyguards," said Llewellyn. "I don't think he intends to be taken alive."
Jeffs joins an FBI "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list that includes five murderers, a pedophile, an armed robber, a drug dealer and America's most notorious fugitive, Osama bin Laden.
J. Edgar Hoover created the list in 1950 to generate publicity about the most elusive and most dangerous criminals. They're not ranked -- the FBI wanted to avoid a competition to be No. 1. So tonight Warren Jeffs become just one of the most wanted criminals in America.
The FBI admits it has no idea where Warren Jeffs is. It hopes that by adding him to the list of America's most notorious fugitives and offering a $100,000 reward, it might start getting some leads.
By adding Jeffs to the Top 10 list, the FBI's reward increases from $50,000 to $100,000.
Related Stories
ABC News Live