One of the many sons of convicted child rapist and polygamist church leader Warren Jeff talks about his time with his “manipulative” father – and how he “paves” a new path for himself that involves a significant name change.
Wendell Jeffson, 21, was raised on a 1,700-acre ranch near Eldorado, Texas, along with nearly 50 siblings.
His father, Warren Jeff, had declared himself a prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS). He became famous in the 1990s before being put on the FBI’s list of the top 10 wanted and convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting two teenage girls he married, claiming to be his “spiritual” wives.
In 2007, Jeff tried to hang himself in his Utah prison cell and was forcibly imprisoned in Arizona in 2009. After his conviction, he was placed in a medical coma after starvation in a Texas prison and remained behind bars in Lone Star State to this day.
Several of Jeff’s children and followers have spoken out since his arrest in 2006, but a new wave of prosecutors – including some closest to him – have spoken out in Peacock’s new documentary, Preaching Evil: Wife in escape with Warren Jeff. “
In an interview with The Post, Jeffson described his father’s abuse and threats of eternal damnation as “emotional” and “manipulative.”
“Warren Jeff controlled everything from the things you eat to the things you wear and – if you could – even the things you think,” Jeffson told The Post.
Vicki Thompson is shown with Warren Jeff. peacock
His first memory is of the heartbreaking and confusing moment when Jeff separated the then 3-year-old child and his siblings from their mothers in Hildale, Utah, to relocate them to his Texas complex.
“I was wondering why I was separated from my mother and why she was crying,” Jeffson told Insider recently. “I was very young. In fact, I didn’t understand anything that was happening. ”
Jeffson eventually reunited with his mother, Vicki Thompson, now 42, when she was transferred to Zion’s Ranch six months later.
From an early age, children woke up at 5 am to help with breakfast and cleaning before being sent to work in the gardens all day.
“There was no music, no internet, no television, no movies, nothing of that nature,” Jeffson told Insider. “He just created an environment where we were only exposed to things he wanted us to be exposed to.
He controlled the way we saw the outside world in every aspect.
Wendell Jeffson was raised on his father’s FLDS complex in Texas with nearly 500 other children. Wendell Jeffson Wendell Jeffson is seen at a young age. Wendell Jeffson
Jeffson was 7 years old when his father was arrested. He and nearly 500 other children were taken from the complex, but most were returned.
“I remember those Texas rangers and special forces who came with rifles and everything,” he told Fox News. “I did not know if I would survive. We had been taught that these people wanted to eliminate us. He felt he was just confirming what Warren Jeff had taught us.
But Jeffson is questioning his father’s faith and teachings from an early age, without understanding why he and his family were told black people were “very evil,” he told Fox News, and why they were not allowed to wear short sleeves, eating candy, playing with toys, attending school and choosing an age-appropriate husband.
Wendell Jeffson poses with his mother and younger sister. Wendell Jeffson
“I grew up with mothers who were 15,” Jeffson told Insider. “It’s not right, but he married a 12-year-old and they told me they were my mother and not even much older than me.
When he was 14, Jeffson and his family were separated from the FLDS, according to Fox News. Eventually, they left the church and he completed the construction work, he told The Post, earning money to rent a home for him, his mother and sister.
Jeff was included in the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted, leading to his arrest in 2006; he remains behind bars. Getty Images
After two years of living alone and gaining independence, Jeffson, Vicki, and Sarah decided to leave the church altogether.
“At 18, I began to gain my own independence,” he told The Post about leaving FLDS – and his father’s continued influence, even while he was in prison. “I could see how much he controlled our lives, and that was not what I wanted for my future.”
Jeffson, his sister Sarah and their mother Vicky are “very happy” to live a free life with the latest addition to the family – Vicky Jaden’s baby. Wendell Jeffson, a 21-year-old man, followed his heart and began dating online. He is now engaged to Yolanda Nosahare. Wendell Jeffson
Jeffson continued to earn his GED before embarking on an insurance career. He met singer and songwriter Yolanda Nosahare, 21, at Bumble and proposed to her in October 2021.
Vicky eventually moved out of her son’s home and fell in love with 50-year-old Officer Aaron Thompson, who had previously known about her torturous circumstances after spending time as Jeff’s bodyguard and lead investigator in several cases. of FLDS. The couple married and recently welcomed their first child, Jaden.
Meanwhile, Jeffson’s sister Sarah is graduating from high school this year.
“We are very happy and moving forward,” Jeffson told The Post. He remains very close with the few brothers and sisters who also left the church, but said he was completely cut off from most of his family, who “unfortunately” remained and believed he had been “washed away” and ” controlled by the devil. “
To honor his new path, he even changed his last name from Jeff to Jeffson.
“I am moving away from Jeff’s agenda,” he told The Post. “I am paving my own path and creating my own life for myself, while keeping Jeff’s name in my last name because I want that last name fixed again.
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