This is the story of the 2008 raid on the Yearning For Zion ranch by Texas and Federal Authorities. The world has heard this story before. But has it ever been told from the perspective of the most marginalized group of people caught up in the raid? This is the story of the boys.
While most of the boys of the FLDS were left in Short Creek, the twin cities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah, where they would join construction companies controlled by the church and donate funding for Warren Jeffs' "secret projects", a select group was valued enough to be brought to "Zion," a place Warren Jeffs was seeking to establish as a spiritual stronghold on the earth. There, they became caught up in the largest child custody case in U.S. history.
The world looked on with unease and morbid interest hoping the children would be "saved" from this fundamental religious sect they'd been born into.
But even though the boys were children, they were treated as "perpetrators in training" and were forcibly detained at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch by CPS. This is their story of fear, hope, resilience, and faith. Fear of the outside world and government. Hope they would see deliverance by God and be reunited with their families. Resilience in the face of mounting psychological pressure.
A harrowing narrative delivered in the first person by Ammon Jeffs, the third-born son of Warren Jeffs, this story will make you question what lessons the US Government has learned about intervening to save innocence caught up in the world of cults.
Ammon's world shattered when he discovered the truth about his father's crimes. His life trajectory has changed in ways his 18-year-old self in 2008 couldn't have possibly imagined. However, discovering the truth cannot change the raid's trauma and its negative fallout that he and the 72 boys at Boy's Ranch experienced while in state custody. Ammon's attention to detail, his honesty in perspective, and the journey the raid set him on for the next 16 years will make you laugh, cry, and want to stand up and shout in happiness about his ability to overcome and set his own course in life.
