Stolen Innocence (2008)

Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs is an autobiography by American author Elissa Wall detailing her childhood in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and subsequent later life outside of the church. It was first published by William Morrow and Company in 2008.

Wall was born into a polygamous family in Salt Lake City and grew up attending the FLDS-run Alta Academy. She describes her living situation as tense; familial relations were further complicated when her mother was reassigned to marry another man in Hildale, Utah. FLDS leaders orchestrated a marriage between Wall, then 14, and her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed, an arrangement she vehemently opposed. During their four-year marriage, Steed abused her sexually and psychologically, and Wall eventually began an affair with Lamont Barlow, a 25-year-old former member of the FLDS. Barlow later persuaded her to leave the church and to press charges against Steed and Warren Jeffs, the FLDS "prophet" who performed the wedding ceremony.

Stolen Innocence sold well, reaching number six on the New York Times bestseller list, but received mixed reviews. Critics were interested in the story but criticized Wall's writing style. Sharp Independent and Killer Films optioned the film rights shortly after its publication and discussed possibly creating a movie adaption of the book.

Background

Elissa Wall was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 7, 1986 to Lloyd (called Douglas in the book) and Sharon (Steed) Wall, both members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). The FLDS is a Mormon denomination that split from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) following the latter's decision to outlaw polygamy in 1890. Wall's family practiced polygamy, and Sharon was the second of three wives. As is typical among the FLDS, Wall's parents produced a large number of children. Elissa was raised with 14 siblings born to her mother, Sharon and 10 half siblings by her father. Female members of the FLDS wore "long pioneer style dresses" and styled their hair in traditional buns and braids. The mandated undergarments covered their full form, "from the wrist to the ankle and right up to the neck", while makeup, tattoos, and piercings were not permitted. Wall, along with other FLDS children, grew up attending the Alta Academy, which was owned and run by the church. Warren Jeffs, a leader in the community, read from the Book of Mormon at eight in the morning. "No matter what age you were, you were expected to attend and take notes," said Wall. "It was a very religious education...As a child in that society, you hung on every word. I remember believing in it so much it would almost consume me." She later referred to her education as "brainwashing".

The first major crisis in Wall's early life occurred when she was 13 and her mother was reassigned to marry another man, Fred Jessop. Wall, along with her mother and sisters, moved to Hildale in the year 2000. The new family was particularly large, so the children were required to eat meals in shifts. She compared the experience to starting a new school in terms of aspects of life that she had to become re-accustomed to. Over time, several of her brothers and sisters left or were expelled from the church.

In 2001, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs arranged for a then 14-year-old Wall to marry her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed. Wall stated that she despised her cousin and asked that she be given more time or another possible husband. Her stepfather and mother were supportive of the marriage and encouraged her to go through with it, sewing her wedding dress and organizing her honeymoon. She and Steed were married at the Hotsprings Motel in Caliente, Nevada. Warren Jeffs, who had previously insisted that the wedding move forward, performed the ceremony.

Wall describes the marriage as traumatic, with frequent rapes and miscarriages. She recounts that she did not receive any sex education while in school and as a result was unable to understand her husband's advances. As her marriage with her cousin fell apart, she began to spend nights sleeping in her truck, and at that point met former FLDS member Lamont Barlow. Wall, then 17, began an affair with the then 25-year-old Barlow, who encouraged her to leave the church with him. The affair was eventually uncovered when she became pregnant by him, and Jeffs had the marriage to Steed annulled. Wall left the FLDS and married Barlow, having two children with him.

In 2006, Wall pressed charges against Jeffs, who was put on the FBI's Most Wanted list. He was arrested in August of the same year while travelling in Nevada "in a red Cadillac found to contain $54,000 in cash, 15 mobile phones, three iPods, laptop computers, a police scanner, a stack of credit cards and two female wigs, one blonde and one brunette". While testifying, Wall was referred to as Jane Doe IV, though she later asked that her name be published. In September 2007, Jeffs was convicted for two counts of being an accomplice to rape.

Writing

In January 2008, HarperCollins publishers confirmed that Elissa Wall was writing a "tell-all" memoir that was scheduled to be released in April of that year. She chose to use pseudonyms for most of the people who appear in the book but kept the names of the plaintiffs and a few other members of the church unaltered. The book provided the background for Wall's life inside of the FLDS and focused on her marriage to Allen Steed, whom she portrayed as "boorish and odd". She further discussed her opinions on polygamy and the difficulties it caused in her early childhood.