Quote:Texas neighbors keep eye on sect
Fear bloodbath if FBI fugitive is hiding in temple
By Miguel Bustillo, Los Angeles Times | May 20, 2006
ELDORADO, Texas -- Jimmy Doyle, the local justice of the peace, circled his Piper Cherokee plane over the fast-sprouting minicity where polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, may be hiding.
More than a half-mile below, a monolithic white temple encased in thick limestone towered over the West Texas scrubland.
All around it, young men in pickups and construction cranes were busy building a self-sufficient compound, which authorities believe is intended as a sanctuary for the 1,000 most faithful followers of the breakaway Mormon sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
''Some call this a religion," said Doyle, 69, as he stared out the cockpit with a look of disgust. ''But it sure looks like a cult to me."
Doyle and other leaders in Eldorado have been keeping a wary eye on their secretive neighbors since church leaders told a real estate broker two years ago that they planned to build a hunting lodge.
The anxiety has heightened this month in this town, with a population of 1,951, 4 miles from the compound, after news that the FBI now considers Jeffs one of its most highly sought suspects. He is wanted on charges that include rape and child molestation.
Jeffs -- who may have been present at the dedication of the white temple last year -- has preached that Zion, the stronghold where his sect will experience salvation, lies in Texas, according to former members of the church. Jeffs has also compared himself to Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism who was killed by a mob in Illinois, and predicted a climactic confrontation with the outside world.
Narrating his bird's-eye tour of the compound locals have called the Yearning for Zion Ranch, Doyle pointed to amenities in varying stages of construction. There were three-story dormitories, a commissary, a dairy farm, a chicken coop, orchards of fruit trees, row crops, a rock quarry, a cement plant, a water tank, greenhouses, grain silos -- and clearly, more to come.
The first floor of every building was constructed with solid concrete ''thick enough to withstand a bullet," Doyle noted. Women in antiquated long skirts and bonnets are sometimes seen tending crops. Men inside a tall wooden guard tower stand sentry around the clock, informing outsiders that they are unwelcome.
Ten thousand members strong, the fundamentalist church, which believes that men need a minimum of three wives to be granted complete salvation, openly practiced polygamy for decades with scant interference from police in Utah and Arizona. But the sect is facing serious law enforcement scrutiny in those states amid allegations that it tolerated the sexual abuse of children.
As a result, its leaders and their multitude of spouses are seeking a new beginning in rural Schleicher County, Texas, about 200 miles northwest of San Antonio.
Jeffs has prophesied a final showdown between the devoted and the outside world. Many in Eldorado worry that his supporters will do something rash when he is cornered.
The worst fears, fed by a barrage of media reports, are that Eldorado could become ''the next Waco." Some foresee a bloodbath similar to the one that occurred 13 years ago near Waco when a federal siege on a Branch Davidian compound ended with the deaths of 76 church members, including its leader David Koresh.
''They're up to something big in there, no doubt about that," said Wayne McGiness, the Eldorado postmaster, as he stood on County Road 300 and peered inside the compound through a pair of binoculars. ''I just hope this Jeffs character doesn't try to go out a martyr."
Law enforcement officials downplay the concerns, saying there is no reason to suspect the men inside the compound are armed and dangerous. Thus far, Texas authorities have received no reports of sexual abuse or any of the other alleged crimes that have followed the fundamentalist church.
Under Texas's development policies, government officials have only minimal authority over construction on the compound. The sect's only run-in with the law involved $34,000 in fines imposed by state environmental regulators for failing to properly dispose of raw sewage.
Wow, check out pictures of their hideout. It's not a compound, it's a freakin'
city.-b0b
(...wonders if and when this one will blow up?)