FBI puts Mormon leader on most wanted list

BREAKAWAY Mormon leader Warren Jeffs has been added to the FBI’s list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives,” a move that caps law enforcement’s dramatic change of approach toward the polygamous group in recent years.

Small polygamous groups have existed in the southwestern US under the watchful yet fairly benign eye of authorities ever since a sect known as the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) separated itself from mainstream Mormonism in 1890.

That year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints banned “plural marriages,” a move declared to be based on a “revelation” from God. The decision was also required for Utah to become a state.