The documentary series “Keep Sweet: Pray and shut up” on Netflix focuses on the case of Warren Jeffs, former president of a Mormon community. At the head of the movement, he married 78 wives.
An unthinkable and yet very real story. In its documentary series Keep Sweet: Pray and be quiet, Netflix looks at the Warren Jeffs case. This American chaired, for several years, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an isolated Mormon community in the state of Utah.
At the head of this movement, he exerted a physical and psychological influence on its members, but mainly on women. To reach paradise, a man from the community must marry at least three wives. Warren Jeffs had 78. Twenty-four of them were minors.
In the 4-episode documentary available on the platform, the most curious discover this sordid affair which shook America in the early 2000s. The series is a wealth of information and some of it gives you goosebumps.
keep sweet explains in particular that Warren Jeffs took the lead of the movement after the death of his father, Rulon Jeffs. More than taking control of the community, he also married the wives of his parent. But what about his own mother, Marilyn Steed?
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Rulon Jeffs and his son, Warren Jeffs.
Within the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, cases of incest are numerous. The guru did not marry his biological mother, but he did marry 29 of his father’s former wives – who are, theoretically, his stepmothers.
Among his many victims, 56 were sisters. In 2006, Warren Jeffs was charged with complicity in rape and pedophilia. As he flees, he is put on the FBI’s most wanted list. He was finally imprisoned in 2007 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011. Even behind bars, the guru continues to enjoy his power over his followers. Many of them still visit him.
Keep Sweet: Pray and be quiet is available on Netflix.