What Are They Plotting? Mysterious Stadium at Warren Jeffs" Church Compound Sparks Fears That Paedophile Mormon's Followers Are Planning "Jim Jones-style" Mass Suicide

Daily Mail
February 7, 2012

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Photos of a stadium being built on the site of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - led by convicted paedophile Warren Jeffs - have emerged, raising concerns about its purpose.

The pictures, taken by a local resident in Eldorado, Texas, have sparked fears that the concrete building could be used for a mass suicide, like that led by Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple in 1978.

Another theory is that the concrete building - measuring 30 feet high and 289 feet across - will house a large statue of polygamist leader Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence for raping two underage girls.

What is it? A large stadium-like building is under construction at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints site in Eldorado, Texas, sparking fears that it could be used for a mass suicide

Judge Jimmy Doyle, who captured the pictures from his aircraft, told Time magazine that the greatest fear among locals was that 'there will be a Jim Jones-like thing out there'.

Jones led a mass suicide in 1978 at the Peoples Temple in Guyana. In total, 913 followers died, including 200 children who were forced to swallow poison by the group's leaders.

Although suicide is not permitted in the FLDS, Sam Brower, a Utah private investigator, told Time that Jeffs has disregarded other taboos in the past, such as marrying his father's wives.

'He has done other things that were against their beliefs and culture - he's famous for that,' Brower told the magazine, adding that he may wish to exercise his power over his followers' deaths.

Fears: It is believed that the structure will house a 30 ft statue of the group's polygamist leader Warren Jeffs

Leader: Warren Jeffs, pictured left, was sentenced to life in jail for raping two underage girls. A sketch drawn by a boy at the compound suggests the stadium's statue will feature Jeffs with a female child

Leader: Warren Jeffs, pictured left, was sentenced to life in jail for raping two underage girls. A sketch drawn by a boy at the compound suggests the stadium's statue will feature Jeffs with a female child

But Doyle added no one is sure what the stadium will be used for - and it has a few strange features.

They include thousands of blue tubes curling along the top of the building's walls, which local TV station KSL suggested may be a cooling system.

There is also what appears to be a large drainage system - comprised of two large pipes encircling the building and running hundreds of miles underground to the west.

Yet questions remain about why a building in such a dry area would be needed.

Judge Doyle said of the building: 'We don't know what that is and, as with anyone else, we cannot explain what that is.'

Others believe it could be used as a new temple after another less than a mile away was allegedly destroyed when officers seized evidence against Jeffs in 2008, KSL reported.

But businessman Michael Biggerstaff, who once employed FDLS members, said a boy from the compound told him a statue was planned for the site.

'He just made a comment to me one day. He just said: "Uncle Mike, they're building a statue of Uncle Warren",' he told KSL.

The youth reportedly sent him an image of the statue, which depicted a man holding a child's hand.

He told the businessman it had been built in San Angelo and then transported to Utah for work, before returning to Texas.

'I was informed by this young man that it did come in, in the middle of the night,' Biggerstaff added.

An anti-FLDS activist told KLS that the imagery of the man and a child was repulsive in light of Jeffs's crimes. The prosecution claimed he had 78 marriages, many to underage girls.

She said: 'I think that it's just totally repulsive that Warren Jeffs would be standing there with a small child who, from what I can see on the statue, resembles the 12-year-old child that he raped in the temple.'

Whatever the reason, Doyle is in no doubt that the construction has been ordered by Jeffs himself from within his jail cell in Palestine, Texas.

'I think he calls the shots on everything, even though he's locked up,' Doyle told KSL.

Worried: The construction was spotted by local resident Judge Jimmy Doyle, who took photos from his plane

Destroyed: The structure could be a replacement for this temple a mile away, which was allegedly ruined by officers during the investigation in 2008

Time reported that Jeffs can speak to an approved list of 10 friends or relatives on the phone for 240 minutes a month, and has access to a typewriter, allowing him to maintain control over the FLDS.

He has allegedly demanded leaders enforce certain rules, such as orders to take away children's bicycles.

But his main message is that the end of the world is imminent, Brower added to Time.

'He is setting up for the end of the world,' Brower said. 'He has divided the community into two groups, the elites and the repentance group, and they are in a competition to be the most obedient.

'He has removed any joy in the life of those people. He has taken away toys. There are no sports, no radio, no TV, no Internet. He has removed any diversions so they can focus on his revelations and the end of the world.

'The reason he does it is because he can. He's a really sick human being.'

A BLUEPRINT FOR SUICIDE? JIM JONES AND THE PEOPLES TEMPLE

Reverend Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple

Reverend Jim Jones was the leader of the Peoples Temple, which he founded in his home state of Indiana in 1955.

The left-wing cult focused on the healing powers of socialism and humanism. It was a strong advocate of racial integration.

To move away from media scruitny, the group built its compound in Jonestown, Guyana.

In the 1970s, some members expressed a wish to leave the cult. In November 1978, some were gunned down as they tried to get away.

On November 18, 1978, 913 temple members killed themselves at the compound. More than 200 children were killed after they were made to drink cyanide.

On a recording found after the suicides, Jones said intelligence organisations were conspiring against the Temple. He feared that men would attack the compound and torture the children.

He says on the recording: 'We didn't commit suicide; we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.'

Until 9/11, it was the biggest loss of U.S. civilian life in a non-natural disaster.