Rulon Jeffs

Who was Rulon Jeffs?

Rulon Timpson Jeffs was the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a Mormon fundamentalist organization based in Colorado City, Arizona.

Jeffs was the son of David Ward Jeffs and Nora Lenora Timpson. His father hid the fact that he was a polygamist and Rulon spent the first several years of his life as Rulon Jennings. His father did not introduce him to the teachings of polygamy until 1938. Shortly after he was introduced to the teachings of polygamy his wife divorced him because of it. Jeffs was a follower of FLDS Church leader Leroy S. Johnson, who died in 1986. Jeffs assumed the leadership of the FLDS Church after Johnson's death.

It was reported that at the time of Jeffs' death at age 92 that he may have had as many as 75 wives and 65 children; other sources indicate that Jeffs may have been survived by 19 or 20 wives and "about 60 children," including 33 sons. According to author Jon Krakauer, who chronicles the FLDS and the Jeffs family in "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith," several of Jeff's wives were underage at the time they were married to him. Shortly after his death, one of Rulon's sons, Warren Jeffs, asserted his own leadership of the FLDS Church and subsequently married all but two of his father's widows, figuratively making him the stepfather of many of his siblings and solidifying his political position in the community.