Two Many Wives

Mainstream Mormons hold that Woodruff issued the antipolygamy manifesto as the direct result of a revelation from God, not in an effort to curry favor with the federal government. "A key tenet of our faith is the belief in continuing revelation," says church spokesman Michael Purdy. But some Mormons never gave up polygamy, even when threatened with excommunication by the main church. Shunned and subjected to periodic raids and arrests, many relocated to remote regions of Utah, forming their own churches and societies as they continued to practice their faith.

That wasn't always enough to keep them out of the law's reach. In 1953, Arizona Gov. Howard Pyle, disturbed that a polygamist community had drifted over the state line into Arizona, ordered the arrest of all married men in the border town of Short Creek on charges of bigamy, adultery and rape. The Arizona National Guard bused 56 women and 153 children to Phoenix, where they planned to place them in Mormon homes so they could live "a proper and normal life."

Given the difficulties of proving polygamy where no marriage licenses existed, the raid resulted in no arrests. Instead, the public became outraged by newspaper photographs showing children being pried from their fathers' arms. Two years later, the episode was judged a massive failure, and the families were returned to their former homes. Pyle paid for the Short Creek raid with his political career when he was defeated in the next election.

That history of persecution has done little to unite polygamous clans. Many perpetually are quarreling over differences in their doctrines. Allred's older brother, Rulon, was killed 24 years ago during a feud with the LeBaron clan. Still, the old-fashioned 19th-century religion holds a surprisingly strong lure for the young. Most of those attending church on a recent Sunday were younger than age 40, and many were teen-agers.

Melanie Thompson had just graduated from high school when she met a polygamist family while working as a nanny. "I was trying to convert them -- you know, `If you go to my church, I'll go to your church,'" she recalls. "But, instead, I had a revelation. I started to read more about what they were saying."

Convinced that fundamentalism was the true faith, she broke with Mormonism and began attending the Allred church. Her family was devastated by the news, although they have since made amends. "It was pretty hard at first," she admits. "But now everyone's fine. I have sisters who aren't active in the church anymore, so I'm not the only one who's different."

Vicky Prunty has a similar story, but without the happy ending. Born and raised within the mainstream Mormon faith, she was attending Brigham Young University when she converted to fundamentalism. For years, she dedicated herself to living as a plural wife but, after two disastrous marriages, she since has become one of polygamy's most visible critics. In 1998, she and a handful of Other former wives founded Tapestry of Polygamy, which since has evolved into Tapestry Against Polygamy. The group maintains that polygamy is a form of domestic violence that often leads to other abuses, notably incest and the clandestine marriage of underage girls.