Paperback: Rebecca Musser grew up in fear, living downstairs from her father's "real" family, and concealing her family's polygamous lifestyle from the "dangerous" outside world. After attending Alta Academy, a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints school, she became the nineteenth wife of her people's Prophet, eighty-five-year-old Rulon Jeffs, in her late teens.
Forty-six additional wives were added to Rebecca's marriage before she was widowed at twenty-six and threatened with another arranged marriage. Unwilling to remarry, she pulled off a daring escape, eventually building a new life and family. But by 2007, she was no longer able to stand for the abuse and underage marriages still being perpetuated within the church.
So she took the witness stand against Warren Jeffs, the new Prophet of the FLDS. Her testimony revealed the horrific secrets behind the temple's closed doors, sending the leaders to prison for years, and Warren Jeffs for life. Now Rebecca tells the full story - one of crimes committed in the name of God and the abuse of power played out across generations.
A revealing memoir and a fast-paced courtroom drama, The Witness Wore Red (2013) is a testament to the power of one woman's decisions to change the world.
About the author: Rebecca Musser is a New York Times bestselling author, highly sought-after keynote speaker and agent for social revolution. She empowers women around the world to escape from oppression in all its forms, because, as she has said, "I was once owned, too." Born into the FLDS, an extreme, isolated, polygamist sect of the Mormon faith, as a teenager she was married to the eighty-five-year-old Prophet Rulon Jeffs, destined to be his nineteenth wife of sixty-five. After enduring years of violation, upon her husband's death she escaped from his son, Warren Jeffs, when he tried to force her to remarry. On behalf of her little sisters and other voiceless young girls trapped within that culture, Rebecca testified more than twenty times against cult leaders to bring evidence to light and freedom to her people. Today, Rebecca is the found of ClaimRed.org, a nonprofit human rights organization dedicated to teaching survivors of oppression and abuse how to recognize, prevent, and break the cycle of abusive behaviour.
M Bridget Cook is a national best-selling author well-known for penning riveting tales of transformation. Her gift is her courage to bring light into the darkest places of humanity, and illuminating paths that awaken readers to their own magnificent journey. Her powerful work has been showcased on Oprah, CNN, and Good Morning America, and in People, among others. She is coauthor of the best-selling Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer's Daughter (2009) with Melissa G Moore, and Skinhead Confessions: From Hate to Hope (2008) with former neo-Nazi T J Leyden, and her stories continue to rock readers around the world. In writing as in life, she loves to refute stereotypes. Bridget runs two trucking companies while enjoying her four amazing children and more pets than her beloved husband can handle. An internationally sought-after speaker and activist, Bridget wows audiences on the subjects of transformation, conscious business, and how to leave the footprints of an inspired legacy.
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