Police investigate darker Texas polygamist sect
Leader charged with performing polygamous unions; another, sex charges
 Nellie Doneva / Abilene Reporter-News via AP The House of Yahweh compound is in a rural area between Clyde and Eula, Texas, about 170 miles west of Dallas. Authorities charged the group's leader, Yisrayl Hawkins, with performing polygamous weddings and forcing children as young as 11 to work at his 44-acre complex. |
CLYDE, Texas - Behind guarded, ornate gates at the end of a rural road, a self-proclaimed prophet warns his followers about the end of time and rails against a dangerous and unclean world outside their West Texas compound.
The women are covered in long skirts and long-sleeve shirts. Many of the children have different mothers and share the same father.
But this is not the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch, which authorities raided last month in Eldorado after receiving reports that underage girls were being forced to marry much older men.
This is the House of Yahweh: a different, even darker sect that the state has been investigating for years. Authorities in February charged the group's 73-year-old leader with performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children — some as young as 11 — to work jobs at his 44-acre compound.
"If a bunch of adults want to get together and follow some con man and throw their lives away, that's their right in this country," said Callahan County District Attorney Shane Deel. "But to me, when you do that to children and they don't have a chance, that's where the biggest concern is."
If convicted on the most serious charges, Yisrayl Hawkins faces up to 20 years in prison.
Another sect leader, Yedidiyah Hawkins, goes to court this summer on charges of sexually abusing a teenager, bigamy and welfare fraud.
'We have nothing to hide'
Questions have also been raised about at least two deaths within the sect.
A 7-year-old died in 2003 after her mother and another member performed home surgery on her infected leg. Both women were convicted of injury to a child.
And in 2006, a woman bled to death after giving birth because she was prevented from going to the hospital, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by her husband.
Although members deny they practice polygamy, former members say Yisrayl Hawkins has at least two dozen wives — and state records show he fathered two babies last year with women ages 19 and 22.
Yisrayl Hawkins, who has pleaded not guilty in his criminal case, told The Associated Press that he and his church are misunderstood and persecuted because of their religious beliefs.
"We have nothing to hide," said the bearded, white-haired Hawkins, who declined to address specific allegations against him and his sect.
Sect lives in trailer parks
The House of Yahweh compound, about 120 miles northeast of the FLDS ranch, has wind generators, a cafeteria, a food-processing plant and dozens of tractor-trailer rigs holding canned goods. It also has a few stores carrying homemade toiletries and clothing.
Unlike the FLDS members who stay on the 1,700-acre ranch, most House of Yahweh followers members live in mobile homes surrounding the sect's compound, which is occupied only by a few caretakers. Other members own homes nearby or live in trailer parks owned by Hawkins in Abilene.
"Anyone can come here and can leave at any time," Hawkins said.
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After the April 3 raid on the FLDS ranch, Child Protective Services took more than 460 children into custody.
Child-welfare officials said they cannot comment on possible investigations of House of Yahweh members unless youngsters have been removed. Only one such case has occurred: Four children living in Yedidiyah Hawkins' home are now in foster care.
Yisrayl Hawkins was born Buffalo Bill Hawkins but legally changed his name. He founded the House of Yahweh in 1980 — three years after the former Abilene police officer was fired for having beer in his patrol car. The group moved to rural Clyde several years later so they would have room to celebrate weeklong Old Testament feasts.