Flora Jessop - bravely honest or not? (drugs, regular, leader)

[Lizita]

Flora Jessop was on TV again today which she is on a regular basis, usually invited to some talk show as an expert on the FLDS. TV and other media seem to be extremely interested in her and the stories she tell about growing up in the FLDS. She tells some pretty shocking stories about this mysterious and weird cult and her own abusive childhood. Much of it has been backed up by others and we all know that the FLDS leader has been sexually abusing his child brides so there is clearly something very amiss in the FLDS community. However, having seen quite a bit of Miss Jessop, I'm starting to wonder if all her stories are really 100% factual.

Some of her stories are definitely, or at least most likely, true. There is evidence that she was molested by her father. There is no doubt that young girls are forced to marry in the FLDS. There is no doubt that the young people are prevented from getting educated and that the women and girls are oppressed. But some of the things Flora Jessop says sound rather far fetched to me and I can't find anyone else that backs up her assertions. One allegation she has made is that her aunt would put children in a dentist chair and drill their teeth just to torture them. She has said that the parents in the FLDS regularly give children psychotropic drugs to keep them docile, telling the kids they are vitamins. She also claims that FLDS babies are not allowed to cry and are trained from the beginning not to cry by waterboarding them. She says that pedophilia not only happens within the FLDS but that it's widespread and accepted. A lot of the men, according to her, are child molesters and everyone knows it but nobody does anything. However, when it was discovered that Flora's father had molested her when she was 14 he was kicked out of the church because of it.

Flora also says that people are kept in the FLDS community by force and can't leave if they want to. If they do groups of men are sent to capture or kill the person and it's because of this that she's always armed. She claims to fear for her life to this day. She says that she escaped the cult as a teenager and was taken in by an older woman. But after a couple of weeks on the run these killing squads showed up and she went back with them because she knew that the woman's life was at stake if she didn't. Despite these killing squads going around, according to Flora, I can't find any info of any FLDS people committing any murders, kidnappings or attempted murders.

She has given conflicting stories about how she escaped but the story is always that she did in fact escape. Just a few months ago her younger sister, Ruby, left the cult and on the Katie show last night she told the story of how she escaped. This is what she said: "I had finally had enough and decided that I couldn't take it and wanted to leave. So I loaded up the van while my husband was at work and when he came home I told him that I was leaving. He tried to talk me out of it but I still left and went to my brothers house. Then I went and got custody of my kids." That doesn't sound like an escape to me and definitely not the dangerous one Flora claims escapes from the FLDS are. That sounds like a wife leaving her husband.

Surely the FLDS are a bit on the wacko side and definitely a cult. But do they really drug kids, drill teeth just to torture them and waterboard babies to stop them from ever crying? Are all the people that were born into this cult evil people who hurt their own babies?
Flora Jessop is seen as a hero who is really brave to tell the truth about the FLDS. So far is seems like the media is accepting whatever she says as the gospel and she is considered to be one of the foremost experts on the FLDS and is always called on when the cult is discussed in the media. But maybe they should question her a bit more.
What do you guys think? Is Flora Jessop telling the truth in all her allegations?