Under
the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, 2003, Excerpts
On Thanksgiving Day
2000, Mitchell announced to Barzee, his wife, an upstanding Saint who for a
period had played organ at the Mormon Tabernacle, and anyone else who would
listen that he had received a revelation in which the Lord commanded him to
take seven additional wives. Subsequent divine commandments revealed that
Mitchell’s name was actually Immanuel David Isaiah, and that he had been placed
on earth to serve as a mouthpiece for the Lord during the Last Days. Mitchell
stopped shaving and cutting his hair, dressed in billowing robes fashioned
after the garb of Old Testament prophets, and gained a reputation throughout
Salt Lake Valley as an eccentric but harmless street preacher.
Around two in the
morning on June 5, 2002, Mitchell placed a chair beneath a small window that
had been left ajar on the first floor, sliced through a flimsy screen, and
squeezed through the opening into the Smarts’ kitchen. Making his way through
the vast, 6,000-square-foot house, he located the upstairs bedroom Elizabeth
shared with her nine-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, and woke Elizabeth.
Mitchell hustled her past the bedroom where the Smart parents were sleeping
soundly, and exited the house.
Mitchell marched
Elizabeth at knifepoint four miles into the foothills west of her home. Upon
reaching a secluded campsite in Dry Creek Canyon, he and Wanda Barzee conducted
a weird, self-styled wedding ritual to “seal” the girl to Mitchell in “the new
and everlasting covenant” – a Mormon euphemism for polygamous marriage. Barzee
then demanded that Elizabeth remove her red pajamas. When the girl balked,
Barzee explained that if she refused to cooperate, Mitchell would forcibly
disrobe her. Faced with this prospect, Elizabeth complied, where upon Mitchell
consummated the marriage by raping his fourteen-year-old bride.
Using his gift for
fundamentalist rhetoric and adroitly manipulating the religious indoctrination
Elizabeth had received since she was old enough to talk, Mitchell cowed the
girl into becoming an utterly submissive polygamous concubine – buttressing his
powers of theological persuasion with threats to kill her and her family.
The woman who helped kidnap Elizabeth Smart will be released
from prison
Elizabeth
Smart said Tuesday that the Utah parole board's decision to release one of the
people who abducted her was surprising and "incomprehensible." Wanda
Eileen Barzee wasn't expected to be released for at least another five years. As
such, Barzee, now 72, will leave prison September 19. Barzee and her husband,
Brian David Mitchell, were convicted of abducting Smart, then 14, at knifepoint
from her Salt Lake City bedroom in June 2002. Smart, in a statement, said "It
is incomprehensible how someone who has not cooperated with her mental health
evaluations or risk assessments and someone who did not show up to her own
parole hearing can be released into our community.
Elizabeth Smart kidnapping: Mitchell gets life in jail
25 May 2011
A homeless street preacher who kidnapped a 14-year-old girl
in the US state of Utah in 2002 has been ordered to spend life in prison. Elizabeth
Smart, who was held captive for nine months by Brian David Mitchell, looked on
as he was sentenced in a federal court in Salt Lake City. "I know that you
know what you did is wrong," Ms. Smart told Mitchell. Prosecutors said in
December that Mitchell forced Ms. Smart into a self-styled polygamous marriage
and raped her almost daily, gave her alcohol and drugs to lower her resistance
and threatened to kill her, her family and anyone who tried to rescue her.
Kidnapped US teenager found
13 Mar 2003
A teenager who was kidnapped at gunpoint from her bedroom
last June has been found alive and well in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. Elizabeth
Smart was discovered not far from her home, reportedly wearing long robes and a
veil, when police stopped a car following a tip-off. A homeless man who had
done work on the family home, Brian Mitchell, and a woman have been arrested.
Elizabeth kidnap baffles Utah
07 Jun 2002
Police in Utah say they are no closer to success in their search
for a man who kidnapped a 14-year-old girl at gunpoint from her bedroom in an
affluent suburb of Salt Lake City. The local community has been in shock since
an intruder slipped through the window of Elizabeth Smart's room in the middle
of the night and took her away. The suspect is described as a white male of
medium height. According to Elizabeth's little sister, he was soft-spoken,
wearing a tan coat and a baseball hat and carrying a small black gun. He came
in through the bedroom window at 0230 on Wednesday and let Elizabeth put on a
pair of shoes before leaving with her. So scared was the younger girl, that she
waited two hours before raising the alert.
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