This week, Israeli authorities raided the compound of suspected polygamist Goel Ratzon near Tel Aviv, the result of a seven-month investigation. In Ratzon's "cultlike community" police found 17 women and at least 40 children. Ratzon allegedly forced his wives to pay fines for disobeying his "book of rules" (i.e., $55 for talking "nonsense," $800 for working when there was a man over 12 in the house, etc.) He denies breaking any laws and says the women were free to come and go as they pleased.
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After the death of his father, Rulon Jeffs, one of the largest practitioners of polygamy in the U.S., Warren Jeffs declared himself the ninth prophet of the Mormon Fundamentalist Church (FLDS). He married around 20 of his father’s widows in an effort to preserve his bloodline, which he claims includes Jesus Christ. He also spread the belief that having three wives would lead a family to heaven. The federal government disagreed, however, and Jeffs was placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list in 2006 for arranging marriages between adult men and underage girls. When he was arrested months later, Jeffs was found guilty on two counts of rape. He was sentenced to 10-years-to-life in prison.
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This week, Canada's most famous polygamist sued the British Columbian provincial government for violating his rights when it charged him with bigamy one year ago. Blackmore leads a polygamist community in the town of Bountiful, B.C. and apparently subscribes to a doctrine of polygamy that says plural marriage is a path to becoming a god. Blackmore has been married 25 times and has over 100 children. In 2002, Warren Jeffs excommunicated him from the FLDS.
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75-year-old Arkansan preacher Tony Alamo is currently serving a 175-year sentence for transporting underage women across state lines for sex. And on Wednesday, he got some more bad news—a judge ruled that the five women who testified against him are entitled to $500,000 each. Alamo spent the 1970s preaching on syndicated television before he formed his ministry, which authorities believe is worth millions of dollars. Alamo insists his accusers are part of a Vatican-led conspiracy.
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South African President Jacob Zuma has been married five times and currently has three wives, the latest joining the family this month. (The country may soon have a fourth first lady—Zuma recently got engaged again.) The eccentric leader is known for enthusiastically embracing his Zulu roots, and he's the first polygamist to occupy the presidential palace in Pretoria. He has 19 children. One of his wives committed suicide in 2000, and left a note blaming it on him.
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After Warren Jeffs' conviction raised the profile of the FLDS, one of the sect's compounds in Texas was raided by the FBI, and more than 400 children were removed, though a lawsuit followed and most were eventually returned. In November, the first conviction stemming from that raid was handed down to Raymond Jessop, who faces twenty years in prison for sexually assaulting an underage bride. Of Jessop's nine wives, two were directly related to Warren Jeffs.
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A self-made polygamy posterboy, Tom Green (no relation to the comedian) took as many as five wives and spent much of the 1990s asserting his right to do just that, appearing on shows like Dateline and Jerry Springer. After publicly taunting the police to come after him, they did, and found out he'd had sex with one of his wives, Linda, when she was only 13. He was convicted of child rape in 2002 and released in 2007 into the arms of Linda, who was by then his legal spouse.
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LeBaron founded the Church of the Lamb of God after parting ways with his brother Joel, with whom he vied for control of their deceased father’s community, the Church of the Firstborn in the Fullness of Times. LeBaron had 13 wives, and tasked some of them with killing his rivals, including Joel, using the religious doctrine of blood atonement to justify the murders. It is also believed that he had his daughter Rebecca killed because she criticized the church’s beliefs and practices. LeBaron wasn’t arrested until 1979—seven years after starting his own church—and was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes.
"Marriage doesn't bore me," says 69-year-old shepherd-turned-businessman Saleh al-Sayeri. Over half a century, he's married 58 women, and says he doesn’t remember the names of most of them. He also has approximately 35 children—10 sons and 25 daughters, give or take—and says he is the happiest man in the world. Islamic law allows for four wives at a time, so al-Sayeri has kept the same three for the duration of their marriages, and rotates out the fourth. “It’s the one for renewal,” he says. “I like to change my fourth wife every year.”
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Pioneer of afrobeat music Fela Kuti married 27 women in 1978—many were composers, dancers, and singers—and later adopted a rotation system of simultaneously having 12 wives. After serving time for currency smuggling, the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist swore off polygamy—and wives altogether. "Marriage brings jealousy and selfishness," he declared, and divorced his twelve remaining wives.
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