Inside Polygamous Warren Jeffs' Compound

The massive steel doors are open at imprisoned polygamous leader Warren Jeffs' secret Utah compound, revealing mansions with thick walls, heavy doors and carpeted walls. Former FLDS member Willie Jessop bought the six-acre property for $3.6 million during a sheriff's auction Thursday and on Friday he opened a series of gates and doors to allow KUTV 2News' cameras inside. "This is the most heinous place on the planet," Jessop said while standing inside Jeffs' bedroom. "The walls are one foot thick." The six-acre compound takes up an entire city block and is surrounded by tall cement walls topped with wrought iron fencing and solid steel gates. Inside are three large homes, a row of apartments, a former public school and a large food storage building. Even behind prison bars in Texas, Jeffs still leads the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He ordered the Hildale compound built in 2010 while awaiting trial and has never lived in the opulent mansions built for him. Jessop says FLDS members went broke building the compound, but did so with the promise from that "God would knock down the walls" of Jeffs' prison cell and that "he would be living in the community by the end of the year." A judge ordered the sale of the compound to satisfy part of a $30 million default judgment awarded to Jessop after he sued Jeffs and other leaders alleging that they destroyed his company when he tried to leave the church. The largest home has over a dozen large bedrooms with attached bathrooms, two kitchens with industrial appliances, expansive sitting rooms, an office for Jeffs and a room with a small stage and audio booth for the recording of sermons. Of the two smaller homes, one was built solely for Jeffs. The red-brick rambler is appointed with white countertops, plush carpeting and custom wood molding. To make the home stand out from the rest, white paint covers normally-red hose spigots in the yard and the garage door opener and tracks. "People who had to pay for this place are living in trailer houses," Jessop said. "One of the men was sent to Scotland to buy a fabric that was $10,000 a yard." Adjoining the master bedroom intended for Jeffs is a room that Jessop claims has been modified since the original construction was completed. "None of the construction in this room is typical of anything else you saw," Jessop. "You've got a cheap carpet. You've got walls that have been torn out. The floors have been redone." Jessop said only a few men were allowed to work on the construction of the "porn palace" and that it was designed as "Jeffs' rape room." "It had the windows blotted out, he had a big Jacuzzi, he had all this pornography," Jessop said. "That's the win, is that this room has been torn apart and it was never used for what it was designed for." Jessop says he doesn't know what he'll do with the homes and the dozens of bedrooms, but wondered out loud if the layout and elevators would make the homes ideal for the elderly or an assisted living center. While the homes are lavish compared to others in the polygamous community, they share similar, institutional-like appointments, including the heavy usage of fluorescent lighting and vinyl flooring. The once-public school on the compound has been fenced off and modified with two large baptismal fonts, dozens of dressing and ordinance rooms. Jessop says his initial plan is to return the school to the Washington County School District.