First sister wives of polygamous leader share story in upcoming book

CEDAR CITY —Marona and Shandra Johnson are two of seven sisters who were married to FLDS offshoot leader Samuel Bateman, and now they are telling their stories in a book released in November.

"Sharing my story began as a healing journey when I started voicing some pain around other people sharing my story," Marona Johnson told KSL.

Bateman, who represented himself as a religious prophet, is spending 50 years in prison for conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and was recently found guilty on child abuse charges.

Marona and Shandra Johnson are daughters of Moroni and Julia Johnson. All were featured in the Netflix documentary "Trust Me: The False Prophet," where documentarians Christine Marie and her husband, Tolga Katas, gained Bateman's trust and recorded things that became critical in the FBI investigation against him.

The two sisters had not seen the documentary when they were interviewed, but said that learning their lives were played out on screen was painful.

"We've had a lot of fear around seeing the documentary and a lot of pain, anger and frustration," Marona Johnson said. "To a lot of people, it's just another show to watch; for us, we experienced that."

Marona Johnson was Bateman's first wife after a divorce, and the first of the Johnson sisters Bateman married when she was 22. She was also the first of over 20 women Bateman would take as polygamous wives, many of whom were children. Shandra Johnson was brought into the polygamous marriage a month after her sister and was 20 years old at the time. Both said that they were encouraged by their father to enter into the marriage, and both had children with Bateman.

"People see the decisions we made, but not the options we were given," Shandra Johnson said. "I felt like I was being called upon to marry Samuel, and it was my biggest fear. I told my dad that I didn't want to get married, and he said we need to be ready to do what the Lord wants."

Shandra Johnson said she wrestled with what she was taught was her duty to God and what her own mind was telling her.

"I just decided that God didn't love me because if he loved me, he wouldn't call upon me to do things I didn't want to do," she said.

The marriages lasted close to three years before Bateman was arrested, but due to Marona Johnson's affiliation with the polygamist group, she was arrested and served time for attempting to obstruct an FBI investigation.

Sisters divided

While Marona Johnson spent time in prison, other sisters were put in state custody. Shandra Johnson, however, found herself in neither of those places and recalled feeling like an outsider.

"I was one out of seven daughters of my dad's that did not go into foster care or into prison," Shandra Johnson said. "I was on the outside, and they were all on the inside. It was such a difficult time because I just felt like I was trying to take care of everyone and I didn't know where my younger sisters were, and I was just like, 'I gotta do something.' I kind of started on this journey of 'Why do bad things happen to good people?'

"I was just like, 'I'm a good person. ... I was obedient to my parents. I was like this perfect, little girl. I started questioning everything — questioning my upbringing, questioning my parents, questioning my religion."

Being in prison took Marona Johnson on a very different journey.

"I basically went from the fishbowl to the next fishbowl," she said. "Prison pretty much kept me in my belief system because there are certain anchors you hold on to. I believed God was there to protect me and I was being persecuted because of my beliefs. ... All those things you do to comfort yourself, but you're still totally built up in that belief system. It really takes a safe space to break down a belief system."

A safe space the sisters found was through a support group that they said was "free of judgment."

"I noticed how everyone in the group supported each other," Marona Johnson said. "People didn't hold something against you. A lot of times in society, people will take your words and beliefs you had before and use them against you. This group created a safe place that allowed people to change."

Owning their voices, sharing their stories

After many years and struggles, including feelings of familial betrayal when their faces were shown worldwide, the sisters said that they are ready for their voices to be heard. The two have co-authored a book titled "The Real Lives of Short Creek Wives" that is set to be released this fall.

"It just started with that simple desire to better deal with the pain and to try to understand myself," Marona Johnson said.

"I want people to see that at any point in your life when you're in a somewhere you don't want to be, you have the power, the willpower, the authority to rewrite the story, and that's what we've been doing is rewriting the story of our life going forward," Shandra Johnson added.

The two also said they want their children to hear their stories from them and not from "the world."

"My kids are already asking why their dad is in prison and if he has to be there the rest of his life," Marona Johnson said. "I don't want them to grow up and be like, 'Mother, why didn't you tell me? Why weren't you honest with me?' On the other hand, I don't want them to build their value around what happened or because they were born to him."

"One day my girls are gonna grow up, they're gonna see everything on the Internet about their dad and I want my voice louder in their ears than the voice of the world," Shandra Johnson said. "I don't want them to place their value on other people's actions. I feel like, as a mother, I stand in a very strict role to honor and to respect who their father is because that is a part of them, but also to honor and respect what happened and to be very truthful with them."

'You are loved'

When asked what they would like to tell their former selves, both sisters said they would show them nothing but love.

"I'd love to go back and visit that girl," Marona Johnson said. "I don't know her anymore, but I love to give her so much grace because she just needed to feel loved. She needed to feel worthy, and her obedience was based on her worthiness. Now I can just say, 'You were born worthy; you didn't need to prove it with any type of obedience. You are already worthy.'"

"I would tell her that you don't need to prove to perform or persuade to be loved," Shandra Johnson added. "You are loved, and you are born worthy, and you deserve everything you desire. That's what I'd tell her."

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