Former child bride of polygamous leader shares her story following Netflix documentary

CEDAR CITY — When Ruth Johnson was 14 years old, she was swinging in the backyard when she suddenly heard her dad call her into the house. The next thing she knew, she became Samuel Bateman's seventh wife.

Bateman is spending 50 years in prison for conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He is also the subject of a recent Netflix documentary titled "Trust Me: The False Prophet," where documentarians Christine Marie and her husband, Tolga Katas gained his trust and recorded things that became crucial in the FBI investigation against him.

Johnson, now 20, was one of Bateman's underage wives shown in the documentary. The polygamous religious leader claimed more than 20 spiritual "wives," including 10 underage girls

"(My dad) took me up in his room and said, 'Do you know who you belong to?' I said, 'There's only one option here and I don't want to do it,'" she recalled.

Ruth Johnson's dad is Moroni Johnson, and her mother is Julia Johnson; both are featured in the documentary. Moroni Johnson is serving a 25-year sentence for similar charges to Bateman's.

Ruth Johnson told KSL that she knew marrying Bateman was inevitable because she watched him marry her three older sisters and her younger sister, who was just 9 years old at the time.

"(My dad) gave me a hug, which we never did," she recalled. "He said, 'Samuel's outside waiting for you.' I went out the back door and Samuel said, 'Do you have a testimony about this?' I was like, 'What's he going to do if I said no?' So, I said, 'Yeah.'"

All of this happened while Ruth Johnson and her family were living in Lincoln, Nebraska, after being "exiled" from the Colorado City, Arizona, area. Bateman had started a small offshoot of the Fundamentalist LDS Church based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah.

"We moved to Lincoln in 2019 after we were exiled by the FLDS," she said. "Then mom got pregnant and it was a sin to get pregnant at the time."

Being away from extended family or friends made it even more difficult for Johnson to say no.

"A lot of people see the choices we made, but not the options we were given," she said. "Here I lived 1,300 miles away from my hometown. It was out on the street or married."

'Life was good up until a certain point'

Johnson said that life as a child in Colorado City/Hildale was good and she never experienced any sort of physical abuse. She was one of nine children from her parents and one of 24 from her dad and the other women he was married to. She said she loved to run around and play, and spend time with baby calves.

Along with that childhood joy also came a fear that stemmed from something that happened to her community when she was just 2 years old.

"I was too young to remember the raid when they took (FLDS sect leader) Warren Jeffs, but I remember watching a video of it, and it was perfectly terrifying," she said. "There's one clip I remember so vividly of a mother holding her child and it's taken out of her arms. It terrified me a lot."

While her fear of being taken away from her mother was at the forefront of her mind, the very church she belonged to had already separated her from her mother.

"There was a lot of hierarchy in the FLDS," she said. "My mom met the requirements of someone who could be a restored member."

Johnson explained that a restored member meant that parents who were deemed worthy didn't live in the same home as their children. "If you're good, you don't get to be with your children. If you're bad, you don't get to live with your parents," she said.

Feelings of abandonment, unworthiness and a growing lack of trust compounded as she entered into a marriage with Bateman. She remembers wanting to feel loved by him and, to her, love meant obedience. When they moved back to Colorado City in 2021 and Bateman added even more wives, it also became a battle for his attention.

"In order to get him to notice me, I just needed him to approve of me," she said. "The belief system he created was that obedience is how you show someone you love them. I was as obedient as I could be."

'I want to see how good things can get'

Johnson spoke very little about the documentary, but said she has seen it. In an online post, she says the documentary has made her feel exposed and ashamed and says "parts of my life that were never meant to be public suddenly belong to everyone." But she says she isn't weak, naive or broken.

She wants people who see the documentary to know that she and so many others have done a lot of healing since it was filmed, adding that everyone is on their own journey.

"The documentary shows the parts of me when someone took advantage of my naivete," she said. "We were raised that way. That's all we knew. Just like I've changed in the last four years, everybody's changed. It's hard for people to understand that, because (what is in the documentary) is all they see.

"The world views the girls who still believe in Samuel as bad people," Johnson continued. "From my point of view, they all have their own story. I refuse to hate because this world doesn't need more hate; it needs people who are accepting. Even with Samuel, I've gone a little neutral toward him. If you're positive or negative toward him, he gets your energy. If you're neutral, he doesn't get your energy."

The now-20-year-old has completed her high school education, and despite recently being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she said she chooses to be happy. She also hopes to help others the way she has been helped through a recent GoFundMe* campaign, which she hopes will continue to grow so she can help her siblings.

"I'm hoping to be able to write a book," Johnson said. "My pain has become my power. If I can do some good in the world, I want to do it.

"I'm really a curious person," she added. "One of the things that has kept me alive is curiosity. I'm living off of sheer curiosity right now. I want to see how good things can get."

*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited into the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

Related topics