Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Try to make it a happy Friday, and by way
of relativity, may find out your Friday is going much
better than you anticipated because you didn't live the rather
tragic life of My next guest Rebecca Lafferty, who's joined
the progern to talk about her new book, The Lafferty
Girl Surviving Trauma, Abuse and My Father's Crimes, a Mormon
daughter's Story. Rebecca, Welcome to the fifty five Casy Morning Show.
(00:21):
It's a pleasure having you on today.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's pleasure well, and I say pleasure knowing full well
your experience as a child, which you write about in
this book. Your father was a rather troubled individual, and
that may be an understatement from your perspective. You can
elaborate on that. Let my listeners know about you and
I guess around seven years old. You're apparently your dad
got radicalized in a certain way. Let's talk about that.
(00:47):
Let my listeners know.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, well, my father he was, you know, he was
raised in kind of a strict houseful himself, and so
he raised us kids very very strict with LDS. We
follow that to the to the t. You know, he
tried to do everything to the ta and what that
was like for me as the child was very There's
a lot of violence in our home, and I would
(01:13):
say correction was over the top for a child. And
we also believed that women should be underneath the mail.
They are not to be respected or have a voice
or opinions really, and so there was always fights because
my mom was a very strong thirded woman. Yeah, and
(01:33):
this just led to a lot of Like I said,
I just saw a lot of violence and experienced it
myself growing up with my father and then at seven
him going to prison and finding out what had happened
later on, it really is affected. It kind of snowballs
and affected my life and relationships there own.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So the way you described the it's a lot of
day Saints that the church that sounds like it has
a lot of parallels to fundamentalism Islam and and and
Sharia law. Is that a safe or comparable thing a parallel?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, I think anything that you take to an extreme,
you know, I guess you could compare them. But yeah,
I mean it was there was no color. It was
black or white, there was just nothing really in between. Yeah,
that was my experience.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, So you said he ended up in prison, Let
my listeners know how exactly he ended up in prison
and not just regular prison to life sentences him all right.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Correct, Yeah, he took the life of my aunt and
her baby, my baby cousin. Ye's the filling you know,
uh prophecy.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Oh, he killed them related to his faith in some
twisted perception, specifically, what's the connection between the real religion
fundamentalism in their.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Death they were well, he was excommunicated from the Eldience
Church and then him and his brothers started creating their
own church or you know, doing their own thing where
it was called the School of Prophets, and so they
are all profits. And in that school the oldest pat
(03:22):
of revelation that that this aunt of mine needed to
be removed, and that my father was a prophet of
he was the hand of God, and so therefore that
was his role. And in their twistedness made sense to
that bit.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Of a red flag for an adult in this world.
But as a child of I mean you you, you
couldn't speak out against it. And I suppose, given how
young you were, you had no basic comparison, no world experience,
being hidden from the rest of the world in your home,
and how would you know I guess you were either
forced to believe him or you actually believe what he
was saying. Rebeca am I right on that.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Well, there's a part of me that always you know,
obviously my father. I look up to him, I trust him.
I adored my father, and that was also a part
of me that was fearful of him, and I didn't
trust everything.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
He said, the typical child reaction. I suppose at least
that part was typical. You know, I my children didn't
always listen to what I had to say. So this
is a completely autobiographical book. What prompted you to write this?
Because you talk about your struggles and the emotions and
(04:32):
everything you went through, and then also you talk about
when he reached out to you from prison, which I
want to ask you about. But what was the compelling
reason for writing The Lafferty Girl.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, I had somebody that I really admire and trust
to recommended that I write my story. And when she talks,
I listen, and so I felt, you know, once I did,
and that's what my inner healing work. And I was
able to get to a place where I could speak
from Pope and not just the pain. I knew it
was time to tell my story. Yea, Yeah, him reaching
(05:06):
out to me from prison, it was it was healing.
That was part of the healing process. He took accountability
for some of the things that he how he was
as a father with me. He's never acknowledged that what
he's done is wrong. He still holds very very strongly
to that he is a prophet and that he is
here to fulfill a goal.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Now, did you when you how old were you when
he when he reached out to you from prison, because
you know that's on the cover materials too, obviously that
was a very profound moment in your life. But how
old were you at that time?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes? So I stayed in communication with him for a while.
We had written, we would write back and forth. But
then there was a period where I had not heard
from him, and then the book Under the Banner of
Heaven had come out, and so there was a really
long gap, and I would have been thirty five maybe
when we reconnected.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
So when he's still clinging to this idea that he's
a prophet at age thirty five and now capable as
an adult reflecting back on your childhood understanding what abuse
is and is not, did you call him out on
it by any change you said, you know, are you
serious about this prophet stuff? I mean that I'm Brian Thomas.
That's the kind of the thing, the in conversation I
would engage in if it was my dad calling me
(06:21):
from prison. You know, I wouldn't pull any punches. I'm
just kind of wondering, given the delicacy of the situation,
if if you engaged in a process back and forth
about that concept.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You know, I think I just know I still carried
some there around that I he would always talk about it.
I just didn't want to hear it coming from his lips.
That would just I don't know, it was just another
level of reality. I just do not want to go
with you know, to with him.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
See those are words I can hear coming out of
my mouth if I was having this conversation my dad,
I don't want to hear this crap dad. That that's anyway.
So who did you write? I mean, obviously it's cathartic
to write a book about this. Get it out of
your system, and many people recommends therapists and psychologists like
you know, write a journal, get it out of your system,
put it on paper. It helps you understand your situation
(07:09):
and come to grips with your own reality, but you
obviously had an audience you're writing this too. Is this
for other people who struggle with abuse and are still
dealing with the scars as adults? Is it for women
in abusive relationships? Or I mean it sounds to me
like there's a whole schmorgasboard of potential audience here. I'm
just wondering what who you had in mind when you
wrote it, other than yourself.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, I really just well for all of that compassion
for the little girl, you know, compassion and love for
my family and the healing that I could bring, and
then for anyone that's carrying the silence of shame and
you know, just wanting to not feel alone. I wrote
this because I want people to know they are not alone.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's a good message, it really, it truly is. And
you alluded to under the banner of hea in your
comments earlier, that's an FX Hulu series And is that
still out there that someone did a documentary about your
father and the crimes he perpetrated.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Correct? John Kracker was He wrote a book under the
R cousin he interviewed with my father as he wrote it,
and then Hulu did a series on it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Did they interview you for that? I'm just don't wonder
what your reaction is. I can't. I'm just struggling with
what my emotions might be. If someone's going to do
a series about my father. How did you take that?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
They never asked, they didn't interview anybody from the family.
In fact, a lot of it is there's a lot
of fictitious stuff that they've all went into that series.
Oh and that's how they got around that.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Well, another reason to write the book to set the
record straight about what you, Rebecca Lafferty, dealt with with
him being your father. Well, again, the name of the book,
The Lafferty Girl Surviving Trauma Abuse in My Father's Crimes,
A Mormon Daughter's Story. We made it really easier for
my listeners to get a copy of Rebecca Joe Strecker.
My producers put it on a blog page fifty five
caresy dot com at the link to the site where
(09:05):
they can buy it, which I'll encourage them to do.
And for those out there maybe dealing with similar circumstances
or struggles, or maybe you got a friend or relative
that's in this, get a copy of it and help
maybe help them heal as well. Rebecca, I can't thank
you enough for spending this time with my listeners and
me this morning, and for putting this all on paper.
Try to make it a happy Friday, and by way
of relativity, may find out your Friday is going much
better than you anticipated because you didn't live the rather
tragic life of My next guest Rebecca Lafferty, who's joined
the progern to talk about her new book, The Lafferty
Girl Surviving Trauma, Abuse and My Father's Crimes, a Mormon
daughter's Story. Rebecca, Welcome to the fifty five Casy Morning Show.
(00:21):
It's a pleasure having you on today.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's pleasure well, and I say pleasure knowing full well
your experience as a child, which you write about in
this book. Your father was a rather troubled individual, and
that may be an understatement from your perspective. You can
elaborate on that. Let my listeners know about you and
I guess around seven years old. You're apparently your dad
got radicalized in a certain way. Let's talk about that.
(00:47):
Let my listeners know.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, well, my father he was, you know, he was
raised in kind of a strict houseful himself, and so
he raised us kids very very strict with LDS. We
follow that to the to the t. You know, he
tried to do everything to the ta and what that
was like for me as the child was very There's
a lot of violence in our home, and I would
(01:13):
say correction was over the top for a child. And
we also believed that women should be underneath the mail.
They are not to be respected or have a voice
or opinions really, and so there was always fights because
my mom was a very strong thirded woman. Yeah, and
(01:33):
this just led to a lot of Like I said,
I just saw a lot of violence and experienced it
myself growing up with my father and then at seven
him going to prison and finding out what had happened
later on, it really is affected. It kind of snowballs
and affected my life and relationships there own.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So the way you described the it's a lot of
day Saints that the church that sounds like it has
a lot of parallels to fundamentalism Islam and and and
Sharia law. Is that a safe or comparable thing a parallel?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, I think anything that you take to an extreme,
you know, I guess you could compare them. But yeah,
I mean it was there was no color. It was
black or white, there was just nothing really in between. Yeah,
that was my experience.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, So you said he ended up in prison, Let
my listeners know how exactly he ended up in prison
and not just regular prison to life sentences him all right.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Correct, Yeah, he took the life of my aunt and
her baby, my baby cousin. Ye's the filling you know,
uh prophecy.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Oh, he killed them related to his faith in some
twisted perception, specifically, what's the connection between the real religion
fundamentalism in their.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Death they were well, he was excommunicated from the Eldience
Church and then him and his brothers started creating their
own church or you know, doing their own thing where
it was called the School of Prophets, and so they
are all profits. And in that school the oldest pat
(03:22):
of revelation that that this aunt of mine needed to
be removed, and that my father was a prophet of
he was the hand of God, and so therefore that
was his role. And in their twistedness made sense to
that bit.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Of a red flag for an adult in this world.
But as a child of I mean you you, you
couldn't speak out against it. And I suppose, given how
young you were, you had no basic comparison, no world experience,
being hidden from the rest of the world in your home,
and how would you know I guess you were either
forced to believe him or you actually believe what he
was saying. Rebeca am I right on that.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Well, there's a part of me that always you know,
obviously my father. I look up to him, I trust him.
I adored my father, and that was also a part
of me that was fearful of him, and I didn't
trust everything.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
He said, the typical child reaction. I suppose at least
that part was typical. You know, I my children didn't
always listen to what I had to say. So this
is a completely autobiographical book. What prompted you to write this?
Because you talk about your struggles and the emotions and
(04:32):
everything you went through, and then also you talk about
when he reached out to you from prison, which I
want to ask you about. But what was the compelling
reason for writing The Lafferty Girl.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, I had somebody that I really admire and trust
to recommended that I write my story. And when she talks,
I listen, and so I felt, you know, once I did,
and that's what my inner healing work. And I was
able to get to a place where I could speak
from Pope and not just the pain. I knew it
was time to tell my story. Yea, Yeah, him reaching
(05:06):
out to me from prison, it was it was healing.
That was part of the healing process. He took accountability
for some of the things that he how he was
as a father with me. He's never acknowledged that what
he's done is wrong. He still holds very very strongly
to that he is a prophet and that he is
here to fulfill a goal.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Now, did you when you how old were you when
he when he reached out to you from prison, because
you know that's on the cover materials too, obviously that
was a very profound moment in your life. But how
old were you at that time?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes? So I stayed in communication with him for a while.
We had written, we would write back and forth. But
then there was a period where I had not heard
from him, and then the book Under the Banner of
Heaven had come out, and so there was a really
long gap, and I would have been thirty five maybe
when we reconnected.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
So when he's still clinging to this idea that he's
a prophet at age thirty five and now capable as
an adult reflecting back on your childhood understanding what abuse
is and is not, did you call him out on
it by any change you said, you know, are you
serious about this prophet stuff? I mean that I'm Brian Thomas.
That's the kind of the thing, the in conversation I
would engage in if it was my dad calling me
(06:21):
from prison. You know, I wouldn't pull any punches. I'm
just kind of wondering, given the delicacy of the situation,
if if you engaged in a process back and forth
about that concept.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You know, I think I just know I still carried
some there around that I he would always talk about it.
I just didn't want to hear it coming from his lips.
That would just I don't know, it was just another
level of reality. I just do not want to go
with you know, to with him.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
See those are words I can hear coming out of
my mouth if I was having this conversation my dad,
I don't want to hear this crap dad. That that's anyway.
So who did you write? I mean, obviously it's cathartic
to write a book about this. Get it out of
your system, and many people recommends therapists and psychologists like
you know, write a journal, get it out of your system,
put it on paper. It helps you understand your situation
(07:09):
and come to grips with your own reality, but you
obviously had an audience you're writing this too. Is this
for other people who struggle with abuse and are still
dealing with the scars as adults? Is it for women
in abusive relationships? Or I mean it sounds to me
like there's a whole schmorgasboard of potential audience here. I'm
just wondering what who you had in mind when you
wrote it, other than yourself.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, I really just well for all of that compassion
for the little girl, you know, compassion and love for
my family and the healing that I could bring, and
then for anyone that's carrying the silence of shame and
you know, just wanting to not feel alone. I wrote
this because I want people to know they are not alone.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's a good message, it really, it truly is. And
you alluded to under the banner of hea in your
comments earlier, that's an FX Hulu series And is that
still out there that someone did a documentary about your
father and the crimes he perpetrated.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Correct? John Kracker was He wrote a book under the
R cousin he interviewed with my father as he wrote it,
and then Hulu did a series on it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Did they interview you for that? I'm just don't wonder
what your reaction is. I can't. I'm just struggling with
what my emotions might be. If someone's going to do
a series about my father. How did you take that?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
They never asked, they didn't interview anybody from the family.
In fact, a lot of it is there's a lot
of fictitious stuff that they've all went into that series.
Oh and that's how they got around that.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Well, another reason to write the book to set the
record straight about what you, Rebecca Lafferty, dealt with with
him being your father. Well, again, the name of the book,
The Lafferty Girl Surviving Trauma Abuse in My Father's Crimes,
A Mormon Daughter's Story. We made it really easier for
my listeners to get a copy of Rebecca Joe Strecker.
My producers put it on a blog page fifty five
caresy dot com at the link to the site where
(09:05):
they can buy it, which I'll encourage them to do.
And for those out there maybe dealing with similar circumstances
or struggles, or maybe you got a friend or relative
that's in this, get a copy of it and help
maybe help them heal as well. Rebecca, I can't thank
you enough for spending this time with my listeners and
me this morning, and for putting this all on paper.
Brian Thomas News
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