Three wives required for heaven
• Absurd Inurbane Witless
Few than three wives and you go to hell? I'm gay, will three boyfriends count?
The communities' church leaders, who have brazenly flouted US law for decades, were astonished by the verdict.These isolated, insular mini-theocracies, 60 miles south of the Grand Canyon, have resisted change for 50 years. Now there is revolution in the air. Perhaps emboldened by the authorities' decision to prosecute Holm, some of the wives who have suffered as a result of polygamous marriages are suddenly speaking out.
Elderly women are revealing that resistance networks of safe houses in Las Vegas and Phoenix have been used to smuggle girls to freedom.
Meanwhile, the large home of the community's leader, Warren Jeffs - known throughout the area as "The Prophet" and also under legal investigation - is guarded by young men who are often armed and interrogate strangers as to why they are there.
Dissident churchgoers claim that girls are granted to men by Mr Jeffs as a reward, and taken away as a punishment. Illegal weddings involving girls of 14 and 15, conducted by Mr Jeffs, are claimed to have been commonplace.
According to fundamentalist Mormon theology, Hildale's male residents need a minimum of three wives to secure a place in paradise. Sisters are often required to marry the same man. Mr Jeffs himself has 12 wives.
The Telegraph: Three wives will guarantee you a place in paradise. The Taliban? No: welcome to the rebel Mormons
Utah authorities have revoked the certification of one polygamist police officer and vow to do the same with others.
Associated Press: Polygamist cop loses Utah certification; others targeted