Netflix’s newest documentary follows the leader of a Mormon cult in which the leader’s crimes were exposed by a filmmaker who went undercover in the group.
Samuel Bateman is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence after it was found that the polygamist who ran a rogue sect of the Mormon Church and had ‘spiritual marriages’ with girls as young as 12 who he had sexually abused.
Netflix’s doc, titled Trust Me: The False Prophet, shows how Bateman was interviewed by Christine Marie, a cult expert who moved to Short Creek Utah with her husband, videographer Tolga Katas.
Though he has been in prison since he was convicted of child sex abuse in 2024 Bateman reportedly continues to control his wives from prison.
Netflix doc director Rachel Dretzin spoke about how he still wields influence from prison
Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum Dretzin stated that Bateman’s followers believe him to be ‘martyred’ by his prison sentence.
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Bateman ran a cult centred around the idea that he was the ‘Prophet, Seer and Revelator’ of the rogue Mormon sect which had around 50 members.
The cult leader had around 20 wives and is reported to have sought to marry his teenage daughter.
Dretzin claimed that he still controls his wives from prison with daily phone calls, saying: “That communication with him is like an IV of indoctrination.
“It’s like they’re getting fed certainty right into their veins — their belief that he is talking to God.”
One of Bateman’s wives served prison time, but this ended up helping her leave his control
Naomi ‘Nomz’ Bistline was arrested and served prison time for her connection to the cult’s crimes, but this allowed her to be separated from Bateman.
She told Tudum: “As long as he was in contact, he still had control — and that’s how it is with them even now, which is really sad.”
Thankfully though he no longer has a direct line to his underage victims, with all of them having been placed in foster care and taken out of the cult.
All of them testified against the leader in court, with Dretzin telling Tudum: “They were all removed from the community and put into foster care.
“Once they had the perspective of being outside of the group, they were able to see what had happened to them and speak out.”
Former wife of cult leader spoke about how she had to ‘rewire’ her brain
Naomi still lives in the same town as the remaining cult members dedicated to Bateman but thankfully is ‘disassociated’ from them.
Leaving the cult required a long period of readjustment for her however, stating that she had to ‘rewire’ her brain.
She told Tudum: “Nobody understands how difficult it is to rewire your brain from the way you were raised. Learning how to completely deconstruct it, deprogram it, and rewire it to think another way.
“I’ll think to myself, ‘Why do I feel this certain way?’ And then I can route it back to some of Warren Jeffs’s training, and it’s like it’s not even true. I know now it’s a complete myth.”
Warren Jeffs was the leader of the cult before Bateman took over, with the former leader serving a life-long prison sentence for child sex abuse.
Trust Me: The False Prophet is available to stream on Netflix now.
Topics: Netflix, True Crime, TV and Film, TV, Documentaries
Michael Slavin