Netflix’s four-part docuseries Trust Me: The False Prophet, premiered in April 2026 and brought viewers inside the world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) — an offshoot of the Mormon religion where members practice polygamy.
In 2022, Netflix introduced subscribers to the world of FLDS with a separate docuseries, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, focused on former leader Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison for sexually assaulting two underage girls and forcing them into a spiritual marriage. (He also fathered a child with one of the girls.) With Jeffs incarcerated, Samuel Bateman took over as the self-proclaimed heir.
Cult expert Christine Marie and her videographer husband, Tolga Katas, infiltrated the FLDS after moving to Short Creek, Utah, in 2016. They met Bateman the following year and filmed him and his wives from 2019 through 2022. The footage is shown throughout Trust Me: The False Prophet.
“When we moved here, we didn’t intend to do a documentary at all,” Marie told Netflix’s Tudum. “We saw some things that we thought should be documented, and we were doing that as a service to the people.”
Freeform True Crime Doc ‘How I Escaped My Cult’ Addresses Warren Jeffs, More
When Marie and Katas met Bateman in 2017, he was only married to his first wife. As the years went on, Bateman had several other wives, raising eyebrows within the community.
“Trust Me offers intimate access to a normally closed world — and in doing so, I hope it exposes both the violence that enforced secrecy enables and what it takes to tell the truth when everything is at stake,” director Rachel Dretzin told Netflix’s Tudum. “What these women did matters far beyond their community. It is a blueprint for how to dismantle even the most entrenched systems of abuse.”
Keep scrolling for everything to know about Bateman:
Who Is Samuel Bateman?
After FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was incarcerated, Samuel Bateman started referring to himself as a prophet. He claimed that Jeffs was speaking through him and started collecting followers while breaking away from the main FLDS group. Bateman orchestrated “group sexual encounters and isolating victims from their families,” per Netflix.
How Many Women Was Samuel Bateman Married To?
Samuel Bateman had more than 20 spiritual marriages, at least 10 of which were with girls who had not yet turned 18. Some were as young as 9 years old. While they were not legal marriages, Bateman did have sexual encounters with all of his spiritual “wives.”
Where Is Samuel Bateman Now?
In September 2022, Samuel Bateman was taken into police custody on federal charges. By April 2024, he pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Transportation of a Minor for Criminal Sexual Activity and Conspiracy to Commit Kidnapping. In December of that year, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison with a lifetime supervised release.
Where Are Samuel Bateman’s Wives Now?
Several of Samuel Bateman’s wives have now graduated from high school. Some of his adult followers are currently serving time in prison, while some of his adult wives have already been released. Others still believe that Bateman is innocent, staying loyal to their supposed prophet.
