Category: House of Yahweh

House of Yahweh leader Yisrayl Hawkins has penned a four-page newsletter sent to thousands of residents in Taylor, Callahan and Jones counties, claiming the news media has wrongly portrayed the group.

House of Yahweh adviser John Young said the newsletter isn’t an effort to influence potential jurors when Hawkins goes to court — probably later this year — to face bigamy and other charges.

Yedidiyah Hawkins, 40, a House of Yahweh elder, was convicted Monday of aggravated sexual assault of a child. A judge will set the sentence, expected within 45 days. Hawkins earlier decided that he wanted a judge to assess the punishment if jurors found him guilty.

The sect’s leader, self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl Hawkins, faces trial later this year on bigamy and child labor charges. He is accused of having more than 20 wives, performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children to work jobs at his 44-acre compound in rural Clyde near Abilene.

Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins’ popularity was not limited to Texas, or even the United States. For years his House of Yahweh sect was booming in the nation of Kenya, at least until his last doomsday prediction in September 2006, which ended up dooming the group’s success in the East African country.