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IrelandKallmekris traces Samuel Bateman's sect from prophecy to prosecution
Her hour-long account follows the evidence gathered inside the group and ends with survivors' statements at sentencing.
Kallmekris
Story of Why this story? One of the most watched videos since yesterday, with 307,090 views.
He Took 20 WIVES | The FLDS Splinter Cult Of Samuel Bateman
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- 7:14Collins explains how polygamous offshoots separated from the mainstream LDS Church and settled in Short Creek.
- 25:28Bateman declares himself a prophet and establishes the group Collins calls the Samuelites.
- 31:59Tolga Katas and Christine Marie document the group to gather evidence for law enforcement.
- 39:25The account turns to reports of abuse, a trailer traffic stop and Bateman's arrest.
- 55:56Collins recounts Bateman's guilty plea to kidnapping and transport conspiracies.
- 56:40The sentencing section includes victim impact statements about trauma and recovery.
Filmmaker Tolga Katas and charity worker Christine Marie began documenting Samuel Bateman's group from inside it. In Kallmekris's new true-crime account, their footage becomes part of a sustained effort to get evidence of abuse to law enforcement.
The video has drawn roughly 307,000 views in its first 23 hours. Rather than beginning with Bateman's arrest, Kris Collins spends the opening stretch explaining the religious history he used to claim authority: the rejection of plural marriage by the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the formation of fundamentalist offshoots and Warren Jeffs's control of the FLDS.
That distinction matters to the story. Collins separates the mainstream church from polygamous splinter groups before following Bateman's declaration that he was a prophet. She describes how he assembled a group of women and girls he called his wives, using religious authority and pressure on families to enable abuse.
The investigation takes over in the later sections. Collins recounts the traffic stop involving a poorly ventilated trailer, Bateman's arrest, his efforts to have messages deleted from jail and the removal of girls from protective custody before authorities recovered them. The episode includes paid sponsorship segments between sections of the account.
Bateman pleaded guilty to kidnapping and transport conspiracies in 2024 and received a 50-year federal prison sentence that December. Collins closes the account with victim impact statements describing both the trauma he caused and the survivors' recovery, giving their experiences space beyond the arrest and conviction.
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- Channel
- Kallmekris
- Subscribers
- 13,200,000 ▲ 100,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 4,993,202
- Channel views, pace per day
- 635,734 (on a normal day: 734,351)
- Video published
- November 4, 2026
- Video views so far
- 200,885 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 302,569
The numbers
The viewing total covers the video's first hours online, not a full day. Its audience is substantial without representing an unusual start for Kallmekris.
