DOCSLIB.ORG

REVIEWS Forgeries, Bombs, and Salamanders

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
REVIEWS Forgeries, Bombs, and Salamanders REVIEWS Forgeries, Bombs, and Salamanders Salamander: The Story of the Mormon style worked very well in this case. The Forgery Murders by Linda Sillitoe and lack of documentation could be seen as a Allen D. Roberts, with a forensic analysis weakness, but I assume that several sources by George J. Throckmorton (Salt Lake did not want to be quoted and the popular City: Signature Books, 1988), xiii+556 pp., format did not lend itself to footnotes. It $17.95. could also be argued that the book would be too expensive if the extra documenta- Reviewed by Jeffery Ogden Johnson, tion were published. I hope future re- Utah State Archivist, Salt Lake City, Utah. searchers will have access to the research notes, including the many interviews. EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE you will see an The book opens with an account of the image that stays with you for years. On two murders. It details the cold-blooded 16 October 1985 I saw an image that will way Hofmann went about the business of be with me a lifetime: a burned out sports killing his friend Steve Christensen and by- car and yellow ribbons cordoning off the stander Kathy Sheets on 15 October 1985. street behind Deseret Gym. The yellow It was the bomb that went off the next day ribbons had been put there by the police and destroyed Hofmann's sports car that to keep the curious back. The burned out connected Hofmann with the mystery. This sports car belonged to Mark Hofmann. As book cannot ascertain with surety the target I drove by the scene on my way home from of the third bomb, but the authors argue work, I did not realize how the bomb would that it was not a suicide attempt as Hof- affect the Mormon scholarly community. mann later stated. During the next months, the picture of that This third bomb connected the earlier burned car would be flashed on television killings with the Mormon historical docu- many times as reporters would explain new ments business and put the historical com- details of the case. The questions that were munity into a panic. Historical researchers being asked those long months ago are the and document dealers left their homes and questions that are now answered by Sillitoe took precautions to protect themselves and and Roberts in this book. Linda Sillitoe, their families. Dean Jessee, Mormon docu- one of Utah's finest poets and novelists, ment expert, and forensic expert George J. developed her skills in investigative report- Throckmorton started putting the puzzle ing at the Deseret News. Allen Roberts pieces together which led to the confession is a Utah architect specializing in historical and imprisonment of Hofmann. Sillitoe preservation who has published several in- and Roberts document how investigators vestigative articles and historical essays. slowly and carefully pieced together the Salamander is so well written and in- evidence. This meticulous process seemed teresting, I had a hard time laying it down. never-ending to those of us waiting for Though books without footnotes usually reports on the nightly news, but this book make me very uncomfortable, the narrative makes it clear why such care was necessary. 170 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT Many of us in the scholarly community complete list of these documents in the acted like typical fraud victims. Many sup- book so prospective researchers or buyers ported the perpetrator and refused to help could be watching for them. the investigation, to the great frustration of Hofmann had begun to shape our view the prosecution team. When the truth was of Joseph Smith. The forgeries changed revealed, most in the community felt pain our perceptions of the Prophet's attitudes and anger at the betrayal they had received about folk magic and plural marriage, as at Hofmann hands. well as his feelings the day he died and his Valeen Avery, past president of the opinions about a successor. The Lucy Mack Mormon History Association, in her 1988 Smith forgery made us think that Ishmael presidential address discussed the price and Lehi in the Book of Mormon were David Hyrum Smith, last son of the relatives. The Church picked up this con- Prophet Joseph Smith, had to pay when cept quickly and published it in several his family refused to help him face the places. The explosion of the third bomb past. We are luckier. Sillitoe and Roberts brought an end to Hofmann's influence and force us to look at events in our recent past. his forged documents. Hopefully, a good clear vision of what hap- Though the murders and forgeries were pened can help heal the pain we all felt painful, I am glad that Sillitoe and Roberts when we found we had been fooled. have researched and written their story. The book's last few pages, written by This book will become an important docu- George J. Throckmorton, contain informa- ment offering insight into our own times. tion concerning twenty-one of the Hofmann I found Salamander to be interesting, well forgeries. This part should be of special written, and important. Not only does it interest to archivists and history students. help us understand the Hofmann incidents, Anyone doing research in Mormon history but it is a warning to be careful what we should be aware of these forgeries. Several accept and who we trust. It also highlights have been published or used in historical the disastrous consequences of greed. Hof- studies. The list not only includes the mann's greed affected more than the Chris- "Salamander" letter, but also the Joseph tensen and Sheets families. The historical Smith III blessing; the Lucy Mack Smith community lost a dear friend in Steve letter to her sister-in-law (which I used as Christensen and a good deal of its credi- the basis for a sacrament meeting talk a bility. Hopefully we can learn from the few years ago); the Joseph Smith letter mistakes of the past, regain faith in our- to Josiah Stowell (thought to have been the selves, and again bring the highest stan- earliest known writing of Joseph Smith); a dards of scholarship to the study of Mor- Betsy Ross letter; and the Joseph Smith to mon history. Jonathan Dunham letter (thought to have Salamander: The Story of the Mormon been the last known writing of Joseph Forgery Murders by Linda Sillitoe and Smith). It also includes the "Oath of a Allen D. Roberts, with a forensic analysis Freeman," thought to have been the first by George J. Throckmorton (Salt Lake printed document in the United States. City: Signature Books, 1988), xiii+556 pp., When the Library of Congress could not $17.95. pay Hofmann's asking price for the "Oath" and Hofmann could not get the money to Reviewed by Mary Blanchard, a gradu- pay off his creditors, he took the desperate ate of the University of Utah in English, steps which led to murder. currently working on a masters in Ameri- Throckmorton states that 107 docu- can literature and creative writing at Cali- ments were proven forgeries and 68 docu- fornia State University, Sacramento. ments could not be proven either genuine THIS IS NO ORDINARY MURDER MYSTERY; or forged. It is too bad that there is not a nor does it in any way exploit the people.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • CHAPTER SIX Work and Worship C C
    88 C c CHAPTER SIX Work and Worship C c Construction of the tabernacle on Temple Square, 1866. ineteenth-century Mormons differentiated little between “Ten Acre Survey” and all the land lying east of it. Westward temporal and spiritual concerns. The physical act of gath- it extended to the Jordan River. According to some historians, ering to Zion showed their faithfulness more than atten- the ward for several years had the largest membership in the Ndance at Sunday meetings;1 discouraging Gentile influence church.4 by participating in community production efforts and shopping Attendance at ward meetings was probably small, typical of at church cooperative stores seemed nearly as essential as the attendance throughout the territory. In 1851 Brigham Young payment of tithes. Living some distance from Salt Lake City complained, merchants, the Birch and Morgan families undoubtedly relied Suppose I should appoint a meeting for tonight, about more than townsfolk on bartering with neighbors. Similarly, ru- a dozen [members] would come, [and] without any ral conditions and distance from church headquarters probably candles. [But] if I were to say—level this stand for the influenced ward activities and the structure of meetings2—but band that we may have a dance, they would bring the not essential ordinances or the importance of community wor- stoves from their wives’ bedsides, and would dance all ship and community work. night, and the house would be filled to overflowing.5 Millcreek Ward Historian Ronald Walker cites the ten to fifteen percent
    [Show full text]
  • I UTAH Discouraged at Being So Little Able to 1760 S
    A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHER Daniel Rector 3 MY BURDEN IS LIGHT Elbert Eugene Peck OF GODS, MORTALS, AND DEVILS Boyd Kirkland 6 As Satan Is, Man may yet become SUNSWATH Levi Peterson 13 First Place Story in the 1986 D.K. Brown Fiction Contest PERCEPTIONS OF LIFE Louis A. Moench 30 Four Paths on Our Journey through Life THE MORMON DOCUMENTS’ Linda Sillitoe ~3 DAY IN COURT A Closer Look at Some Historical Documents RECORD TURNOUT AT SYMPOSIUM EIGHT 4O NEW DIRECTOR FOR SMITH INSTITUTE 41 LDS POET MEG MUNK DEAD AT 42 PROPHET IN THE PROMISED LAND Richard W. Sadler 44 Brigham Young: American Moses by Leonard J. Arrington SIN OR BORE? Kerry William Bate Mormon Polygamy: A History by Richard Van Wagoner READERS FORUM PUBLISHER Daniel H. Rector ALL-TIME LOW breakdowns, poor health anc! low EDITOR Elbert Eu,¢;ene Peck grades. It is not the reason gifted ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ron t~:itton In publishing the vicious LDS artists and scholars DESIGN DIRFCTOR Connie Disney personal attack on Linda Newell underachieve. GRAPHICS Robyn Smith Winchester (SUNSTONE, 10:11), SUNSTONE ART EDITOR Patrick Baxley reached an all-time low. It should Seminary is not a Primary class CIRCU~TION MANAGER Hden E. Wright be beneath the dignity of a that meets daily. It is a high school OPERATIONS MANAGER Charlotte Hamblin respectable journal to disseminate level course in theology. One EOITING INTERN Mdissa Sillitoe such a scurrilous statement. cannot become a good pianisl: through a correspondence school. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS Irene Bates, Bonnie Sterling M. McMur~m The best way to teach M.
    [Show full text]
  • Clyde Archive Finding
    Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women's Legacy Archive Collections that are particularly extensive are marked as “important.” Collections on a particular topic (ie. business) are marked. Abstracts are drawn from Archives West summaries and student examination of collections. Small Collections These collections are small, less than one box. Check entry in Archives West for full description. Ruth Rogers Altman Photograph Collection Patrice M. Arent papers info on 21st century ​ Genevieve Atwood papers (1 folder) ​ Nellie Harper Curtis and Myrtle Goddard Browning travel scrapbook, 1931 Vervene “Vee” Carlisle photograph Collection 1970s-2002 Marjorie Chan papers, 1921-1943 ​ Dolores Chase papers (1 box, mostly professional material) ​ Klancy Clark De Nevers papers, 1900-2015 (all professional material) ​ Albert and Vera Cuglietta papers, 1935-2016 Jo-Anne Ely papers, 1949-1977 (only professional materials) ​ Frances Farley photograph collection Anne Marie Fox Felt photograph collection, 1888-1969 Garden Club of Cottonwood records, 1923-2006 ​ Judith D. Hallet papers, 1926-2017 (only professional materials) ​ Barbara J. Hamblin papers, 1913-2003 (only professional materials) ​ Elizabeth R. Hayes papers, 1881-2020 ​ Alberta Henry photograph collection Hope A. Hilton photograph collection Julianne Hinz papers, 1969 (contains only invitations to the Nixon inauguration) ​ Rosemary Holt papers, 1980-1997 Karl and Vicki Beck Jacobson papers, 1978-1995 Judith F. Jarrow papers, 1865-1965 (contains 135 cookbooks) ​ Rosalie Jones research paper, 1967 Esther Landa photograph collection, 1930-1990 [94 photographs] ​ Janet Quinney Lawson photograph collection Jerilyn S. McIntyre papers, 1845-2014 Natalie C. McMurrin papers, 1922-1995 Doris S Melich Papers, 1930-2007 Marsha Ballif Midgley papers, 1950-1953 Neighborhood House records, 1894-1996 Stu and Greta O’Brien papers, 1980-1997 Geraldine Palmer-Jones papers, 1922-1988 George Peterson Papers (in transition) 1 Ann Pingree Collection, 2011 Charlotte A.
    [Show full text]
  • Linda Sillitoe in Memoriam
    50-53_Sillitoe_memorial:Feature TEMPLATE 12/2/2010 11:27 PM Page 50 SUNSTONE Journalist, novelist, poet LINDA SILLITOE IN MEMORIAM A Tribute to Linda Sillitoe to three thousand women of various religions. To their aston- by Levi S. Peterson ishment, the convention was pre-empted by nearly 14,000 Mormon women, who had been marshaled by their male priesthood leaders. This horde of angry, poorly-informed LEVI S. PETERSON is a former editor of Dialogue and author of Mormon women interpreted the prepared agenda “as an at- novels The Backslider and Aspen Marooney, short-story collections tack on the family and vigorously voted down such resolu- Canyons of Grace and Night Soil, and autobiography A Rascal by tions as equal pay for equal work” according to a report in the Nature, A Christian by Yearning. He lives in Washington with his Spring 1998 issue of the Mormon Women’s Forum. wife Althea. A year later, Linda reported on another eye-opening event, the excommunication of Sonia Johnson for having criticized HE FIRST THING TO SAY IS THAT LINDA WAS the Church for its opposition to the Equal Rights competent, and the next thing is that she was deter- Amendment. In state after state, Mormon women lobbied T mined. Whatever she did, she did well, and she could their respective legislatures, urging the defeat of the amend- drive herself with a relentless will. There was a personal mag- ment. Linda refused to believe that the top leadership of the netism about her, a quiet drawing power that elicited atten- Church endorsed the lobbying efforts of local leaders until a tion and respect.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Contemporary Mormon Short Stories
    Toward a "Marriage Group" of Contemporary Mormon Short Stories B. W. Jorgensen "The truth is that marriage is difficult to imagine." —Carolyn Heilbrun1 IN A NOW-CANONICAL ARTICLE in 1912, "Chaucer's Discussion of Mar- riage," George Lyman Kittredge applied the term "marriage group" to a subset among Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: the Wife of Bath (and her po- lemic and confessional prologue), the Clerk, the Merchant, and the Frank- BRUCE W. JORGENSEN lives in Provo and teaches English at Brigham Young University. He is a lifetime member and past president (1990) of the Asso- ciation for Mormon Letters, which recently awarded him an honorary lifetime membership. He recently published in Dialogue an essay, "Scriptural Chastity Lessons: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife; Corianton and the Harlot Isabel," 32, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 7-34, and a short story, "Measures of Music," 32, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 133-40. He presented an earlier form of this essay at the Association for Mormon Letters conference, February 24, 2001, Salt Lake City, published under the title, "Imagining Mormon Marriage, Part 2: Toward a 'Marriage Group' of Contemporary Mormon Short Stories," in the AML Annual 2002 (Provo, Utah: Association for Mormon Letters, 2002), 37-52. 1. Carolyn Heilbrun, Writing a Woman's Life (1988; reprinted, New York: Ballantine, 1989), 91. Her remark provoked an intermittent ongoing project that I call "imagining marriage," a branch of which became "imagining Mormon mar- riage." A twig from that branch is a 1996 essay called "Imagining Mormon Mar- riage, Part 1: The Mythic, the Novelistic, and Jack Weyland's Charly," Mormon Letters Annual, 1997, edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson (Salt Lake City: Associ- ation for Mormon Letters, 1997), 128-37.
    [Show full text]
  • Madame Chair
    Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All USU Press Publications USU Press 2007 Madame Chair Jean Miles Westwood Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs Part of the American Politics Commons Recommended Citation Westwood, J. (2007). Madame chair: The political autobiography of an unintentional pioneer. Logan: Utah State University Press. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the USU Press at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All USU Press Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Madame Chair Special Collections Dept., J. Willard Marriott University of Utah Library, Chase LTD. photo, Washington, D.C. Offi cial photo of Jean Westwood after her appointment as chair of the Democratic National Committee in 1972. Madame Chair The Political Autobiography of an Unintentional Pioneer Jean Miles Westwood Edited by Linda Sillitoe With a Foreword by Floyd A. O’Neil Utah State University Press Logan, Utah Copyright ©2007 Utah State University Press All rights reserved Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322-7200 Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on recycled, acid-free paper ISBN: 978-0-87421-661-5 (cloth) ISBN: 978-0-87421-666-0 (e-book) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Westwood, Jean. Madame chair : the political autobiography of an unintentional pioneer / Jean Miles Westwood. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-87421-661-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Westwood, Jean. 2. Women political consultants--United States--Biography. 3. Political consultants--United States--Biography. 4. Democratic Party (U.S.)- -Biography.
    [Show full text]
  • Mormon Feminism and Prospects for Change in the LDS Church Holly Theresa Bignall Iowa State University
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2010 Hope deferred: Mormon feminism and prospects for change in the LDS church Holly Theresa Bignall Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the Mormon Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bignall, Holly Theresa, "Hope deferred: Mormon feminism and prospects for change in the LDS church" (2010). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 11699. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11699 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hope deferred: Mormon feminism and prospects for change in the LDS church by Holly Theresa Bignall A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies (Arts and Humanities) Program of Study Committee: Nikki Bado, Major Professor Heimir Geirsson Chrisy Moutsatsos Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2010 Copyright © Holly Theresa Bignall, 2010. All rights reserved. ii What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? Langston Hughes, Montage of a Dream Deferred iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v ABSTRACT vi CHAPTER 1 – REFLEXIVITY AND THE LATTER-DAY SAINT TRADITION 1 1.a.
    [Show full text]
  • From the God Makers to the Myth Maker: Simultaneous— and Lasting—Challenges to Mormonism’S Reputation in the 1980S
    Haws: Challenges to Mormonism’s Reputation in the 1980s 31 From The God Makers to the Myth Maker: Simultaneous— and Lasting—Challenges to Mormonism’s Reputation in the 1980s J. B. Haws What a difference two decades can make. In 1973, on the heels of the presidency of David O. McKay, a time retired LDS Public Affairs managing director Bruce Olsen called the “golden era of Mormonism,” the Church commissioned an opinion survey.1 Respondents to that survey ranked the LDS Church relatively low in comparison to other de- nominations when it came to perceptions of secrecy and suspicion, and even lower in terms of public influence. In line with those survey results, in 1981 Martin Marty, one of the country’s most eminent historians of religion, wrote that “by 1980, the Mormons had grown to be so much like everyone else or, perhaps, had so successfully gotten other Americans to be like them, that they no longer inspired curiosity for wayward ways.”2 In retrospect, there is significant irony in that pronouncement. Marty could hardly have guessed the extent to which curiosity, consternation, and even contempt for the wayward ways of Mormonism would experience a re- birth after 1980 and spawn what LDS Apostle Dallin H. Oaks called “some of J. B. Haw S ([email protected]) received a BA from Weber State University, an MA from Brigham Young University, and a PhD in American History from the University of Utah. He recently accepted an appointment as an assistant professor of Church History and Doc- trine at Brigham Young University.
    [Show full text]
  • Contributors
    CONTRIBUTORS MARY LYTHGOE BRADFORD is author of Lowell L. Bennion: Teacher, Counselor, Humanitarian (Dialogue Foundation, 1995). She lives in Arlington, Vir- ginia. BRANDT D. COOPER is a pseudonym. BRADFORD FILLMORE lives in Orem, Utah. EDWIN B. FIRMAGE is Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law, College of Law, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and the author, with Collin Man- grum, of Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (University of Illinois Press, 1988). "Reflections on Mor- mon History: Zion and the Anti-Legal Tradition" was originally deliv- ered to the J. Reuben Clark Law Society on 18 February 1998. LAWRENCE FOSTER is a professor of American history at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and author of Religion and Sexuality, which won the Mormon His- tory Association's "Best Book Award." His second book, Women, Family, and Utopia, discusses Mormon women's reactions to plural marriage and explores the changing role of Mormon women. KATHRYN KIMBALL teaches English at Seton Hall University and is cur- rently completing a dissertation at Drew University on Samuel Col- eridge. She, her husband, and last child-at-home live in Maplewood, New Jersey. JOHN FARRELL LINES is a medical student living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CAROL CLARK OTTESEN lives in Mapleton, Utah. BRENT PACE, a Utah native, currently counsels troubled youth. He lives in Salt Lake City with his partner, Ralph Martinez. BOYD PAYNE is employed by Signature Books of Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the author of Utah Celebrities: A Guide to the Stars (Telestial Books, 1995) and was project manager of the New Mormon Studies CD-ROM: A Compre- hensive Resource Library (Smith Research Associates, 1998).
    [Show full text]
  • Mormon Forgery: Past and Present
    The April 2021 issue of the Journal of Mormon History will feature a 5- essay forum on Forgery in Mormon history. That forum will include fascinating essays from Clair Barrus, Benjamin E. Park, Cheryl L. Bruno, John S. Dinger, and Ryan T. Roos. Because we expect a great deal of attention on this subject with the release of the Netflix documentary, Murder among the Mormons, we are releasing Roos’s article covering forgeries and their impact on the Latter-day Saint tradition from the nineteenth century, to Hofmann, and beyond. Mormon Forgery: Past and Present Ryan T. Roos In 1996, Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, stunned historians by claiming that 40 percent of all museum art was likely forged.1 Experts since have come to hold Hoving’s once unbelievable assessment as highly conservative.2 In all fields of history, the plague of forgery shows only signs of acceleration as experts struggle to keep pace with technological advances and an unprecedented volume of materials entering the marketplace. Religious art, documents, and artifacts are traditionally fertile grounds for manufactured fraud. Mormon history has proven to be no exception. With its unique blend of modernity, dispersion, and commitment to material culture, the Mormon story has situated both its adherents and faith traditions as easy prey within the ecosystem of religious forgery. In this essay, I speak to three primary periods in the history of Latter-day Saint forgery. In the earliest period, a heavy emphasis was placed upon archaeological finds, such as plates, stones, or other familiar elements of Mormonism’s founding story.
    [Show full text]
  • Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought
    DIALOGUE A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT EDITORS: F. ROSS Peterson Mary Kay Peterson ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Susette Fletcher Green EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Marilyn Damron White EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES: Helen B. Cannon, Lawrence 0. Cannon, G. Kevin Jones, Ray G. Minkler BOOK REVIEW EDITOR: M. Guy Bishop POETRY EDITOR: Linda Sillitoe DESIGNER: Warren Archer II ART EDITOR: Elaine S. Harding BUSINESS MANAGER: Bradly A. Oldroyd LEGAL COUNSEL: Rogers, Mackey & Price OFFICE STAFF: Lisa P. Watson, Marilyn B. Hone, Laura Chamberlain STAFF: Dawn Hall Anderson, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Karl Best, Anne Clark, Sandra Cordon, Elaine England, Paula Fowler, David Handy, Ann Hobson, Clarann Jacobs, Matthew Jeffers, Brent Johns, Robin Johnson, Drew L. Jones, Jill Bradberry Keeley, Daniel C. Maryon, Sheila Merrill, Jean Bergen Ohai, Kirk Ottley, Catherine Passey, Enid Magnuson Smith, Susan B. Taber, Terry Tilton, Jenlyn Wakejield, Carla Western EDITORIAL BOARD Douglas D. Alder, Dixie College, St. George, Utah Thomas G. Alexander, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah Irene M. Bates, Pacific Palisades, California Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah Lester E. Bush, Gaithersburg, Maryland Claudia L. Bushman, Newark, Delaware Melodie Moench Charles, Ft. Meade, Maryland Richard J. Cummings, University of Utah, Salt Lake City Paul M. Edwards, Temple School, Independence, Missouri Lawrence Foster, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Marvin J. Hill, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah William Clayton Kimball, Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts Armand L. Mauss, Washington State University, Pullman Sterling M. McMurrin, University of Utah, Salt Lake City Levi S. Peterson, Weber State College, Ogden, Utah Jan Shipps, Indiana University —Purdue University, Indianapolis ADVISORY COUNCIL Lowell L. Bennion, Salt Lake City, Utah Mary L.
    [Show full text]
  • The Successful Marketing of the Holy Grail
    The Successful Marketing of the Holy Grail Linda Sillitoe NOT LONG AGO AT A CONVENTION in Salt Lake City for police chiefs, a visiting law enforcer dubbed Utah a "white-collar crime capital." He was alluding to pyramid schemes and speculative investments initiated by unscrupulous LDS individuals preying upon the trust between people with cultural and religious bonds. Professional concern about involvement of LDS leaders in fraudulent businesses such as AFCO focused on these men's impact on rank and file member-investors, rather than upon the possibility of naivete among the top Church elders. The participation of the victimized was at issue as well as the proclivities of the perpetrators. Though no mention was made of old letters and early Mormon money, that market too involved speculative investments and high finance, as well as that most valuable currency — trust. For sale were many tangible bits of Mormon history. In Church offices, antique book departments, and conserva- tive businesses, a fragmented community was involved in an increasingly in- flated, highly competitive trade in Mormon documents. Information in media and scholarly publications soon reached an audience beyond that core of secretive document and book dealing. The salamander became a cultural folk creature that was soon relegated to myth following the Salt Lake bombings and the subsequent detection of forgery. These events raise questions not only for a court of law or a parole board, but for all of us who are part of a participating consciousness. At a recent symposium at Brigham Young University, Robert Stott, lead prosecutor in the murder and forgery cases against Mark Hofmann, castigated Mormon historians and researchers for hindering the investigation by insisting upon the authenticity of the Hofmann documents and by being generally reluctant to cooperate with the investigation.
    [Show full text]