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MARK HOFFMAN
Total Articles:
8
Topics surrounding forgerer Mark Hoffman. Hoffman was able to convince the Mormon Prophet and Mormon Leaders that documents he had were originals. A murderer, Hoffman proved that Mormon leaders were uninspired in allowing a criminal within their inner sanctum.
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| | Mark Hofmann -- Twenty Years Later
Article Archived: Jul 21, 2005, at 07:38 AM
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Original Author Of Article: n/a |  | Today's Deseret News contains a story on Doralee Olds, former wife of Mark Hofmann, the Utah man who pleaded guilty in 1987 to killing two people in October 1985 in an attempt to maintain his career as a skilled forger of valuable historical documents. Olds plans to speak at the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium at the end of this month on her experiences. She will be joined on a panel entitled "Twenty-Year Reflections on the Mark Hofmann Bombings" by Curt Bench (owner of Benchmark Books), Gretchen Sheets McNees (daughter of murder victim Kathleen Sheets and detective with the Salt Lake City Police Department), Steve Mayfield (SL Police Department crime photographer), Newell Bringhurst (Mormon historian), and Brent Metcalfe (technical editor).
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| | | Hofmann Case Revisited
Article Archived: Oct 10, 2005, at 08:48 AM
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Original Author Of Article: n/a | | The 81 ornately inscribed signatures he forged ranged from Abraham Lincoln to Billy the Kid, Emily Dickinson to George Washington.
But for Mark Hofmann, the real money was in Joseph Smith, Martin Harris and other figures from the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In seven years, Hofmann went from a struggling Utah State University pre-med student in 1978 to a 30-year-old document dealer making millions of dollars traveling all over the country, meeting with renowned historians, even the leadership of the LDS Church -- and selling them fakes.
His motives were twofold: money, and chipping away at the LDS Church he had lost faith in during his early teens.
He still went on a church mission, during which he spent some time playing at bomb-making.
But it all ended in 1985 when his bombs started going off in Salt Lake City.
Three exploded in total, set by Hofmann to thwart whistle-blowers about to cut him off before he could make his biggest score of all -- forging the lost 116 pages of the LDS Church's Book of Mormon.
"Hofmann decided as a young man he was going to destroy Mormonism," said Gene Sessions, chairman of the Weber State University history department. "If he had come up with the lost 116 pages it would have sent shock waves through the church."
Oct. 15 marks the 20th anniversary of Hofmann's bombs. The third went off accidentally Oct. 16, critically injuring Hofmann before he could deliver it.
He is serving a life sentence in the Utah State Prison, and narrowly avoided the death penalty.
"He changed the entire profession of forgery," said George Throckmorton, a Salt Lake forensic document detective who helped bring Hofmann to justice. "He's still the best. I don't like to use the word greatest because he's a murderer. But twenty years later no one has passed him."
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/12421...
| | | Well, Well, Well, Mark Hofmann Keeps Scoring Points On The Morg
Article Archived: Dec 6, 2005, at 08:37 AM
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Original Author Of Article: n/a | | I remember finding an old ensign (october 1982) once with an amazing article about a new letter that had been found showing Sariah and Ishmael to be siblings. It was a letter written by Lucy Mack Smith to her sister while JS was translating the gold plates and had some info about the 116 pages before they were lost.
I went to LDS.org to find that article, but for some reason it was gone. I know the church removes articles that they think are damaging, but this was far less damaging than one result containing Mark Hofmann's name that showed up during my search. Curious as to why his name would show up, and my article wouldn't, I took a look at the article (Oct 1987 ensign).
It was a disclaimer about how Mark Hofmann was a fraud and how the church new all along, and they just bought the documents so they could test their authenticity, blah, blah, blah. But it contained a list Hofmann's documents stating, "The following documents and their fraudulent contents should not be used, even though they may have appeared in previous Church publications." I was shocked to find out that number 3 on the list (10 in total) was my Lucy Mack Smith letter. Needless to say I couldn't find any of the articles containing Hofmann's documents although they forgot to remove the references to them (if you have copies of the originals, don't get rid of them). If someone could tell me how to post links to ensign articles I'd be more than happy to put them here.
I never knew that letter was a fake, and the writers of the Oct 1982 ensign gave no indication that they new either. On the contrary, it seemed they were pretty proud of the fact that actual documents were turning up that supported the church's claims.
I think the church removed these articles not only for their invalidated souces, but also because of the shame caused by their contents. Anyone who reads the articles (or at least the one I read) would have to honestly admit that the church was fooled. What an embarrasment
| | | FCI On Mark Hoffman's Accomplice
Article Archived: Jan 9, 2006, at 08:16 AM
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Original Author Of Article: Cactus Jim | | I was just reading through "Former Church Insiders" revelations about this and that as a former Church Employee. The one that rang my bell was his saying that Mark Hoffman had an insider accomplice who had access to the Church Historian vault. This was the first I had heard of it, but it surely explains a lot.
From what was reported in the books about Hoffman, he had been trying to sell the McClellan collection, but hadn't produced it. He was under a lot of pressure since he'd borrowed money on the promise that he had located it. But he couldn't produce it so he set off the bombs, killing two people as a cover up. What confused me was that to pull this off it seemed like he had to have been working on forging the collection in order to finally cash in on the scheme. Much later, I read on the Tanner's site that it turned out that the Collection was actually in the church's possession all the time. They have such sloppy procedures that they hadn't even known they had the collection in their vault when they arranged a signature loan for $100,00 to Hoffman on the promise of finding it.
When the church leaders found out about their having the collection was as Hoffman was still being investigated. Had they done their legal civic duty and informed the Salt Lake County Attorney, their possession of the collection would have bolstered the case against Hoffman. One concern the Prosecutor had was that if he built this case about Hoffman committing the murders to cover his scamming the collection, what if Hoffman then turned up the collection? It would blow them out of the water. The church could have alleviated their concern, but chose to hide the truth so as not to embarrass the church (no surprise there) Hoffman was then able to plea bargain because the prosecution wasn't sure of it's case.
Now, with FCI's revelation that there was a confederate in the church vault, it makes more sense. I would guess that the scheme had been to take the McClellan collection out of the vault, then "discover" it. But something must have gone wrong. Maybe the church tightened it's controls on access or the confederate was discovered or something, and here was Hoffman having already borrowed money as an advance toward producing a document he no longer had access too.
Now that only leaves one more great mystery. Who was the third bomb intended for? That is the one that he was removing from his car that was parked in front of the COB when he accidentally set it off? Well, that mystery and the mystery of how much other stuff did he sell the all seeing church that we will never hear about.
| | | The Secret To The Success Of Mark Hoffman's Forgeries
Article Archived: Jul 27, 2006, at 07:23 AM
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Original Author Of Article: Peep Stoner | | In a recent thread, the point was essentially made that people at RFM, or in the exmo or "anti-Mormon" community in general, persist in referring to Hoffman's forged "Salamander Letter" as a genuine historical document.
Personally, I have actually not seen that to be the case. I truly cannot recall a single post at RFM (and I've read hundreds, if not thousands) that has indicated any confusion about the fraudulent nature of the Salamander Letter. (In fact the average exmo is generally about, oh, I'd say, approximately 375.45% better informed about Hoffman and his forgeries than the average TBM.) Furthermore, it was Jerald Tanner, perhaps one of the most famous "anti-Mormons" of the last 50 years, who tried to warn the LDS Church leaders about Hoffman's documents--even though the content of the forgeries strongly supported criticism of the Church's orthodox mythology.
Leaving those points aside, however, it is important to keep in mind, as Randy J. indicated in the previous thread, that the contents of the Hoffman forgeries had some basis in actual Mormon history.
Indeed, incorporating subtle or overt references to actual historical accounts and events was the key to Hoffman's initial success. Hoffman was an astute student of Mormon history and, with his understanding and knowledge of Mormon history, carefully crafted his forgeries to push all the right buttons of the Church leaders. In other words, Hoffman knew the same suppressed historical facts that several of the better informed Church leaders and faithful historians knew.
More importantly, Hoffman knew that the leaders and devout LDS historians were anxious to keep those potentially damaging historical events and accounts suppressed.
Accordingly, although nobody should be so ignorant as to cite any of Hoffman's forgeries as evidence against the authenticity of the Church (except to the extent of citing the ease with which he deceived the "Prophet" and "Apostles"), it is important to keep in mind that actual Church history was the principal source of inspiration for the contents of Hoffman's forgeries.
| | | What The Mormon Church Knew And When It Knew It: Murdering The Truth In The Mark Hofmann Bombing Case
Article Archived: Nov 21, 2006, at 06:56 AM
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Original Author Of Article: Sourcerer | | In another thread, "poster," commenting on "the Mark Hofmann scandal," observed "that the LDS leaders, including the supposed prophet Spencer Kimball, bought the forged documents that contradicted the official version of Church history.
"How can any Mormon believe," asked "poster," "the Church is true if they know about this scandal and how can they possibly still defend the Church leaders?"
The telling fact of the matter is that paranoid LDS Church did their best to obstruct justice and prevent law enforcement from doing its job in following the trail on the Mark Hofmann scandal--a trail that could lead embarrassingly back to the LDS Church itself.
In a private meeting with Mormon apostle Dallin Oaks in 1985 shortly after the Hofmann bombings, followed by a second and, finally, with both Oaks and fellow apostle Neal Maxwell in 1993, Steve Benson learned how intent the Mormon Church was in fuzzing the truth, to the detriment of both law enforcement and the Church members it supposedly serves in godly fashion.
The ugly reality is that the Mormon Church, by private admission of its own leaders, deliberately prevented examination by authorized law enforcement investigators of evidence in possession of the LDS Church that could have helped unravel the Hofmann case and brought important matters to light in a much more timely fashion--for all concerned.
But all the Mormon Church was concerned about was covering its own backside.
In meeting with Oaks and Maxwell, Benson asked "why the [Mormon] Church [was] not more open with its own historical documents, specifically as relating to the refusal of the Church to acknowledge the existence of, or share with, law enforcement authorities the McLellin papers during the Hofmann investigation . . .
"By way of background [on his question, Benson noted that] William E. McLellin was, as described by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith in their book, 'The Mormon Murders,' 'an early Apostle and close associate of Joseph Smith's who left the Church in 1836 to become one of its bitterest enemies. It had long been rumored,' wrote Naifeh and Smith, 'that McLellin, who kept the minutes at early meetings of the Twelve, had taken with him a pirate's chest full of papers, letters and journals, all of it incriminating, with which to destroy the Church. Over the years, tantalizing clues had turned up. But neither the Collection itself, nor any part of it, had ever surfaced.' [p. 164]
"This collection, contrary to Mark Hofmann's claims, was eventually determined not to exist.
"However, the Church did have in its possession certain McLellin papers, as admitted by Richard E. Turley, Jr., in his Oaks-sanctioned book, 'Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case' [p. 303]. It was these papers that were the subject of [Benson's] conversation with Oaks and Maxwell. . . .
"In the fall of 1985, a few days after the Hofmann bombings, [Benson] accompanied a reporter from 'The Arizona Republic,' Chuck Kelly, to Salt Lake City to assist him in making contacts for covering the story. . . .
"While in Utah, [they] attempted to get an audience with Oaks. He refused to grant a newspaper interview but did agree to meet with [Benson] in his office. [Benson] remember[ed] how starkly clean the top of Oaks' desk was. In fact, there was nothing on it at all, except for a single newspaper article, the subject of which [Benson] could not read, since from where [he] sat, it was upside down. During [their] brief chat, Oaks was very cryptic in his comments, saying nothing of substance about the Hofmann scandal.
"A few years later (after Hofmann had been bundled off to prison and prior to [Benson and his wife Mary Ann] meeting with Oaks and Maxwell in 1993), [he] again visited with Oaks in Salt Lake City. This time [Oaks] was somewhat more willing to talk about the Hofmann affair--specifically, why the Church had not, even in the face of a law enforcement subpoena, produced the McLellin papers, which it had in its possession. The reasons, Oaks said, were two-fold:
"First, the Church had privately determined that the McLellin papers it possessed were not relevant to the police investigation.
"Second, there were no Church leaders available at the time to work with the police on the McLellin paper caper, because the Church personnel authorized to do so were all on vacation.
"Fast forward to [Benson's] meeting [with Oaks and Maxwell] in September 1993.
"Oaks told [him] that the Mormon Church had discovered in mid-March of 1986 that it possessed some McLellin papers--and so publicly announced. Maxwell concurred, adding that the McLellin papers had been 'stuffed away somewhere' and the Church did not realize it had them.
"Oaks said that the McLellin papers held by the Church had been originally purchased by a representative sent by then-President Joseph F. Smith to Texas who, under orders to make sure they did not fall into 'the wrong hands,' acquired them for $50.00.
"Oaks said McLellin (who became disaffected from the Church and eventually left it), had ransacked Joseph Smith's home while Smith was incarcerated and taken several of Smith's belongings. Oaks said the Church was concerned the papers McLellin had purloined would turn out to be very negative and reflect poorly on the Church. In sympathy with the Church's decision to buy these McLellin papers back, Oaks noted that President Joseph F. Smith's father, Hyrum, had been murdered by a mob and was thus naturally very sensitive to the potential negative contents of the papers.
"Oaks told [Benson] that when it came to the Church's attention that it did, in fact, have McLellin papers in its possession, the discovery process was already underway, preliminary trial motions were ongoing and Hofmann was destined to plea-bargain in July.
"Oaks said the Quorum of the Twelve debated when they should bring the McLellin papers forward. He said that if the Church had at that time revealed it was in possession of McLellin's papers, the press would have made 'a big brouhaha about it.'
"Besides, he said, the McLellin papers the Church had were of no relevance to trial evidence being requested by the police (although Oaks admitted that no one in the Quorum had read them at the time or knew what was in them).
"Oaks further defended the Church's refusal to provide its McLellin papers to law enforcement investigators on the grounds that the subpoena only requested McLellin documents that Hofmann, not the Church, was said to have possessed.
"He said that the whole question of this portion of the investigation centered on whether Hofmann even had the McLellin papers. Oaks said that the Church made a conscious decision not to bring forward the McLellin papers during the preliminaries. He said the Church decided it would wait until those proceedings were over, then produce them before trial. That option was negated, he said, when Hofmann plea-bargained in July.
"Oaks also argued that the Church only had between May and August of that year as the available interval in which to get the McLellin papers out. Since everyone was on vacation in August, he said, there was no one to make decisions during that time frame.
"At any rate, he maintained, that interval was too narrow, so the Church decided to wait until Turley's book, 'Victims,' was published in 1992. Oaks said the book explained the proper context, the role of the Church and the facts on the ground regarding the McLellin papers. Following its publication, Oaks said the Church decided to release the McLellin documents it had in its possession.
"Oaks claimed that at the time the Church brought them out, it realized (apparently, he suggested, for the first time) that they spoke positively and glowingly of the Church. He said they were written by McLellin in his earlier missionary years of Church service."
http://twincentral.com/site/pages/art... Part 5
| | | Hofmann, Turley And The Loving Church
Article Archived: May 30, 2007, at 08:21 AM
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Original Author Of Article: John Larsen | | Many know that in the Mark Hofmann scandal the Church was caught red handed credulously buying up documents with the sole intent of “burying” them. It took time to get the Church to ‘fess up to all they had acquired (some believe they still haven’t come completely clean). In fact, the Church operated with such precision in the matter and threw around such large amounts of money that one is left to wonder just how often the Church has “disappeared” documents of historical interest that didn’t come to light. The lingering question to this day is “how did the Church get taken in by Hofmann?” Many theories abound.
I do not mean to trivialize the awful violent actions that Hofmann perpetrated. They were real crimes with real victims. However, the Hofmann affair gives us a rare peak into the inner workings of the Church. The Church was a victim in the fraud and violence, but they seemed all too eager to step up to the plate.
Several books about the Hofmann affair were written but to me the most interesting is “Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case” by Richard Turley Jr. (not to be confused with Richard Turley Sr., his father who served in the Second Quorum of the Seventy). During the Hofmann period, Turley was brought on as one of several lawyers the Church was using to protect its interests. Turley was apparent so effective in this role that the Church hired/called him to be the managing director of the Family and Church History Department. Obviously following this blow up, the Church would rather see a lawyer looking after its history than a historian.
Anyway, the whole point of Turley’s book—which was written while he was in Church employ—was that the Church was really just a big victim in this whole thing, but they were victims for a special reason. Turley makes his closing arguments in the book:
“…church officials recognized the spiritual tragedy of abandoning all trust. ‘Ministers of the gospel function best in an atmosphere of trust and love,’ Dallin Oaks observed. ‘In that kind of atmosphere, they fail to detect a few deceivers, but that is the price they pay to increase their effectiveness in counseling, comforting, and blessing the hundreds of honest and sincere people they see. It is better for a Church leader to be occasionally disappointed than to be constantly suspicious.’”
“’The church by its nature is not going to change its basic philosophy of trusting individuals,’ church spokesman Richard Lindsay said. ‘in the log run that probably pays off.’” (p.344)
You see, the brethren were taken in because they are filled with so much trust and love that anyone could easily take advantage of them. Anyone even remotely familiar with the Church is aware that trust—in terms of letting people freely operate—is not anywhere in the program of the Church. Furthermore, if you have ever been grilled by a church authority in a “counseling” session, or simply given the temple recommend screening you will know that trust does not play a strong role. BYU professor dismissed or sanctioned for research, individuals banned from the archives and members published writings stored and filed would respectfully disagree. In truth, the Church tends to trust only as much as they have to.
But the rub is still that the Church, cutting backroom deals to hid documents, using Christensen as their shilling agent, and writing huge checks out of their own bank accounts was simply doing its thing out of “love and trust”. Unlike the “prophets of old” who could detect deceit due to their righteousness, the modern day prophets are blind to this because they just love too much.
| | | The Hoffman Affair. Unveiling The Mind Of Upper Echelon Mormon Leadership
Article Archived: Nov 10, 2007, at 12:52 PM
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Original Author Of Article: Chad (Swedeboy) Spjut | | Thirteen years ago, I found myself a newly temple married man, a return missionary and someone who was fully committed to the cause of Mormonism. I had always been one to question, but only to question as far as I dared myself to go. I was raised in a home where open discussion was encouraged, but only as far as I did not cross certain boundaries. Everyone raised within the strict confines of Mormonism knows of which boundaries I speak.
Being married in August and taking our honeymoon in St. George, Utah poses several problems, not the least of which is the unbearable heat of Southern Utah in summer. Now there will be those who chide and say that a honeymoon regardless of location is bound to be filled with heat which of course is something I cannot deny, but that is for another discussion. Our honeymoon abode was at my Mormon grandparent’s second home in St. George. We had everything we would need for our few days there as newlyweds. Despite the strangeness of married life, it was a welcome respite from all of the hurly-burly in preparation for marriage and the beginning of our lives together.
Four days following our temple marriage, I found myself in the living room with a desire to read. I perused my grandparent’s bookshelves for something which would satisfy my desire for a little mental relaxation. As I glanced at the many titles which offered many interesting subjects, I discovered a strange title, ‘The Mormon Murders’. My inner warning bells immediately began to sound as I stared at the title, but in the end curiosity won and I found myself delving into the pages of this intriguing book.
As I read, I found myself transported back to the Salt Lake Temple as I attended an Endowment Session with Mark Hofmann (someone I had never heard of up to this point in my life) as the events were portrayed in vivid detail. My heart raced as I continued through the pages of boundary breaking material. I discovered that Hofmann was a master forger and with those skills was able to baffle and bluff the upper ranks of Mormon leadership.
Upon my discovery of the story and content of the ‘Salamander Letter’, I found myself spinning inside as I tried to grasp why Mormon leaders, including Hinckley, would be so anxious to purchase and hide documents which so clearly showed the origins of Mormonism. I could see that another story was being told by the Mormon Church, which was in clear contrast to the official story which I so proudly told as a Mormon missionary.
As I paused from my reading, I glanced across the room at my new wife. I was afraid to tell her what I was reading. It hurt inside as I thought about what these newly discovered facts meant for my new married life and me. I had to protect her from this information by not telling her. She asked about the book I was reading, and I told her it was related to Mormon history. Her inquires went no further, and I returned to my reading.
I soon found myself returning the book to the bookshelf all the while feeling sick inside. I went into the adjoining den to think about what I had read. As I sat there digesting the information, the question of “why?” continued to roll around in my brain like a hamster on a wheel. I continued to think about the book for the rest of our honeymoon. In the end however, I buried the hurt and the fear brought on by my discoveries and bowed my head in submission and continued on.
It was not until I was making my exit from Mormonism twelve years later that it actually donned on me just how important the Hofmann story really was. It was not the question of discernment, it was not the fact Hofmann was a forger and a conman, it was that Mormon leadership was so anxious to purchase and then cover-up the documents Hofmann produced. The documents were not ignored, they were EMBRACED and ACCEPTED by Mormon authorities as being authentic! Not because of the author or the time, but because of the story the documents revealed about the Mormon Church and its origin.
To me this understanding is a clear window into the mind of the upper echelon of Mormon leadership. They know the rest of the story, the complete story, the accurate story. They know. And that is why Hofmann could do what he did.
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