In 1985, a spate of bombings in the predominantly Mormon city of Salt Lake City shocked its residents. But when the authorities began to investigate the crime, they uncovered an even murkier world, full of religious paranoia and which featured the forgery of historical artefacts.
The events of this bizarre case are the basis for a new Netflix documentary series called Murder Among The Mormons, a three-part story that re-examines the crimes that were committed, and how a man called Mark Hoffman became involved.
Directed by Jared Hess – who’s previous work includes Napoleon Dynamite – and Tyler Meason (An Honest Liar), the series is an expansive take on suppression in the Mormon church and focuses on the master counterfeiter, Hoffman, the man eventually convicted of the bombings, amongst other felonies.
Who is Mark Hoffman?
Hoffman was initially brought up in Salt Lake City, Utah, as a devout Mormon in The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints (LDS, not to be confused with LSD, although things do start to get trippy fairly quickly).
However, he lost his faith around the age of 14, in 1973, which coincided with a trip to Bristol. In the West Country city he discovered second-hand bookshops, and became interested in historic material about the Mormons, and those who decried the religion. He started buying up a collection of vintage books around the subject.
Back in the US, in 1980 Hoffman claimed he had found a King James Bible from the 17th century, with a letter stuck inside it. The letter was from Martin Harris, who was one of the witnesses who claimed to have seen the golden plates discovered by the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, which were said to have Egyptian figures inscribed on them that translated into the Book of Mormon.
It was certified as real and Hoffman shot to fame for uncovering this valuable document. The LDS swiftly picked up the tab for this, paying $20,000. But the transcript was faked by Hoffman, and the relative ease with which he had duped experts – and an entire religion – started him on his dubious career choice of master forger.
A year later, Hoffman “uncovered” a document which had the canon-shattering revelation that Smith actually wanted his son, Joseph Smith III, to succeed him, rather than the actual successor to the religion, Brigham Young. This would potentially split the church into rival factions. Not that Hoffman minded, of course, as he picked up another $20k for his handiwork. He had also begun to correctly identify that if the documents he “found” were controversial enough, the church would be quick to buy them off him, so they could suppress the “truth” from their members, so as not to rock the foundations of the religion.
The Salamander Letters
The Mormon church is based on the story that Joseph Smith was led to the buried golden plates by an Angel called Moroni. But in 1984, Hoffman had sufficient experience with his fakery to claim he’d found a letter revealing that it was actually a white salamander who had led him to the find. Yep, a magic lizard was now the cornerstone of a religion.
And – what were the chances? – for the next year or two, Hoffman continued to discover a veritable treasure trove of artefacts. It’s not known exactly how many items he counterfeited but it’s fair to say he was prolific during this period. Pages from the original Book of Mormon, letters from the three witnesses of Joseph Smith’s discovery, printing contracts for the Book, many of which put the church in a compromising position – such as claiming Smith had been practising black magic – led them to buy up the documents just to lock them away again.
Hoffman moved on to other forgeries of American founding fathers and figures, such as George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. Getting cocky now, he even faked a new poem in the handwriting of Emily Dickinson. His biggest ruse was to claim he had a page of one of the most famous missing documents in American history: the Oath of a Freeman, a pledge of allegiance to the Massachusetts Bay colony from 1639. Only 50 copies were ever made, and none survived. Hoffman’s agents started to negotiate a sale of $1 million to the Library of Congress.
The murders
Despite so much success in the art of forgery, by 1985 Hoffman was seriously in debt, and people around him began to get suspicious. Questions arose about the sale of the Oath of a Freeman, and he had backed himself into a corner by claiming to have a litany of works by William E McLellin, a former Mormon apostle, who had explosively split with the church.
Hoffman began to be hounded to present the documents he’d claimed to have discovered, and was being chased for his debts. In an effort to buy more time, he decided to plant some bombs.
On 15 October, 1985, he killed document collector Steven Christensen – who he had sold the Salamander Letter – and with a second bomb, killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of Christensen's former employer (whose husband’s investment business was about to collapse). The next day, Hoffman was severely injured when a bomb exploded in his car, and when the police attended the scene, they found documents that linked him to all his forgeries. When they searched his house, they found an engraving plant, letters and inks.
Hoffman was arrested a year later on five indictments totalling 32 counts, including first-degree murder, delivering a bomb, constructing or possessing a bomb, theft by deception, communication fraud and theft by deception. In 1987, Hofmann pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, one count of theft by deception for forging the Salamander Letter, and one count of fraud for the bogus sale of the McLellin collection. He got off with a plea bargain, and agreed to confess his forgeries in court. He was sentenced to five years to life, with the judge recommending he never be freed.
Where is Mark Hofman now?
Hofman's lack of remorse means he’s still in prison now, serving time at Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison. According to an investigator at the time, and quoted in the 1988 book, A Gathering of Saints, Hoffman told him he had no sympathy for his victims: "I don't feel anything for them. My philosophy is that they're dead. They're not suffering. I think life is basically worthless. They could have died just as easily in a car accident. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in an afterlife. They don't know they're dead."
Of the documentary, director Measom told The Salt Lake Tribune: “It is a story that happened to take place in a relatively small town whereby a human was able to utilise the culture in order to perpetrate his crimes.”
Hess added: “There’s a lot of themes within the story that I think are relevant to the current zeitgeist, just as it relates to misinformation. And, again, I think anyone is vulnerable to deception.”
Murder Among The Mormons is on Netflix now
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