The Daily Beast
The Bomber and Counterfeit Master Who Tried to Destroy the Mormon Church
NetflixThere is no stranger twist in Murder Between the Mormons than the initial disclosure that this Netflix true crime series (premiering on March 3) is co-directed by Jared Hess, the idiosyncratic filmmaker behind Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre and Gentleman Broncos. The fact that Hess is a Mormon explains this unlikely marriage of artist and material, which he joins with Tyler Measom. However, it remains an unexpected adventure for the former film comedy prodigy, which largely neutralizes his original comedy style for a direct recap of a story rooted in deception. The subject of Hess and Measom is an incident that shook Salt Lake City: on October 15, 1985, two bombs were detonated an hour apart, the first killing document collector Steve Christensen in his downtown office and the second taking the life of Kathy Sheets (wife of Christensen’s former partner, Gary) in her suburban home. What connected the two victims was the great deal of rare books and document manipulation that had become fashionable in the Mormon community during that decade. A whole industry has emerged around the practice of discovering, selling and trading 19th century artifacts with great significance for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And at the time of his death, Christensen was about to complete, on behalf of the LDS Church, a gigantic transaction – worth $ 300,000 – for a stock of recently unearthed books, diaries, letters and revelations known as the McLellin Collection.How Scientologist Execs at Media Company e.Republic made Workers’ Lives a Living HellChristensen in this mega-deal was Mark Hofmann, who at that point was a true legend in the field. After making his first valuable discoveries during his 1974 mission in Manchester, England, Hofmann began to discover one priceless item after another. In 1980, he and his wife Dorie found, in an old Bible, a folded letter supposedly written in 1828 by Joseph Smith’s scribe, Harris Smith, who transcribed passages from the gold plates Joseph Smith dug up under a stone courtesy of the angel Moroni (an event that forms the basis of all Mormon faith). This “Anthon transcript” made Hofmann a star and put him in close contact with Church leadership, including President Gordon B. Hinckley. Thus a lucrative business was born and, in 1984, it really took off with Hofmann’s greatest discovery to date: the Salamander Letter, a note apparently written by Harris Smith that stated that Joseph Smith had been brought to the gold plates not by the angel Moroni. , but by a white salamander. To suggest that Smith was guided by magic rather than the divine hand of God was nothing short of a devastating challenge to the fundamental dogma of the Mormon church. Most crucial to Murder Between the Mormons (executive production by Joe Berlinger), the Salamander Letter was sold by Hofmann to Christensen, who promptly handed it over to Hinckley for further analysis and protection. Just as buyers and sellers often refused to disclose where (and from whom) they purchased their jewelry, the LDS church sought to keep this potentially destructive document – which contradicts its central narrative about Joseph Smith – out of sight and mind. Among Mormons, this often secretive environment stands out through interviews with many of its key players, including Shannon Flynn, Brent Metcalfe, Curt Bench and Brent Ashworth. It also employs a wide variety of archival footage, including home movies and news reports, to reveal the obscure negotiating culture that Utah took during the 1980s. These clips bring to life not only the strange world of handling Mormon rare documents, but also the unique personalities that populated him, no one more colorful than Flynn, who appears on camera today in a three-piece suit and bow tie. Flynn readily admits he has a youthful taste for weapons and rebellion, which gives Hess his only opportunity to go gonzo by staging a comically macho parody sequence from the 1980s as Flynn accelerates in Hofmann’s Toyota MR2 sports car with an Uzi in hand , and then get out of the vehicle to fire a few hundred shots. However, the main center of attention in Murder Between the Mormons is Hofmann, a nerdy guy who grew up in the faith, but gravitated more and more to atheism, full of trips to New York City, where he would make big sales and, in then he would celebrate by eating in fancy restaurants and drinking a lot (a great Mormon ban). The day after the two bombings in Salt Lake City in 1985, Hofmann was seriously injured by a car bomb. He survived the attempt on his life and, in a surprising twist, subsequently became the focus of the investigation by prosecutor Gerry D’Elia and detective Michael George. Questions soon arose about the authenticity of Hofmann’s treasures, and although forensic experts initially validated them, D’Elia and George were not intimidated and ended up discovering the truth: Hofmann was a master forger and many of the documents he invested for profit and fame (including the Salamander Charter) were fakes. This bomb provided the authorities with an idea of Hofmann’s motive for his double murders, and Murder among the Mormons further clarifies his motives through an extended audio interview with Hofmann after his conviction. In it, he reveals himself not only guilty of the offenses for which he was accused, but a terrifying sociopath who delighted in deceiving others and undermining the legitimacy of the LDS church by verifying and disseminating these false documents, caring little for those he explored and injured along the way. Hofmann was a manipulator par excellence, whose avarice led him to deceive others who, in turn, were often willing to be deceived in order to indulge their own greed. In an environment where no one asked too many questions or divulged more than necessary, duplicity was simply a standard operating procedure. Even in three relatively brief episodes, Murder Between the Mormons looks a bit padded, especially as it paves its way through its final installment. The final passages in the series, however, are worth the wait, painting a chilling portrait of a man who – out of a craving for attention and wealth and a desire to demolish Mormon religion – has treated people’s history, relationships and lives as pawns in your own deadly game. Read more in The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.