Mark Hofmann and the Mormon Murders

Unraveling the Dark Saga of a Master Forger Who
Deceived a Church and Murdered to Protect His Lies

Introduction: A Church Deceived

On the morning of October 15, 1985, Salt Lake City awoke to what promised to be a crisp, beautiful autumn day. Temperatures were expected to reach a pleasant 62 degrees under cerulean skies. But death was on the horizon. Before the day ended, two people would be dead, a city would be gripped by terror, and the foundations of America’s fastest-growing religion would be shaken to their core. The instrument of this destruction was a baby-faced, soft-spoken document dealer named Mark William Hofmann—a man whose name would become synonymous with deception, murder, and one of the most audacious fraud schemes in American history.

What makes the Hofmann case particularly significant for those examining the claims of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not merely that a clever forger managed to deceive historians and document experts—such deceptions, while remarkable, occur in the world of rare manuscripts. What distinguishes this case is that the men deceived were not ordinary scholars but rather men who claimed divine gifts of discernment, men sustained by millions of Latter-day Saints as prophets, seers, and revelators—men who, according to their own theology, possessed divine ability to detect deception and discern truth from falsehood.

The Salt Lake Tribune would later report on the unprecedented nature of the case, noting that the bombings represented the first deadly bombing attacks in Utah’s history. The investigation that followed would expose a web of forgery, fraud, and institutional cover-up that continues to raise troubling questions about the reliability of LDS Church leadership to this day.

The Man Behind the Mask: Mark William Hofmann

Mark William Hofmann was born on December 7, 1954—Pearl Harbor Day—in Salt Lake City, Utah. The second of three children and only son of William and Lucille Hofmann, young Mark appeared to be a model Latter-day Saint. He earned his Eagle Scout award, attended Utah State University, and served a mission for the LDS Church in England, where he developed what appeared to be a deep interest in Mormon history. He married Doralee Olds in 1979 in the Salt Lake Temple, and the couple would eventually have four children together.

But beneath this veneer of Mormon respectability lurked a very different person. Hofmann had begun his career in deception early. As a teenager in the 1960s, he began collecting coins and quickly learned to alter them, making ordinary pennies appear to be rare 1959-D misprint coins with estimated values of $25,000. By age fourteen, he had invented forgery techniques he believed were undetectable. This was not the hobby of a curious youth but the beginning of a lifelong pattern of deception that would eventually claim innocent lives.

What set Hofmann apart from ordinary forgers was the breadth and sophistication of his techniques. According to forensic document examiner George Throckmorton, who would eventually help expose Hofmann’s crimes:

Because of the extensiveness of his forgeries, it’s the biggest forgery fraud case in history. The various documents he forged fooled most of the experts at that time because of new techniques that he used.
— George Throckmorton, Forensic Document Examiner

Hofmann’s methods were revolutionary in their sophistication, earning him recognition from document experts as arguably the most skilled forger in recorded history. Kenneth Rendell, one of the world’s foremost authentication experts who has examined documents for the Library of Congress and testified in numerous high-profile cases, called Hofmann “the most accomplished forger this country has ever seen.” Charles Hamilton, another renowned documents dealer who initially authenticated some of Hofmann’s forgeries, later admitted that Hofmann’s technical abilities surpassed those of any forger he had encountered in his decades-long career. Even the forensic examiners who ultimately exposed him acknowledged that his work represented a quantum leap in forgery techniques that would influence document examination protocols for generations to come.

He didn’t merely copy handwriting—he immersed himself in the historical context of each document he forged with the dedication of a doctoral researcher. He stole period paper from library archives, carefully selecting sheets that dated to the exact era he needed. He created his own iron gall ink using nineteenth-century recipes, meticulously mixing ferrous sulfate, tannic acid from oak galls, and gum arabic in proportions that would withstand chemical analysis.

He developed innovative techniques for artificially aging his creations, including exposure to ammonia fumes to oxidize the ink and baking methods to create convincing patinas. He studied the idiosyncrasies of his subjects’ handwriting until he could reproduce not just the letterforms but the pen pressure, hesitation marks, and subtle variations that characterized authentic writing. His historical research and literary abilities allowed him to draft documents that reflected expected patterns of style, tone, and content with such precision that they fooled historians, archivists, and document dealers who had spent careers studying original manuscripts.

What made Hofmann particularly dangerous was his understanding that successful forgery required not just technical skill but psychological insight into what collectors and institutions wanted to discover—and he exploited that desire with devastating effectiveness.

One of his most ingenious aging techniques involved placing documents in a fish tank with a toy train transformer. When activated, the transformer would create ozone, and as his associate Shannon Flynn later recalled:

That thing just aged 100 years in 10 minutes.
— Shannon Flynn, document dealer and Hofmann associate

Hofmann also aged his documents by ironing them, exposing them to household ammonia to speed oxidation, and even letting weevils munch on them to create authentic-looking wear patterns. He carefully recreated period postmarks and postal markings. The result was a body of work that deceived the finest document experts in the nation, including specialists at the FBI, the Library of Congress, and the American Antiquarian Society.

The First Great Deception: The Anthon Transcript

In April 1980, a returned Mormon missionary marched through the doors of the archives at Utah State University carrying a worn Bible tucked under his arm. This young man was Mark Hofmann, and he was about to perpetrate the first of many frauds that would rock the LDS Church to its foundations.

Hofmann claimed to have discovered an extraordinary document—a sheet of yellowed, antique paper folded twice and stuck together with tarlike glue. When archivists carefully opened the document, they found what appeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphic characters. If authentic, this document would be one of the most significant discoveries in Mormon history: the so-called Anthon Transcript, containing characters that Joseph Smith allegedly copied from the golden plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the discovery sent shockwaves through the Mormon historical community:

A. J. Simmonds remembers the young man coming to his office. It was a warm April in 1980, what is known in Mormon country as an open spring, when a returned Mormon missionary marched through the doors of the archives at Utah State University. The archives are a peaceful place, lit by a huge picture window with a view of the city of Logan below. Simmonds looked up at the young man; he noticed a worn Bible tucked under his arm. Mark Hofmann sat down in Simmonds’ cramped cubicle and produced the old Bible; then he produced something else… Bending his head down, he peeped at the writing on the page. The first character was an Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol. Simmonds went a little breathless. It looked like the Anthon Transcript.
— Los Angeles Times, 1987

The discovery was immediately brought to the attention of the highest levels of LDS Church leadership. On April 22, 1980, a photograph captured a remarkable moment: Mark Hofmann standing alongside Spencer W. Kimball (the LDS Church President and Prophet), N. Eldon Tanner, Marion G. Romney, Boyd K. Packer, and Gordon B. Hinckley—all of them examining the document with evident interest and satisfaction. The image shows church leaders gathered around the document with expressions of genuine excitement, unaware they were being deceived by a master forger standing in their midst. For Hofmann, the photograph represented both validation of his technical abilities and confirmation that even the highest religious authorities could be manipulated.

The LDS Church purchased the Anthon Transcript from Hofmann for $20,000, publicizing the discovery through a press conference on August 23, 1982. Church historians Dean Jessee and others declared the document authentic based on examination of the handwriting, the period postmark, and the correct postage. The announcement generated significant media attention and scholarly interest, with church publications highlighting the find as an important corroboration of early Mormon history. The document seemed to confirm a key element of Mormon history—physical evidence supporting Joseph Smith’s claims about the golden plates and Professor Anthon’s examination of the characters copied from them.

But it was all a lie. The document was, as author Jon Krakauer later wrote, ‘a brilliant forgery’ that Hofmann had ‘meticulously fabricated in his suburban Utah home.’ The Anthon Transcript was the first of what would eventually be identified as over 446 Hofmann forgeries in the LDS Church’s collections alone—representing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent purchases—and the beginning of a scheme that would ultimately escalate from deception to murder.

A Pattern of Deception Emerges: Hofmann and the LDS Leadership

Following his initial success with the Anthon Transcript, Mark Hofmann quickly became one of the most prolific ‘discoverers’ of Mormon historical documents in history. Between 1980 and 1985, he produced a steady stream of documents that alternately confirmed and challenged Mormon historical claims, playing both sides of the market with calculating precision.

Hofmann made a critical discovery early in his career as a forger: the LDS Church would pay even more for documents that impugned the credibility of Joseph Smith and the Church, to keep them from public view. He had discovered an illegal path to great wealth—and a means of manipulating the Church leadership.

Gordon B. Hinckley, then Second Counselor in the First Presidency (and later President of the LDS Church from 1995 to 2008), became Hofmann’s primary contact within the Church hierarchy. Hinckley met with Hofmann repeatedly over the years, negotiating purchases of documents and coordinating the Church’s response to potentially embarrassing discoveries. According to Richard Turley’s official Church history of the affair, Hinckley largely handled policy in these matters and directed the public relations responses of the church.’

The arrangement was remarkable. Hofmann would ‘discover’ documents, often leaking word of their existence to the press to generate publicity and drive up prices. The Church would then scramble to acquire the documents, frequently using intermediaries to maintain deniability. Wealthy Church members would purchase documents with funds provided by the Church, then ‘donate’ them to Church archives, where they would be locked away from public scrutiny.

In 1983, Hofmann bypassed the LDS Church’s historical department entirely and sold directly to Hinckley an 1825 Joseph Smith holograph that purported to confirm Smith had been treasure hunting and practicing magic five years after his claimed First Vision. Hofmann had the signature authenticated by Charles Hamilton, the contemporary ‘dean of American autograph dealers,’ sold the letter to the church for $15,000, and gave his word that no one else had a copy. Hofmann then promptly leaked its existence to the press, after which the church was virtually forced to release the letter to scholars for study—despite having previously denied possessing it.

This pattern—discovery, suppression, exposure, embarrassed acknowledgment—repeated itself multiple times. As one commentator noted, Hofmann had discovered ‘a lever to exercise enormous power over his church,’ a power to ‘menace and manipulate its leaders with nothing more sinister than a sheet of paper.’

The Salamander Letter: A Church in Crisis

Of all Mark Hofmann’s forgeries, none created more controversy than the so-called Salamander Letter, which appeared in 1984. Supposedly written by Martin Harris—one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon—to W. W. Phelps in 1830, the letter presented a radically different version of how Joseph Smith obtained the golden plates.

According to official LDS history, the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and directed him to the golden plates buried in the Hill Cumorah. But the Salamander Letter told a very different story. It described Smith encountering a ‘white salamander’ that transformed into a spirit, guarding the plates and demanding that Smith bring his deceased brother Alvin to retrieve them. The letter placed Smith squarely within the world of nineteenth-century folk magic, treasure digging, and occult practices—a far cry from the divinely appointed prophet portrayed in Church teachings.

The document sent shockwaves through the LDS community. Church leaders and apologists initially scrambled to explain how this salamander account could be reconciled with the official narrative. Some suggested the salamander was simply Martin Harris’s way of describing an angel, since salamanders were associated with fire in folk tradition and angels were beings of light. Others proposed that Harris, steeped in folk magic terminology, had misunderstood or reinterpreted Joseph’s spiritual experience through his own magical worldview.

What made the letter particularly damaging was its apparent authenticity. Hofmann had masterfully created a document that fit perfectly with known historical facts about the Harris-Phelps correspondence and the early Mormon environment. The letter was examined by handwriting experts, document specialists, and LDS historians—all of whom declared it genuine. The Church itself acquired the letter through a complex transaction, effectively authenticating it by their willingness to take possession of such a problematic document.

The broader implication was clear: if the Salamander Letter was authentic, it suggested that Joseph Smith’s treasure-seeking, folk magic background was far more central to the origin of Mormonism than the Church had ever acknowledged. It raised uncomfortable questions about whether the Book of Mormon emerged from divine revelation or from the nineteenth-century occult milieu that historians had long documented but the Church had consistently downplayed. The letter became a symbol of the tension between faithful LDS history and critical historical scholarship—until Hofmann’s arrest for murder in 1985 revealed that the entire document was an elaborate and brilliant forgery.

Steven Christensen, a wealthy LDS businessman and document collector, purchased the Salamander Letter from Hofmann for $40,000 and later donated it to the LDS Church. Gordon B. Hinckley was well aware of the letter’s potential to harm the Church. He wrote in his journal, ‘Our enemies will try to make much of this letter.’

Despite the obvious threat to Church’s credibility, the Salamander Letter was declared ‘almost certainly authentic’ by the Deseret News in April 1985. Hinckley himself accepted the judgment of document examiners, stating:

No one, of course, can be certain that Martin Harris wrote the document. However, at this point we accept the judgment of the examiner that there is no indication of forgery. This does not preclude the possibility that it may have been forged at a time when the Church had many enemies.
— Gordon B. Hinckley, then Second Counselor in the First Presidency

Church leaders were so confident in the letter’s authenticity that they began developing theological responses to accommodate its disturbing implications. Apostle Dallin H. Oaks, in an address to Mormon educators, argued that the word ‘salamander’ might have different meanings in the 1820s:

One wonders why so many writers neglected to reveal to their readers that there is another meaning of salamander, which may even have been the primary meaning in this context in the 1820s… A being that is able to live in fire is a good approximation of the description Joseph Smith gave of the Angel Moroni.
— Dallin H. Oaks, August 1985

This tortured theological reasoning—attempting to reconcile a salamander with the Angel Moroni—demonstrated how completely the Church leadership had been deceived. They were not merely fooled about a document’s authenticity; they were actively constructing theological defenses of a complete fabrication.

The Critics Who Got It Right: Jerald and Sandra Tanner

In one of the great ironies of the Hofmann case, the people who first identified his forgeries were not the ‘prophets, seers, and revelators’ of the LDS Church, nor the professional document examiners, nor the academic historians. They were Jerald and Sandra Tanner—longtime critics of Mormonism who operated the Utah Lighthouse Ministry in Salt Lake City.

As early as January 1984, Jerald Tanner began expressing doubts about the Salamander Letter’s authenticity. In the March 1984 issue of the Salt Lake City Messenger, the Tanners ran an article titled ‘Is it Authentic?’ questioning the document’s provenance. By August 1984, Jerald Tanner was convinced that ‘the evidence against the Salamander letter cast a real shadow of doubt on all the important discoveries Mark Hofmann had made since 1980.’

Mormon Research Ministry: Mormon critic Jerald Tanner doubted the Salamander’s authenticity early on.

When Mark Hofmann came on the scene, Jerald was one of the very few who viewed him with skepticism. In November of 1983, Jerald heard that one of those documents was a letter written in 1830 by Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris. The letter said that Joseph Smith received a visitation from a spirit that “transfigured himself from a white salamander.” Hence it came to be known as the White Salamander letter.

Jerald had received some extracts from the Harris letter and was “preparing to print them in the March 1984 issue” of their newsletter the Salt Lake City Messenger. However, prior to going to press, Jerald came across evidence that caused him to conclude that the letter could be a forgery. The original story was scrapped. Instead the March 1984 issue ran an article titled “Is it Authentic?”

By August of that same year Jerald was convinced “that the evidence against the Salamander letter cast a real shadow of doubt on all the important discoveries Mark Hofmann had made since 1980.” In August of 1984, Jerald published The Money-Digging Letters, and the findings were picked up by the Los Angeles Times a couple of days later. The Deseret News also reported that the Tanners were suspicious of the letter. However, in April 1985, the Deseret News published an article that claimed that the 1830 Harris letter had been authenticated by a document examiner. Two Mormon scholars also confirmed the document’s authenticity.

You have to appreciate the irony. On one hand, there are the document experts, Mormon Church historians, and even the LDS Church itself, supporting the authenticity of a document that portrays the founder of Mormonism as a believer in folk magic. On the other hand, here is Jerald Tanner insisting that something is wrong with their conclusion.

The implications were extraordinary. Critics of the LDS Church who would have benefited enormously from the Salamander Letter being authentic were the ones calling it a forgery, while the Church’s own leaders—who claimed divine gifts of discernment—defended it as genuine.

Hofmann was reportedly shaken by the Tanners’ skepticism. According to multiple accounts, a ‘visibly shaken Hofmann paid the Tanners a personal visit’ to confront them about their doubts. ‘Why you of all people?’ he reportedly asked, seemingly bewildered that those who had the most to gain from his forgeries being real were the ones questioning them.

The Gift of Discernment: A Doctrine Put to the Test

For those outside the LDS faith, the failure of Church leaders to detect Hofmann’s deceptions might seem unremarkable—after all, Hofmann fooled experts throughout the document world. But for Latter-day Saints, the failure carried far deeper implications, striking at the heart of fundamental truth claims about prophetic leadership.

This was not the first time LDS prophetic discernment had been tested by fraudulent documents. In 1835, Joseph Smith purchased Egyptian papyri and mummies in Kirtland, Ohio, believing the scrolls contained ancient writings of Abraham and Joseph. Smith proceeded to “translate” these papyri, producing the Book of Abraham—now canonized LDS scripture. When Egyptologists finally examined surviving fragments in the 1960s, they identified the papyri as common Egyptian funerary texts dating to the first century BC, bearing no connection whatsoever to Abraham or any biblical figure. The founding prophet himself had been unable to discern the true nature of the documents before him.

The Hofmann affair thus reopened a wound that had never fully healed, raising the same troubling question across 150 years: If prophets possess divine discernment, why do fraudulent documents consistently escape their detection?

The LDS Church teaches that its leaders possess spiritual gifts that ordinary members do not. Among the most important of these is the gift of discernment—the ability to perceive truth from falsehood, to detect deception, and to receive divine guidance in protecting the Church from fraud. Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie articulated this doctrine clearly:

The gift of the discerning of spirits is poured out upon presiding officials in God’s kingdom; they have it given to them to discern all gifts and all spirits, lest any come among the saints and practice deception.
— Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine

This claim was put to a severe test by the Hofmann affair. Consider the facts: For five years, from 1980 to 1985, Mark Hofmann met repeatedly with the highest leaders of the LDS Church. He sat across the table from President Spencer W. Kimball, from Gordon B. Hinckley, from Dallin H. Oaks, from Hugh Pinnock, and from other General Authorities. These men—sustained by millions as prophets, seers, and revelators—purchased document after document from Hofmann, defended their authenticity publicly, and developed theological explanations to accommodate their contents.

Not once did any of them discern that they were dealing with a forger. Not once did any of them receive a spiritual warning. Not once did the heavens open to reveal the truth.

As critic Jeremy Runnells observed:

Let’s take a step back here and look at the big picture. Due to the failure of these ‘prophets, seers, and revelators’ to detect and protect the Church they held stewardship over from Mark Hofmann’s several years of scamming the Church, two innocent people were murdered in 1985. These two individuals, Steven Christensen and Kathy Sheets, would likely still be alive today if the Brethren were actually ‘prophets, seers, and revelators’ who had the gift of discernment to protect and defend the very institution they were supposedly commissioned by God Himself to protect and defend.
— Jeremy Runnells, CES Letter

Perhaps most damning was what happened on the afternoon of October 15, 1985—the very day Hofmann had murdered two people with pipe bombs. Just hours after killing Steven Christensen and Kathy Sheets, Mark Hofmann walked into the Church Office Building and met with Apostle Dallin H. Oaks.

Shannon Flynn, who was interviewed extensively in the Netflix documentary, reflected on the significance of this meeting:

He’s just killed two people. And what does he do? He goes down to the church office building and meets with Dallin Oaks. I can’t even imagine the rush, given Hofmann’s frame of reference, that this would have given him. To be standing there in front of one of God’s appointed apostles, after murdering two people, and this person doesn’t hear any words from God, doesn’t intuit a thing. For Hofmann that must have been an absolute rush. He had pulled off the ultimate spoof against God.
— Shannon Flynn, as quoted in The Poet and the Murderer

Oaks later acknowledged the meeting, explaining that Hofmann had come to his office just before 3 p.m. to discuss what he should tell police who might question him. Oaks advised Hofmann to ‘simply tell them the truth.’ The apostle had no idea he was counseling a freshly minted double murderer.

Rebuttal to FAIR’s Defense of Prophetic Discernment in the Hofmann Affair

Critics of the LDS Church often point to the Mark Hofmann affair as evidence that modern prophets and apostles lack the spiritual discernment claimed for their New Testament counterparts. If LDS leaders genuinely possess the same divine gifts as Peter, James, and John—including the ability to “declare the mind and will of God” and serve as “special witnesses” with “special spiritual endowment”—how could they be so thoroughly deceived by a forger for over five years? The apologetics organization FairLatterdaySaints has attempted to address this criticism, but their response reveals more about the theological problem than it resolves. Consider Sarah Allen’s defense published on the FAIR website in response to Jeremy Runnells’ CES Letter:

FairLatterdaySaints.org: CES Letter Prophet Questions

Personally, what I find troubling about this is that Jeremy wants to hold the Brethren to higher standards than the Lord does. Seeing as the Savior is the one who sacrificed His life for their sins, and it’s His Church they’re called to lead and His Priesthood they’re called to bear, I don’t think any of the rest of us have the right to usurp His role in setting the terms we need to follow here on Earth. If He won’t demand His servants have perfect discernment in all things regarding all people, I don’t think Jeremy has the right to demand to it, either.

The Central Issue FAIR Avoids

Sarah Allen’s lengthy response to Jeremy Runnells accomplishes something remarkable: it generates thousands of words while systematically avoiding the actual theological question at stake. Her essay is filled with true-crime enthusiasm, semantic debates about “serial killer” versus “spree killer,” and detailed timelines—all of which serve as elaborate misdirection from the core problem.

The question is not whether Mark Hofmann was a skilled forger. The question is not whether the Church paid $57,100 or $200,000. The question is not whether documents were “suppressed” or merely “still being authenticated.”

The question is this: Does the LDS Church possess divinely appointed prophets, seers, and revelators with the gift of discernment—and if so, why did this gift consistently fail when it mattered most?

Allen’s Key Argument—and Its Fatal Flaw

Allen’s central defense rests on Doctrine and Covenants 10:37:

But as you cannot always judge the righteous, or as you cannot always tell the wicked from the righteous, therefore I say unto you, hold your peace until I shall see fit to make all things known unto the world concerning the matter.

Allen then writes: “Personally, what I find troubling about this is that Jeremy wants to hold the Brethren to higher standards than the Lord does.”

This argument contains a critical theological error. D&C 10:37 was given in a specific context—instructions to Joseph Smith regarding how to handle the lost 116 pages. It was not a blanket disclaimer announcing that prophets would routinely fail to discern evil. More importantly, Allen’s interpretation creates a devastating theological problem: if prophets cannot reliably discern truth from error, good from evil, or genuine from fraudulent—what distinguishes them from ordinary people?

The LDS Church does not teach that its leaders possess occasional or unreliable spiritual gifts. Consider the actual claims:

From the LDS Church’s official description of apostolic calling: Apostles are “special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world” (D&C 107:23), called to receive revelation for the entire Church. The gift of discernment is explicitly listed among the spiritual gifts available to those holding the priesthood (D&C 46:27).

Bruce R. McConkie wrote in Mormon Doctrine: “The gift of discernment… includes the power to perceive the true character of people and the source and meaning of spiritual manifestations.”

If these gifts function only sometimes, and prophets cannot be expected to detect “a few deceivers” (as Elder Oaks admitted), then the gifts are functionally meaningless. Anyone can occasionally guess correctly. The claim of prophetic authority requires something more.

The Book of Abraham Precedent

Allen’s defense becomes even more untenable when we consider that the Hofmann affair was not an isolated incident. In 1835, Joseph Smith purchased Egyptian papyri in Kirtland, Ohio, claiming they contained the writings of Abraham written “by his own hand.” Smith proceeded to “translate” these documents, producing the Book of Abraham—now canonized scripture.

When Egyptologists finally examined surviving papyrus fragments in the 1960s (after the Metropolitan Museum returned them to the Church), they identified the documents as common funerary texts from the Book of Breathings, dating to approximately the first century BC. The papyri had no connection whatsoever to Abraham or any biblical figure.

This means the founding prophet of the LDS Church—the man through whom all priesthood authority and revelatory gifts allegedly flow—was himself unable to discern the true nature of documents placed before him. He did not merely fail to detect a forger; he claimed divine translation ability while producing a text that demonstrably has no relationship to the source material.

If Joseph Smith could not discern the nature of the Egyptian papyri, and modern prophets could not discern the nature of Hofmann’s forgeries, we are not looking at occasional human error. We are looking at a pattern that spans 150 years and calls into question the fundamental claim of prophetic discernment itself.

Elder Oaks’ Defense Undermines the LDS Position

Allen quotes Elder Oaks’ 1987 explanation approvingly:

In order to perform their personal ministries, Church leaders cannot be suspicious and questioning of each of the hundreds of people they meet each year. Ministers of the gospel function best in an atmosphere of trust and love.

This explanation is pastorally reasonable—but it is theologically devastating. Oaks is essentially saying that Church leaders function like any other religious ministers: trusting, occasionally deceived, operating on human judgment rather than divine insight.

But this is precisely what the LDS Church claims its leaders are not. The entire structure of LDS authority rests on the premise that these men possess something other religious leaders lack: direct revelation, priesthood keys, and spiritual gifts, including discernment. If they must rely on trust like everyone else—if they are just as susceptible to deception as any Methodist bishop or Presbyterian elder—what is the basis for claiming unique divine authority?

Oaks inadvertently revealed the truth: LDS leaders operate on human judgment, not prophetic discernment. They are deceived at the same rate as anyone else. The gift of discernment, as functionally described by Oaks, does not exist in any meaningful sense.

The New Testament Contrast

Allen writes that she cannot address all the relevant issues in her space, but she never addresses the most obvious comparison: the apostles of the New Testament whom LDS leaders claim to succeed.

Consider the biblical record:

Peter and Ananias (Acts 5:1-11): When Ananias and Sapphira lied about their land sale, Peter immediately perceived the deception: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” Peter did not require FBI analysis or handwriting experts. He knew.

Paul and Elymas (Acts 13:6-12): When confronted by a false prophet who opposed the gospel, Paul looked directly at him and declared, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery.” Paul perceived the man’s character through the Spirit.

Paul and the Slave Girl (Acts 16:16-18): When a girl with a spirit of divination followed Paul, he discerned the spirit’s true nature and cast it out—even though her words were technically accurate.

These apostles demonstrated active, reliable spiritual perception. They did not need “an atmosphere of trust.” They discerned deception because they possessed genuine spiritual gifts.

The contrast with modern LDS leadership could not be starker. Hofmann met repeatedly with apostles over five years. He walked into Elder Oaks’ office hours after murdering two people. He shook hands with President Hinckley. He sold forgery after forgery to the Church. Not one of these men—holders of the same apostolic office as Peter and Paul—perceived anything amiss.

Allen’s Semantic Victories, Theological Losses

Much of Allen’s essay focuses on winning minor factual disputes while losing the theological argument:

• She correctly notes Hofmann was a “spree killer,” not a “serial killer.” This changes nothing about the discernment failure.
• She disputes the exact dollar amount paid. The amount is irrelevant to whether prophets should have perceived deception.
• She argues documents were not “suppressed” but “published after authentication.” This does not address why prophets needed external authentication in the first place.
• She notes the Tanners were the first to publicly doubt the Salamander Letter. This actually strengthens the critique—secular critics showed better judgment than prophets, seers, and revelators.

These semantic victories function as defensive maneuvering rather than substantive responses. The theological question remains unanswered: If prophets possess genuine spiritual gifts, why do they consistently fail to use them when facing deception?

The “Prophets Are Human” Defense

Allen concludes: “Prophets are not Gods. They are humans. Expecting perfection from mortality is frustrating and futile.”

No one expects perfection. But the LDS Church does not merely claim its leaders are good men doing their best. It claims they possess specific spiritual gifts that ordinary members do not have. It claims they receive direct revelation to guide the Church. It claims they hold priesthood keys that connect them to divine authority.

If these claims are true, prophets should demonstrate some discernible advantage over ordinary human judgment. They need not be perfect—but they should be measurably better at perceiving truth from error than secular scholars, FBI agents, and ex-Mormon critics.

The Hofmann affair demonstrates they are not. The Book of Abraham demonstrates they are not. The pattern extends across the entire history of the Restoration.

Conclusion: The Question That Remains

Allen’s essay answers many questions no one asked while avoiding the one question that matters:

If LDS prophets possess the spiritual gifts the Church claims they possess, why is there no evidence that these gifts function when facing significant deception?

The Hofmann affair did not reveal that prophets are imperfect humans—everyone already knew that. It revealed that prophetic discernment, as a functional spiritual gift, does not appear to exist. Two people died while apostles and prophets remained oblivious to the monster in their midst.

This is not about expecting perfection. This is about expecting something—any evidence that the claimed gifts actually operate. After Joseph Smith’s failure with the Egyptian papyri, after the Hofmann affair, after every instance where prophetic discernment should have manifested but didn’t, the burden of proof shifts.

The LDS Church must demonstrate that its leaders possess the gifts they claim—not merely assert those gifts exist while explaining away every failure to use them.

The Apostles: Official LDS Church Documentation

Same Authority and Keys

From “And He Gave Some, Apostles” (Official Church Publication, Liahona 2001):

This model of apostolic leadership continues in the Church today and is further confirmed by revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants and by modern prophets. The striking parallels between the role of Apostles in New Testament times and the role of Apostles today testify of the continuing validity of this sacred office.​

To the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in this dispensation, the Lord declared that He had sent Peter, James, and John, ‘by whom I have ordained you and confirmed you to be apostles, and especial witnesses of my name, and bear the keys of your ministry and of the same things which I revealed unto them. (D&C 27:12–13)​

Special Witnesses with Same Spiritual Endowment

President Gordon B. Hinckley (quoted in official church materials):

Each man who is ordained an Apostle and sustained a member of the Council of the Twelve is sustained as a prophet, seer, and revelator. … Therefore, all incumbent members of the Quorum of the First Presidency and of the Council of the Twelve have been recipients of the keys, rights, and authority pertaining to the holy apostleship. … In this authority reside the powers of governance of the Church and kingdom of God in the earth.

Authority to Declare God’s Mind and Will

President J. Reuben Clark Jr. (Counselor in First Presidency, quoted in official manuals):

Some of the General Authorities [the Apostles] have had assigned to them a special calling; they possess a special gift; they are sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators, which gives them a special spiritual endowment in connection with their teaching of this people. They have the right, the power, and the authority to declare the mind and will of God to his people, subject to the over-all power and authority of the President of the Church.

Key Doctrinal Claims

The LDS Church officially teaches that modern apostles:

• Hold the same keys given to Peter, James, and John
• Have the same authority to direct the Church as ancient apostles
• Possess special spiritual endowment as prophets, seers, and revelators
• Declare the mind and will of God with divine authority
• Serve as special witnesses of Christ’s divinity and resurrection
• Govern, administer ordinances, and establish doctrine with apostolic authority

These official sources demonstrate that the LDS Church explicitly claims its modern prophets and apostles possess the same divine authority, spiritual gifts, and ecclesiastical powers as the New Testament apostles chosen by Jesus Christ. They should have known.

The Descent into Darkness: Murder in Salt Lake City

By October 1985, Mark Hofmann’s carefully constructed house of cards was beginning to collapse. He had been living far beyond his means—buying expensive cars, rare books, and automatic weapons, traveling to New York for binge drinking sessions with associates. His expenses on travel, luxuries, rare books, and forging materials far exceeded even his substantial income from fraud.

More critically, Hofmann had been selling documents he had not yet forged—taking advance payments for collections that existed only in his imagination. He had received $150,000 to produce the so-called McLellin Collection—papers allegedly belonging to William McLellin, an early Mormon apostle who had left the Church. But the documents didn’t exist, and Hofmann’s creditors were growing impatient.

Steven Christensen, the businessman who had purchased the Salamander Letter, was now working on behalf of the Church to enforce Hofmann’s promises. The closing for the McLellin Collection transaction was scheduled for October 15, 1985. Hofmann knew he couldn’t produce documents he had never created. He was out of time.

The Deseret News would later capture the terror that gripped the city:

Newspaper headlines in the days following the bombings, such as ‘Bombings shatter area’s composure: It’s beginning to seem like Lebanon,’ found in the October 17, 1985, issue of the Deseret News, indicated that fear was a tangible issue within the community.
— Deseret News archives

The first bomb detonated at approximately 8:15 a.m. on October 15, 1985, on the sixth floor of the Judge Building in downtown Salt Lake City. Steven Christensen, a 31-year-old father of four, a bishop in the Mormon Church, and an avid collector of Mormon documents, had arrived at his office and bent to pick up a package wrapped in brown paper. The pipe bomb, laced with nails, exploded on contact. Christensen was killed instantly.

Approximately ninety minutes later, a second bomb exploded in the quiet suburb of Holladay. Kathleen Sheets, 50, wife of J. Gary Sheets (Christensen’s former business partner) had picked up a similar package left in her driveway. Like the first bomb, it was motion-sensitive, designed to detonate when moved. Kathy Sheets died at the scene.

Time Magazine later described the brutal efficiency of the weapons:

The weapons were brutal: pipe bombs set inside harmless-looking packages that exploded when moved. The first victim, Steven Christensen, 31, a Salt Lake City businessman and Mormon bishop, was killed outside his office on Oct. 15, 1985. A few hours later in a nearby suburb, a second bomb took the life of Kathleen Sheets, 50, the wife of J. Gary Sheets, a former partner of Christensen.
— TIME Magazine, February 1987

Salt Lake City had never experienced a deadly bombing before. The community was thrown into panic. BYU professors and other historians who had dealt with Hofmann feared they might be the next targets; some fled the city. Police received hundreds of calls about suspicious packages. The only three bomb-sniffing dogs in the region were working to exhaustion. According to the Los Angeles Times, one deliveryman said he had become ‘the town villain’; another was chased and beaten by frightened citizens.

The Third Bomb: A Forger Exposed

The following day, October 16, 1985, Mark Hofmann’s schemes came to an abrupt end when a third bomb exploded in his Toyota MR2 sports car near Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. The blast occurred around 2:00 PM on a busy street, drawing immediate attention from passersby and emergency responders. Hofmann was seriously injured—a kneecap was blown off, an eardrum was ruptured, and he suffered numerous shrapnel wounds to his legs, chest, and arms—but he survived. Paramedics rushed him to LDS Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery and remained in critical condition for several days.

Hofmann initially claimed to be another victim, presenting himself as an innocent target like Christensen and Sheets. He told investigators that he had opened his car door, seen a strange package on the seat, and reached for it when it exploded. His story painted him as the intended third victim of the same bomber who had killed the others, and some initially accepted this narrative given the apparent pattern of attacks.

But bomb squad investigators quickly determined that his story was implausible. The evidence showed the bomb had exploded on the front seat while Hofmann was inside the car, apparently working with the device. The positioning of his injuries, the blast pattern, and forensic evidence from the vehicle all contradicted his account of reaching in from outside the car. Additionally, witnesses reported seeing Hofmann in the vehicle before the explosion, not approaching it. He was lying—but why? The discrepancy between his story and the physical evidence transformed Hofmann from victim to prime suspect, opening investigators’ eyes to a far more complex conspiracy than anyone had imagined.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported the growing suspicions:

Hofmann was severely injured when a third bomb exploded in his Toyota MR2. Although police quickly focused on Hofmann as the suspect in the bombings, some of his business associates went into hiding, fearing they might also become victims.
— The Salt Lake Tribune

In the wreckage of Hofmann’s car, investigators found telling evidence: sections of galvanized pipe identical to those used in the other bombs, charred fragments of what appeared to be ancient papyrus, and other bomb-making materials. The investigation quickly pivoted. Mark Hofmann was no longer a victim—he was the primary suspect.

But initially, not everyone was convinced. As the Los Angeles Times reported, some investigators at the county attorney’s office and the FBI were skeptical that a soft-spoken document dealer could be a bomber. The debate over theories threatened, at times, to turn the law enforcement agencies into divided camps.

The question of who the third bomb was intended for has never been definitively answered. Hofmann himself later claimed he was attempting suicide, but many investigators believe the bomb was meant for another victim—possibly collector Brent Ashworth, who had been pressing Hofmann about unfulfilled promises. In the Netflix documentary Murder Among the Mormons, Hofmann is heard on a prison recording claiming the third bomb was a suicide attempt, but this explanation has been met with considerable skepticism.

Unraveling the Web: How Forensic Science Exposed the Forgeries

The murder investigation opened the door to a parallel investigation into Hofmann’s forgeries—and made forensic history in the process. Document examiners George Throckmorton and William Flynn undertook a meticulous examination of Hofmann’s creations that would revolutionize the field of forensic document analysis, establishing techniques that would become standard practice in detecting historical document fraud worldwide.

Throckmorton, a document expert at the Utah Attorney General’s office, had initially been excluded from the investigation. Law enforcement officials initially relied on out-of-state experts, overlooking the local examiner’s expertise. Frustrated by his exclusion from such a significant case, he began conducting his own independent research, studying photographs and whatever materials he could obtain. When he was finally brought into the official investigation, he quickly identified critical problems that other examiners had missed—anomalies that suggested a systematic pattern of forgery rather than isolated questionable documents.

The key discovery came when Throckmorton and Flynn examined Hofmann’s documents under ultraviolet light and high-powered microscopes. They noticed a distinctive cracking pattern in the ink—microscopic fissures that appeared on all of Hofmann’s ‘discoveries’ but not on genuinely old documents. This “cracking” occurred because Hofmann had artificially aged his ink using chemicals and heat, causing the ink to oxidize too rapidly and create a characteristic pattern of minute fractures. Genuine nineteenth-century ink aged naturally over decades, producing an entirely different microscopic signature. The examiners also discovered that Hofmann had used a one-stroke ink application method, whereas authentic historical documents showed the multiple strokes typical of quill pen writing. Additionally, they found that the paper showed signs of artificial aging through ammonia exposure, creating a uniform patina that differed markedly from the irregular aging patterns of authentic documents.

Upon a closer look under the microscope, George examined that there was a cracking pattern in the ink. Upon further research, they figured out that all of the documents that Mark Hofmann ‘found’ had these same, microscopic cracked patterns in the ink.
— Western Forensic Document Examiner

The explanation lay in Hofmann’s aging techniques. To make his ink appear old, Hofmann had exposed it to chemicals like sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide. But his ink mixture contained gum arabic, a binding agent. When exposed to these chemicals, the gum arabic underwent a dramatic chemical change, transforming from a thin fluid to a brittle material that cracked when dried quickly.

Additionally, the examiners observed a ‘blue hazing effect’ and unidirectional ink bleeding under ultraviolet light—telltale signs that the documents had been artificially aged rather than naturally weathering over decades.

A particularly damning discovery involved a seemingly insignificant historical note that bore Joseph Smith’s signature. Throckmorton and Flynn found that while the original text on the front showed no cracking, Joseph Smith’s signature on the back displayed the identical cracking pattern found on Hofmann’s forgeries. Hofmann had apparently added the signature to an authentic document to increase its value—and in doing so, had provided investigators with a Rosetta Stone for identifying his work.

The Church’s Response: Denial, Deflection, and Damage Control

In the weeks and months following the bombings, the LDS Church found itself in an extraordinarily difficult position. The investigation was revealing not only Hofmann’s crimes but also the Church’s extensive involvement in acquiring and suppressing controversial documents. The plea bargain eventually reached with Hofmann would spare Church leaders considerable embarrassment—but not before damaging revelations emerged.

One week after the bombings, Gordon B. Hinckley held a press conference acknowledging that the Church had acquired ‘forty-some documents’ from Hofmann ‘by purchase, donation, or trade.’ This number would later prove to be a significant understatement—Church historian Richard Turley eventually identified 446 Hofmann forgeries in Church collections.

Perhaps the most explosive revelation came in 1992, when Turley’s book Victims disclosed that the Church had possessed an important part of the McLellin Collection in the First Presidency vault since 1908. Church officials became aware of this in March 1986, while investigators were desperately trying to build their case against Hofmann for the murders committed to conceal his inability to produce that very collection.

The implications were staggering. As one commentator noted:

The church faced a dilemma: if they admitted they had the McLellin papers all along, it would prove the charge that the church suppresses historical information and important documents. On the other hand, the existence of the collection would be a great help to investigators in their case against Mark Hofmann. It would have given the motive for the murders: Hofmann did not have the collection because he could not produce what the Church already secretly possessed.
— Events in the Mark Hofmann Case

The Church chose to remain silent. The McLellin Collection in the First Presidency vault was not disclosed to investigators. As a result, Hofmann was able to negotiate a plea bargain that spared him the death penalty—and spared Gordon B. Hinckley from testifying at trial.

A reporter for the Los Angeles Times observed the unusual nature of the plea bargain:

What a nice plea bargain. In any other state you’d see this thing go on trial, because that’s how prosecutors’ reputations are made. Going to trial and getting bad guys, big splashes, lots of exposure. Here you have a nice plea bargain.
— Los Angeles Times

In August 1987, Dallin Oaks delivered a lengthy address at Brigham Young University defending the Church’s handling of the affair. He acknowledged the embarrassment but characterized it as ‘church-bashing’:

In the course of this episode, we have seen some of the most sustained and intense LDS church-bashing since the turn of the century. In a circumstance where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could not say much without interfering with the pending criminal investigation and prosecution, the Church and its leaders have been easy marks for assertions and innuendo ranging from charges of complicity in murder to repeated recitals that the Church routinely acquires and suppresses Church history documents in order to deceive its members and the public.
— Dallin H. Oaks, August 1987

When challenged about why Church leaders had failed to detect Hofmann’s deceptions, Oaks offered this explanation:

In order to perform their personal ministries, Church leaders cannot be suspicious and questioning of each of the hundreds of people they meet each year. Ministers of the gospel function best in an atmosphere of trust and love. 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.
— Dallin H. Oaks

This explanation, however, failed to address the fundamental theological problem: if prophets, seers, and revelators possess divinely granted gifts of discernment, why would they need to rely on human suspicion? Why would the heavens be silent when the very foundations of the Church were being attacked by a forger?

A Rare Admission: Hinckley Acknowledges the Deception

On October 18, 1995—ten years after the bombings—Gordon B. Hinckley made a remarkable admission that deserves to be quoted at length:

I frankly admit that Hofmann tricked us. He also tricked experts from New York to Utah, however. We bought those documents only after the assurance that they were genuine. And when we released documents to the press, we stated that we had no way of knowing for sure if they were authentic. I am not ashamed to admit that we were victimized. It is not the first time the Church has found itself in such a position. Joseph Smith was victimized again and again. The Savior was victimized. I am sorry to say that sometimes it happens.
— Gordon B. Hinckley, October 1995

This admission, while refreshingly candid compared to earlier denials, raises its own troubling questions. Hinckley compared the Church’s deception by Hofmann to Joseph Smith being ‘victimized’—but Joseph Smith claimed to receive direct revelation from God. If a modern prophet can be deceived by a forger using nineteenth-century-style ink and old paper, how can members trust that Joseph Smith was not similarly deceived—or worse, that he was not himself a deceiver?

As the scholarly article ‘Forging the Mormon Myth observed:

Hofmann’s forgeries and the effect they had on the Church provide a window which frames a tension within the modern Mormon Church: a tension between history and myth, contemporary vitality and historic legitimacy. Hofmann’s forgeries exploited the weaknesses in the Mormon myth, revealing its failings as an inclusive picture of Mormonism’s complexities… Hofmann was indeed guilty of fabricating history, but the Church has been guilty of simplifying it.
— Forging the Mormon Myth, an academic study

Justice Delayed: Conviction and Imprisonment

Mark Hofmann was arrested on January 23, 1986, and charged with multiple counts of murder, theft by deception, and fraud. The preliminary hearing lasted five weeks—the longest in Utah history—as prosecutors laid out the evidence of Hofmann’s forgeries and his motives for murder.

On January 23, 1987, Hofmann pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of theft by deception. The plea bargain spared him the death penalty in exchange for his cooperation in explaining his forgery techniques. He was sentenced to five years to life in prison, with the judge recommending he never be released.

Hofmann kept his end of the bargain regarding the forgeries, providing prosecutors with a 400-page transcript explaining his methods in meticulous detail. But he refused to discuss the murders, leaving many questions unanswered.

At his parole hearing in January 1988, Hofmann’s responses convinced the Board of Pardons to refuse to set a parole date. He expressed no remorse for his victims and told the board that ‘toying’ with people’s religious beliefs was ‘experimentation… to see why they believe what they do.’ He also revealed a chilling insight into his psychology:

Fooling people gave me a sense of power and superiority. I felt that I was more intelligent and clever than those I deceived.
— Mark Hofmann, letter to Board of Pardons, 1988

Shortly after the hearing, coded letters threatening the Board were found in Hofmann’s cell, and investigators learned he had threatened board members’ lives in conversations with other inmates. Hofmann subsequently attempted suicide twice—in August 1988 and August 1990—overdosing on drugs obtained from other inmates. Both attempts failed.

In late 2015, Hofmann was transferred from maximum-security confinement to a lower-security facility in Utah. According to Utah Department of Corrections spokesman Steve Gehrke, the transfer occurred because Hofmann had ‘virtually no behavioral management issues.’ As of the release of Murder Among the Mormons in 2021, Hofmann remained incarcerated, having spent more than three decades behind bars.

Legacy and Lessons: What the Hofmann Affair Reveals

The Hofmann affair continues to cast a long shadow over the LDS Church more than four decades after the bombings. The case has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and academic studies, each examining different facets of what remains one of the most complex criminal cases in American history.

The Netflix documentary Murder Among the Mormons, released in 2021, brought renewed attention to the case for a new generation. TV Guide’s review captured the documentary’s deeper implications:

Murder Among the Mormons ultimately is structured to subtly plead the case that Mormonism may well be Joseph Smith’s own Hofmann-style con, perpetuated by humanity’s propensity for self-deception… Shannon Flynn’s concluding statement is laden with double meaning: ‘I don’t wanna make a hero out of him. Because he was fantastic. No one has come close to doing what he has done. The depth of knowledge and understanding and his autodidactic ability is unprecedented. His ability to deceive unparalleled. I should’ve suspected. We all should have suspected. We didn’t. People don’t want to know.’
— TV Guide review

The Roger Ebert review of the documentary noted that while Hofmann’s story is compelling, the deeper questions it raises about faith and deception remain inadequately explored:

The truth is that Mark Hofmann committed brutal crimes that were in part possible because of how much people wanted to believe. He manipulated that desire people have to peel back the curtain on lies they have been told about history, and it led to murder… People like Mark Hofmann are incredibly rare in that his disregard for human life extended not only to his willingness to take it, but to something even greater. He wanted to destroy institutions, not just people.
— Roger Ebert

Murder Among The Mormons is available on Netflix.

Chicago Sun-Times: ‘Murder Among the Mormons’: Series smartly recalls when a forgery scandal turned fatal.

Directors Jared Hess and Tyler Measom do a superb job of telling this incredible true story via a treasure trove of archival news footage, audio tapes and home videos; the occasional re-creation of events, and interviews with a host of historians, researchers, investigators, news reporters and other key figures.

The interviewee in that opening scene is Shannon Flynn, a rare document dealer, and the man he’s talking about is one Mark Hofmann, the “Indiana Jones” of Mormon documents (as one old news report calls him) who made a series of astonishing discoveries in the 1980s that shook the very foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while catapulting Hofmann to niche fame and possible riches.

It was another Hofmann find that roiled the Latter-day Saints community. According to Mormon teachings, the Angel Moroni appeared to Smith and presented him with the golden plates from which Smith translated the Book of Mormon. This tenet of the faith is challenged when Hofmann comes forward with a letter supposedly written in Smith’s hand, describing a “magic salamander” spirit guarding the golden plates and demanding Joseph bring his dead brother Alvin to take possession of the plates. Deemed authentic by experts, the “Salamander Letter” challenged the very bedrock of the LDS story. “Instead of gods and angels, now it’s salamanders and magic,” says Sandra Tanner, a researcher of Mormon history.

This is when “Murder Among the Mormons” begins to play out like something from a real-life, Utah-based version of “The Da Vinci Code.” Hofmann starts taking trips to New York and binge drinking with associates, buys a spiffy new Toyota MR2 and develops an affinity for automatic weapons, while his now ex-wife Dorie (who is interviewed in present day for the film) takes care of their children and wonders what in the world is happening with her husband.

Amazingly, there’s much more of this story to be told, and “Murder Among the Mormons” does a superb job of telling the tale.

For those examining the truth claims of the LDS Church, the Hofmann affair presents several unavoidable conclusions. First, the self-proclaimed prophets, seers, and revelators of the Church demonstrated no supernatural ability to discern deception. They were fooled repeatedly, over a period of years, by a man who walked among them with forged documents and murder in his heart.

Second, the Church’s response to the affair—attempting to suppress embarrassing documents, maintaining silence about materials in their possession that could have aided investigators, and ultimately negotiating a plea bargain that spared leaders from testifying—suggests institutional priorities that placed reputation above truth and justice.

Third, and perhaps most significantly, the Hofmann forgeries were plausible precisely because they were consistent with historical evidence about Joseph Smith’s involvement in folk magic, treasure seeking, and other practices that the Church has long sought to minimize. Hofmann’s forgeries worked because they fit the pattern of what scholars already suspected about early Mormon history.

The Fundamental Question

The Hofmann case ultimately forces a difficult question, articulated by critics but never adequately answered by the Church:

Since Mormon leaders were fundamentally wrong and deceived regarding the character of Mark Hofmann and his documents that dealt with the basis of their church, could they also be fundamentally wrong and deceived about Joseph Smith’s character and his documents?

The parallels are uncomfortable. Joseph Smith, like Hofmann, claimed to have discovered ancient documents—golden plates covered with ‘reformed Egyptian’ characters. Like Hofmann, Smith produced ‘translations’ of these documents that conveniently could not be verified because the originals were either hidden or returned to angels. Like Hofmann, Smith created a narrative that defied verification while demanding faith.

If modern prophets with claimed gifts of discernment could not detect Mark Hofmann’s deceptions over five years of face-to-face meetings, how can we trust that Joseph Smith’s contemporaries—who lacked even the pretense of prophetic gifts—could accurately evaluate Smith’s claims? And if the foundational documents of Mormonism were created by a process as opaque as Hofmann’s forgeries, how would anyone know?

As one academic analysis concluded:

By emphasizing the literal in a mythic system only when convenient, the Church has created a space for disillusioned members to become dissidents, and for resentment to transform itself into revenge. It is here we find Mark Hofmann, and it is here where others will be forged as long as this contradiction lives.
— Forging the Mormon Myth

Conclusion: Lessons from the Mormon Murders

The story of Mark Hofmann stands as one of the most remarkable criminal cases in American history—a tale of genius-level deception, institutional vulnerability, and ultimately murderous desperation. Two innocent people—Steven Christensen and Kathy Sheets—lost their lives because a forger needed more time to continue his schemes.

But beyond the human tragedy, the Hofmann affair exposed fundamental weaknesses in an institution that claims divine guidance and prophetic leadership. The men who claimed to speak for God could not discern a liar in their midst. The men who claimed gifts of revelation received no warning about documents that were attacking the foundations of their faith. The men who claimed stewardship over truth chose suppression, silence, and damage control when the full scope of the deception became clear.

For investigators of truth—whether historians, journalists, or sincere seekers after spiritual reality—the Hofmann case offers sobering lessons about the power of institutional narratives to shape perception, about the human desire to believe what confirms our hopes, and about the dangers of investing ultimate trust in human leaders who claim divine authority.

The Netflix documentary Murder Among the Mormons is available for streaming, and multiple books provide detailed accounts of the case, including Linda Sillitoe and Allen D. Roberts’ Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders, Robert Lindsey’s A Gathering of Saints, and Richard Turley’s Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case.

Mark Hofmann, now in his seventies, remains incarcerated in Utah, having spent more than half his life behind bars for crimes that shocked a nation and shook a church to its foundations. Undisclosed, forged documents created by Mark Hofmann probably remain in circulation. Experts and researchers acknowledge that an unknown number of his fabrications, which extended beyond Mormon history to include American historical figures, may still be unrecognized in private collections or archives. But the questions his crimes raised about prophetic authority, institutional honesty, and the reliability of Mormon truth claims continue to demand answers.

In the end, perhaps the most telling commentary came from George Throckmorton, the forensic examiner who finally cracked the case:

We believe there are still over a hundred Hofmann forgeries still out there. And again, I’m finding new ones. As recent as this year. I’ve found three new forgeries, four new forgeries, five new forgeries, excuse me, that we never knew existed.
— George Throckmorton, 2005

The full extent of Mark Hofmann’s deceptions may never be known. But the damage to the credibility of those he deceived—including the highest leaders of the LDS Church—is a matter of historical record, a record that speaks for itself about the limits of human authority claiming divine sanction.

The Victims Remembered: Steven Christensen and Kathy Sheets

In the midst of examining the theological and institutional implications of the Hofmann affair, we must never lose sight of the human tragedy at its center. Two innocent people—Steven Christensen and Kathleen Sheets—paid the ultimate price for Mark Hofmann’s ambitions and desperation.

Steven Fredrick Christensen was just 31 years old when he died on that October morning in 1985. He was the son of Mac Christensen, founder of the Mr. Mac clothing stores, a Utah retail institution. Steven was a devoted husband, a father of four young children, and a bishop in the LDS Church. His friends and colleagues described him as brilliant, kind, and deeply committed to his faith. His passion for Mormon history and document collecting was driven not by greed or ambition but by a genuine love for understanding the past.

Christensen had become involved in the Hofmann affair as a mediator and facilitator, trying to help the Church navigate the complicated world of historical document acquisition. He had purchased the Salamander Letter and donated it to the Church—not to profit, but because he believed it was an important historical artifact that deserved preservation regardless of its challenging implications. His integrity and honesty made him dangerous to Hofmann, who had built his empire on deception.

The Deseret News described Christensen’s character:

Steven Christensen was described as ‘an avid collector of Mormon documents,’ a businessman who brought the same ethical standards to his hobby that he applied to his professional life. He was killed at the door of his office, never knowing that the package he reached for contained a weapon crafted by a man he had tried to help.
— Deseret News archives

Kathleen Webb Sheets was 50 years old when she died picking up a package in her own driveway—a package addressed to her husband that she never should have touched. She was a grandmother, a schoolteacher, and by all accounts a woman of remarkable warmth and kindness. Her death was particularly tragic because she had no involvement whatsoever in the document trade or in the financial dealings that Hofmann hoped to obscure with his diversionary attack.

Kathy Sheets was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, reaching for a package that Hofmann had intended for her husband, J. Gary Sheets. Hofmann’s cold calculation was that by killing someone associated with Christensen’s former business partner, he could direct suspicion toward angry investors in a failing financial company—away from himself and his collapsing forgery scheme.

Years later, in an extraordinary act of Christian forgiveness, Mac Christensen—who had lost his eldest son to Hofmann’s bomb—helped Mark Hofmann’s own son prepare for his LDS mission. When Hofmann’s ex-wife, Dorie Olds, needed to outfit her son for missionary service, the Christensen family stepped forward:

The Christensen family would be happy to provide her son’s clothes for his mission. ‘I’ve made the arrangements,’ Judge Kenneth Rigtrup reported to Olds. ‘Call the store.’ They were very kind, said Olds of Mac’s son, Spencer Christensen, and the rest of the Mr. Mac staff when she took her mother and son to shop.
— Deseret News, 2021

This story of forgiveness and grace, left out of the Netflix documentary, reminds us that even in the darkest chapters of human depravity, the capacity for redemption and compassion endures.

The McLellin Collection: A Mystery Within a Mystery

Central to understanding why Mark Hofmann committed murder is the saga of the McLellin Collection—papers allegedly belonging to William McLellin, one of the original twelve apostles of the LDS Church who later became disaffected and left the faith. McLellin was known to have been critical of Joseph Smith and the Church, and any papers he left behind could potentially contain damaging revelations about Mormon origins.

Hofmann claimed to have located the McLellin Collection through a descendant in Texas. He tantalized Church leaders with descriptions of what the collection might contain—documents that could shake the foundations of Mormon faith. The Church, through intermediaries like Hugh Pinnock, arranged for Hofmann to receive $185,000 to acquire the collection.

But there was one problem: the McLellin Collection, as Hofmann described it, did not exist. He had fabricated the entire story, taken the money, and now faced mounting pressure to produce documents he had never created. Steven Christensen, acting on behalf of the Church, was scheduled to inspect the collection on October 15, 1985—the very morning Hofmann delivered his deadly package to Christensen’s office.

The irony became even more bitter when investigators later discovered that the LDS Church had actually possessed a portion of the McLellin papers since 1908—locked away in the First Presidency vault, apparently forgotten by institutional memory. As Richard Turley revealed in his 1992 book Victims:

The church had an important part of the McLellin Collection in the First Presidency vault, where it had been since 1908. Church officials became aware of this in March 1986, according to Turley. At this time the government was trying to gather evidence to build its case against Hofmann.
— Richard Turley, Victims

The Church faced an impossible dilemma. Revealing that they had possessed McLellin papers all along would confirm critics’ accusations that the Church routinely suppresses historical documents. But withholding this information hampered the investigation into two murders. The Church chose silence, and the full truth did not emerge until years after Hofmann’s conviction.

Additionally, investigators discovered that a Salt Lake City reporter had located another surviving collection of McLellin papers shortly after Hofmann’s third bomb exploded. These papers, contrary to Hofmann’s lurid hints, were not the bombshell anti-Mormon documents he had implied. McLellin described Joseph Smith critically but not in ways dramatically different from what historians already knew.

The McLellin saga illustrates a recurring pattern in the Hofmann affair: the Church’s institutional instinct toward secrecy and suppression, even when such behavior conflicted with the pursuit of justice.

Media Coverage and Public Reaction: A City in Terror

The bombing attacks of October 1985 created unprecedented panic in Salt Lake City—a community unaccustomed to such violence. The Deseret News captured the atmosphere with a headline that spoke volumes: ‘Bombings shatter area’s composure: It’s beginning to seem like Lebanon.’

For days after the bombings, ordinary activities became fraught with fear. Delivery workers found themselves viewed with suspicion; one was reportedly chased and beaten by frightened citizens. The only three bomb-sniffing dogs in the region worked to the point of exhaustion. Police received hundreds of calls about suspicious packages, the vast majority false alarms triggered by understandable paranoia.

The media coverage was intense and, at times, problematic. As Dallin Oaks later complained, some journalists seemed more interested in sensationalism than accuracy. The Los Angeles Times published multiple stories implying that the Church had been suppressing a supposedly explosive ‘Oliver Cowdery History’—a document that turned out to be another Hofmann fabrication. The Times did not correct the record for nearly two years.

Television news anchor Randall Carlisle, who covered the bombings for KUTV, later reflected on the intensity of the coverage:

Then reports broke that a bomb had exploded in the Judge Building in downtown Salt Lake City. The explosion killed businessman Steven Christensen and brought the world to a halt. For hours, it would be all anyone could talk or think about… We had to pursue every tip because, at the time, it all sounded reasonable. And the police were doing the same thing. We got to play detective as well.
— Randall Carlisle, KUTV

The investigation generated endless speculation. Some tips pointed toward Las Vegas and possible mob connections. Others suggested religious fanaticism. The involvement of Mormon historical documents added an element of theological intrigue that captured national and international attention.

When the third bomb exploded in Hofmann’s car, the investigation took an abrupt turn. Suddenly, the ‘victim’ of the first two bombs became the prime suspect. The revelation that the soft-spoken, baby-faced document dealer might be a double murderer seemed almost impossible to believe—yet the evidence was overwhelming.

Where Is Mark Hofmann Now?

Mark Hofmann won’t ever see freedom again.

Following his conviction, Mark Hofmann was taken to the maximum-security Utah State Prison, per AP News. A year into his sentence in 1988, The Salt Lake Tribune reports, Hofmann wrote a head-turning letter to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, in which he admitted that he was more satisfied with being guilty of murder and attempted suicide (with a third bomb that had gone off in Hofmann’s car, according to Deseret News) than for forgery. He also detailed his long-running fascination with forgery and said that “fooling people gave [him] a sense of power and superiority.”

Following this letter, as well as a reportedly remorseless in-person testimony for parole, Hofmann was sentenced to life behind bars. However, Hofmann’s biggest life change since then occurred in late 2015, when he was transferred to a lower-security prison in Utah, as reported by Deseret News. Utah Department of Corrections spokesman Steve Gehrke confirmed that Hofmann was transferred because he had “virtually no behavioral management issues.” Hofmann now has “more access to other inmates” and an extended “recreation time” at the new prison, according to Gehrke.

Hofmann was 66 years old at the time of Murder Among the Mormons’ release in 2021 and had been imprisoned for more than three decades.

Inside the Mind of a Forger: Hofmann’s Psychology

What drove Mark Hofmann? This question has fascinated psychologists, criminologists, and journalists for decades. His attorney, Brad Rich, offered one explanation at Hofmann’s parole hearing:

Hofmann stared into the amoral abyss and was cast adrift. The decision to murder was the product of the moment. I think he doesn’t know why he did what he did. He is astounded that he did what he did.
— Brad Rich, Hofmann’s defense attorney

But Hofmann’s own words suggest a more calculating personality. In his letter to the Board of Pardons, he revealed that deception gave him a profound sense of power:

Fooling people gave me a sense of power and superiority. I felt that I was more intelligent and clever than those I deceived… It’s hard for a lot of people to accept, I’m sure, that my closest friends and even my wife did not know the extent of my fraudulent dealings.
— Mark Hofmann, 1988

This statement reveals a man who derived psychological satisfaction not merely from financial gain but from the act of deception itself. Hofmann seems to have viewed his forgeries as intellectual contests, games in which he pitted his skills against the experts and consistently won.

His friend and business associate Curt Bench struggled to understand the man he thought he knew:

It was like they were talking about someone else entirely. It was total disbelief. Who the real Mark Hofmann is is still a mystery. I’ve been trying to figure it out for 25 years… He knew exactly what he was doing. He killed to get himself out of a jam. I don’t know how you could do that without remorse. It’s about as cold as it gets.
— Curt Bench, document dealer

Perhaps most chilling was Hofmann’s admission at his parole hearing that ‘toying’ with people’s religious beliefs was ‘experimentation… to see why they believe what they do.’ This suggests that Hofmann saw the LDS Church not merely as a source of income but as a laboratory for studying human credulity—and perhaps as a target for destruction.

George Throckmorton, the forensic examiner who helped crack the case, believed Hofmann harbored deeper motivations:

It was possible, George thought, that Hofmann could have destroyed Mormonism. Perhaps that is what he wanted to do—and to get rich at the same time.
— Linda Sillitoe, Salamander

Whether Hofmann’s ultimate goal was wealth, revenge against a religion he had rejected, intellectual sport, or some combination of all three may never be fully known. What is clear is that behind his mild demeanor lurked a man capable of elaborate deception and cold-blooded murder.

The Ongoing Impact: Hofmann’s Legacy in Mormon Studies

The Hofmann affair continues to shape Mormon historical scholarship more than four decades after the bombings. The case forced the LDS Church to professionalize its approach to document acquisition and authentication. It also opened conversations about the Church’s historical transparency that continue to this day.

Forensic document examiner George Throckmorton estimates that over a hundred Hofmann forgeries may still be in circulation, undetected among private collections and perhaps even museum holdings. As recently as 2005, he was still discovering previously unknown Hofmann creations. The full catalog of Hofmann’s work may never be completed.

For collectors of historical documents, the Hofmann case serves as a sobering reminder of the sophistication that skilled forgers can achieve. As Jennifer Larson, a book dealer, noted:

He had his documents authenticated by the best: the Library of Congress, the American Antiquarian Society, the FBI, the University of California, the McCrone Research Institute.
— Deseret News, 2005

The case also changed how the LDS Church handles sensitive historical matters. Following the Hofmann debacle, the Church eventually moved toward greater openness about its history, culminating in the ongoing Joseph Smith Papers project and the publication of the Gospel Topics Essays addressing controversial historical issues. Whether this shift represents genuine transparency or sophisticated damage control remains debated.

Perhaps most significantly, the Hofmann affair permanently altered the landscape of Mormon apologetics. Defenders of the faith can no longer simply appeal to prophetic authority when historical challenges arise. The spectacle of apostles publicly defending documents later proven to be forgeries—and developing theological explanations for those forgeries—undermined claims of infallible prophetic guidance.

Writing for the Religion News Service, LDS Church member Jana Riess reviewed the Netflix documentary with cautious appreciation:

I was largely impressed with the religious sensitivity they brought to the story. There is no Mormon-bashing here, no axe to grind; mostly, they want to understand how these murders occurred and how so many people could have been duped by the killer for so long. If anything, it lets the Church off the hook a little too easily.
— Jana Riess, Religion News Service

That final observation—that the documentary perhaps lets the Church ‘off the hook a little too easily’—points to the enduring significance of the Hofmann case for those examining Mormon truth claims. The fundamental questions raised by Hofmann’s successful deception of prophets, seers, and revelators remain unanswered. If divine gifts of discernment exist, why did they fail so spectacularly? If they do not exist, what does that say about the claims of prophetic leadership?

These questions, raised by a master forger who turned to murder when his schemes unraveled, continue to challenge sincere seekers of truth within and beyond the Mormon tradition. The Mormon Murders may have ended with Hofmann’s conviction and imprisonment, but the theological and historical questions they raised endure—as troubling and unresolved today as they were on that terrible October morning in 1985.

A Gathering of Saints by Robert Lindsey (Simon & Schuster, 1988, 400 pages) is one of three major books that appeared in 1988 chronicling the events of the Hofmann case, and by far, the best overall.