Naifeh - The mormon murders

Before this book, our contacts with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were limited but benign. One of us dated a woman who was a devout Mormon; the other was acquainted, through secular channels, with a senior member of the Church leadership, a man of considerable stature and integrity.

But books often take unexpected, even unwanted, turns.

In one of our last interviews, a respected Mormon historian asked us how the Church fared in our account. He obviously understood what we had come to understandthat there was much about the Mark Hofmann case the Church would prefer not to see in print.

We answered his question with another question: What is the Church? Is it the body of Mormon doctrine? If so, which doctrineMormon doctrine as currently held or Mormon doctrine as held at the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith? Or is it the current leadership of the Church, as most Church leaders maintain? Or is it the community of Mormons and the shared values that bind them together?

Each of these churches fares differently in our account.

This book is based largely on a series of interviews, most of which were conducted in Utah during nine months in 1987. Some were brief; some lasted days. No one was more generous with their time and recollections than Detectives Jim Bell and Ken Farnsworth of the Salt Lake City Police Department. We are also especially indebted to the members of the victims families: Scott Christensen, Joan Gorton, Heidi Sheets Jones, Terri Christensen Lauder, Joseph Robertson, Katie Sheets Robertson, Gary Sheets, Gretchen Sheets, and Jimmy Sheets, all of whom went out of their way to make us feel comfortable in a situation that had to be as awkward for them as it was for us.

In addition, we would like to thank Julius Andersen, Richard Anderson, Carl Arrington, Leonard Arrington, John Ashton, Brent Ashworth, Ralph Bailey, James Barber, Brent Bateman, Lary Ann Bateman, Don Bell, Curt Bench, David Biggs, Davis Bitton, Jill Brady, Cherie Bridge, Mike Bridge, Wilford Cardon, Mike Carter, Betty Lynn Davis, Gerry DElia, Duffy Diamond, Sue Dunster, Fred Esplin, Mildred Evans, Ralph Feurer, Peggy Fletcher, William Flynn, Dick Forbes, Ernie Ford, Jack Ford, Jane Forsgren, John Foster, Mike George, Jennie Glover, Demoin Gold, Don Gottfredson, Paul Grant, Rick Grunder, Charles Hamilton, Mark Haroldsen, John Harrington, John Heinerman, Charles Honts, Bob Jack, Lyn Jacobs, Franklin Johnson, John Johnson, Chris Jones, Kyle Jones, Grant Kesler, Faye Kotter, Leslie Kress, Don LaFevre, Dean Larsen, Wade Lillywhite, Richard Lindsay, Leo Lindsey, Bruce Lubeck, Paul Markosian, Richard Marks, Michael Marquardt, Brent Metcalfe, Jill Metcalfe, Thomas Moore, Eric Nielsen, Jorgen Olsen, Mike Orchard, Lynn Packer, Bruce Passey, Hal Passey, Robert Pitts, Daniel Rector, Kirk Rector, Janet McDermott, Randall Rigby, Kenneth Rigtrup, Al Rust, Gaylen Rust, Jeff Salt, Darlene Sanchez, Donald Schmidt, Jeff Simmonds, Connie Smith, Jack Smith, Nick Smith, Diane St. Thomas, Gregory St. Thomas, Stephanie St. Thomas, Robert Stott, Don Tanner, Jerald Tanner, Sandra Tanner, George Throckmorton, Paul Toscano, Dawn Tracy, Bradley Volmar, Wesley Walters, Brent Ward, Brooke Wells, David West, Bud Willoughby, Kenneth Woolley, Ron Yengich, David Yocom, Michael Zinman, and Mark Zobrist, as well as a dozen other people who asked that their names be withheld.

While the conventions of storytelling require that books on criminal cases focus on the efforts of a few key investigators, such cases are almost always solved through the efforts of many. The Hofmann case is no exception. Among those whose contributions deserve recognition are C. Larson of the B.Y.U. Police Department; Clive Barnum, Steven Bauer, Jo Ann Becker, Elliott Byall, Richard Chase, John Dehaan, Allan Galyan, Michelle Guthrie, Larry Hall, Jordan Lowe, Jerry Miller, James Newberry, Carl Newton, Edward Peterson, Steve Pirotte, Marvin Rennert, Mary Riker, Joyce Seymour, Robert Swehla, Jerry Taylor, James Thompson, and Frank Wandell of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; Philip Dinan of the Denver City Police Department; Scott Bakken, David Barker, Ned Christensen, Steve Clark, Calvin Clegg, Russell Dalrymple, Robert Gallacher, Richard Graham, William Hanes, Al Jacobsen, Morris James, Melvon Jensen, Terry Knowles, Theresa Mack, Dennis Molder, Stephen Moore, Rhead Richards, Donald Roberts, Don Rogers, Jeffrey Sarnacki, William Walker, and Mark Wilson of the FBI; Paul Hardy, Rudy Reit, and Steve Sweeney of Utahs Office of the Medical Examiner; Craig Geslison of the Provo City Police Department; Steve Bartlett, Sam Dawson, Dick Forbes, Michael George, Jennie Glover, George Throckmorton, and Olin Yearby of the Salt Lake County Attorneys Office; Russ Adair, Chris AHearn, David Askerlund, David Aylor, Jim Bell, Jim Bryant, Don Cahoon, Joel Campbell, John Campbell, William Cawley, James Chandler, George Clegg, Billy Collier, Ray Dalling, Mike Davis, Steve Diamond, Ralph Evans, Jim Faraone, Ken Farnsworth, Mike Fierro, Mike Fithen, John Foster, Scott Foulger, Bob Gillies, Jim Grandpre, Bill Gray, Bo Grimes, Scott Hallock, Frank Hattonward, Sam Hemingway, Dave Hendrick, Mack Humphries, Jed Hurst, Jim Jensen, John Johnson, Kyle Jones, Joseph Kattenring, Kelly Kent, James Leary, John Longson, Edward Lyman, Doug Maack, Henry Mark, Scott Marks, Chris Martinez, Jerry Mendez, Louis Muniz, James Nelson, Nick Paloukos, Richard Parkin, Gordon Parks, Mark Peck, Oran Peck, William Peglau, Kim Plouzek, Morgan Sayes, Doug Shupe, Greg Smith, John Stoner, Veda Travis, Dan Varoz, Richard Walton, Dave Ward, Scott Warensky, Bud Willoughby, and Mark Zelig of the Salt Lake City Police Department; Glen Bailess, Fred Baird, Garth Beckstead, Vern Beesley, Bart Bellon, Dale Bullock, David Burdett, Dick Carlson, Dean Carr, Alex Churchich, Dennis Couch, Mike Crebbs, Barry Dalton, Ken Davis, Steve Debry, Gaylord Dent, Syd Elliott, Steve Fife, Dan Fletcher, Dennis Floto, Ben Forbes, Jim Glover, Jim Grant, Steve Grogan, Marv Hammer, Pete Hayward, Tube Horiuchi, Ron Huber, Robert Jack, Brian Jackson, Leigh Kilpack, Dennis Knudsen, Rex Nelson, Tim Nielson, Lloyd Prescott, George Sinclair, Dave Smith, John Terry, Jerry Thompson, Doug Townsend, and Larry Wadsworth of the Salt Lake County Sheriffs Office; Don Bird of the University of Utah Police Department; and John Graber of the Utah Highway Patrol.

In fairness, we should acknowledge those major players whom we were not able to interview. Shannon Flynn and Tom Wilding both demanded payment for interviews, a precedent we could not afford to set. LDS Church officials in the Public Communications Department were helpful in answering routine questions, but currently active Church officials uniformly denied us substantive interviews. Finally, despite the repeated assurances of his attorney, we were not able to interview Mark Hofmann prior to his first parole hearing on January 29, 1988too late for our purposes.

However, we were able to supplement our own interviews not only with the massive record from the preliminary hearing but also with transcripts of interviews conducted by police and prosecutors with all of the principals, including Hofmann and Church officials.

We owe a debt of gratitude to a number of books, including Leonard J. Arringtons Brigham Young; Fawn M. Brodies No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith; Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Averys Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith; and Robert Gottlieb and Peter Wileys Americas Saints: The Rise of Mormon Power. We benefited immeasurably from Jerald and Sandra Tanners many publications, especially their principal work, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? As a counterweight to the Tanners, we also used The Story of the Latter-day Saints, by James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, and The Mormon Experience