Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Stop the press: how the Mormon Church tried to silence the Salt Lake Tribune

Jan O'Brien provided her valuable time in helping me understand the tricky spaghetti bowl of legal maneuverings both during the 20132016 events and the actions and aftermath of the sale of the Tribune in 1997. Were it not for your Utah Newspaper Project/Citizens for Two Voices this book would never have been possible. Joanie, your wisdom and persistence were marvelous. Any errors in interpretation of the legal ramifications are mine, not Joan's.

Karra Porter, thank you for your time and insights as to the legal maneuverings as well as some insights into the role of the Department of Justice. Your lawyering gave this work a happy ending.

Will Bagley provided me with excellent sources and suggestions regarding the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and his book, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, stands with Juanita Brooks's book, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, as the definitive works about that terrible event.

The late John W. Jack Gallivan was generous with his time when I interviewed him in 2012, and provided me with vital information that would later become useful.

Michael D. Mickey Gallivan went above and beyond the call in providing me with documents from his father and from other sources that revealed the machinations of the other side of this story. He has my deepest gratitude.

Thomas Kearns McCarthey Jr. and Philip George McCarthey spoke freely with me, providing details of the procedure of the court cases in which they lost the Salt Lake Tribune. Philip has not picked up a copy of the Tribune since the family lost the paper in 2002.

Mike Korologos and I go back to days shared at the Tribune. His historical interface with Glen Snarr was helpful in reconstructing what happened in the 1990s as the LDS Church was maneuvering to outflank the Tribune.

Patty Henetz, you were a mighty force in keeping me on track and providing me with the benefit of your experience as a reporter covering the church for the Associated Press.

Terry Orme, you are one of the heroes of this book. Few understand how much difficulty you faced as editor and publisher during the 20132016 period when the Tribune's future hung on a thread. Thank you also for your help and insights as to where the Tribune might go in the future.

I also want to thank Eva Finkemeier for your research help and support for this project.

James E. Jay Shelledy, thank you for your remembrances and insights on the relationships of many of the characters in this book. Your directness and willingness to provide certain details were refreshing.

Ed Berkovitch, thank you for your thoughts on the philosophy that guides the leadership of the LDS Church. You are a scholar and a gentleman.

Peggy Fletcher Stack, much of your incisive reporting influenced this book, as the endnotes show. You are a community treasure. It's a balancing act, and you perform very well.

Pat Bagley, you've given me endless hours of pleasure with your cartoons. My wish for next year: a Pulitzer. You deserve it.

To the late Dominic Welch, I owe this man so much for his generous thoughts and memories. His passion was still at work in his well-documented review of the events of the period 19972002, which was most helpful.

Jim Woolf, thanks for your recollections. You gave the Tribune and its readers so much during your years at the newspaper and continue to provide me not only with information but also with your friendship and your editor's eye.

Tom Harvey, Mike Carter, Paul Rolly, Carol Sisco, Dick Rosetta, Dave Jonsson, Lynn Johnson, Verdo Thomas, Craig Hansell, Shirley Jones, Connie White, Francine Giani, Ann Poore, and John Keahy: all of you made contributions to this work, and I appreciate your time and energy.

Thanks to John Netto, who gave me sage advice and supported this work from the beginning.

To the Utah Historical Society, many thanks for your work on my behalf.

I owe much to my publisher, Prometheus Books. I especially want to thank Steven L. Mitchell, Hanna Etu, Jeffrey Curry, and Liz Mills.

Special thanks for all their hard work go to Janet Rosen and Sheree Bykofsky of Sheree Bykofsky and Associates, Inc.

To my family, my long-time friends, and cheering section, I extend my gratitude and thanks for your support.

Many of my sources wished to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons. They provided invaluable perspective and information. You know who you are, and I have deep appreciation for your willingness to dig at the truth.

To those I've missed in these acknowledgments, I apologize. There were so many helpful people. You cared about an institution that hopefully will continue to be the balance wheel of Utah.

To better examine what the Salt Lake Tribune had written about the excavation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre site, and the details, the three full articles from March 2000 are provided below.

BONES OF CONTENTION

Unearthing Mountain Meadows Secrets: Backhoe at a
S. Utah killing field rips open 142-year-old wound

By Christopher Smith

Editor's Note: Mountain Meadows, southwest of Cedar City, is the site of the worst slaughter of white civilians in the history of the frontier West. Last summer, LDS Church officials descendants of the victims sought to finally close the 142-year-old wound. Together they were to build and dedicate a new monument to the 120 Arkansas emigrants who perished in unimaginable violence at the hands of Mormon settlers and Indian accomplices.

The new memorial stands, but the wound still festers. In constructing the monument, workers uncovered remains of 29 victims, a vivid and horrific reminder of that September day in 1857. The story of those bones, and what happened to them last summer, adds another excruciating chapter to the history of a crime that many of Utah's pioneer descendants can neither confront nor explain.

MOUNTAIN MEADOWSAfter burying dozens of men, women and children murdered in a bizarre frontier conspiracy, an Army major ordered his soldiers to erect a rockpile and a carved wooden cross swearing vengeance on the perpetrators. Brevet Maj. James H. Carleton then wrote to Congress: Perhaps the future may be judged by the past.

They were fated words. When a backhoe operator last summer accidentally dug up the bones buried here in 1859 by Carleton's troops, it set into motion a series of cover-ups, accusations and recriminations that continue today. It also caused a good-faith effort by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintsto reconcile one of the ugliest chapters of U.S. historyto backfire.

The Aug. 3, 1999, excavation of the remains of at least 29 of the 120 emigrants slaughtered in the Mountain Meadows massacre eventually prompted Gov. Mike Leavitt to intercede. He encouraged state officials to quickly rebury the remains, even though the basic scientific analysis required by state law was unfinished. It would be unfortunate if this sad moment in our state's history, and the rather good-spirited attempt to put it behind us, was highlighted by controversy, Leavitt wrote in an e-mail message to state antiquities officials shortly before LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley presided over a ceremony at Mountain Meadows.

The widely publicized occasion was to dedicate a newly rebuilt rock cairn monument, crafted with the same stones Carleton's troops had piled defiantly in 1859. They also were the same rocks that were torn down from the grave site by one of Leavitt's own ancestors. Dudley Leavitt, himself a participant in the Sept. 11, 1857, murders, visited the cairn with LDS prophet Brigham Young a year after Carleton's troops left.