The Mormon Murders (Onyx) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Steven Naifeh (Author), Gregory White Smith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Onyx | Publication Date: June 6, 1989

In October 1985, three pipe bombs shattered the suburban calm of Salt Lake City, Utah. Two people, a young businessman and a grandmother, were killed and one young man wounded. All three were Mormons, and when investigators began sifting through the evidence, an amazing story emerged that shocked the world and shook the foundations of the Mormon Church! A complex tale of God and greed that has been sold to CBS-TV as a four-hour miniseries. (Nonfiction)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As part of a scathing depiction of a deceitful, materialistic Mormon Church, lawyers Naifeh and Smith (co-editors of the biennial directory The Best Lawyers in America , etc.) point out that the 1985 Salt Lake City scandals and bombings that convulsed the community had a precedent in certain dubious practices of the church's prophet and founder Joseph Smith. The suspenseful plot, involving a series of murders and a large cast of Mormons and police investigators, centers on the purchase and suppression by church officials of authentic and forged documents that cast doubts on basic tenets of their faith and attested to the cover-up of Smith's unsavory past. Under the threat of blackmail, the church bought many of these documents from the dealer-bomber Mark Hofmann; according to the authors, Hoffmann, after confessing the murders and forgeries, was allowed, thanks to the church's political influence, to plea bargain the murder indictment into a manslaughter charge thereby sparing the church an embarrassing trial that could have revealed its complicity.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (June 6, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451401522
• ISBN-13: 978-0451401526
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #684,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enlightening, May 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mormon Murders (Onyx) (Paperback)

I was a young girl living in Ogden, Utah when these murders occurred. I read this book shortly after its publication, and found it very enlightening and true to form. It was a terrifying mystery when the events occurred, and the media never fully explained the behind-the-scenes facts surrounding the bombings. I feel this book was very objective about the Mormon religeon and its reaction to the events surrounding the bombings and forgeries. The book is a fascinating account of the greed and murders, and anyone remembering the events will find this an eye-opener. For those who aren't familiar with the history, it's a wonderfully written, insightful book that you'll find difficult to put down.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly detailed case superbly presented, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mormon Murders (Onyx) (Paperback)

Each time I read this book (by my count, an even half-dozen to date), I marvel at the talent of these writers for turning an overwhelming volume of dry and complex research into a clear, compelling page-turner with more twists and turns than a mountain road. Aside from the crash course in history and culture of Latter Day Saints, I'm constantly intrigued by the detailed backgrounds provided for the antique document market, the business of printing and forgeries and the saint (no pun intended)-like patience of police investigators. All this, fleshed out with the strongly-drawn personalities involved, raises the normally lurid "true-crime" genre from the sensationalistic gutter and places it squarely into journalism -- definitely a new standard. There are a number of books published on this topic, and I've read most of them. This is the most comprehensive, the least "slanted", and certainly the most fascinating. I've got two copies -- one to read and re-read, and one to loan!

35 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, May 18, 2003

By 

A. Tindell "ajtlawyer" (Richland, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mormon Murders: A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit, & Death (Hardcover)

If you read the other reviews of this book, or any other book which Mormons might consider uncomplimentary of their faith, it is easy to pick out who are the Mormon reviewers and who are not. If the book criticizes Mormonism, the Mormon reviewers inevitably slam the book, call it fiction, say that it slanted, biased, uninformed, etc., etc.

That being said, I thought "The Mormon Murders" was excellent. The authors obviously had extensive information from insiders on the case, particularly some of the police officers and prosecutors. Mark Hoffman, perhaps the most accomplished forger in American history, manipulates and tricks everyone he comes in contact with, duping them like the con-man extraordinaire he is. And despite their alleged power of discernment, the Mormon leadership is duped even more easily than the common people in the book.

There was never a thorough, public accounting of the Hoffman case because the LDS leaders pressured the prosecuting attorney to lower the charges and let Hoffman plea-bargain---thus saving high-ranking LDS leaders from having to testify under oath.

This story has been depicted by a few different books. After this book, "Salamander" and "A Gathering of Saints" painted uncomplimentary versions of the LDS Church's complicity in these crimes the Church fought back in a round-about way by having some LDS scholar write a book called "Victims" and publish it through the Univ. of Illinois. Don't be fooled--the book's main purpose is to try and exonerate the LDS leaders from looking like idiots at best and conspirators at worse.

I've read that the rights to "The Mormon Murders" were purchased by a network. It is a great story for a TV movie and yet, not surprisingly, it has never made the big screen or little screen. Does anyone have to guess why?