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Mark Hofmann

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Mark William Hofmann (born 7 December 1954), a disaffected member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a prolific counterfeiter who murdered two people in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is currently serving a prison sentence at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah. Hofmann is widely regarded as one of the most successful forgers in history.

Early life

Although Hofmann embraced atheism while in his teen years, he was raised in a devout LDS family. His grandmother, Athelia Call, had been the wife of a Mormon polygamist. His family's reluctance to discuss its involvement with plural marriage became an early source of Hofmann's resentment toward Mormonism. Like many young LDS individuals, Hofmann spent two years as a Mormon missionary. During his time as a missionary, he worked in Bristol, England and became intrigued by many of the local antique bookstores in the area. He appeared outwardly devout, but his explorations of Mormon history led him to doubt many of the church's official claims regarding its origins.

Hofmann is an Eagle Scout. He married Doralee Olds in the Salt Lake Temple in 1979. The couple have four children, but divorced in 1988.

Hofmann's forgeries

After his mission, Hofmann became a dealer in antique items. Forging and altering coins, books, and historical banknotes to make them more valuable (often by adding signatures), Hofmann worked up to fabricating historically significant documents. He became famous for his "discoveries" of previously unknown documents pertaining to the Latter Day Saint movement and the LDS church.

Charles Anthon transcript (1828)

The first forgery Hofmann sold to the LDS church was the so-called Anthon Transcript. Hofmann claimed he found this document April 1980 pasted between the pages of a 1668 Bible with the apparent signatures of Joseph Smith's great and great-great grandfathers inside. The document seemed especially significant as the transcript that Smith's scribe Martin Harris presented to Charles Anthon, a Columbia classics professor, in 1828. According to the Joseph Smith—History, the transcript and its unusual “reformed Egyptian” characters were copied by Smith from the Golden Plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon. The Joseph Smith—History reports that Anthon thought the esoteric-looking characters were genuinely Egyptian, but that Anthon wanted access to the original plates. However, Anthon's recollection of the event was drastically different; he claimed to have been misquoted and misrepresented by Harris and Smith, and characterized the transcription of “reformed Egyptian” as a crude copy of characters from several different alphabets. Hofmann's forgery differed greatly from a purported copy of the Anthon transcript possessed by the Community of Christ: Hofmann intentionally constructed his version to fit Anthon's description. A Joseph Smith expert, Dean Jessee, opined that the document's handwriting and signature appeared genuine. Appraised by the LDS church for USD$25,000, it was purchased on 13 October in exchange for several artifacts the church owned in duplicate including a $5 gold Mormon coin, Deseret banknotes, and a first edition of the Book of Mormon.

Joseph Smith III blessing

On 4 September 1981, Hofmann gave Elder Gordon B. Hinckley another forgery. Supposedly written by Thomas Bullock, Hofmann claimed to have acquired the letter along with the Joseph III blessing, which presented Smith's young son, Joseph Smith III as the most legitimate leader for the LDS church, not Brigham Young, who was accepted as the leader by the majority of Smith's followers after Smith's murder. In the forged letter, dated 27 January 1865 and marked “private” and “not sent”, Bullock chastises Brigham Young for having all copies of the blessing destroyed. Bullock writes that although he believes Young to be the legitimate leader of the LDS church, he would keep his copy of the blessing. Such a letter would unflatteringly portray Young and by extension the LDS church. Hofmann gave it to Hinckley as a “faithful Mormon,” ostensibly doing the church a favor. According to Hofmann, Hinckley filed the letter away in a safe in the First Presidency's offices.

The sale of these and other forgeries emboldened Hofmann, and confirmed his earlier conclusions about the LDS church. He thought that when LDS officials “covered up” what might be seen as embarrassing or contradictory documents which they apparently thought were genuine, they were lending credence to the stories. Hofmann also concluded that since LDS officials were apparently fooled by his forgeries, they had no divine prophetic powers. Hofmann continued selling and trading fraudulent documents to the LDS church and to many other collectors and historians.

Lucy Mack Smith letter

One significant Hofmann forgery arrived at the church via Brent F. Ashworth, an attorney and rare documents collector. The forgery was a letter complete with an 1828 Palmyra, New York, postmark from Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith's mother. Dated 23 January 1829, she describes her son's revelations and finding the Gold Plates, including the lost 116 pages of the Book of Lehi, a document that has been missing since 1828. Hofmann sold it to Ashworth, and it was announced to the world in a 23 August 1982 joint press conference. In the conference Dean Jessee again asserted that a Hofmann forgery looked authentic, not only for Lucy Smith's handwriting, but also for the period postmark and correct postage.

Martin Harris letter to Walter Conrad

On 5 October 1982, the LDS church and Ashworth announced another of Hofmann's documents: A supposed letter from Martin Harris to Walter Conrad, brother-in-law of Brigham Young. It was dated 12 January 1873. Ashworth felt that this letter, bought nine months earlier, bolstered the Church's move to subtitle the Book of Mormon “Another Testament of Jesus Christ”.

David Whitmer letter to Walter Conrad

Hofmann sold the church a similar letter supposedly from David Whitmer, dated 2 April 1873, another of the three witnesses, for $10,000 shortly thereafter.

Josiah Stowell letter (1825)

Other purported letters sold in excess of $10,000 include a holograph referring to Joseph Smith treasure-seeking for silver (which some would consider embarrassing to the church).

E. B. Grandin contract

This forgery was the supposed 1830 (dated 17 August 1829) contract between Smith and printer Egbert Bratt Grandin for the printing of the first edition of the Book of Mormon.

Two pages of the original Book of Mormon manuscript

The two pages were claimed to be from the original Book of Mormon manuscript written by Oliver Cowdery as dictated by Joseph Smith Jr. The original manuscript of the Book of Mormon was placed in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House in 1841 and was removed in 1882. Water had damaged the manuscript and destroyed everything beyond the book of Helaman. The two pages obtained from Hofmann covered a portion of the book of Helaman and it was noted by the Church that "No text farther along in the original manuscript is known to exist. This leaf is in a remarkable state of preservation, considering that it was positioned low in the water-damaged manuscript."[1]

Martin Harris letter (Salamander letter)

Hofmann's most famous Mormon history forgery emerged in 1984. An LDS Bishop, Steven F. Christensen, purchased the so-called Salamander Letter for $40,000 on 6 January after the LDS church and Brent Ashworth turned down more extravagant offers. News of the document was contagious and soon Peggy Fletcher of Sunstone Magazine, and then Richard N. Ostling, the religion editor of Time Magazine, were calling about the letter. Containing elements of early anti-Mormon rumors, the Salamander Letter depicts Joseph Smith as a practitioner of folk magic, and relates an account of Smith's receiving the Golden Plates that is entirely different from the orthodox version.

In addition to documents from Mormon history, Hofmann also forged a number of other items, including works by Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln. He announced his final completed forgery, a copy of the long-vanished 17th century printed broadside Oath of a Freeman, in 1985. The Oath, allegedly a printing from the press brought to America on the Mayflower, was a Pilgrim constitution, and would have been the oldest document printed in America. To be sold at over $1 million, the Oath was manufactured by Hofmann as an act of desperation. He even produced a second copy of the document of lesser technical quality. Authentication of these prints was underway as Hofmann committed his murders. They would contribute to his eventual discrediting.

Hofmann's murders

Despite the often considerable amounts of money he was making from document sales, Hofmann became embroiled in financial difficulties. In an effort to clear his debts, he attempted to put together a deal involving the sale of “the M'Lellin collection” — an extensive collection of documents purportedly written by William E. M'Lellin, an early Mormon apostle who later broke with the LDS church and actively worked against them. Hofmann was unable to forge the entire collection quickly enough to meet his promises to his intended buyers; in a desperate effort to buy time he began planting bombs in Salt Lake City.

On 15 October 1985, the first bomb killed document collector Steven Christensen, the son of prominent clothier Mac Christensen, founder of the Utah-area Mr. Mac clothing stores. Later that same day a second bomb killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of Christensen's former employer. Police initially suspected that the bombings were related to the impending collapse of a business which employed both Christensen and Gary Sheets (Kathy's husband). Hundreds of investors stood to lose sizable sums of money.

On 16 October 1985 Hofmann was severely wounded when one of his own bombs exploded in his car. Police suspicion quickly focused on Hofmann, though many of Hofmann's friends, family and his peers in the rare documents trade doubted that Hofmann was a killer. Some of Hofmann's business associates went into hiding, afraid they might be victims of more bombs.

The McLellin collection was discovered in Texas by a Salt Lake City reporter not long after Hofmann was injured. The documents were interesting, but not earth-shattering as Hofmann had often implied. More importantly, the owner of the collection had never heard of Hofmann — leading many to suspect that Hofmann had not been in negotiations to purchase the collection.

During the bombing investigation, police discovered incriminating evidence of the forgeries in the basement studio where Hofmann had created them. He was arrested for the murders and forgery in February, 1986. He eventually pleaded guilty to lesser charges (second-degree murder and theft-by-deception) to avoid the death penalty, and in January of 1988 was sentenced to life in prison. He has twice attempted suicide in prison. There has been speculation about the intended target of the third bomb that injured Hofmann, but he has never discussed the issue, other than to make (then retract) a claim that the bomb was a suicide attempt. One possible target is Brent Ashworth (a collector of rare documents).

Legacy in document collecting

During his career, Mark Hofmann fooled some very renowned people. Years after being found guilty of murder, his forgeries continued to cause headaches for collectors of historical documents. Among them was Daniel Lombardo, a curator for a library of material written by Emily Dickinson. In 1997, Lombardo purchased a “newly discovered” manuscript copy of an unpublished Dickinson poem from Sotheby's auction house for $24,000. The document was later determined to be one of Hofmann's many fakes still in circulation. Lombardo remarked, “Hofmann was one of the most skilled forgers in this century. The lengths he went to fool all the experts were extraordinary.”

Before Hofmann's criminal career was exposed, some of his “discoveries” were also presented to Kenneth Rendell, one of the top document experts in the United States and one of the men responsible for debunking the forged “Hitler Diaries”. Like others duped by Hofmann, Rendell, after initially dismissing the documents as forgeries, later pronounced them consistent with their claimed origin. Nearly all of Hofmann's documents have been determined to be forgeries, and there is now debate about whether any of them are legitimate, even those widely regarded as genuine. Ironically, Hofmann forgeries are now collector's items themselves.

Among Hofmann's earliest critics were former LDS members Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Though Hofmann's “discoveries” often appeared to bolster the Tanners' own arguments against the church, Jerald had by early 1984 concluded there was significant doubt as to the Salamander Letter's authenticity. By late 1984, Jerald Tanner questioned the authenticity of most, if not all, of Hofmann's “discoveries” based in part on their unproven provenance.

Trivia

Notes

  1. ^ "The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon". Ensign: 31. Dec. 1983. Retrieved 2007-03-20. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)

References

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