"I felt something was off, but I didn't know what it was.". 3. All she knows is that she wants a new soccer ball that costs $24.95. I am also a professor at Montserrat College of Art in the illustration department. Underneath, though, Olds felt something amiss. The dual heritage status of one is entirely incidental to my ascription of it. I've never seen anything like this in a homicide investigation. Hofmann would also age his papers by putting them in a fish tank, along with a little toy train transformer. In fact, not even their full names are public knowledge. [e][f] According to Richard and Joan Ostling, Hofmann was by this time a "closet apostate" motivated not only by greed but also by "the desire to embarrass the church by undermining church history". Hofmann told his parents that he had baptized several converts; he did not tell them that he had also perused Fawn M. Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith, No Man Knows My History. Required fields are marked *. Mark Hofmann, left, and wife Doralee attend a Board of Pardons hearing in January 1988, before their divorce. He was almost successful; and he was successful in undermining the church prophets and leaders by convincing them his forgery was truthful. According to the Mormon scripture Joseph SmithHistory, the transcript and its unusual reformed Egyptian characters were copied by Smith from the golden plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon. Hofmann agreed to confess his forgeries in open court, in return for which prosecutors in Utah and New York dropped additional charges against him. 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. previous 1 2 next sort by previous 1 2 next * Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. Attorney Ron Yengich,left, confers with Mark Hofmann in 1987. I told myself that my survival and that of my family was the most important thing. The LDS Church announced the discovery of the Anthon Transcript in April and purchased it from Hofmann for more than US$20,000. My name is Mark Hoffmann, but some folks know me as "Hoffmann" or "Hoffy". Ive only watched it three times, so far. I think life is basically worthless. His first victim, Steven Christensen, was a Mormon bishop and document collector who threatened to expose the forgeries. The forger is portrayed by Stephen Colbert. In August1987, the sensationalist aspects of the Hofmann case led apostle Dallin H. Oaks to believe that Mormons had witnessed "some of the most intense LDS Church-bashing since the turn of the [20th] century. .Officers and a dog check a parking lot during the Tuesday, Oct. 18, 1985, funeral of Kathy Sheets, who died in bomb blast. While there, she heard that her husband was wounded and rushed to the hospital after a bomb went off in his car. "He would save me from my family. The ascription of (nauseating) foolishness is not racist: anyone and everyone could be a fool. Disagreement without tantrum and cancellation is what intelligent society does. Hes made racist comments on here before and you dont seem to care. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a mythical being thought to be able to live in fire, "Dealer in Mormon fraud called a master forger", "Early years: Mark Hofmann, the Salamander Letter, and the bombings", "30 Years After Mormon Bombings, Mark Hofmann's Ex-Wife Finds Peace and Herself", "Mark Hofmann tape-recorded RLDS scam while it was in progress", "Mormon document raises doubts on succession of church's leaders", "1985 CES Doctrine and Covenants Symposium", "Recent events involving church history and forged documents", "The Truth is the Most Important Thing: A look at Mark W. Hofmann, the Mormon salamander man", "Introduction to the Signature Books edition of the McLellin Papers", "Mormon leaders suppress 'key' item in murder case", "Mac Christensen, founder of Utah-based Mr. Mac men's clothing chain, dead at 85", "Notorious bomber Mark Hofmann moved to Gunnison prison", Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research, "Recent Events Involving Church History and Forged Documents", "Netflix Sets 'Murder Among the Mormons' Docuseries on 1985 Utah Bombings (Exclusive)", "Fraudulent documents from Forger Mark Hofmann noted", "Mark Hofmann letter to the Board of Pardons", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mark_Hofmann&oldid=1147137236, American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Improvised explosive device bombings in the United States, People excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Utah, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2021, Articles with incomplete citations from May 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox criminal with motive parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 29 March 2023, at 02:14. $17.09. Once Dorie had divorced her husband and reclaimed her maiden name, she received a lucrative deal to write a book about her ordeal, but she couldnt go through with it on her own. By then he had already appeared in Time magazine as the young document dealer who had discovered a long-lost document of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Anthon Transcript, on which LDS Church founder Joseph Smith had copied Egyptian characters from the gold plates that were later translated into the Book of Mormon. The blue haze, it turned out, came from blue household ammonia; ammonia increases oxygen levels, and oxygen speeds up the aging process. There was at least one polygamist in the family Marks grandfather. [s], Hofmann, Utah Department of Corrections offender number 41235, was originally incarcerated at Utah State Prison in Draper. "She was fairly outgoing, but didn't seem interested in Mark's document dealing.". According to the Ostlings, "The church publicized some of the acquisitions; it orchestrated public relations for some that were known to be sensitive; others it acquired secretly and suppressed."[g][14]. Hofmann had been kept at the maximum security facility in part because of his notoriety, but security issues waned along with his infamy over the years. During the investigations, many of the prosecution team became convinced that they were being stonewalled by leaders of the LDS Church. Read our. On the following day, a third bomb exploded in Hofmann's car. But she couldn't accept the idea that the man who had fathered her children and shared her life could have killed so coldbloodedly. If youre here curious about the same, weve got you covered. The most important thing to him was to keep from being exposed as a fraud in front of his family and friends. Sheets,[r] a child, a dog whoever" [was killed]. He promised investors high returns on their investments in rare documents but took their money to repay earlier investors. So he devised a scheme to kill two people as a "diversion," which he hoped would throw at least the LDS Church's attention off of him. In the end, of course, Hofmann did get caught because of the murders, but also because of his mistakes. "[19]:130, No one is certain how many forged documents Hofmann created during the early 1980s, but they included a letter from Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, describing the origin of the Book of Mormon;[k] letters from Martin Harris and David Whitmer, two of the Three Witnesses, each giving a personal account of their visions;[5]:95,97 a contract between Smith and Egbert Bratt Grandin for the printing of the first edition of the Book of Mormon; and two pages of the original Book of Mormon manuscript taken in dictation from Smith to Oliver Cowdery. Good luck to you RR. Curt Bench, owner of Benchmark Books and a rare-book and document collector, concurs. In the early parts of Murder Among the Mormons, Hofmann is depicted as a devout Mormon. C: Its super embarrassing isnt an argument but a prejudicial claim. Hofmann graduated 573 in a class of 700. He was revived, but not before spending twelve hours lying on his right arm and blocking its circulation, thus causing muscle atrophy. Heads up: I wrote 2,000 words today on Mark Hofmann, Mormonism, and 1980s America in advance of @netflixs documentary, which releases Wednesday. A few months later, he came home with a 17th-century Bible and urged her to look through it something he had never done before. "[14]:252 After Hofmann's exposure, the LDS Church tried to correct the record, but the "public relations damage as well as the forgery losses meant the church was also a Hofmann victim. Mark William Hofmann (born December 7, 1954) is an American counterfeiter, forger, and convicted murderer. Two Mormon wives sat on opposite sides of the Salt Lake City courtroom, staring intently at images on a screen as a . Go do something else with your time. Hofmann's crimes are fictionalized in the episode "The Saint", Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2004). Devout grandparents. Within the hour the board, citing Hofmann's "callous disregard for human life", decided that he would indeed spend the remainder of his "natural life in prison". American murderer who forged Mormon documents, For other people with this name or with similar spellings, see, That his grandmother "was the product of a, Hofmann decided that if experts said the coin was genuine, then it, Hofmann was a "hands-on father who pushed strollers, changed diapers, and attended local, "At seventy-two, Hinckley had begun filling the role that would increasingly dominate his life: His role as, Some LDS apologists dispute the fact that the church was deceived by Hofmann's forgeries. [11] "[5]:378, After Hofmann was imprisoned, he was excommunicated by the LDS Church and his wife filed for divorce. This is gross. One of Utah's most infamous criminals kissed his children while they slept in their bedrooms the night before he donned a letterman's jacket and carried a package into the Judge Building in downtown Salt Lake City and took the elevator to the sixth floor. "[i], Perhaps the most famous of Hofmann's Mormon forgeries, the Salamander letter, appeared in 1984. Mark's parents, Lucille Sears Hofmann and William Hofmann, were horrified that his kids had a storybook with dinosaurs, which they considered too evolution-friendly Book available in stores and online 3. State prison officials on Monday confirmed Hofmann, 61, was moved out of maximum security housing at the Draper prison to the Gunnison faciltiy in December of 2015. He was sentenced to five years to life, but the judge recommended that Hofmann never be released. "She seemed to fill traditional if not stereotypical familial roles: primary caregiver to the children, made most meals [cleaned up afterward] overall errand runner," says Mormon researcher and Hofmann friend Brent Metcalfe. Undercurrents On the surface, Dorie Olds' childhood in Salt Lake City's Sugar House neighborhood seemed fairly typical for Utah Mormons. ", 'Mark Hofmann was unquestionably the most skilled forger this country has ever seen,' said Charles Hamilton, a New York document dealer who is widely regarded as the nation's pre-eminent detector of forged documents. One of his forgeries involved a vacuum cleaner used to suck paint to the back side of a document to mimic what happens naturally over time. Chief investigator Jim Bell said, "They're hiding something; the church is doing everything it can to make this as difficult as possible. Scope and Contents This collection contains one portrait of Mark Hoffman's family in 1984. He wrote that he chose to commit murder and die in favor of being exposed, The Salt Lake City Tribune reported after obtaining his letter in 2011. [29][9]:491,52123 Utah has an indeterminate sentencing scheme. by Mark Hoffmann Hardcover. The discovery helped solve the case. Martin Luther King: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. He was right. Jane Dorotik: Trotting in and out of Prison, MaryAnn Clibbery and George Hansen: Unsalvageable, Movies&Tv: Murder Among the Mormons, Netflix Think it aloud, 7 Unnerving Facts About the Lindberghs and the Kidnapping, The Lindbergh Kidnapping: Forensic Files Lost Episode, Dawn Fehring: A Missionary Dies Too Young, Daniel and Cynthia McDonnell: Good Cop, Bad Wife. This second letter, known informally as the Salamander Letter, had called into question the origins of the church, because no mention of anything that fantastical had ever appeared in church writings. On its website, the church recently added an entry titled Hofmann Forgeries in its section on church history topics. Hofmann attempted suicide in his cell by taking an overdose of antidepressants. 4. [a][5]:41[6] He was a below-average high school student, but had many hobbies including stage magic, electronics, chemistry, and stamp and coin collecting. Police were on the lookout for a serial bomber when . However, at a preliminary hearing, prosecutors produced voluminous evidence of his forgeries and debts, as well as evidence linking him to the bombs. Now, Netflix is getting in on the act. "I always liked Dorie. A scene from "Murder Among the Mormons" re-enacts when Mark Hoffman tested a homemade explosive. Flimflam nonfiction. Yet, she says it was for their own good. I thought about the Nazi Holocaust, the earthquake in Mexico, and other disasters, Hofmann wrote in a 1988 letter to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. Detective Lieutenant Mark Hoffman is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist of the Saw franchise.He is portrayed by Australian actor Costas Mandylor.While the character was first shown as a police officer in Saw III, later films in the series have expanded his role and revealed him to be an apprentice, and subsequently the successor of the Jigsaw Killer. [5]:11819, After the letter had been purchased for the church and became public knowledge, LDS Church apostle Dallin H. Oaks asserted to Mormon educators that the words "white salamander" could be reconciled with Smith's Angel Moroni because, in the 1820s, the word salamander might also refer to a mythical being thought to be able to live in fire, and a "being that is able to live in fire is a good approximation of the description Joseph Smith gave of the Angel Moroni. Total price: This item: Fruit Bowl. News accounts reported the night of the murders that an eyewitness had a good look at the person who delivered the Christensen bomb, including a description of the letter jacket Hofmann wore. [n] Those to whom Hofmann had promised documents or repayments of debts began to hound him, and the sale of the Oath of a Freeman was delayed by questions about its authenticity. Your email address will not be published. Within a few years, he had a booming business, "finding" little-known and remarkable documents with surprising frequency. Attorney Ron Yengich, left, and Mark Hofmann attend a preliminary trial in April 1986. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. "Only to the extent that I truly love myself can I truly love another.". He sounded just as boyishly earnest when lying to the media about discovering valuable historic Mormon documents as he did when confessing to the police that he committed fraud and double murder in the 1980s. Mark Hofmann attends a preliminary trial in April 1986. "I was asleep all those years," she says. They don't know they're dead. "[38][39], According to the Ostlings, the Hofmann forgeries could only have been perpetrated "in connection with the curious mixture of paranoia and obsessiveness with which Mormons approach church history. Hofmann, for a while, shared a cell with another infamous Utah killer, Dan Lafferty, a religious zealot convicted of murdering his sister-in-law and her infant daughter in 1984. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Three letters purportedly written from an Illinois prison by Smith used different ink, paper, and writing instruments. He soon fabricated other historically significant documents and became noted among LDS Church history buffs for his "discoveries" of previously unknown materials pertaining to the Latter Day Saint movement. DORALEE Olds was married to Mark Hofmann from 1979 to 1987. Done with this blog. Marc Hoffmann. You also called a woman who has called herself a black woman a dual race which isnt a thing., Dual heritage: the fact of having parents from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds. Netflix's Murder Among the Mormons explains Hofmann's crimes, which included forging fake religious Mormon documents in order to sell them to the church for profit and, eventually, murder. Hofmann also traded in many legitimate historical documents acquired from rare book sellers and collectors. "[9]:514. Whether it be within the obituaries of their grandparents or the various interviews their mother gives to news outlets, their identities have always remained protected. Now, Olds says, her fellow Latter-day Saints treat her like a "rock star.". And just like other young men in the church, Hofmann even volunteered as a missionary. Some items commanded large sums, but even the smaller ones brought acclaim. Since then, Olds has had to rebuild her identity brick by brick. Olds, meanwhile, was the dutiful wife, caring for their home and growing family at that time a son and two daughters. Over seven to twelve thousand . He obtained loans from local businessmen using real, rare books from his personal collection as collateral. Document examiner George Throckmorton analyzed several Hofmann documents that had previously been deemed authentic and determined they were forgeries. I felt I would rather take human life or even my own life rather than to be exposed.. The hardest mystery to crack was the ink. They have done the best they can with where they are, and I can now give them true love and compassion," says Olds, who works as a life coach and hypnotherapist. Hofmann took his family to stay with his parents that night, telling them it was for their safety because a business associate of his had been killed. Mark Hofmann survived injuries from a suicide attempt and went on to face trial in the 1985 Salt Lake City bombings that killed two people. "Unknown to me, Mark had forged his first coin at age 14, long before we were married," Olds told a recent gathering of women. You need to dial this back right now. She believed he was, indeed, a liar and a cheat. Fooling people gave me a sense of power and superiority.. 30 years after fatal bombings, Dorie Olds manages to leave the past behind. Mark Hofmann was the mastermind behind deadly bombings that served as the focal point of the new Netflix docuseries, "Murder Among the Mormons." Her children visited their father from early on and continue to do so regularly. Obviously, alot (sic) more was involved., Editors note: Excerpts in italics were taken from former Deseret News reporter Elaine Jarviks 2005 story Tales of Hofmann: Forgeries, deceit continue to intrigue 20 years later., Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. Dirt Cheap. [5]:55 Hofmann and his friends were said to have made bombs for fun on the outskirts of Murray, Utah. And now, with the three-part documentary series highlighting all aspects of his life, especially his relationship with his wife, it made us wonder more about his family. Now, 30 years of tortuous living later, Olds is finally at peace with herself and all that happened. Dorie Olds is the ex-wife of Mormon bomber Mark Hofmann, who killed two people on Oct. 15, 1985. Since then, McNeil has seen Olds reach more deeply into her own psyche, past and needs, and come out in a better emotional and spiritual place. In 1980, Hofmann claimed that he had found a 17th-century King James Bible with a folded paper gummed inside. Why a racist British guy would troll this site is beyond me. Frannie, thanks for your message. For a while, Dorie did feel like her children no longer respected or listened to her, which is why she had to separate and ship them away. Stay-at-home mom, who baked bread and quilted. The reach of his forgeries from Emily Dickinson to Mark Twain, George Washington to Joseph Smith and the cunning with which he tricked a nations document collectors continue to intrigue authors and investigators. "Why you of all people?" The letter recounted how the church prophet had encountered a white salamander that transformed itself into a spirit guarding the gold plates. I say its racist = its racist doesnt wash (yet) however much some of the more deranged in society might prefer it. After Mark Hofmann married Doralee Dorie Olds on September 14, 1979, whom he first met while attending the Utah State University, they began a life together. Police then began investigating Hofmann himself as a suspect, and, in one moment at the hospital, she looked up to see detectives on the TV screen going through "my messy house.". Such self-awareness is far from where she began. Throckmorton also discovered that some documents, supposedly written by different people, had similar writing styles and that they had been written with homemade iron gall ink that looked cracked like alligator skin under a microscope, although authentic period ink did not. After all, Dorie still supported him, unable to believe that he was a cold-blooded killer. She divorced Hofmann in 1988 and took back her maiden name. [c] [5] : 58 Dorie Olds Hofmann filed for divorce in 1987, two years after Hofmann's crimes came to light, and became co-founder of a holistic medicine company. [p] Later the same day, a second bomb killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of Christensen's former employer. [q] As Hofmann had intended, police initially suspected that the bombings were related to the impending collapse of an investment business of which Sheets's husband, J. Gary Sheets, was the principal and Christensen his protg. Hofmann wrote that some of his earliest memories are of doing card tricks and magic. But Hinckley spoke of Hofmann as if he barely recognized his name. And there, in the science aisle, was a chemistry set. Since its not clear why the commenter dislikes the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, I didnt censor any of it. New York prosecutors also sought an indictment for the fraudulent sale of Oath of a Freeman. Well yes! Olds' life, too, had exploded with her husband's bombs, shattered like shards of glass. RR, Watch theForensic Filesepisode onYouTubeorAmazon Prime. But to prove forgery they had to be able to duplicate these subtle mistakes. By age 24, his interest had shifted from U.S. coins to old Mormon money, which along with his coin collection he sold a year later and decided to forge for a living. ", She had no idea, she says, that her husband had been forging documents and counterfeiting coins since he was a teen, maybe younger. A trip to Manchester, England, first got Mark interested in Mormon documents. I hold no such belief and have not expressed such explicitly nor implicitly. By Peggy Fletcher Stack The Salt Lake Tribune. In the picture are Mark and Doralee Hoffman and their children--Michael (3 1/2 years), Karen (2 years), and Lisa (3 months). Hofmann is imprisoned at the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, Utah, in the Monroe unit, according to his inmate records. Perhaps that is what he wanted to do and to get rich at the same time.". Thanks again for writing I appreciate anything that heightens my awareness. However, on October 18, 1995, after Hofmann's arrest, Hinckley said, "I frankly admit that Hofmann tricked us. Dorie Olds Now: Where Is Mark Hofmanns Ex-Wife Today in 2021. Tales of Hofmann: Forgeries, deceit continue to intrigue 20 years later, Murder Among the Mormons: Jared Hess explains his turn to true crime for Netflix series, Looking back at the Mark Hofmann bombings and his life of deceit, in the letter, he traces his interest in deception, the prison moved Hofmann out of maximum security in Draper. The next day, Olds planned to clean her house, she says, when she got a call from Hofmann, telling her that she and the kids were in danger and that she should take them to her mom's house. It recites Hofmanns story and the adverse impact his forgeries have had on the church. As the witness detailed her experience of finding Steve Christensen, lying in the hallway, emitting moaning sounds like a little child crying, his wife began to weep quietly. After all, Dorie still supported him, unable to believe that he was a cold-blooded killer. 4 Doralee Olds Hofmann Credit: Youtube/Gospel Tangents Who is Mark Hofmann's ex-wife Doralee Olds Hofmann? Dean Jessee, an editor of Smith's papers and the best-known expert on handwriting and old documents in the Historical Department of the LDS Church, concluded that the document was a Smith holograph. Such a letter, if true, would portray Young and, by extension, the LDS Church, in an unfavorable light. [5]:298 Salt Lake County District Attorney's investigator Michael George believed that, after Hofmann had successfully forged the blessing, his ultimate goal was to create the lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon, which he could have filled with inconsistencies and errors, sell them "to the church to be hidden away" and then as he had done often with embarrassing documents "make sure its contents were made public. The second bomb intended for Gary Sheets that his wife, Kathleen Sheets, picked up instead was a pure diversion.. "I had to learn that I had value, a right to choose for myself what I felt to be right, and that my voice should be heard. Not only did the letter intimate that Smith had been practicing "money digging" through magical practices, but it also replaced the angel that Smith said had appeared to him with a white salamander. You also called a woman who has called herself a black woman a dual race which isnt a thing. Furthermore, to use Fs argument, that if a black person alleges a white person is racist it must be so (because only black people are entitled to make that claim), is itself nonsense cos profoundly racist and a caricature of black rights. He was transferred there in 2016 after state Department of Corrections officials evaluated his history and determined a maximum security facility was no longer the best place for him. I am sorry to say that sometimes it happens. Perfect for fans of Lemonade in Winter, The Most Magnificent Thing, and Rosie Revere, Engineer. On October 15, 1985, he first killed document collector Steven Christensen (as well as injuring a secretary in the leg with shrapnel). [m] In an effort to clear his debts, he attempted to broker a sale of the "McLellin collection" a supposedly extensive group of documents written by William E. McLellin, an early Mormon apostle who eventually broke with the LDS Church. A scramble to acquire the document occurred, and Hofmann, posing as a faithful Mormon, presented it to his church in exchange for items worth more than $20,000. He was born and raised by two incredibly faithful and conservative Mormons, William and Lucille Hofmann. "[17], In 1984, longtime critics of Mormonism Jerald and Sandra Tanner became the first to declare the Salamander letter a forgery, despite the fact that it, as well as others of Hofmann's purported discoveries, would have strengthened the Tanners' arguments against the veracity of official Mormon history. What the examiners noticed first, after putting his documents under ultraviolet light, was a blue hazing effect and ink that ran in one direction. In October 1985, three bomb blasts in Salt Lake City, Utah, shook the local authorities and the residents to their very core, primarily because of its connection to the Latter-day Saints Church. Mrs Ms mother is black, her father white, hence she is dual heritage, which is not a term of abuse nor incorrect, regardless of whether the subject describes themselves as black or white (or biracial).

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