Although Mark was secretly agnostic and betrayed his church, he was wearing a Mormon temple garment when he accidentally bombed his own car. Many of Hofmanns forgeries focused on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which he was a member but had stopped believing as a teenager. Utah Department of Corrections Hofmann also traded in many legitimate historical documents acquired from rare book sellers and collectors. Mark Hofmann Injuries in the Bombing: Is He Still Alive? - Heavy.com 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. Thanks again for writing I appreciate anything that heightens my awareness. The most important thing to him was to keep from being exposed as a fraud in front of his family and friends. In 1980, Hofmann claimed that he had found a 17th-century King James Bible with a folded paper gummed inside. .Officers and a dog check a parking lot during the Tuesday, Oct. 18, 1985, funeral of Kathy Sheets, who died in bomb blast. I am also a professor at Montserrat College of Art in the illustration department. What if Olds had questioned her husband about his suspicious dealings? She found healing for herself through hypnosis, she says, and has channeled her. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times. Netflix Solemnly Dishes on the Con Man and Bomber(Murder Among the Mormons, Netflix). Utah entrepreneur whose wife was killed by infamous bomber Mark Hofmann But when Mark confessed, and the reality of his actions dawned on her, Dorie filed for divorce. [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. Watch for it next week at @RDispatches, along with recaps of each of the three episodes. The forgery was a letter complete with an 1828, For instance, Hofmann paid US$22,500 for a first edition of, There actually were two surviving collections of McLellin papers, neither of which Hofmann knew of. The church acquired several documents from Hofmann. Across the aisle was a pregnant Dorie Olds, then-wife of Mark Hofmann, the LDS forger who was accused of the heinous act. Devout grandparents. The second bomb exploded about 90 minutes later, killing Holladay housewife Kathy Sheets when she picked up a package in front of her home. Yet, she says it was for their own good. by Mark Hoffmann Hardcover. All she knows is that she wants a new soccer ball that costs $24.95. "[9]:514. [5]:17982, The following day, Hofmann himself was severely injured when a bomb exploded in his Toyota MR2. [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". "I had to learn how to accept and love myself enough to keep a boundary, rather than shrinking in fear of authoritarian dictates, or passively going along with situations in which I saw no choice," she says. Hofmann would also age his papers by putting them in a fish tank, along with a little toy train transformer. What the examiners noticed first, after putting his documents under ultraviolet light, was a blue hazing effect and ink that ran in one direction. Well yes! and I a black woman am saying you a white man are racist. Au contraire: I, a white man, say that you, a black woman, are racist. 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. Police also released a composite drawing of the man. Mark Hofmann - Wikipedia In the end, of course, Hofmann did get caught because of the murders, but also because of his mistakes. Two Mormon wives sat on opposite sides of the Salt Lake City courtroom, staring intently at images on a screen as a witness described Steve Christensen's body after a pipe bomb shredded it. In Stock. (He survived and is still in prison). Fifteen years after Hofmann killed Steve Christensen and Kathy Sheets with nail-riddled pipe bombs in Salt Lake City, Hofmann's oldest son turned 19 and decided he wanted to serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4. His first victim, Steven Christensen, was a Mormon bishop and document collector who threatened to expose the forgeries. It was already known that McLellin had written various letters and papers dealing with controversial subjects in Joseph Smith's life; in 1879 the RLDS Church printed a letter from McLellin to Joseph Smith III stating that the elder Smith's wife, Emma, knew and disapproved of her husband's adultery. The forearm is withered almost to the bone. Hofmann excitedly identified it as a copy of the so-called "Anthon Transcript," with hieroglyphic markings that LDS Church founder Joseph Smith said he copied from gold plates in the 1820s. Dorie Olds is the ex-wife of Mormon bomber Mark Hofmann, who killed two people on Oct. 15, 1985. Bullock writes that although he believes Young to be the legitimate leader of the LDS Church, he would keep his copy of the blessing. The second bomb intended for Gary Sheets that his wife, Kathleen Sheets, picked up instead was a pure diversion.. Find Dr. Hoffman's phone number, address, insurance information, hospital affiliations and more. Immediately after the third bombing, Hofmann became a suspect in the Oct. 15 pipe bomb murders. [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. One of Utahs most infamous criminals kissed his children while they slept in their bedrooms the night before he donned a lettermans jacket and carried a package into the Judge Building in downtown Salt Lake City and took the elevator to the sixth floor. He started collecting coins when he was 12 and soon figured out ways to fool other collectors by altering coins to make them appear more desirable. Where is Mark Hofmann's Ex-Wife Now? - The Cinemaholic Disagreement without tantrum and cancellation is what intelligent society does. Get it as soon as Wednesday, Apr 12. Marks parents, Lucille Sears Hofmann and William Hofmann, were horrified that his kids had a storybook with dinosaurs, which they considered too evolution-friendly. Dr. Mark C. Hoffman is a Family Medicine Doctor in Poulsbo, WA. That was how she could testify that he was home that day and pass several lie-detector tests. Ive only watched it three times, so far. His forgeries and murders that threw Salt Lake City into chaos for two days in October 1985 are the subject of a three-part true crime documentary titled Murder Among the Mormons airing on Netflix starting Wednesday. [b], Like many young men in the LDS Church, Hofmann volunteered to spend two years as an LDS missionary, and in 1973 the church sent him to its mission in Bristol, England. Eventually, though, as she couldnt handle everything by herself, Dorie had to farm the youngest ones to relatives. Dorie Olds is the ex-wife of Mormon bomber Mark Hofmann, who killed two people on Oct. 15, 1985. Here are seven facts from the series, which was co-produced by Joe Berlinger (Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich): 1. She feels accepted and welcomed into an LDS congregation in Holladay, where she recently was asked to give a short talk. He delighted in traveling around the world to collect rare copies of children's books, but he made a living as a seller of historical documents. A visibly shaken Hofmann paid the Tanners a personal visit. Explosions Rock Kyiv After Russian Strike: Live Updates - New York Times "[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. 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. 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. 7. The forgiveness story missing from Netflix's 'Murder Among the Mormons They're not suffering. Sheets,[r] a child, a dog whoever" [was killed]. $17.09. She spoke of her life and what has happened in the 30 years since one of Utah's most infamous crimes, Thursday October 8, 2015. Writer: Alice & johanna 2. "[5]:236, Hofmann not only faced the prospect of the death penalty in Utah but was indicted on federal charges of possession of an unregistered machine gun. 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. As the familys primary caregiver, Dorie didnt want their lives to be anything but stereotypical, so she tried maintaining that as much as possible. The youngest was born after Mark had been charged and arrested with fraud, theft, and murder. [And in a blog about deadly crime in the USA, a proportion of the perps of which are black, it could get very silly]. Mark Hoffman, PhD | Find A Researcher - Children's Mercy Kansas City Investigators also began constructing a timeline, posting pieces of information on the blank walls of a war room. At first they couldnt figure out how the stuff on one wall related to stuff on another wall, remembers prosecutor Bob Stott. Mark Hoffman - Chief Research Information Officer (CRIO) - Children's Toll records showed Hofmann placed several calls to Hinckley's office from his car telephone during the week before the bombings. "It is where she always wanted to be," McNeil says, "but didn't know it was possible.". Back to the original subject matter: can anyone seriously be concerned about two $several millionaires recently interviewed about their suffering by a $2.7 billionaire? When she arrived, his parents were already there. Hofmann hinted that the McLellin collection would provide revelations unfavorable to the LDS Church. These deceived not only members of the First Presidency notably Gordon B. Hinckley, then the de facto president of the church due to the poor health of more senior leaders[d] but also document experts and distinguished historians. "It was possible, George thought, that Hofmann could have destroyed Mormonism. [5]:243, After Hofmann returned from his mission, he enrolled as a pre-med major at Utah State University. I had decided the night before after seeing the news that the jig was up and that the only way to keep my family from the certain knowledge of my guilt (this time not only of fraud but murder) would be to kill myself, he wrote. ", '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. Some of his forgeries were accepted by scholars for years, and an unknown number of them may still be in circulation. Smith had given a page with such script to an early Mormon convert, Martin Harris, to show to Charles Anthon, a scholar of ancient languages. 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. When Olds awoke that morning, she says, her husband was already dressed and, strangely, in the backyard, wearing his green Olympus High letter jacket. Mark Madoff: What about the children? | Psychology Today Her LDS stake president refused to shake her hand, she says, and her kids were mocked for having a dad in jail. The Savior was victimized. But to prove forgery they had to be able to duplicate these subtle mistakes. He was born and raised by two incredibly faithful and conservative Mormons, William and Lucille Hofmann. "Only to the extent that I truly love myself can I truly love another.". Without a college degree or means of supporting herself and her four children, Olds had to give up the house they lived in and eventually farmed out the youngest kids to relatives, when she felt the children no longer respected or listened to her. 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. Tribune file photo Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. Dirt Cheap: Hoffmann, Mark: 9781524719944: Amazon.com: Books 2. Eventually, though, they zeroed in on the apparent motive: a tangled web of lies and debts, forgeries and frauds, that had made Hofmann feel backed into a corner, stalling for time. Dorie Hofmann Olds: Where Is Mark Hofmann's Ex-Wife Now? | Heavy.com Pramedics rush a injured Mark Hofmann to an ambulance after a bomb shredded his car in downtown Salt Lake City. You can watch Murder Among the Mormons on Netflix now. If the dictionary definition of racisms not what racism is, what is it? 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. In the next eight years, they welcomed four children into their lives; one son and three daughters. [5]:28891, Hofmann was arrested in January1986 and charged on four indictments totaling 27counts, including first-degree murder, delivering a bomb, constructing or possessing a bomb, theft by deception, and communication fraud. Slowly, though, Olds developed a few close friendships, a deep mysticism and a knack for analysis and therapy.