American Crucifixion The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church

Alex Beam

eBook - 2014

On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail in the dusty frontier town of Carthage, Illinois. Clamorous and angry, they were hunting down a man they saw as a grave threat to their otherwise quiet lives: the founding prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. They wanted blood. At thirty-nine years old, Smith had already lived an outsized life. In addition to starting his own religion and creating his own "Golden Bible" — the Book of Mormon — he had worked as a water-dowser and treasure hunter. He'd led his people to Ohio, then Missouri, then Illinois, where he founded a city larger than fledgling Chicago. He was running for president. And, secretly, he had married more than thirty women. In American Crucifixion, Alex Beam tells how... Smith went from charismatic leader to public enemy: How his most seismic revelation — the doctrine of polygamy — created a rift among his people; how that schism turned to violence; and how, ultimately, Smith could not escape the consequences of... more