Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 7, 1954, Mark William Hofmann was the second of three children and the only son in a strict and religious household. Since then, Olds has had to rebuild her identity brick by brick. In the end, his goal was to save his reputation, he wrote. I felt like I would rather take human life or even my own life rather than to be exposed, Hofmann wrote. "[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 graduated 573 in a class of 700. Pioneer ancestors. His forging hand was thereby permanently disabled. Across the aisle was a pregnant Dorie Olds, then-wife of Mark Hofmann, the LDS forger who was accused of the heinous act. As the witness detailed her experience of finding Steve Christensen,. [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". Mark Hofmann was wheeled to court and couldnt hear the judge because of eardrum damage on Nov. 1, 1985. 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. Hardcover - April 21, 2020. They don't know they're dead. [t][32][33][34][35][36] But it is Hofmann's forgeries of Mormon documents that have had the greatest historical significance. She does recall, however, a chilling moment when his sister asked: "Why do you want to marry him? Thanks again for writing I appreciate anything that heightens my awareness. The kind of argument, indeed, that you say above you dont like. Such self-awareness is far from where she began. 6. Who is Mark Hofmann? She divorced Hofmann in 1988 and took back her maiden name. I've never seen anything like this in a homicide investigation. Finally, the reality of his murderous nature seeped in as she continued to meet with him, and she came to believe that he was guilty. 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. Criticism of the words/attitudes of two people, one of whom is white, the other of dual heritage, is not in any way, shape or form necessarily and not in fact racist. The one-page Oath had been printed in 1639, the first document to be printed in Britain's American colonies, but only about fifty copies had been made, and none of them were extant. Hofmann's crimes are fictionalized in the episode "The Saint", Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2004). His institutional history is pretty clean. I hold no such belief and have not expressed such explicitly nor implicitly. He was smart and interesting, and they enjoyed long conversations. Dorie Olds is the ex-wife of Mormon bomber Mark Hofmann, who killed two people on Oct. 15. As a result of the blockage to his circulation, the muscles of his arm are atrophied. He forged a blessing Joseph Smith purportedly gave to his son Joseph SmithIII designating him as his fathers successor. Toll records showed Hofmann placed several calls to Hinckley's office from his car telephone during the week before the bombings. And there, in the science aisle, was a chemistry set. "When I first met Dorie, she was very mousy," McNeil says. The youngest was born after Mark had been charged and arrested with fraud, theft, and murder. Well look at it on a continual basis, Gehrke said in 2016. Since its not clear why the commenter dislikes the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, I didnt censor any of it. [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. 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. Boy you are embarrassing yourself here. "[14]:254 Robert Lindsey has also suggested that Hofmann "stimulated a burst of historical inquiry regarding Joseph Smith's youthful enthusiasm for magic [that] did not wither after his conviction". In Stock. [5]:95,98, In addition to documents from Mormon history, Hofmann also forged and sold signatures of many famous non-Mormons, including George Washington, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Boone, John Brown, Andrew Jackson, Mark Twain, Nathan Hale, John Hancock, Francis Scott Key, Abraham Lincoln, John Milton, Paul Revere, Myles Standish, and Button Gwinnett, whose signature was the rarest, and therefore the most valuable, of any signer of the Declaration of Independence. Scope and Contents This collection contains one portrait of Mark Hoffman's family in 1984. [5]:55 According to Hofmann, while still a teenage coin collector, he forged a rare mint mark on a dime and was told by an organization of coin collectors that it was genuine. The renovation included new safety and security additions that were planned for Utahs new state prison at the time, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. [18][j] Document expert Kenneth W. Rendell later said that while there was "the absence of any indication of forgery in the letter itself, there was also no evidence that it was genuine. He was born and raised by two incredibly faithful and conservative Mormons, William and Lucille Hofmann. [20], In 1983, Hofmann bypassed the LDS Church's historical department and sold to Hinckley an 1825 Smith holograph purporting to confirm that Smith had been treasure hunting and practicing magic five years after his First Vision. New York prosecutors also sought an indictment for the fraudulent sale of Oath of a Freeman. The LDS Church publicized this Hofmann creation through a press conference on August 23, 1982. She believed he was, indeed, a liar and a cheat. Powered by. "During our nine-year marriage, he created historical documents and signatures, coins, antique Mormon money and much more selling them for millions of dollars.". She was very friendly when we did things socially [as couples] sometimes," Bench recalls. DORALEE Olds was married to Mark Hofmann from 1979 to 1987. Hofmann wrote a letter to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole in 1988 saying childish games intending to trick people fueled the fire for what became the master forgery of Mormon documents. Tribune file photo Sheets was the wife of Gary Sheets, Hofmanns former business associate. Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune One CAN criticize people who arent white without being racist, but youre demonstrating to everyone that is not what you are doing. "He would save me from my family. The murders and his forgeries are the subject of the three-part Netflix documentary, which was released today, Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Police also released a composite drawing of the man. All rights reserved. The second bomb exploded about 90 minutes later, killing Holladay housewife Kathy Sheets when she picked up a package in front of her home. [5]:56 He later told prosecutors that he had lost his faith in the LDS Church and become an atheist around age 14. Marc Hoffmann was born on August 18, 1983 in Paris. Olds' life, too, had exploded with her husband's bombs, shattered like shards of glass. While in England, Hofmann enjoyed investigating bookshops and buying early Mormon material, as well as books critiquing Mormonism. [5]:10006 Hofmann then leaked its existence to the press, after which the church was virtually forced to release the letter to scholars for study, despite previously denying it had it in its possession. 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. https://t.co/uxD6Jp1O6U, Benjamin Park (@BenjaminEPark) February 26, 2021. But when Mark confessed, and the reality of his actions dawned on her, Dorie filed for divorce. There was at least one polygamist in the family Marks grandfather. The forgeries were thus intermingled with many legitimate historical documents, which bolstered Hofmann's credibility. You can watch Murder Among the Mormons on Netflix now. She spoke about her life experience Thursday October 8, 2015. He served as a historical researcher for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some of his forgeries were accepted by scholars for years, and an unknown number of them may still be in circulation. He obtained loans from local businessmen using real, rare books from his personal collection as collateral. The hardest mystery to crack was the ink. For years, it turned out, Hofmann had been producing phony signatures and documents and photos and coins, successfully convincing handwriting experts and forgery detection machines that all of it was authentic. My name is Mark Hoffmann, but some folks know me as "Hoffmann" or "Hoffy". He notably published the saga "the kingdom of fire" from 2013 to 2018, as well as several science. A fifth indictment, containing an additional five counts of theft by deception, was added later in January. Hofmann, now 66, is incarcerated at the Central Utah Correctional Facility, CUCF Monroe, according to his prison records. The suicide of Mark Madoff made news because he is the son of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. The Anthon discovery created a stir in the Mormon historical community, and Hofmann told his wife he was quitting school to collect rare documents full time. 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. NU47OE000105 (HOFFMAN, MARK A.) Murder Among the Mormons, a true crime docuseries about the Hofmann forgeries and bombings, was released on Netflix March 3. Because the letters had been authenticated by different experts, the inconsistencies had earlier escaped detection. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. 4 Doralee Olds Hofmann Credit: Youtube/Gospel Tangents Who is Mark Hofmann's ex-wife Doralee Olds Hofmann? Read our. I am also a professor at Montserrat College of Art in the illustration department. "[37], A student of Mormonism, Jan Shipps, agreed that press reports "contained an astonishing amount of innuendo associating Hofmann's plagiarism with Mormon beginnings. In January1987, Hofmann pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, one count of theft by deception for forging the Salamander Letter, and one count of fraud for the bogus sale of the McLellin collection. Olds, meanwhile, was the dutiful wife, caring for their home and growing family at that time a son and two daughters. Attorney Ron Yengich, left, and Mark Hofmann attend a preliminary trial in April 1986. Utah Department of Corrections But when a third bomb exploded the next day, suddenly the motive seemed less clear. [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. 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. Undercurrents On the surface, Dorie Olds' childhood in Salt Lake City's Sugar House neighborhood seemed fairly typical for Utah Mormons. Dorie Olds Now: Where Is Mark Hofmanns Ex-Wife Today in 2021. [p] Later the same day, a second bomb killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of Christensen's former employer. But actually it was because I knew from the news reports that I was a suspect and anticipated the police knocking on the door at any minute, he wrote. Hofmann pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated murder in January 1987, avoiding the death penalty in exchange for revealing information on his forgery techniques and knowledge of Mormon history. The most important thing in my mind was to keep from being exposed as a fraud in front of my friends and family, Hofmann wrote. He's mean.". But Hinckley spoke of Hofmann as if he barely recognized his name. Mark Hofmann, left, and wife Doralee attend a Board of Pardons hearing in January 1988, before their divorce. Catch the stream. Mark Hofmann was born in 1954 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Lucille (ne Sears) and William Hofmann (19281993). Subsequently, while Dorie dropped out of school to support her husband, Mark left his pre-med education to become a full-time rare documents dealer. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted. Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Hofmann agreed to confess his forgeries in open court, in return for which prosecutors in Utah and New York dropped additional charges against him. The youngest was born after Mark had been charged and arrested with fraud, theft, and murder. 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. It recites Hofmanns story and the adverse impact his forgeries have had on the church. Slowly, though, Olds developed a few close friendships, a deep mysticism and a knack for analysis and therapy. The fact you think racism is literally only the dictionary definition is lord, man, its super embarrassing for you. "I felt something was off, but I didn't know what it was.". His current research focuses on the use of a large, de-identified, data set of electronic health record information for digital phenotyping. Olds, too, has regained and even deepened her Mormon faith. 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 estimated that he forged hundreds of documents with at least 86 signatures. There was "no sign, no indication, no materials around" that would give her a clue about his crimes, she says. According to Lindsey, the Hofmann affair emboldened many scholars to penetrate deeper into Mormon history that its most conservative leaders wanted left unexplored, and that church leaders were unlikely to be able to fully contain the fires of intellectual curiosity that Hofmann helped fan. He killed two people in the bombings and injured himself in the third, later writing a letter to say he planned the bombings because he was in too deep on a forgery scheme of early Mormon documents. "[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. ", "Early in the investigation friends of Mark Hofmann and Steven Christensen repeatedly told the detectives that they had been present when Hofmann and Christensen received telephone calls from Gordon Hinckley. Mark Hoffman, PhD Research Chief Research Information Officer Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Research Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine View My Researcher Network Profile Areas of Interest Research This is gross. "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. 30 years after fatal bombings, Dorie Olds manages to leave the past behind. As I look back on the decisions made during this time of panic, I can see many forms of rationalization. But she couldn't accept the idea that the man who had fathered her children and shared her life could have killed so coldbloodedly. Assuming the document to be genuine, prominent Mormon academic Hugh Nibley predicted that the discovery promised "as good a test as we'll ever get of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon" because he thought the paper might be translated. When McLellin was visited by this same Joseph Smith III, McLellin asserted: Emma Smith told him [McLellin] that Joseph was both a polygamist and an adulterer. Bringing in two people who have nothing to do with a man who murdered people to shit on them says more about you than them. [40] The limited series debuted for the week ending March 7, 2021, as the third most streamed video on demand original-content program, according to Nielsen streaming ratings with 587 million viewer minutes. In 1981, Hofmann presented the LDS Church with a document which supposedly provided evidence that Smith had designated his son Joseph Smith III, rather than Brigham Young, as his successor. [5]:55 Hofmann and his friends were said to have made bombs for fun on the outskirts of Murray, Utah. Far more important than those is the outrageous relative poverty in the US of black people the astonishing gap between rich and poor and its vastly deleterious effect on them and in the administration of justice affecting them (a matter the poster in question might care to note Ive raised several times in my many posts over the last couple of years), https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism, a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, also : behavior or attitudes that reflect and foster this belief: racial discrimination or prejudice. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times. Like Steve Christensen and Kathleen Sheets. Within a few years, he had a booming business, "finding" little-known and remarkable documents with surprising frequency. 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. "I was asleep all those years," she says. He was revived, but not before spending twelve hours lying on his right arm and blocking its circulation, thus causing muscle atrophy. He was the first to determine that the widely publicized. The next day, a New York Times headline read, "Mormon Document Raises Doubts on Succession of Church's Leaders,"[16] and the LDS Church was forced to confirm the discovery and publicly present the document to the RLDS Church. Marks parents, Lucille Sears Hofmann and William Hofmann, were horrified that his kids had a storybook with dinosaurs, which they considered too evolution-friendly. [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. 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. Finally, after consulting with Ph.D. chemists and trying formula after formula, (Salt Lake City forensic examiner George) Throckmorton was at a toy store one day buying a present. I am only interested in a persons character, not their colour, and your being black is of no significance whatsoever to the matter in question, which YOU turned into an identity issue, thus self-victimising. Mark W. Hofmann and his family are pictured in this undated family photo. With the white salamander letter, he hoped to dismantle the LDS Church by changing its history. Such a letter, if true, would portray Young and, by extension, the LDS Church, in an unfavorable light. We bought those documents only after the assurance that they were genuine. Dirt Cheap. On its website, the church recently added an entry titled Hofmann Forgeries in its section on church history topics. "If I had awakened earlier, I might have ended up dead.". Subsequently, the LDS Church raised higher barriers to scholars' access to church archives. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. At the time, Hofmann was a well-known figure in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he would soon become known to a much wider audience as a murderer in the Mormon church. When he turned on the transformer it would create ozone. He grew up with many hobbies, including magic, chemistry, and coin collecting, and that's when his need to deceive others in order to impress them began.
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