The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 19, May 5, 2002, Article 8

MARK HOFMANN FORGERY FOUND?

  From an April 30, 2002 article in the Salt Lake Tribune
  comes the news that another forgery may be attributed to
  Mark Hofmann, the expert forger who counterfeited
  Mormon-related artifacts including letters and paper money.
  Several of the Mormen notes illustrated in the Alvin Rust
  book on Mormon paper money later turned out to be
  Hofmann forgeries.

  "A document blaming Brigham Young for the Mountain
  Meadows Massacre is a fake, according to a forensic expert.
  The authenticity of an inscribed lead sheet dated 1872 has
  been questioned ever since it was found by a Park Service
  volunteer inside Lee's Fort on the Colorado River in January.

  The inscription is allegedly signed by John D. Lee, who was
  executed for the 1857 massacre of 120 Arkansas emigrants
  in a mountain valley near Cedar City. Young disavowed prior
  knowledge of the incident, but Lee went to his grave saying
  he was a scapegoat. Historians have debated the issue ever
  since.

  "Clearly, and I mean positively, in my opinion the handwriting
  is not that of J.D. Lee," forensics expert William Flynn of
  Phoenix told KSL  television in a story that aired Monday night.
  Flynn went on to say that the lead inscription could be the work
  of murderer and con man Mark Hofmann.

  Flynn and George Throckmorton, manager of the Salt Lake
  Police Department's Crime Lab, were hired by the National
  Park Service earlier this month to determine the authenticity
  of the lead sheet.  Throckmorton, contacted Monday night,
  said he is still examining the document and was surprised
  Flynn had proclaimed it a fake.  The two experts attended a
  conference of forensic investigators in San Diego over the
  weekend where they discussed the lead sheet with colleagues.

  "I'm not through with it," Throckmorton said. "And I don't
  think [Flynn] is through with it. I am not going to say anything
  until I am done."   Throckmorton said he expects to be
  finished with his examination in a  matter of days.

  Throckmorton and Flynn are credited with cracking the
  Hofmann murder-forgery case in 1986. Throckmorton was
  a special agent for the Utah Attorney General's Office when
  he enlisted Flynn's help to investigate Hofmann, who eventually
  admitted murdering two people with bombs to divert attention
  from his lucrative business of forging documents he claimed
  were part of LDS Church history.   The experts exposed
  Hofmann as a forger by proving the ink on his documents
  didn't match legitimate papers from the same period.

  Flynn now says it is possible Hofmann is responsible for the
  lead scroll.

 "It is rather Hofmannesque," Flynn told the television station.
  "I found out just recently that among the items seized from
  Mark Hofmann's home were several sheets of lead."
  Hofmann is serving a life sentence at Utah State Prison"

  http://www.sltrib.com/04302002/utah/732728.htm

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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