|
Motive For Murder: The Bombs, The Mormons and the Salamander.
By George J. Throckmorton, R.C. Christensen and Richard H. Casper.
Omega Publishing. 206pp. Paperback.
In October of 1985, two brutal murders shocked Mormondom. Steven Christensen,
a prominent businessman and a devout Mormon, was killed by a nail-laden pipe bomb left at his downtown Salt Lake City office.
On the same day, Kathleen Sheets, the wife of Christensen’s former business partner, was killed by a second bomb placed
at the garage of her suburban home. Twenty-four hours later, a third bomb seriously injured Mark Hofmann, a returned Mormon
missionary and a collector of documents who seemed to have an open door to the highest offices in the Mormon Church.
The murder investigation took police from the familiar world of fingerprint and
ballistics into the murky and uncharted waters of historic documents. In an investigation that lasted more than a year, George
Throckmorton and Bill Flynn, forensic document examiners, pieced together the elusive motive for the murders. The investigation
led to the imprisonment of Mark Hofmann for two life terms at the Utah State Penitentiary. It also changed forever the landscape
of forensic document examination.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
This book chronicles the investigation, as it happened, as seen through
the eyes of George Throckmorton.
After twenty years of silence, Salt Lake City Police Department forensic
document examiner George Throckmorton has finally written his account of the Mark Hofmann forgery case, naming names and revealing
new information. This is a thorough analysis of many of the most important forgeries that led to the discovery of the "crackling"
ink—which revealed Hofmann's rare finds as forgeries and unmasked Mark Hofmann as the forger, bomber, and murderer.
A chapter at the end of the book provides photographs of major documents
in the Hofmann case, and a detailed analysis of the White Salamander Letter, The Oath Of A Freeman, The Anthon
Manuscript, Issac Galland Note, and the General Dunham Letter. Also, Throckmorton and his colleges believe
they have pieced together a motive, the single piece of the puzzle that has eluded the legal establishment for twenty years.
Fifteen chapters trace the history of Mark William Hofmann and his twenty-two year career as a forger. The book was hastily
compiled and rushed into print for a Hofmann Symposium in October of 2005 and printed in an edition of 150 copies.
This is an insider's view of the Hofmann affair and contains never before
revealed information.
$20.00
Purchase Now
|
|
|
|
|
