Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers, Initial Investigations and Indictments

by Richard E. Turley Jr. (Editor), Janiece L. Johnson (Editor), LaJean Purcell Carruth (Editor)

Overview

On September 11, 1857, a group of Mormons aided by Paiute Indians brutally murdered some 120 men, women, and children traveling through a remote region of southwestern Utah. Within weeks, news of the atrocity spread across the United States. But it took until 1874—seventeen years later—before a grand jury finally issued indictments against nine of the perpetrators. Mountain Meadows Massacre chronicles the prolonged legal battle to gain justice for the victims.

The editors of this two-volume collection of documents have combed public and private manuscript collections from across the United States to reconstruct the complex legal proceedings that occurred in the massacre’s aftermath. This exhaustively researched compilation covers a nearly forty-year history of investigation and prosecution—from the first reports of the massacre to the dismissal of the last indictment in 1896. Volume 1 contains the first half of the story: the records of the official investigations into the massacre and transcriptions of all nine indictments. Eight of those indictments never resulted in a trial conviction, but the one that did is documented extensively in Volume 2.

Historians have long debated the circumstances surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre, one of the most disturbing and controversial events in American history, and painful questions linger to this day. This invaluable, exhaustively researched collection allows readers the opportunity to form their own conclusions about the forces behind this dark moment in western U.S. history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806155739
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	05/11/2017
Edition description:	Volume 1
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Richard E. Turley Jr. is Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Books he has authored, coauthored, or edited include Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case, Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy, and Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Andrew Jenson and David H. Morris Collections.


Janiece L. Johnson is Visiting Professor of Religion at Brigham Young University, Idaho.


LaJean Purcell Carruth is a historian for the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a transcriber of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century documents written in Pitman, Taylor, and Pernin shorthands.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

List of Abbreviations xiii

Chronology xv

List of People xvii

Introduction 3

Part I Initial Investigations and Activities

1 Early Reports of the Massacre 19

2 Early Military Correspondence Relating to the Massacre 45

3 Jacob Forney Investigation 63

4 Thomas L. Kane Correspondence 101

5 Conflict among the Federal Officials 113

6 James H. Carleton Report 201

7 Henry Higgins Affidavit 237

8 James Lynch Affidavit 243

9 Brigham Young's May 1859 Arrest 255

10 Efforts to Arrest Accused Massacre Participants 261

11 Preparations for Legal Defense 297

11 U.S. Senate Investigation 311

13 Territorial Court Jurisdiction and Funding 317

14 Philip Klingensmith Affidavit 331

15 Problems in Utah, According to Federal Officials 341

16 Grand Jury Activities 357

17 Jacob S. Boreman's Charges to Grand Juries 377

Part II Indictments and Related Legal Proceedings

18 Indictments and Introduction to Legal Proceedings 407

19 Legal Proceedings against John M. Higbee 447

20 Legal Proceedings against Samuel Jewkes 461

21 Legal Proceedings against William H. Dame 465

22 Legal Proceedings against William C. Stewart 491

23 Legal Proceedings against Ellott Willden 493

24 Legal Proceedings against Isaac C. Haight 505

25 Legal Proceedings against George W. Adair Jr. 511

26 Legal Proceedings against Philip Klingensmith 519

27 Legal Proceedings against John D. Lee 525

Editorial Reviews

“Richard E. Turley, Janiece L. Johnson, and LaJean Purcell Carruth have done a great service in offering the Mountain Meadows Massacre papers to the general public. The editors present the documents with an even hand, and the introductions carefully analyze each source.”—Thomas G. Alexander, author of Brigham Young, The Quorum of the Twelve, and the Latter-day Saint Investigation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre

From the Publisher