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A few weeks ago, I interviewed Curt Bench, a friend of Mark Hofmann. I have a forthcoming interview with Shannon Flynn, who worked closely with Hofmann. I suspect most of you know who Mark is, but in case you don’t, Mark was notorious for forging Mormon documents (as well as Betsy Ross, Daniel Boone, and coins.) He killed 2 people and injured himself with pipe bombs, and is now in jail. There’s a chance I might be able to interview him in prison. What questions would you ask Mark if you had the opportunity?
That would be very interesting. Beyond the “why?” I’d be curious to know of his “testimony” or belief in the church, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith as a prophet, and so forth. Was part of the reason he did the forgeries to support the restoration ideal or was it to eventually discredit it, the founders, and subsequent prophets? (I am not sure he has admitted guilt to the forgeries, and my experience with prisoners is that if they have not admitted guilt – and most haven’t – they will not directly answer questions which might make them appear guilty.) I’m interested what his perception is of Mormon leaders and if they were confident they were following the spirit when dealing with him…or if any of those discussions came up. My interest is in what brought him to a place where he would do what he did. Not, “Why did you do it?” as much as, “How did you get to the point where you could do that?”
I understand that he wanted to discredit the church. The “Salamander Letter” was an explicit reference to folk magic and church leaders actually took some steps to try to explain or rationalize it. I believe that he is an atheist now. I would start by asking him if he has any regrets. If he could go back in time where would he choose to make a different path? Would it be the murders? the forgeries? some act that helped him to loose his testimony? going on an LDS mission? When would he choose to go back and change the trajectory?
I suppose the second question is if he went through multiple failed attempts at his forged ink mixture before he got the right combination or if he hit upon it pretty much right away.
Third would be about his reported friendship to Ron Lafferty. What do they share in common? How are they different?
What is his belief in God? I’m sure he has had time to think about it. These are awesome questions! My question is this: Who was the 3rd bomb intended for?
As for his belief in God, Shannon Flynn told me that he was there in the hospital when Mark admitted to his family he is an atheist. gospeloftangents, I don’t have any questions I’d like to ask him, but could you get him to sign my book, “Victims” which is about his crimes? Alternatively, I guess I could just sign his name on it myself and save the hassle.
On Own Now wrote:
gospeloftangents,I don’t have any questions I’d like to ask him, but could you get him to sign my book, “Victims” which is about his crimes? Alternatively, I guess I could just sign his name on it myself and save the hassle.
😆 😆 I’d like to know if he had a faith crisis, and if so, what caused it. gospeltangents wrote:
As for his belief in God, Shannon Flynn told me that he was there in the hospital when Mark admitted to his family he is an atheist.
Sometimes individuals “find Jesus” in prison. I wonder if in time his thoughts have gone there.On Own Now for the win! Seriously, that was an awesomely hilarious comment!
Heber13 wrote:
I’m interested what his perception is of Mormon leaders and if they were confident they were following the spirit when dealing with him…or if any of those discussions came up.
Yes, because there are two ways to look at what the church leaders did by buying his crap: 1) they were duped into thinking this stuff was legit, or 2) they didn’t necessarily believe it was true, but saw that either way it would be potentially damaging and better to have in their control. The Salamander Letter specifically was incredibly problematic if true, but again, even if not true, having it out there just meant people would think it was. That’s the kind of thing I want to know.
Hofmann seems pretty straightforward to me. He felt the Church was a very influential and far reaching con, with even the top Church leaders being decieved. And so he tried to con it. Then he got greedy, strectched too far, was in the process of getting caught, and tried to cover it up. I don’t think his desires went much beyond money. Maybe to get back at the Church. Still, I’d be interested to know what it was that disillusioned him from the Church.
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