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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.
Shannon Flynn said it is relatively easy to find old ink recipes, and indicated that Mark did these forgeries with no practice. I find that hard to believe, but that’s what Shannon said. Shannon’s interview should be released in October, which is the “anniversary” (for lack of a better word) of the bombings.
Quote:Sometimes individuals “find Jesus” in prison. I wonder if in time his thoughts have gone there.
I’m trying to decide if I should give away too much, but once again, Shannon answers this in my upcoming interview. I don’t think Mark will ever find Jesus, but Shannon had some interesting things to say about Mark’s “religion.”
Quote: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 think it would be good to get Mark’s answer for sure, but Curt Bench answered that in this interview:
https://gospeltangents.com/2017/06/03/lds-leaders-detected-hofmann-fraud/ ” class=”bbcode_url”> https://gospeltangents.com/2017/06/03/lds-leaders-detected-hofmann-fraud/ Mark initially denied trying to affect church history, but then admitted to it. It seems that Mark was disillusioned with the church long before his mission, but maintained appearances in order to peddle his forgeries. Curt said he was like a chameleon, appearing devout when it served his purposes, and then anti when that served his purposes. He was great at compartmentalizing.
There’s an interesting interview with Brent Metcalfe on Mormon Stories talking about his interactions with Mark Hoffman. I’m sure you’ve listened, but if not, you could get some good insights and ideas on what to ask him by listening to Brent’s story again: http://www.mormonstories.org/brent-metcalfe-mark-hofmann-salamander-letter-bombings/ http://www.mormonstories.org/brent-metcalfe-hofmann-bombings-excommunication-book-of-mormon/ gospeltangents wrote:Curt said he was like a chameleon, appearing devout when it served his purposes, and then anti when that served his purposes. He was great at compartmentalizing.
Was Mark ever diagnosed with any mental illness of any kind?Shannon said no to sociopath, psychopath, he was loving with his family. No mental issues, but he did test into the Mensa scale. So, FWIW, I wouldn’t believe anything that Mark Hofmann would have to say about his motivation, his life now, his morals, religion, faith crisis, family, or anything else. He is a murderer who took the lives of two innocent people for nothing more than to take attention off of his already-felony schemes. Those are facts he has admitted to. I try not to be black & white about much, but that’s a line that I cannot straddle. The murders far outweigh any other aspect of his crimes and the murders were about self preservation; nothing to do with the Church. My heart goes out to the families of Steven Christensen and Kathy Sheets.
I tend to agree with OON’s take on this. I wouldn’t want to ask Hoffman anything, simply because I wouldn’t want to give him the impression that I cared enough to ask. I wouldn’t want to give him the satisfaction of thinking that anybody outside of his four walls is still interested in him. Even though I am interested in the response to my question from a clinical standpoint, I actually do agree with OON from a personal perspective. The fact that he is a habitual liar also wouldn’t give me a lot of confidence in his answer to my question, even if I was sitting with him doing the questioning.
Most of these questions have been answered in books and interviews of people who were close to him. He was supposed to tell all after he was sentenced and in prison, but those interviews fell apart after a while. OON has the right idea and my understanding is he wouldn’t take visitors or talk to anyone anyway. 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.
I would be interested in that too.
I’d be inclined to read and research all past interviews that have been held with him to find out what his thinking is, and then to ask him to expand on parts. Or ask entirely new questions.
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