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Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders with a New Afterword

Drawing from 1000s of pages of police reports, court documents, interviews, letters & diaries, Sillitoe's & Roberts's narrative cuts thru the complexities of this famous crime investigation to deliver a gripping, Capote-esque tale. They embrace the details, then lay them out systematically as seen thru the eyes of the detectives, victims & perpetrator. The darkest secrets unravel gradually, allowing readers fleeting glimpses of the infamous salamander as it ducks in & out of its fabricator's head. What was the salamander letter & why were so many people determined to possess & conceal it? Why was this one of the most unusual cases in American forensic history? A skilled con artist by anyone's assessment, Mark Hofmann eluded exposure by police & document authenticators — the FBI, Library of Congress, the LDS church historical department & polygraph experts — until George Throckmorton discovered the tell-tale microscopic alligatoring that was characteristic of the forgeries. What ensued was a suspense-ridden cat-&-mouse game between seasoned prosecutors & a clever, homicidal criminal. In the end, this story verifies the saying that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 570
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780941214872
  • Characters
  • Mark Hoffmann
  • Settings
  • United States of America
  • Genres
  • religion, history, mormonism, crime, lds, biography
  • Release date
  • 1990