In the Salt Lake City Messenger for July 1990, we reported that Ed Decker claimed he had received a "call from a man who told him he was part of an assassination team that received directions from a member of the First Presidency in the Mormon Church. According to Decker, the man said that three people had been marked for death. One of the authors (Jerald Tanner) was among that number and was to be killed with a bomb." We found it very hard to believe that a member of the First Presidency would be involved with an assassination team. That they would use a bomb to commit a murder seemed even more unlikely. The Hofmann scandal clearly demonstrated how much publicity the use of bombs can generate. Would the Mormon leaders be so foolish as to bring national attention to the problems they have with us by using a bomb?
We had almost forgotten about this supposed threat to our lives when Darrick Evenson came into our bookstore on April 22, 1991. After the confrontation which ensued and Mr. Evenson was asked to leave the premises, he made a very strange statement; he referred to the murderous plan mentioned above and suggested that there may really be something to it and that we should take it as being a serious threat. While we still could not believe that a member of the First Presidency [Gordon B. Hinckley] would be involved in such a project, we began to wonder what Evenson knew about the phone call. Could it be possible that he or one of his associates made such a call in an attempt to cause fear and dissension among the ministries? He, in fact, knew that Ed Decker had been leveling serious charges against Hinckley for some time and seemed to be very angry about the matter. Perhaps he wanted Decker to make some foolish move against Hinckley. While we may never know whether Darrick Evenson knew anything about the origin of the mysterious phone call, it seems obvious that he was so upset about being asked to leave our bookstore that he used the incident in an attempt to strike terror into our hearts.
From all that we can learn, Darrick Evenson has a reputation for being very combative. In the interview on Mike Mistretta's radio program on KHEP, Ed Decker suggested that Darrick Evenson may be a dangerous man: "...every single person I've talked to, Mormons included, have just said to me in the final analysis because of his extreme hatred toward me... they've said, 'Ed, this man is dangerous. He scares me.'... just about every single person I've spoken to [have said], 'he scares me.'... one man said, 'you know I'm a married man with four kids, I'm a Mormon but you know my wife gets real nervous around him... he scares us.' "
Trojan Horses In Mormon Land.