Parley P. Pratt's body to be moved to Utah

[_Inconceivable]

So what is the Truth about McLean's adulterous wife etc?

[_Sethbag]

Here's an article I found from a descendant of PPP. It's obviously sympathetic to him and Eleanor McLean.

I find it interesting that the article seems to attempt to justify or rationalize her bigamy, saying that "Whatever the legal situation, she thought of herself as an unmarried woman." Well, the problem is that the legal situation was that she wasn't an unmarried woman. She was legally and lawfully married to Hector McLean. I'm also quite interested by the fact that Hector sent the children to Eleanor's parents, and that Eleanor's own father took precautions to prevent her running away with the children. He knew her way better than any of us, and apparently considered that situation to be something to be avoided. I must wonder why? What did her father know or think about her that made him wish to keep her from running off with the children?

Interesting stuff.

[_sunstoned]

Apostle George A. Smith launched a brief but interesting legal career as Egan's defense attorney. He argued it was "a principle of mountain common law that no man can seduce the wife of another without endangering his own life." The jury agreed with Smith's logic: "The man who seduces his neighbor's wife must die, and her nearest relative must kill him!"

I wonder if the jury had either been shielded from information about the Nauvoo experience, if it had been forgotten or if Mormon mores has changed considerably by that time?

The argument by George A. Smith is also found in the Journal of Discourses 1:95. I found it to be a troubling read 20 years ago when I first came upon it.

Smith believed that Egan was fully justified in hunting down James Monroe and murdering him for seducing his wife.

George A. Smith was also instrumental in creating the explosive atmosphere that lead up to the MMM.