"Drastic Measures Were Called For"

[_Runtu]

There's a fascinating article about Mark Hofmann in the Salt Lake Tribune today (the condensed version is in the Deseret News, natch). The article discusses Hofmann's four-page letter entitled "A Summary of My Crimes," which he wrote to the board of pardons in 1988.

I've often wondered what it is that can drive a person to perpetrate a fraud and then continue in it, even when other people's lives and livelihoods may be destroyed. I can't relate to that. I guess I don't have it in me to do such a thing to other people. But throughout history, fraudsters have destroyed anyone they could get their hands on, and this letter helps me understand. Here is a man who carried out a five-year career of forgery, and rather than allow himself to be caught, he was willing to kill two others and himself.

His career as a forger seems to have started with a childhood need to impress others:

"As far back as I can remember I have liked to impress people through my deceptions," Hofmann wrote in a January 1988 letter to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. "Fooling people gave me a sense of power and superiority. I believe this is what led to my forging activities. ... [At age 12] I figured out some crude ways to fool other collectors by altering coins to make them appear more desirable," Hofmann wrote. "By the time I was 14, I had developed a forgery technique which I felt was undetectable. I exuded [sic] in impressing other collectors and dealers with my rare coins."

"Money was not the object," insisted Hofmann, who said he never sold a forgery until he was 24. By then, his interest had shifted from U.S. coins to Mormon money, which he created with the help of old ink recipes.

From an early age, then, successfully deceiving people gave him a "sense of power and superiority," and that was enough to motivate him to create an "undetectable" forgery technique. Obviously, it's impossible to know why Hofmann needed or wanted that power and authority. Perhaps he had a narcissistic personality or maybe he was just a psychopath, incapable of caring for anyone but himself.

At times he apparently felt some guilt from his activities: "He writes that during what he called his 'life of crime,' he had 'learned to live with the inherent stress, guilt and fears through rationalization and hypnosis.'"

He was able to rationalize quite a bit, apparently. When planning the murders, "for example, for the first time in my life I took an interest in the obituaries," he wrote. "I believe I was trying to convince myself of the worthlessness of life and of life's unfairness. I told myself that my survival and that of my family was the most important thing."

Hofmann also told himself that his intended victims might die that day in a car accident or from a heart attack, and he thought about "the Nazi Holocaust, the earthquake in Mexico and other disasters."

He spoke of his "toying" with the religious faith of other as ""experimentation ... to see why they believe what they do."

Ultimately, however, what mattered was not getting caught. ""The most important thing in my mind was to keep from being exposed as a fraud in front of my friends and family," Hofmann wrote. "When I say this was the most important thing I mean it literally. I felt I would rather take human life or even my own life rather than to be exposed. ... At the time I was not even sure who the victim(s) would be, only that drastic measures were called for."

Think about that: his identity was so intertwined with the fraud that he would rather kill others and himself than be exposed for who and what he was.

For years, people have been telling me that no one would willingly go to their grave to avoid being exposed as a fraud. Hofmann is solid evidence to the contrary.

[_harmony]

Think about that: his identity was so intertwined with the fraud that he would rather kill others and himself than be exposed for who and what he was.

What do you want to bet none of the Brethren see Joseph Smith in this article?

For years, people have been telling me that no one would willingly go to their grave to avoid being exposed as a fraud. Hofmann is solid evidence to the contrary.

What do you want to bet none of the Brethren or our esteemed apologists see the witnesses in this article?

[_Buffalo]

Joseph was obviously interested in impressing people too, with his earlier peep stone chicanery.

[_Fence Sitter]

Emma & polygamy.

[_Runtu]

Emma & polygamy.

Fawn Brodie has been widely ridiculed by apologists for suggesting that perhaps Joseph stuck with the deception because he didn't want to be exposed to Emma and everyone else he cared about. For me, that explanation seems a little more plausible now.

[_mentalgymnast]

"As far back as I can remember I have liked to impress people through my deceptions...

Ephesians 2:3
"Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."

Hoffman may have had a predilection towards the evil that he committed. No argument, I would assume, that through his actions the Book of Mormon's teachings concerning opposition were put into play. I suppose the question that hangs on everyone's mind is whether or not any greater good was or will be accomplished as a result of the Hoffman saga. The saga and its aftermath led many individuals down uniquely different paths.

Regards,
MG

[_badseed]

Just read a book on Hoffman (Salamander) and it's clear that what he did was not about the money. It began in his early years and his actions seem to suggest that it was about power and toying with others. There's a need to feel superior mixed in there somewhere.

Runtu, your comment about Hoffman turning to drastic measures in order to maintain the illusion he had created is interesting. I remember Mark Hacking (different Mark, same drastic measures) husband of a missing woman in Utah who confessed to killing his wife because she had discovered that he had been lying about 1) graduating from the University of Utah and 2) being accepted to medical school. She had found out that he had been deceiving her and the rest of his family and his solution was to kill her— his 5-weeks pregnant wife. I remember thinking "That's insane. Why didn't he just come clean fess up and divorce if need be. He didn't have to murder her." Seems though that for some people the need to try to keep up appearances/the illusion is so strong that virtually nothing is off limits.

In a conference talk October a year ago in Jeffery Holland claimed he knew Joseph Smith would not have read the Book of Mormon (and thereby mock God) in Carthage if it were a fraud knowing they were to die soon—proving to Holland it indeed is not a fraud. I have argued that Joseph Smith actually didn't he would die that June 27th— but even if he did, I think history has shown that people will do just about anything to keep the illusion going, even with their backs against the wall.

[_harmony]

In a conference talk October a year ago in Jeffery Holland claimed he knew Joseph Smith would not have read the Book of Mormon (and thereby mock God) in Carthage if it were a fraud knowing they were to die soon—proving to Holland it indeed is not a fraud. I have argued that Joseph Smith actually didn't he would die that June 27th— but even if he did, I think history has shown that people will do just about anything to keep the illusion going, even with their backs against the wall.

Elder Holland and the rest of our leaders, and a huge majority of our members, do not... do NOT... want to know about anything about Joseph that conflicts with the one-dimensional stand up cut out that passes for reality in SLCentral.

Real reality bites.

[_zeezrom]

Facsinating Runtu. Interesting how we desire most to get into the minds in which we suspect deceit.

Is it a sense of betrayal that does this?

[_Fence Sitter]

Emma & polygamy.

Fawn Brodie has been widely ridiculed by apologists for suggesting that perhaps Joseph stuck with the deception because he didn't want to be exposed to Emma and everyone else he cared about. For me, that explanation seems a little more plausible now.

I mentioned Emma and polygamy because I think she is a great example of maintaining appearances to the contrary. She did this through her denial of what she knew to be true. After Joseph Smith died she steadfastly denied that he had ever practiced polygamy, not to protect Joseph in my opinion, but to elevate her own status as someone who would not have allowed such a thing to transpire.