In season 3, the LDS Church conspires to buy an antique letter from Alby that seems to be damaging to the church, but turns out to be a forgery. It is a reference to the Mark Hofmann "Salamander letter" scandal of the mid-1980s. Hofmann, an ex-Mormon and a talented forger, "discovered" multiple letters and documents purportedly written by Joseph Smith and other founders of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Some of the documents cast the church or its founders in an unflattering light. The most famous, the so-called "Salamander letter," seemed to prove that when Joseph Smith had the foundational Mormon revelation, instead of being visited by the angel Moroni, he had actually seen a talking salamander. The LDS church was unable to determine if the letter was authentic, and it was sold for $40,000 to a devout Mormon who intended to donate it to the church to hide it. After Mormon critics exposed Hofmann as a forger, and the Salamander letter and his other "discoveries" as fakes, Hofmann became desperate and killed two people, including the man who had purchased the letter. The church was heavily criticized for being unable to determine that Hofmann's works were forgeries. As of December 2010, Hofmann is serving a life sentence at the Utah State Prison in Draper. He was moved to the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, Utah, in 2016.
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05-03-2025 alle ore 08:30
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