Joseph Smith Jr. is considered the founder of Mormonism. Having been taught the canonical Joseph Smith History as a child, I learned that Joseph met his end at the hands of a mob that stormed the Carthage Jail.(1) A new documentary, titled Who Killed Joseph Smith?, sheds light on the event by presenting the currently debated theories for what really happened on that day.(2) I found the documentary very compelling.
While the evidence and proposed narratives may be a bit jarring to an orthodox believer of the faith, such ideas are not new. To his credit, the filmmaker included the testimony of Katherine Smith, Joseph’s younger sister, and she has stated clearly, in no uncertain terms, her version of events.
In fact, there are many things which Joseph’s closest family members have testified to over the years which the mainline LDS church has flatly contradicted. For example, Emma Smith repeatedly claimed that she was Joseph’s only wife, and that Joseph had no connection with polygamy. From Wikipedia:
“Rumors concerning polygamy and other practices surfaced by 1842. Emma publicly condemned polygamy and denied any involvement by her husband. Emma authorized and was the main signatory of a petition in summer 1842 with a thousand female signatures, denying Joseph Smith was connected with polygamy. As president of the Ladies’ Relief Society, she authorized the publishing of a certificate in October 1842 denouncing polygamy and denying her husband as its creator or participant. In March 1844, Emma published:
“‘We raise our voices and hands against John C. Bennett’s “spiritual wife system”, as a scheme of profligates to seduce women; and they that harp upon it, wish to make it popular for the convenience of their own cupidity; wherefore, while the marriage bed, undefiled is honorable, let polygamy, bigamy, fornication, adultery, and prostitution, be frowned out of the hearts of honest men to drop in the gulf of fallen nature.'”(3)
There are many independent researchers studying the history of Joseph Smith. There are even those who claim that it was Brigham Young who was responsible for the destruction of the Nauvoo Temple and the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum. While I will not personally attest to the accuracy of any of these theories, I will say that it is very fascinating how even some of the “eccentric” views can fit in squarely with much of the available evidence.
The more I look into the history of Joseph Smith, the more convinced I become that there are questions still unanswered. History shows that the very same men who stood to gain most from the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum did gain, and now that a case has been laid against them, I think that it would be wise to give this research some attention.
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