Dates

• Existence: born 1954

Biographical History

Mark Hofmann (born 1954) is a convicted forger and murderer in Utah.

Mark W. Hofmann was born December 7, 1954 and grew up in the Salt Lake Valley, eventually graduating from Olympus High School and serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the England Southwest Mission. Hofmann seriously considered a career in medicine and he took a pre-med course of study at Utah State University in Logan.

Despite his original interests in medicine, Hofmann eventually became a coin collector, and by 1978 was also a serious student of Mormon documents. He sold his first Mormon document in October 1979. From then until 1985 he was active in hunting down and studying both Mormon and American historical documents, finding spectacular items month after month. Historians and document dealers repeatedly agreed that his docusments seemed to be authentic.

The prices and the publicity seemed to increase with each discovery. Some of the documents purportedly challenged traditional stories of early Mormonism while others fit neatly into the generally accepted history but added details not known before. Hofmann made a point of selling many of his discoveries to Mormon buyers.

While Hofmann's documents at first seemed legitimate, eventually their validity was questioned. In order to prevent his forgeries from being unraveled, Hofmann constructed bombs to murder several targets who could possibly speak out against him. He succeeded in murdering two individuals, but Hofmann himself fell victim to one of his own bombs, which ultimately caused the police to suspect him as the man behind the other bombings. It is argued that Hofmann committed the murders to hide his own guilt and fraud. Hofmann was officially charged with two counts of murder and twenty-three counts of theft by deception and communications fraud on February 3, 1986.

A preliminary hearing was held from April 14 to May 13, 1986, and much of 1986 was spent in the airing of charges and counter-charges, mostly in the press. Finally on January 23, 1987, as a result of a plea bargain, Hofmann pled guilty to two counts of communications fraud (for the Martin Harris letter and the McLellin Papers) and admitted guilty to the bombings. Twenty-six other counts were dismissed, and Hofmann agreed to be interviewed about the murders and documents. He was assigned to Utah State Prison with a life sentence. He remains there to this day.

On July 31, 1987 the County Attorney's office released the six hundred page transcript of the interviews its staff had conducted with Hofmann from February 11 to May 27. In these, Hofmann confessed that all the documents listed on statement of probable cause were forged. He also described in some detail how he created the forgeries.

Some forgeries made by Mark Hofmann are still in circulation, and he is still regarded as one of the most successful forgers of his time.

Citation:

Hofmann Interviews, case of State [Utah] vs. Hofmann, February 11, 1987 through May 15, 1987, 1987: (t.p. Hofmann; p. 3 Mark Hofmann plea agreement accompanying LC copy)

Sillitoe, L. Salamander, 1988: p. 198, etc. (Mark Hofmann; Mark W. Hofmann; Mark William Hofmann; b. Dec. 7, 1954)

Practice to deceive, 2000: pages 295-342, June 2017 (Mark William Hofmann, born 7 December 1954; forger of early documents especially associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormons)

Wikipedia, via WWW, 25 March 2015 (Mark William Hofmann: born in Salt Lake City, Utah; became coin collector; served mission in England; started school at Utah State; interested in LDS Church history; long list of forgeries; bombings in 1985; will remain in prison for life for murder, forgery and fraud)

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