American Crucifixion The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church

Alex Beam

eBook - 2014

A gripping account of the mob killing of Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism“American Crucifixion paints a brilliant picture of religious experimentation, public intolerance, and the making of a martyr.”—Chicago Tribune On June 27, 1944, in the dusty frontier town of Carthage, Illinois, Joseph Smith and three of his associates waited anxiously in a jail cell. The dynamic founding prophet of Mormonism no longer had a congregation to preach to: now the mob outside his window carried muskets and cartridge belts. All that stood between Smith and this murderous crowd was a thin wooden door. In American Crucifixion, Alex Beam tells how Smith went from charismatic leader to public enemy: How his most seismic revelation—the doctrine of polyg...amy—created a rift among his people; how that schism turned to violence; and how, ultimately, Smith could not escape the consequences of his ambition and pride. Mormonism... more