From: press2@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (barry.o.olson)
Subject: McLellin Collection Suppressed PT 8 of 10
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 03:51:26 GMT
Keywords: Tanner Nov. Newsletter/Hoffman bombings/suppresion



This is the eighth article broken down into 10 parts from Gerald
and Sandra Tanner's November "Salt Lake City Messanger" newsletter.
For those who need this info and couldn't obtain by hard-copy.
This is an FYI only production. Critique as you like.



SALT LAKE CITY MESSENGER          (Issue #83 - November 1992)
Utah Lighthouse Ministry
Po Box 1884,
Salt Lake City, Utah 84110


        Mormon Leaders Suppress "Key" Item in Murder Case
  The True McLellin Documents Found in First Presidency's Vault!



        Mormon leaders were not only uncooperative with
investigators when it came to providing historical documents, but
they were secretive regarding other matters as well. The book,
_Mormon Murders_, claimed that a detective by the name of John
Foster wanted to get a copy of a page from "the Church
Administration Building log" which showed Hofmann had come to
the church offices on a certain day. According to Naifeh and
Smith, when Foster "went to pick up the photocopy, every entry
except the one relating to Hofmann had been whited out... giving
police no way to determine if relevant entries had been whited
out along with irrelevant ones." (page 302)

        Richard Turley, on the other hand, maintained that "the
log photocopy attached to Foster's police report has no
whited-out entries. Investigative Information Memo #840..."
(_Victims_, page 439, footnote 1) After making this point,
however, Turley turns right around and says that "there was one
Administrative Building log page on which extraneous entries were
whited out before being given to police. It was a page for
October 15, 1985, that was furnished to investigators who asked
when Hofmann met with [Apostle] Dallin Oaks on that day. The
unmasked entry answered their question, and they did not ask to
see the other entries, which had been whited out because they
were irrelevant to the question and because church officials felt
ethically bound to protect church visitors' privacy unless
required by investigators to do otherwise." (Ibid., pages 439-40)

        That the Mormon Church would find it necessary to hide
such information from the police is certainly strange. We would
expect that type of reaction from the CIA or the FBI but to have
a church which proclaims that it operates "in full light" with
"no secrecy about its doctrine, aim, or purpose" behave in such a
manner makes one rather curious as to what is really going on. It
also seems strange that there was no attempt to force the church
leaders to produce the original log. While there may not have
been anything else of importance in the log, the fact that most
of the material was deleted would make one wonder if Hofmann met
with Apostle Oaks more than once on the day of the two murders or
if other important figures involved with Hofmann or the McLellin
transaction were in Oaks' office that day. The entire log book
should have been subpoenaed and thoroughly examined for all
meetings between church leaders and Hofmann as well as others who
were in any way associated with Hofmann's document deals. We
seriously doubt that other people in Salt Lake City would have
received the preferential treatment which the LDS leaders
received in the Hofmann investigation.

        At any rate, on page 247 of his book, Richard Turley
admits that this was not the only time that the church
"removed or masked information" provided to investigators:

                "When Mike George delivered one [subpoena] the
        next day, the county's request had expanded to 'any
        records, check out slips, logs, cards, or other
        documentation of visits to the LDS Church Historical
        Archives and the documents, books, catalogs, letters
        information, etc' that Hofmann and five others had used
        since 1975....

                "The next day, February 20, a county investigator
        delivered a subpoena to the church's Missionary
        Department asking for missionary records pertaining to
        Hofmann and one of his associates.... library circulation
        records and missionary records dealt with living
        individuals and thus raised issues of privacy that were
        hot topics among legal scholars, librarians, and
        archivists across the United Slates. Church officials
        felt a responsibility to comply with the subpoenas while
        at the same time fulfilling their legal and ethical
        responsibility to safeguard the privacy of living
        individuals. Thus in responding to requests for
        information officials sometimes removed or masked
        information not specifically required by the
        investigators. When Kirton received the missionary
        records, he reviewed them and eliminated portions not
        required by the subpoena.... On February 27, Kirton sent
        the screened materials on to the county."

        Although the title of Richard Turley's book begins with
the word _Victims_, it is basically the story of only one victim,
the Mormon Church. The story of the real victims of the tragedy
seems to be glossed over. While we have to agree that the church
was a victim of Mark Hofmann's devious plans, we feel that
Richard Turley, Apostle Dallin Oaks and other church officials
have painted a role of martyrdom which does not fit with the
facts.

        When a person carefully examines the evidence, it becomes
evident that church leaders shot themselves in the foot. The
Mormon church hierarchy must accept a great deal of blame for the
tone of the books and articles which have tended to embarrass the
church. The fact that church leaders alienated a significant
number of the investigators who worked on the Hofmann case with
their secrecy and lack of cooperation seems to have made a very
negative impression on the authors who interviewed them.

        It seems that the Mormon leaders and the investigators
were on a collision course from the day of the bombings. Church
officials felt that in order to prevent embarrassment to the
church they had to remain as quiet as possible about the McLellin
collection Hofmann had dreamed up and the role Hofmann,
Christensen and Sorenson were playing in its suppression. The
investigators, on the other hand, needed thus very information to
solve the murder case. Although the Mormon leaders' main concern
seems to have been to protect the church and themselves from
embarrassment, they ended up obstructing the investigation,
wasting the valuable time of investigators and, consequently,
delaying the arrest of the murderer.
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