Difference between revisions of "Murder of Samuel H. Smith"

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Criticism

Critics charge that Hosea Stout murdered Joseph's brother, Samuel H. Smith, under instructions from the Quorum of the Twelve to prevent him from threatening the Twelve's ascension to power after the martyrdom.

Source(s) of the criticism

• Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (Anchor, 2004), 194 (quoting Quinn).
• D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 153.

Response

Craig L. Foster notes of this claim:

Quinn bases this statement on the June 1892 letter of William Smith to a Brother Kelley. The letter was written almost forty-eight years after Samuel Smith's death and William Smith's bitter estrangement from Brigham Young and the other apostles. In addition, while Mary B. Smith Norman, Samuel Smith's daughter, claimed in 1908 that her father had been poisoned, there appear to be no contemporary sources indicating death by poisoning. Furthermore, while no one who has read Stout's diary would contest accusations of violence, even leading to death, there is no evidence whatsoever that Stout murdered Smith. Quinn acknowledges this lack. Even so, he still places credence in a rather tenuous assortment of evidence. Krakauer, on his part, appears to have read Quinn's book and either ignored the extensive endnotes on this matter or chose not to mention the serious lack of facts supporting Quinn's assertion.^[1]

Endnotes

1. [note]  Craig L. Foster, "Doing Violence to Journalistic Integrity (Review of: "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of a Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004): 149–174. off-site