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Published in 2008,
Massacre at Mountain Meadows was a bombshell of a book, revealing the story of one of the worst moments in Latter-day Saint history, when settlers in southwestern Utah slaughtered more than 100 members of a California-bound wagon train in 1857. In this much-anticipated sequel, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown examine the aftermath of this horrific event, tracing the stories of perpetrators and survivors alike, showing how southern Utah leaders worked to silence participants and witnesses in an attempted cover up, and answering the question of what role, if any, Brigham Young played in the cover-up.
List of contents
- 1. The Angel of Peace Should Extend His Wings
- 2. Sermons Like Pitch Forks
- 3. Imposed Upon No More
- 4. Too Late
- 5. Forget Everything
- 6. The Sound of War
- 7. An Awful Tale of Blood
- 8. Indians Hostile to All Strangers
- 9. The Spirit of the Times
- 10. A Lion in the Path
- 11. Make the Mormons Pay
- 12. Fearful Calamities
- 13. Peacefully Submitting
- 14. The Moment Is Critical
- 15. Make All Inquiry
- 16. Join the Know Nothings
- 17. A Line of Policy
- 18. An Inquisition
- 19. Bring to Light the Perpetrators
- 20. Nothing But Evasive Replies
- 21. Make Diligent Inquiry
- 22. Approach of the Troops
- 23. Catching Is Before Hanging
- 24. Precious Legacies from the Departed Ones
- 25. Unwilling to Rest Under the Stigma
- 26. The Course Adopted Will Not Prove Successful
- 27. Vengeance is Mine
- 28. In the Midst of a Desolating War
- 29. Too Horrible to Contemplate
- 30. Cut Off
- 31. Boiling Conditions
- 32. Zeal O'erleaped Itself
- 33. The Time Has Come
- 34. Do You Plead Guilty
- 35. Open the Ball
- 36. Make a Clean Breast of It
- 37. A Lively Skirmish
- 38. The Curtain Has Fallen
- 39. Coerce Me to Make a Statement
- 40. Mr. Howard Gives Promise
- 41. The Responsibility Before You
- 42. Sufficient to Warrant a Verdict
- 43. The Demands of Justice
- 44. Allow the Law to Take Its Course
- 45. Under Sentence of Death
- 46. Failure to Arrest These Men
- 47. Haunted
- Notes
About the author
Richard E. Turley Jr. was a long-time historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a co-author of Massacre at Mountain Meadows. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis Award and the Historic Preservation Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Turley also represented relatives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre victims in their successful petition of the federal government to grant National Historic Landmark status for the atrocity site.
Barbara Jones Brown is the director of Signature Books Publishing and former executive director of the Mormon History Association. She also provided content editing for Massacre at Mountain Meadows. She holds an M.A. in American history from the University of Utah and a B.A. in journalism and English from Brigham Young University. While researching her genealogy after beginning work on Vengeance Is Mine, Brown discovered that, like the earlier Mountain Meadows Massacre historian, Juanita Brooks, she is a direct descendant of one of its perpetrators.
Summary
The long-awaited follow-up to the groundbreaking Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Published in 2008, Massacre at Mountain Meadows was a bombshell of a book, revealing the story of one of the grimmest episodes in Latter-day Saint history, when settlers in southwestern Utah slaughtered more than 100 members of a California-bound wagon train in 1857. In this much-anticipated sequel, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown examine the aftermath of this atrocity.
Vengeance Is Mine documents southern Utah leaders' attempts to cover up their crime by silencing witnesses and spreading lies. Investigations by both governmental and church bodies were stymied by stonewalling and political wrangling. While nine men were eventually indicted, five were captured and only one, John D. Lee, was executed.
The book examines the maneuvering of the defense and prosecution in Lee's two trials, the second ending in Lee's conviction. Turley and Brown explore the fraught relationship between Lee and church president Brigham Young, and assess what role, if any, Young played in the cover-up. And they trace the fates of the other perpetrators, including the harrowing end of Nephi Johnson, who screamed "Blood! Blood! Blood!" in his delirium as he was dying, more than sixty years after the massacre.
Turley and Brown also tell the story of the massacre's few survivors: seventeen children who witnessed the slaughter and eventually returned to Arkansas, where the ill-fated wagon train originated.
Vengeance Is Mine brings the hitherto untold story of this shameful episode in Mormon and Utah history to its dramatic conclusion.
Additional text
It must be stated that Turley and Brown completed in this book the kind of scholarship that could scarcely be dreamt of, let alone produced, even a generation ago. It is well done "hard history," and for Utah, it is a much-needed healing history.
