Original subtitles

[tense music building]

[man] Can I ask a favor?

Don't make me answer that.

Don't make me answer that.

Let somebody else do it.

I don't wanna make a hero out of him.

Because he was fantastic.

[static crackling]

[ominous music playing]

No one has come close to doing what he has done.

-[man 1] Officer? -[man 2] One male fatality.

The calm of Salt Lake City, Utah, was rocked today by two booby-trap bombs

that left two people dead.

[man 3] …a morning of fear and death.

The first explosion ripped through a downtown office building, killing a man.

The second explosion outside a Holladay home claimed another life.

There was dark talk involving religious documents, hired professional killers.

A Watergate-style cover-up,

and one of the wealthiest,

if not most wealthy, church in America involved,

the Mormon Church.

[man 4] There is a common thread that seems to connect all the victims.

[man 5] A mysterious Salamander letter.

[man 4] The Salamander letter challenges

the Mormon Church's account of its own origin.

The bombing's impact has drawn the Church into an uncomfortable spotlight:

Murder among the Mormons.

[somber, suspenseful music playing]

[dramatic music plays]

[explodes]

[gentle, mysterious music plays]

[man] What I love the most about treasure stories,

they're always about lost treasures, you know?

Whether we're looking for Atlantis or the Titanic or whatever,

there's a lot of treasure out there.

But the thing is, treasure stories always have the same ending.

The treasure is temporarily found.

But then some calamity happens, and the treasure's lost again.

[upbeat music playing]

You know, the old airplane pilot joke about,

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're landing in Salt Lake City.

Set your watch back ten years."

It's an old chestnut.

-[church bell tolling] -It's a very conservative community.

The state of Utah has long been the home of the Mormons.

[narrator] Mormons are members of a worldwide church,

headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We'd like you to meet the Mormons.

Mormonism is relatively young. It was founded only 150 years ago

by Joseph Smith.

In 1829, a young man named Joseph Smith translated a set of gold plates

to which he was directed by an angel,

into a volume called "The Book of Mormon."

[narrator] This is the true story of Joseph Smith's valiant mission

in bringing forth "The Book of Mormon."

[mysterious male voice] I am a messenger sent from the presence of God.

My name is Moroni.

There is a book deposited, written upon gold plates.

[Turley] Joseph Smith formed a church

called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,

abbreviated to "LDS."

[Moroni] Translate these ancient writings and bring them forth to the world.

[narrator] The real treasure is not the gold in those plates,

but what's written on them.

[man] The LDS Church believes it has a divine mandate to preserve its history.

For Latter-Day Saints, the history is integral with the faith itself.

Joseph? Is this where you saw Heavenly Father and Jesus?

Yes, Lucy.

This is the very place.

Early Mormonism is full of treasure tales,

and it really carried over into the '70s and '80s.

You've got a growing LDS religion and a growing market for Mormon artifacts.

So the Mormon people have always had a propensity

to seek those kind of treasures out.

[woman] It's a thinking man's game,

dealers who know history well enough to purchase old books and pieces of paper

and sell them for a profit.

There are only a handful of men who've acted as dealers

for these pieces of high-prized history.

Shannon Flynn's one of them.

There's a certain amount of detective work.

There's a certain amount of excitement, high stakes, valuable pieces.

I had taken an interest in LDS Church doctrine,

probably since those late teenage years.

I remember clearly the first collectible item I bought.

It was a third edition of a pamphlet by B.H. Roberts.

I didn't know what I was doing. I paid $10 for it.

But I was interested in the history,

and in the Salt Lake area, it was centered mainly on bookstores.

And that kind of became the Mormon history coffeehouse,

if you want to think of it in those terms.

You would go, meet people.

"Hey, come over here.

Let me show you this. Let's see that book."

And it was at that time that I was introduced to Mark Hofmann.

And I was very excited to meet Mark.

He was…

In the Mormon document world, he was a rock star.

[woman] Mark Hofmann, a student at Utah State University,

found the document.

It appears to be the earliest Mormon document

and the earliest Joseph Smith holograph.

Also, I think it's exciting just to think that

apparently, this piece of paper was copied by Joseph Smith's own hand,

the characters were, right from the gold plates that were right there.

[woman] It's covered with carefully drawn symbols.

On the back, a statement signed by Joseph Smith.

"These characters were diligently copied by my own hand from the plates of gold."

[Mark] Well, I feel pretty lucky.

[woman] Mark bought an old Bible from a man in Salt Lake.

The man said he'd purchased the Bible

from the granddaughter of Joseph Smith's sister.

[Mark] Uh, Dorie walked in. She just got home from work.

[Dorie] He had this Bible, and I started flipping through the pages.

And there was this part

that was folded up and had this sticky gum on the end of it.

I think it was black,

and I called to him, saying, "There's something in here."

[Mark] She was there when I finally succeeded in prying off the top page…

that revealed a folded piece of paper.

Well, the Anthon Transcript.

[Dorie] Things in that document validated The Book of Mormon

and Joseph Smith…

And it was thrilling.

That's when he said he wanted to do this as his job.

He said, "I'm gonna be going into the document business.

Is that okay with you?"

[man] The LDS Church and its members are world-renowned

for their zeal in collecting historical documents.

Dozens of researchers and collectors

are committed to finding tidbits from the past.

That Joseph Smith's first encounter with the Divine

was his experience with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

[speaking now] At the time, my particular interest

was the origins of Mormonism.

And the first time I heard about Mark Hofmann

would have been seeing the picture of Mark

surrounded by major figures of the Mormon hierarchy.

Here they are, gathered to see what this young man has found.

[reporter] The Anthon Transcript discovery was widely publicized

and brought Mark Hofmann into contact with top leaders in the Mormon Church.

Mark wanted to be the ultimate document dealer,

and so, Mark would ask me to do the genealogical research,

where we would research the descendants of certain mission presidents

and see if they had any of these family documents or books on hand.

I was so enthusiastic,

and it just started snowballing at that point.

[woman] A 137-year-old letter was found and proved authentic

by a Mormon Church historian.

The document was found by Mark Hofmann.

I'd never seen anybody come up with the material that Mark was coming up with.

The first time I actually read the letter,

I think I about fell off the chair I was sitting in.

[woman] The letter is from Lucy Mack Smith,

mother of the Church's first prophet and president, Joseph Smith.

[Brent Ashworth] He'd track old letters down by postage stamps,

wax seals, and all that.

He always had some inside track on how he was getting things.

Part of the collection…

[Ashworth] I bought a lot of them over the years.

[man] There haven't been a lot of dealers in this kind of thing before.

It was almost like a new era for Mormon collectibles.

[woman] The buying and selling of Mormon documents

has attracted so much attention lately,

they're commanding top dollar.

[man 1] It's become a lucrative business

because many new items come from a period of Mormon history

for which very little is known.

Mark would travel to different places, including New York City,

and discovered a number of things.

[man 2] Hofmann's dealings soon branched out

from selling only Mormon-related documents

to letters and signatures

by some of the most prominent names in American history.

It certainly smacks of Indiana Jones.

He didn't look the part. He looked like a nerd, and he was a nerd.

He was able to remember minute, who-could-give-a-care details

that somewhere along the line would make a lot of difference.

We had a friendship that extended to his wife

and our families.

One of the times I was there,

we played Celestial Pursuit,

Trivial Pursuit for Mormons.

One by one, Mark sat there with the cards, every one right.

Never missed one.

And so, I started working on document deals for him.

It was like I was given the opportunity to play along Michael Jordan,

or, um, Brett Favre or Ryne Sandberg.

[crickets chirping]

[younger Metcalfe] I worked in the genealogical archive

doing research on the beginnings of Mormonism

and contemporaries of Joseph Smith,

people like Martin Harris, David Whitmer…

[now] Back then, I spent a lot of my time in the historical archives,

uh, researching documents and working for the LDS Church security department.

I'd come across a book.

Um, how can I put it?

It became a lightning rod for a number of general authorities

because they felt that that material was damaging to the Church,

and they were concerned that I would publish it.

I was called in by my supervisors,

and was terminated.

[church bell tolling]

And so the Church is in kind of an ironic situation.

On the one hand, they are driven by history,

and they want to preserve documents.

Their appreciation for the builders of the past will be enhanced.

But on the other hand, what do you do with documents

that have the potential of destroying someone's faith?

[ominous music playing]

I remember it specifically because it was my birthday,

December 27th, 1983.

Mark said, "Come here.

I'm gonna show you something that no one has seen."

He takes out of his briefcase the Salamander letter.

"That was in the box where the gold plates were."

What?

What?

Wow.

And he says,

"We don't have any photographs of this.

Can you photograph it?"

[camera shutter clicks]

And so I was the first person to take those photographs,

and he was keeping it under tremendous secrecy.

I was one of a select group, this big…

that was privy to the bombshells.

But that was his world, and there was a reason for it,

because everybody did that to a certain extent.

They would never reveal

where they were getting their best materials.

So that world, it was not that odd to keep secrets.

♪ Throned on the mountain's crest In robes of statehood dressed ♪

♪ Utah, we love thee! ♪

-Rod Decker, KUTV News. -[woman giggles]

Thank you, Rod. That's a nice way to end the news, right?

I've been a journalist in Utah for 45 years.

Among the people who are interested in Mormon documents and Mormon history…

[now] If you look at the '80s,

Mark Hofmann found document after document,

and he made a huge reputation for himself.

Then one of the documents he had found was called the White Salamander letter.

It was a letter from Martin Harris, an important man in early Mormonism,

and the letter said that Joseph Smith had told him

that Joseph Smith was led to the Golden Plates

by a white salamander.

[suspenseful music playing]

This contradicted the Church version of what had happened

and struck deeply at Mormon belief.

[Turley] This new Salamander letter

gave a far different story of the Church's earliest roots

and took that context of Christian familiar terms, like angels…

My name is Moroni.

…and twisted them towards a kind of folk magic context.

And the contents of the Salamander letter got a lot of attention from scholars,

who argued about it and began to say, "Wait a minute.

Is the history that we learned about this from Joseph Smith not correct?"

Now, the LDS Church does, in fact, keep documents from the public,

so some people say that the LDS Church hides its history.

One of Mark's concerns was that the Church

would try to hide documents that proved embarrassing to them,

and I think that's why you find him

giving copies of the documents to other people.

[Metcalfe] I remember one day,

Mark Hofmann approached me with the Salamander letter.

And I remember that, as I read it, I said,

"Have you talked to Steve Christensen yet?"

[woman] Okay, and you're a collector of this kind of thing.

Well, uh, actually not.

-I collect a lot of books… -[woman] Mm-hmm.

…and the way I became aware of the document

was through, uh, Brent Metcalfe…

[Metcalfe] Steve had a genuine interest in Church history,

and while he loved the Church,

he also felt that there was a need for intellectual transparency

when it came to the history of the Church.

[Rigby] I know when Steve first saw the Salamander letter,

he recognized there were some issues in there that were very much, um…

controversial to many members

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

His first concern was, number one, is this authentic?

A few select individuals actually read the contents of the letter,

and look at the handwriting, uh, early in '84.

I received the authentication reports back…

uh…

shortly thereafter, uh,

made the purchase of the letter from Hofmann…

[Metcalfe] I remember going with Mark to Steve's office,

and the price that they negotiated was $40,000 for the document.

So at that point, the Salamander letter began to create some real concerns

on the part of, particularly, President Gordon B. Hinckley.

When we are called before the bar of God to give an accounting of our performance…

[Turley] Hinckley released the letter with a disclaimer.

He said, "We'll have to accept, for the time being,

the scientific evaluations of the examiners,

but that does not mean

that it could not have been a forgery from that time period,

that was created for the purposes of hurting the Church."

I think it unlikely that any of us will be commended for wearing out our lives

in an effort to find some morsel of history,

incomplete in its context,

to cast doubt on the integrity of this work.

When the Salamander letter got publicized, and newspaper stories were written on it,

it just changed everything.

The letter generated a lot of controversy,

some saying it alters traditional views of Mormon history.

Others say it merely sheds new light and doesn't change a thing.

[man 1] The Church is not eager to retell its story,

but I think the story is gradually going to be altered

in light of new evidence.

[man 2] The Salamander letter

challenges the Mormon Church's account of its own origins.

[man 3] It sent historians scurrying to reinterpret the Mormon past.

Instead of God and angels, now it's salamanders and magic.

[Decker] It's as if someone came up with a document in which Moses said,

"I got the Ten Commandments from the ghost of Elvis Presley."

[man 4] The letter accuses Smith

of dealing in folk magic and treasure hunting.

This Mormonism, it's an outgrowth of magic.

It's just boogeldy-boogeldy.

Religion sometimes breeds amongst people some extremes.

It was a striking blow at the belief in the Church.

[man 5] Mormon leaders came under fire from critics

when the Salamander letter came to light…

The Church is not in a crisis of faith. We do not feel…

whatever the commentaries may be, that the Church's foundations

are in any way being battered or crumbled.

I love the gospel with all my heart…

Steve began to recognize

that document dealing wasn't just a gentle pastime

for those who have a passing interest in history.

[woman] Do you still have the letter?

No, I donated the letter to the LDS Church,

which had really been the plan for some time.

[man 6] Those documents are reportedly in the possession of the Church Archives.

Examination by historians outside the Church is forbidden.

[Turley] At that point,

Steve Christensen donated the Salamander letter to the Church,

and in a letter that he wrote to President Gordon B. Hinckley,

one of the things he said was,

"It appears that dealing in Mormon documents

-can be a dangerous business." -[thud]

-[woman] I think that's what I need. -Okay.

[ominous music plays]

[Alvin Rust] I came to Utah and joined a bowling league.

And one of the bowlers there brought out a tool chest of coins.

My eyes got that big. [chuckles]

I bought it, and it got me started in coins.

And Mark Hofmann saw that I was interested in Mormon-related money items.

So he was coming in all the time with new items.

[man] The notoriety of the Salamander letter

has increased the odds that even more

of these rare Mormon documents might soon be found.

Dealers and collectors are especially conscious

of the possibility of finding these rare Mormon papers.

Knowledgeable dealers believe unfound LDS documents

may number in the hundreds or even thousands.

[soft, mysterious music playing]

[Rust] One day, Mark comes into my store

and says he's located a large collection in New York City

that is by far the largest, uh, Mormon money

and, uh, documents of the Church in existence.

And he says, "They've contacted me and are interested in selling it."

Mark says, "I don't have the money to buy it.

Would you help finance the item?"

And I say, "Well, how much is it?"

And he says, "$185,000."

And I had credit with the bank, so I gave the money in an advance to Mark.

[Ashworth] Stories got around that Mark is offering this collection.

I remember talkin' with him. "What's in the collection?"

"It's got five little diaries.

They're written between 1831 and '38."

It became the McLellin Collection.

[Flynn] Well, the McLellin Collection.

There was a letter in there of potentially a devastating nature.

A letter that was written by Joseph Smith's wife,

which detailed that it was, in fact, Joseph Smith's older brother

who first met Moroni,

lifted the stone, saw the gold plates.

And after the Salamander letter had significant impact for the Church,

the McLellin Collection was potentially devastating.

Devastating.

[church bell tolls]

[Turley] When Mark was marketing the McLellin Collection,

he talked about it with Steve Christensen,

who was representing the Church's interest at that time,

and hearing about this, began to think, "Well, the Church ought to own that."

Steve Christensen had sort of been put in charge from someone in the LDS Church,

and he was gonna go with Mark and get the McLellin Collection.

[Rust] Mark took it through Steven Christensen

directly to the LDS Church,

and they're gonna buy it for $300,000.

And meanwhile, I should say that I had guaranteed

to not mention this to anybody.

He told me, on this collection,

that the Church didn't want it to be exposed

until they could go through the entire collection

and find out what it's about before it was released to the public.

You know, secrets just can't be kept.

Every-- [scoffs] Well, there's an old story.

If-- The only way to keep a secret between two people is to kill one of 'em.

It's kind of true. [chuckles]

[loud thud]

[siren wailing]

[woman over radio] There's an emergency in the Church building

on the corner of Main…

-[man 1 over radio] An APB… He's been cut. -…and Third South.

[man 2 over radio] 231, we've got an echo.

-[man 3 over radio] Let's notify homicide. -[man 4] We have one male fatality…

[woman] It's the kind of terror

that so often grips other parts of the world.

[man 5] But today, the violence we associate

with the Middle East or Northern Ireland

struck tragically along the Wasatch Front.

All of a sudden, we heard a boom. It shook the building.

And there was debris out in the hallway, cans.

Looked like a wastebasket.

[siren wailing]

[man 6] The bomb went off in the east side of the Judge Building shortly after eight.

The office building was already full of workers.

I was sitting up in my bed, uh, watching TV,

and I got a call from Curt Bench.

-I was driving to work downtown… -[news playing on radio]

…and I always listened to the news.

[man 7 on radio] …still searching through the debris,

waiting for the victim's body to be brought out of the Judge Building.

The newscaster said that there had been an explosion downtown,

and that a man had been killed.

And I only knew one person that worked in the Judge Building.

It was all over the news.

Every network station was running it at that point.

[woman] …a powerful blast rocked the sixth floor

of the Judge Building in Salt Lake.

[man 8] Police believe it was a sophisticated bomb.

…blown the door off the hinges, thrown shrapnel…

Here's the secretary that found a box addressed to our victim.

[Metcalfe] And, uh, then I got a call from a reporter, and, uh…

He said, um…

"What can you tell me about Steve Christensen

now that he's died?"

[woman] In downtown Salt Lake,

a local financial consultant, Steven F. Christensen,

died in that explosion.

Witnesses say he had stopped to pick up a package

in the doorway of his office when the booby trap went off.

[man 9] A search dog from the airport was brought in to look for more explosives.

So far, no other bombs have been found.

[Rigby] The morning of October 15th,

Steve and I decided we were gonna get together at eight o'clock.

at the Judge Building.

I called Steve to tell him I was running ten minutes late,

because I had stopped to get these documents,

and I'd be walkin' down.

Uh, the phone rang and rang, and I just got our answering machine.

[Christensen] Hello. You've reached the offices of Steve Christensen.

[Rigby] And as I'm walking down, I see police and firetrucks

right out in front of the Judge Building.

Literally, as I walked in the building, I walked in the same time

that the property manager was also walking in,

and we ran up the stairs together.

[ominous music plays]

And I'll never forget looking down at the hall to our office,

and our door was totally…

blown away.

There was no door.

There were Tab cans.

There was debris all over in the hallway,

and it just was unbelievable to me.

[ominous music plays]

And I'll never forget the building manager turning to me and saying,

"What in the hell type of business were you guys running?"

[sinister music plays]

[man 1] The Sheriff's Department reports another explosion

at a home on Naniloa Drive in Holladay within the past hour.

County Sheriff is now investigating the possibility

that this second explosion, once again,

could be linked to this morning's bomb at the Judge Building downtown.

Police say both bombs were triggered by an electrical timing device

and were the work of professional assassins.

Yes. It was quite loud, a big pop, bang.

[man 2] The first victim was Steve Christensen.

The second was the wife

of one of Christensen's former business associates.

Kathy Sheets died by the blast,

apparently intended for her husband, Gary.

[Rigby] My mind was just racing with what I just experienced.

I looked over in the corner of my eye.

There's my former partner and boss,

Gary Sheets, just standing there, wondering what's going on.

[man 3] The connection between Christensen and Sheets.

Both served as officers in a financial consulting company…

The bomb was apparently meant for Gary Sheets,

but the killer missed his mark, and Sheets' wife Kathy…

Kathy Sheets died instantly when she picked up a bomb

placed on a wooden walk.

Police say the device was equal in power to two sticks of dynamite.

[Sanders] The headlines were Salt Lake City was like Beirut, Lebanon.

It's like, "What on Earth's going on?"

[sinister music playing]

And panic began to ensue because one bomb is an anomaly.

Two bombs suggests a serial killer.

If there were two bombs, there could be three, four, five,

or a dozen or more.

[man 4] A secretary at the Salt Lake Tribune

received a call that said the bomber wasn't finished.

[woman] "I suggest you listen carefully.

There's four more bombs from here to South Temple."

It was very disturbing and frightening,

and there was all kinds of speculation going on.

If there is a reason for today's madness, the answer probably lies

buried in the business records of Christensen and Sheets.

[Decker] …theories revolved around high finance

and big losses in the CFS company.

There was dark talk of disgruntled investors,

hired professional killers, and Las Vegas connections.

[man 5] Sheets helped bombing victim Steve Christensen

finance the purchase and study of the so-called Salamander letter

before it was turned over to the Mormon Church.

My feeling is that

some disgruntled investor somewhere hired someone to do this.

We didn't know who the targets were going to be next,

if there was anybody that was gonna be next.

Chief Willoughby has been meeting the past hour with other officials,

and we're going to go to him right now for this briefing.

At this moment, we have a task force put together

because, uh, we definitely feel that there is a direct tie

between both of the bombings here in Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City.

There are two areas that we're centering our efforts on,

and one is the financial dealings,

uh, both Mr. Sheets and Mr. Christensen were involved in.

The other motive, uh, we're getting information on

has to do with the White Salamander letter, uh,

which is now in the possession of the LDS Church.

[Rigby] Hold on.

Now, my mind immediately started turning elsewhere.

This has something to do with that crazy document deal

that Steve was dealing with.

[ominous music playing]

[TV talk show theme music playing]

Welcome now to Primetime Access.

I'm Bruce Lindsay.

On this day of extraordinary news in Salt Lake City,

we're going to devote most of the rest of this hour

to questions emerging from the murders.

[man] The violence began as downtown was opening for business.

A morning of fear and death for much of the Wasatch Front.

…an anonymous caller warned there were even more bombs

in surrounding buildings.

Police say that that call could have been a copycat prank,

but the department was taking no chances at that point.

I would, uh, work with Mark, and it was always on Wednesday afternoon.

And we would just meet at Walden Book.

That was our spot.

But on October 16th, I didn't go up that day.

[phone ringing]

Uh, I tried to get ahold of Mark,

but I couldn't reach him.

I guess he was running around town that day.

But I did run into Curt Bench, I think,

and Curt told me that, uh, he had talked to Mark or something,

and he also made it sound like Mark was, uh…

really nervous.

Okay?

Really nervous.

[woman] An associate of Christensen said, "We're filled with absolute terror."

The houses were cordoned off, families evacuated,

and dogs brought in to sniff for bombs.

None were found.

[Bench] I called Mark, and I warned Mark

and told him that he ought to get his family out of their house.

[Dorie] Mark tells me, "Christensen has been killed.

Kathy Sheets has been killed.

I don't know what is happening here.

Your life may be in danger.

You need to leave the house."

We don't know if the attacks had something to do with religion or business

or even possibly both…

We knew that the people involved in the Mormon document business

could be potential targets.

And Mark did tell me that he had concerns

about the McLellin Collection.

People had heard things about it,

and it was becoming more of a controversial subject.

[man] Lawmen in Salt Lake City are going all out now

to come up with the "whys" in the tragedy.

They have come up with some startling information.

It now turns out that there's another collection

of early Mormon documents that are reputed to be far more explosive.

They're the McLellin Collection.

Books, diaries, and revelations from the era of Joseph Smith.

One of the would-be buyers turns out to have been

bombing victim Steve Christensen.

LDS officials have yet to confirm or deny reports

that Gordon B. Hinckley had agreed to buy the documents,

which are believed to contain controversial information

about the founding of the Mormon Church.

Alvin Rust says the LDS Church had agreed to pay $300,000 for the collection.

[woman] Who at the Church had agreed to purchase these for $300,000?

It was, uh, Gordon B. Hinckley.

I get on the phone to call the prophet

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The man that took the call says, "What is it about?"

And I said, "It's about the McLellin Collection."

He says, "Yeah, you and Hofmann were to bring that right now."

[man 1] A Church spokesman confirms that Hofmann met with LDS apostles

on Tuesday afternoon,

just hours after the first bomb killed Steven Christensen.

He said he wanted to donate the collection to the Church.

There was no discussion of our purchasing it.

[Rust] He says, "We've got people here right now

waiting for the McLellin Collection,

to examine it.

They want to purchase it for the Church."

[man 2] Hofmann was to turn over the collection to Christensen

the morning Christensen was killed.

[man 3] Hofmann didn't show for the 10:00 a.m. appointment,

but called and asked to meet at 2:00 p.m.

Sources tell Channel 5

Hofmann had at least two meetings set up to peddle the papers.

[man on phone] …signature and have it witnessed, or something like that.

[Mark on phone] Yeah, I can tell you also that, uh,

the LDS Church is interested in it also.

[man] Yeah, well, that may tend to complicate things.

[Mark] They've already acquired, in fact, uh, some other pieces

they got from me,

-but they don't have this one yet. -[man] Mm-hmm.

[Mark] I don't know what they're interested in it for,

if they just want to lock it up or…

I can't imagine them publishing it or anything.

[man] Well, be hard to say.

-[Mark] Yeah. -[man] Um…

[man 4] Shannon Flynn is believed to have been working with Hofmann

on the sale of those papers.

I don't know.

He had an appointment at two o'clock with an attorney

that represented a well-to-do Church member

that was going to buy that McLellin Collection,

give Mark the money, and kind of keep it for the Church.

And then the shock came.

[tense music rising]

[somber music playing]

We saw the explosion, and the window in the back

flew up in the air.

Was it loud? Yeah. It shook this whole building, right here.

[sighs]

I drove out to Mark's house because we had set up a lunch.

Went and knocked on his door.

No one answered.

No one was home.

And, while I was there, there's news of another bombing coming in.

[Brokaw] A bomb was placed under the seat of a sports car…

[Metcalfe] It's a car that's been bombed. It's a Toyota MR2.

[Brokaw] All three explosions may be connected to a controversy.

I mean, I immediately said, "That's Mark Hofmann's car."

[siren wailing]

[bystander] …he's pretty banged up.

He was missing some fingers that I could see,

had a hole kind of on top of his head, had a hole in one of his legs.

[Bench] I remember distinctly that I had to pull over my car,

and slamming my hand against the steering wheel

and saying aloud,

"Why didn't you listen to me?

Why didn't you listen to me?"

[man 1] When officers searched Hofmann's car,

they found a collection believed to be early Mormon historical documents.

They're known as the McLellin Collection.

[camera clicks]

[Metcalfe] I remember running out the door as fast as I could,

driving up to the police line,

and just…

jumping out of my car and leaving it in the middle of the street,

and running over to an officer who was standing there,

and saying, "Excuse me, but I think I know whose car that is."

[man 2] Mark Hofmann was trying to sell historical Mormon documents.

The original appointment included Steven Christensen.

[Metcalfe] He said, "What's your name?"

And I said, "Brent Metcalfe."

And he said, "I want you to come with me right now."

[inhales sharply]

And he tells me,

"We have reason to believe that somebody may be trying to kill you."

[inhales shakily]

[siren wailing]

[Rigby] I get a call from a gentleman who said,

"Randy, you need to take your family and leave.

We're gonna have bomb dogs and people come over

and actually go through your home."

I'm now looking underneath my car. I mean…

And this is where my mind was.

I mean, you didn't dare trust anything.

Our lives had been totally, uh, torn apart.

[Rust] They informed me that I was in extreme danger

and that my family and I should take every precaution.

"Please take cover.

Call your wife immediately,

and be very careful right now.

We don't know what's going on."

[phone ringing]

[Dorie] I was at my mother's house,

and a phone call came in

that said Mark had been hurt in a car,

with a car bomb.

And I immediately started shaking.

My sister drove me down 'cause I couldn't drive.

I was too upset.

So she drove me down to the hospital.

I went into the hospital, told them I was Mark's wife.

Um…

[tense music rising]

He was on a table in a gown.

He had glass all over his face.

None of it made sense to me. Why would these people want to…

Why would they wanna kill Steve or Kathy?

Why would anybody wanna kill them?

It didn't make sense to me.

Why would they wanna kill them?

It just didn't-didn't make sense.

[sighs, clears throat]

[crickets chirping]

[man] Throughout this day, Salt Lake lawmen rushed to check

several bomb threats and suspicious situations.

Even tonight, it has extended to the heart of our city.

Temple Square is at this moment under lockdown.

Everyone on the square, including the Mormon Youth Symphony,

was evacuated after what was believed to be a bomb threat.

Canine units were called in to patrol the grounds.

At the Mormon Church…

♪ …for a prophet ♪

♪ To guide us in these latter days… ♪

[Metcalfe] I didn't think the Mormon document world was a dangerous business.

I thought it was an exhilarating business,

but there was definitely an underbelly

-to Mormon document dealing. -[church organ playing]

-[choir singing] -[man 1] More than any crimes in memory,

these bombings have given rise to speculation,

theories, and public guessing.

Security has been beefed up, and bomb searches carried out.

The university's archives have…

Some documents vanished or disappeared.

Uh, we don't really know what might have happened to them.

[singing hymn]

[Metcalfe] Whoever had committed these murders,

they're somehow related to these Mormon documents.

[man 2] Police are refusing to comment on reports that Hofmann had other letters

believed to be even more damaging to the Church…

At this time, I will not comment on that. That's still part of the investigation.

And a killer is still on the loose.

Most likely, it was somebody who was LDS,

who knew the details of what we were doing.

[woman] Ties to murder and intrigues have given the Mormon Church

the kind of attention it doesn't want.

[Metcalfe] It could have been someone who had a loved one,

who had a crisis of faith as a result of all of this.

To have the Church involved in the acquisition

of a collection at this time would simply fuel speculation

that the Church was trying to acquire it in order to suppress it.

[Metcalfe] They wanted to inflict damage and harm.

A Mormon Church official said there was, quote,

"Nothing sinister in the Church's efforts to acquire historical documents

from Mark Hofmann."

Hofmann was hospitalized…

[Metcalfe] It seemed clear to me…

this was retaliatory.

[organ playing]

[chorus] ♪ We thank thee, O God For a prophet ♪

♪ To guide us in these latter days ♪

♪ We thank thee for sending the gospel ♪

♪ To lighten our minds with its rays ♪

[organ continues playing]

[organ stops playing]

[sinister music playing]