I've heard a lot of strange stories about LDS church history. What I didn't know is that many of them were created by a man who is considered by forensic experts to be the best forger yet caught.

Mark Hoffman, who made many convincing forgeries, including a fake of Oath of the Freeman–which the Library of Congress bid $1.5 million to purchase–also forged a somewhat unknown number of controversial documents and letters that he sold to the LDS church, claiming that they were written by early leaders of the church. Despite the uncertainty of their authenticity, the church agreed to purchase many of these documents based off of the judgements of the examiners that concluded they were genuine.¹

It wasn't until Hoffman was arrested as a suspect for murder–after he executed a number of bombings in an attempt to cover up one of his forgery schemes–that it was discovered that he was producing forgeries.

My question is, how many persistent myths about the church's history are a result of Mark Hoffman's forgeries?

^{1 Recent Events Involving Church History and Forged Documents}  

I've heard a lot of strange stories about LDS church history. What I didn't know is that many of them were created by a man who is considered by forensic experts to be the best forger yet caught.

Mark Hofmann, who made many convincing forgeries, including a fake of Oath of the Freeman–which the Library of Congress bid $1.5 million to purchase–also forged a somewhat unknown number of controversial documents and letters that he sold to the LDS church, claiming that they were written by early leaders of the church. Despite the uncertainty of their authenticity, the church agreed to purchase many of these documents based off of the judgements of the examiners that concluded they were genuine.¹

It wasn't until Hofmann was arrested as a suspect for murder–after he executed a number of bombings in an attempt to cover up one of his forgery schemes–that it was discovered that he was producing forgeries.

My question is, how many persistent myths about the church's history are a result of Mark Hofmann's forgeries?

^{1. Recent Events Involving Church History and Forged Documents}

I've heard a lot of strange stories about LDS church history. What I didn't know is that many of them were created by a man who is considered by forensic experts to be the best forger yet caught.

Mark Hoffman, who made many convincing forgeries, including a fake of Oath of the Freeman–which the Library of Congress bid $1.5 million to purchase–also forged an unknown number of controversial documents and letters that he sold to the LDS church, claiming that they were written by early leaders of the church. Despite the uncertainty of their authenticity, the church agreed to purchase many of these documents based off of the judgements of the examiners that concluded they were genuine.¹

It wasn't until Hoffman was arrested as a suspect for murder–after he executed a number of bombings in an attempt to cover up one of his forgery schemes–that it was discovered that he was producing forgeries.

My question is, how many persistent myths about the church's history are a result of Mark Hoffman's forgeries?

^{1 Recent Events Involving Church History and Forged Documents}

I've heard a lot of strange stories about LDS church history. What I didn't know is that many of them were created by a man who is considered by forensic experts to be the best forger yet caught.

Mark Hoffman, who made many convincing forgeries, including a fake of Oath of the Freeman–which the Library of Congress bid $1.5 million to purchase–also forged a somewhat unknown number of controversial documents and letters that he sold to the LDS church, claiming that they were written by early leaders of the church. Despite the uncertainty of their authenticity, the church agreed to purchase many of these documents based off of the judgements of the examiners that concluded they were genuine.¹

It wasn't until Hoffman was arrested as a suspect for murder–after he executed a number of bombings in an attempt to cover up one of his forgery schemes–that it was discovered that he was producing forgeries.

My question is, how many persistent myths about the church's history are a result of Mark Hoffman's forgeries?

^{1 Recent Events Involving Church History and Forged Documents}