1844: The Murdered Mormons - Part One

You are listening to one nation under crime, historical chronological, true crime podcast. Each week we go through our nation's history and discuss one case from each year, starting in 1800. I'm Kayla And I'm Leah. And you know how some things happen and they just work out and it's not the way you intended for them to work out. But some things just so seamlessly work together. Like we started working together and it was just the best thing ever. I mean, yes but no, but It's almost as if planning in divine timing, they just marry themselves together and things just work out. 

00:00:49

I need you to explain yourself right now. You got some splaining to do Lucy. The day that this episode comes out Is the day after Easter. And It's not intentional that our subject matter today is the reason that it is our subject matter today. But it is funny that today of all days is the day that this is the, Oh my goodness. What have You done? What have you done For those of you who do not know the names of the people in the title of this week's case? 

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We are covering the murders of Joseph and Hiram Smith. I know those names. Now The name Joseph Smith, as the founder of the Mormon religion. I see where you're going. So let's dig into him. Shall we? Nice. Nice. And I'll go ahead and let you guys know much to Leah's dismay. This is a two part episode. This is like our third two parters. Wow. So it'd be worth cause we, we did our first one was Alexander Hamilton and Burr. 

00:02:14

Then we did Madonna Mallory. Yeah. Then we did our last one. That was the two-part episode. Now we have this one. So we like to go in depth people. Well, and y'all will see why this has to be a two-parter and we will get into it. But our sources for this week, we have PBS, you know, Just a male. I PDs a lot of my childhoods from them. Yeah. I mean, it's a good one. It's it's it's good. And then we have famous trials.com Makes sense. We have history.com Makes sense as well. 

00:02:55

And the salt lake Tribune. I mean, for this Matter. So our events in 1844 Valentine's day, February 14th, you know what? The day I did John C Fremont and his group of explorers became the first Europeans to discover lake Tahoe during his second expedition through the American west. And can I just give you a little for everybody guys, especially She wants at least a card for Valentine's day. I Mean, at Least a sticky note with a heart, something, Something, I mean, Something we don't expect Sparkle. 

00:03:38

She works in an office. I will go ahead and say, if she works in an office and Valentine's day is going to land on a day that she will be in the office, send something to the office. And I will only say that because I am not that kind of person either. However, you have not worked in a physical office setting for several years. And I will say it is a little frustrating when people in the office start getting things and you are sitting there and you were like, Hmm, really? But that didn't bother Me. Well, you didn't work with it anyway. Well, But that, that really didn't bother me. 

00:04:19

Just the, just an acknowledgement, just some things. Because one year mark did nothing and he, he learned like, he was like, I hold them. Weren't doing anything. Oh, he learned J M K how I, And like, and he's so funny now he's like, he w he has posted on Facebook. He's like, Hey guys, I'm just going to tell you, even though she says she doesn't want anything, she wants to at least a card. Like he knows. I mean, I don't want to do anything big does not mean I don't want to do anything. I mean, at least Don't acknowledge the day in general. Exactly. So I'm just, I'm just, I'm helping everybody out. 

00:05:01

Okay. A little behind it, but we'll make sure before next Valentine's day. Yes. Just since you said today, I just felt the burden. Just, just to tell me at least a card, at least an acknowledgement. Just something. Yes. Yes. Okay. Continue. February 28th, the peace maker, the largest Naval gun in the world exploded during a demonstration aboard the USS Princeton. Oh, dear Killing Six, including the secretary of state. Abel Upshur and secretary of the Navy, Thomas. 

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Oh, was it like, what was it like the first time that it was being used or just, it just had a malfunction. I need to know more about this. I'm invested. Well, February 28th, 1844, the peacemaker there's so much. And it's so much research on this episode. I'm sorry. You know, that's going to peak my interest. April 12th, the treaty of annexation was signed by Texans with the United States, May 24th, Samuel Morse tapped out first Telegraph message To say, Hey, dad's like, No, That's so bad. 

00:06:30

Tapped out. He said, I'm out, I'm out so Fast. I was wrong. Section, wrong section. We haven't gone to that section yet. Anyway, Stepped out. He Put out the first Telegraph message to the world, which was quote, what hath God wrought. All right. I mean, not what I would have put out, but So, I mean, I don't know what I would've, I probably would've done something super cryptic that people would have looked into for the next 500 years to figure out what it meant By pedal Pedal, bipedal, alligator tail, LIS Beaver structure, Telescope. 

00:07:20

There'd been like, Well, Are you telling us that a bipedal tail is alligator and a beaver created the Egyptian pyramids. Yes. Yes. That is exactly what I'm alluding to. That's what I did. It would have been my job to cause mass chaos. That's the job now May 25th, the first Telegraph to news dispatch was published in the Baltimore Patriot June 3rd. The us signed the treaty of long year with the Qing dynasty of China, which is the first diplomatic agreement between China in the United States in history. 

00:08:03

They're really interesting. I don't know why, but I did June 15th, Charles Goodyear patented the vulcanization of rubber for anybody who doesn't know. That's kind of like when you heat up rubber, it kind of changes the chemical compounds of rubber, July 25th. The exclusion law was passed in Oregon. That prohibited. This is specifically what it said. Don't please you'll know how I am. It prohibited. African-Americans black Americans free to non freed slaves from entering or remaining in the territory. And we thought Oregon was non-problematic Interesting. 

00:08:45

I mean, people Are again, You know, July 27th, a fire destroyed the U S mint in Charlotte, North Carolina, July 30th, the first us yacht club was established as the New York yacht built by John Cox Stephens and eight friends further proving to everyone. Yes, we are richer than you. That isn't on about your day. September 5th, iron ore was discovered in Minnesota, December 4th, the James Knox Polk was elected as the 11th us president and December 11th, wonderful day, wonderful day in history. 

00:09:38

Wonderful people are born that day. Only one that I can actually vouch for and verify Two. I know two people She could December 11th, same day. Well, my, No, not the one you're thinking of. And I know another person, a friend from school. Well, mine could rule the world. I'm just saying it is a bit dangerous. Sometimes my ideals could be imparted on her to a larger generation, but you know, that's my legacy. We all have to leave one. And on this day, the first dental use of nitrous oxide occurred in Hartford, Connecticut. Now I've never used that By the way, guys, just, just, just bit of a Leah cover ears. 

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If you do have high dental anxiety, such as myself, you can request nitrous oxide. When you get your teeth cleaning much like I do, and your insurance will not cover it. Most cases it's like, oh, like $50 pay for it. I happily do it every time. If you go to my specific dentist, if you were in the Birmingham area, message me, I'll refer you. I'm not getting anything from the referral. They're just great people. And they're nitrous. Oxide smells like mint. It's quite delightful. Actually. Why are You telling me to close my ear? Cause You don't need to have all these things. And it's so nice. 

00:11:05

Why Don't You feel as though you were floating on a cloud way away from your dental anxiety of such. I mean, there's two things in this world that I never thought I would understand until I took them one nitrous oxide to pro football. That second one was that for me, that's what they put me to sleep with. When I had my endoscopy, I thought that might be a bit, I remember. Well, you also recall the morbid joke that I said when I got up. So I was like, I understand, I understand how all of that happened now. 

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Cause profiles like, No, I Slept so good. I remember taking Kayla to get something to eat after the procedure and her trying to tell them the fat I was fine. I was fine. I look, I will tell You this Past year, this past year, when I woke up from my endoscopy, I woke up. I kid you not. I woke up and I guess I just remembered from last time that I had it done and I woke up and I went, Christmas movies are on homework and the girl goes what? 

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I was like, don't worry about Much. I Get to nap to Christmas. Fine. That's fine. Good times pro. Football's a good one. But look, if you ever need, I'm telling you, if you ever need nitrous oxide to go to the dentist. One, if you have not gone to the dentist and Leah knows, this is a big thing for me to say, if you have not gone to the dentist and several years ago, it took me 10 years to go To a dentist. Me applauding her. I'm proud of Her. Aliyah knows. I might have had to take some prescription things and then Decide the medication. Then I encouraged her to Do then also nitrous oxide, But she did it and it was okay. 

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And I was very proud of her. And it took 10 years for me to go back to The gym with lots of encouragement, Bad experience, but ask for nitrous oxide. And if they are rude about it, Get a different dentist. Let me know. And I'll refer you to someone. This Dennis that she goes to now is not a bad experience. She had previously. She had a bad experience. Fantastic. I mean, I shot them out here. I don't care if you're in the Birmingham area, go to Dr. Gooch. He's on two 80, which is A fantastic name, Fantastic name one. My boyfriend can't can't do it. But anyway, the name Tastic doctor there guys they're dentists seats have massagers in them. 

00:14:03

Yes. Super Heavy, heavy like the blanket you have now they have those, but it's heavier. So it's almost a weighted blanket, but So it's per it's boring. So, And I'll bring it to you. They also have headphones like it is. Let me tell you, when you tell them it's For people with anxiety, Dr. Gooch, I also recommended us to some of his dental hygienists. Last time I was there. So if Phil are listening, you got to talk It up. Hi ladies y'all are fantastic. So onto our births of 1844, April 13th, we have John's Surat. He is suspected of being involved in the incessant nation of Abraham Lincoln. 

00:14:45

He's an Aries Today. That's likely going to be a two part episode. That was the wrong Wrong. Then here, you'll get your second one. Okay. April 22nd. Louis Powell. He was a conspirator of John Wilkes booth who attempted to assassinate William Henry Seward Dunk dunk dog. He's a Taurus May 2nd, Elijah McCoy. He was the inventor of the automatic steam engine lubricator also at Horace interesting and October 11th, a man, many of us know today, Henry J Heinz entrepreneur and founder of the HJ Heinz company, caregiver of Catch-up pat 11. 

00:15:35

He's a Libra. I mean, I mean, ketchup's fine. We had hamburgers last night and my daddy was saying, I wish they just kept the class bottles. I just, I would just be happy if they had just the glass. He should Order him some for, from Amazon Wakens up, Go to Amazon right now and go order your daddy. Some glass Heinz bottles. There's not much he has in this world that he holds dear to his heart. Get him some Heinz ketchup bottles. I'll get that for him. For his birthday. Some glass hotspot You're ordering them. So I don't believe you. Well, I don't see you on Amazon at this moment. I'll have To click When I love you. I'll have to. Even if your Child does not With the neck, She'll be fine with it. 

00:16:19

And you tell her that I approved of it. I Said, this Is, this is my direct approval or deaths in 1844. These are the ones that did tap out Other than Leah's dad's heart. When she did not order him Heinz ketchup bottle last January 25th, Horace H Hayden. I like to call him H cubed. He's the first licensed American dentist, which we have to thank as well. Dr. Gooch is not, but now, but he Is a licensed he's He's he's. He is licensed very well. 

00:16:58

February 22nd, Nicholas Bidell. He's a finance here and last president of the second bank of the United States. Apparently it's no longer, huh? No, not anymore. At least the second one, June 27th of 8, 18 44, Joseph and Hiram Smith were shot and killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois guys. Yes, We are in for a ride this week, Buckle up buttercup. And as I said before, if the name Joseph Smith sounds familiar to you, it should because he is the original founder and leader of the latter day. 

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Saint movement also known as the Mormon church. Now let me go ahead and say, there are different levels and variations of what is known as the LDS or latter day saints, movement and faith. We will continue to call them LDS and that's less of a mouthful. Leah will appreciate my correlation in this moment. It is kind of how all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon. So you could be LDS, but not actually be LDS. You could be LDS and not actually be LDS, work that out amongst yourselves. 

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So we're just going to dive deep into the person who started the LDS church in order to do that, we have to dig deep into the LDS church itself. Now It is because it is due to the Mormon faith that Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram Smith are murdered. I will give a lot of caveats in this episode. I am well aware. Not all LDS. People are like this. I will also go ahead and say, yes, I am well aware. 

00:19:11

There are many, many, many, many, many famous murder cases that involve people from the LDS church. That is not to say that the LDS church has made people this way. Let me make that clear. We are very well aware of like the Susan Cox Powell case, where that they were part of the latter day saints, faith. Leah does not know about that case. That will also be Candace, not, she will not be able to sit in on half of it. Cause it's, you know, that case then, you know, the really bad parts of it that Leah will not be able to hear that involve ending of one's life with your child in a house with you that explodes. 

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And there are a lot of other cases that also involve that I'm thinking of a super famous case. Now you're probably thinking of it as well. I can't think of her name, but it's a very famous case as well. And it's going to be only to I'll think of it later. Anyways, you guys know what I mean? So yes, there are a lot of famous murder cases that are out there that do involve someone who is a part of the LDS church in some form or fashion that does not mean the LDS church made them that way, nor that they did that because they were a part of the LDS church. Correct? 

00:20:38

So I just want to make that clear as we are going into this. That is not any intent of what we are saying. So in saying that love is Good to make things clear from The beginning to make sure that everybody, everybody knows and God, I cannot think of that girl's name. It's gonna, it's going to drive me insane. Leah, do some elevator music You're failing right now. I'm failing. You're failing. I'm sorry. I'm failing Butterfly in the scan. We were talking about PBS. 

00:21:19

We wouldn't have PBS that was here that you use says I figured it out by all that. So Jody areas and Travis Alexander Jody areas is the one that she joined. Part of that faith. It's a whole, it's a whole thing. There's also a very famous documentary on Netflix. That is called murder among the Mormons one. Super good documentary. Super good, because basically it's about this guy who was fabricating Mormon documents and selling them to the Mormon church and people were getting murdered for it. And he was forging them so well that like they were getting authenticated. 

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So it then brought about this whole discussion of, well, if it's authenticated, is it a forgery? Well, it is because it wasn't real, but it was authenticated. So then therefore, anything authenticated by the government is then authentic. So how many authentic their bombs include? It is a fascinating docu series. So if you have not watched murdered alone, Go watch it because they're talking about the gold plates and we'll get into what the gold plates are. But they talked about the gold plates and how this guy like trolls, the Mormon faith and says that it wasn't the angel Merona that came to them. It was actually a white salamander that came to it is, it is insane. 

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And he like tricked the entire Mormon church goes into chaos over these false documents because the documents were like made real, like they were verified. And so the church started suppressing them and then people were murdered. And this is like in the past 20 years that all this happened. It's crazy. So You can't see my face, but I made a face. Yes. She made that face from the, the emoji sign or like That one. So I make a really good emoji face. The latter day, Saint movement is also known as the LDS movement, the LDS restoration movement or the Smith Rigdon movement. 

00:23:29

If you combine all of the different branches of the LDS faith, there are over 16 million members and around 98% of them belong to the church of Jesus, of latter day saints. According to the salt lake Tribune, there are five types of Mormons. I am not saying this is what I think Mormons are. I'm saying that someone created this article with the salt lake Tribune and said that these are the five areas of Mormons. 

00:24:09

First we have liberal Mormons. These and this is directly from this article directly from the article. It says, this includes all Mormons who attend church only when they feel like it liberal Mormons vote anywhere to the left of the Republican party or are not rabidly pro-life. And don't believe every word that falls from the lips of a general authority represents that actually comes from the personal opinion of Jesus Christ, liberal Mormons. According to all other Mormons will go to hell, just ask any of the other four kinds of Mormons. All right. 

00:24:49

Okay. Then there are genuine Mormons, nearly every Mormon thinks this is the kind of Mormon he represents in reality. Genuine Mormons are about as rare. I'm not going to say part anyway. They're rare. So as they are about as rare as oh, say golden plates, that was, that was, that was a sharp blue. Anyways, anyways, conservative Mormons. These kinds of Mormons are the suit and flower dress crowd you see at church, they T I can't heart rate all of this. 

00:25:30

This is really bad. This person is not a fan of the Mormon church. So I cannot read everything that they say because their opinions are, Ooh, they're not nice. Then we have Orthodox Mormons. This kind of Warman would not Ms. Church for the death, for the death of even a relative. You know? So the Orthodox Mormon women stop having children at 36 because 35 or too many, even for them directly from this article, then you have not seen Mormons. 

00:26:11

This is 10%. 10% of the LDS church is known as Nazi Mormons of that 10%, 90% live in Utah. Most within potluck, distance of BYU, which is Brigham young university. We will talk about him in a bit. Yeah. Nazi Mormon's claim that diet Coke is the same thing as hell and heaven is as well. And heaven is a multi-level marketing system of glory for Nazi Mormons. 

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The belief in French kissing is cause for excommunication on out. I don't know where you found that the Salt lake Tribune Article Is cited. Scroll down to show notes. You will find it and you can go see it for yourself. That is somebody who is very unhappy with the Mormon I church. I'm just telling you That is somebody who is not a fan, Not a fake Surprising for the salt lake Tribune. I mean, you never know. We'll have somebody who's not a fan. They're going to be very, Again, I'm going to go ahead and say that I am only here to research and report on what I find in my research. 

00:27:40

The reason that I say this is because things are going to get weird. I don't mean weird and that I don't believe it happened or that I think it's made up just weird in the fact that I was not knowledgeable on the subject before. And wow. Does it take a turn? There you go. Let's go back to the beginning of Joseph Smith. He was born December 23rd, 1805 in Sharon, Vermont to Lucy Mack and Joseph Smith. Senior, who was a farmer and a merchant. Oh, also he was one of 11 children. 

00:28:25

Wow, Absolutely. Yes, Yes. Too many. That's more than Von Trapp children. That is so many, so many. I just can't. I Mean, that's, that's more than a baseball team. I can't that. Yeah, you could create, you could create some, even some that just sit on the sidelines. I mean, it has subs. You have substitutes. Gosh, it's it's really bad guys. So the Smith family had a run of bad luck due to bad business investments and crop failure. And Joseph senior eventually sold the family farm to pay his debts. 

00:29:08

Smith's quote, cross the boundary dividing independent ownership from tenacity and day labor. And the next 14 years, the Smith's moved seven times. Despite all of this Lucy Smith remembered this period of Joseph Smith's early childhood as quote, perfectly comfortable, both for food and Ryman, as well as that, which is necessary to a respectable appearance in society. All right. I mean, to a girl who lived in the same house from the day she came in from the hospital to the day, she was married that the wow, During the winter of 18, 12 typhoid fever struck the area around Lebanon, New Hampshire, where the Smith family had recently moved. 

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Most everyone in the family got sick. And Joseph unfortunately had a common complication where typhoid bacteria infected the bone. Lucy Smith later claimed that she refused to allow doctors to remove her son's leg due to the infection in his shin. The Smiths came across one of new England's most respected physicians at the time named Nathan Smith, no relation. He was one of the few doctors who advocated for removal of the dead portion of the bone rather than to amputate the leg reminder at this time, anesthetic and antiseptic were not concepts. 

00:30:44

Anyone embraced, regardless, a young Joseph endured surgery to Remove The dead portion of bone from his Leg. That makes me hurt. Joseph eventually recovered after using crutches for several years. And he walked with a slight limp for the rest of his life. I Mean, you think They never talk about the emotional scarring that comes along with it In 1820, the family moved to Western New York and purchased a hundred acres of farm land in the towns of Palmyra and Manchester township. 

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The Smith family built a log home on the property first, and then an 1822 Alvin, the oldest brother began building a larger frame house. Alvin died in November of 1823. It's speculated that it was a result of being given mercury chloride for a bilious fever, which was just a fever related to excessive bile in the bloodstream. So like jaundice kind of some say it could have been due to malaria. Other say it could have been due to viral hepatitis either way the house remained uncompleted for a year. And none of it sounds good. None of it sounds a good way to go Before Alvin's death. 

00:32:08

It seems that Joseph's miss senior had partially abdicated family leadership to Alvin. I'm not sure how that works. It could have been that Joseph Sr was getting older and needed someone more like able bodied to take it out of the family, Advocating the throne. It wasn't really clear though. So in 1825, the Smiths were able to make their mortgage payments. The farm was foreclosed on and the family persuaded a local Quaker by the name of Lim yell Durfee to buy the farm and rent it to them. The Smiths and five of their 11 children gracious along with Hiram Smith, who was one of the children and his wife, cause Hiram is old enough to be married at this time. 

00:32:56

They all moved in. The family. Joseph didn't have much formal schooling, but he may somewhat have attended school briefly in Palmer poem. It's either Paul, Myra or Paul Palmyra. I'll probably say both. And we do not know mix it up. What we do know is that according to his mother, he received some schooling at home. Joseph worked on the family farm and took an occasional odd job or worked for nearby farmers, running errands to help out where he could keep in mind. At this time, he was still likely healing from part of his bone being removed from his leg without anesthesia. 

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His mother Lucy described him as quote, much less inclined to the per usual of books than any of the rest of the children, but far more given to the meditation and deep study. Lucy also noted that he never read through the Bible until he was at least 18, but he was imaginative and could humor the family with quote, the most amusing recitals of the life and religion of ancient native Americans quote with as much ease seemingly as if he had spent his whole life with them. Joseph was described as quiet, reserved, good natured, and he was never quite known to laugh. One acquaintance said Joseph had quote a jovial, easy don't care way about him. 

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And he had an aptitude for debating moral and political issues and a local junior debate club biographer, Fon Brody wrote quote. He was gregarious, cheerful, imaginative, born into leadership at hampered by meager education in grinding poverty. So obviously there were varied opinions recording chosen. Yeah. Sounds like it. The area of the family lived in during this time was specifically known to be a hot bed of a religious enthusiasm during the second great awakening. In fact, the area west of the Catskill and Adirondack mountains became known as the burned over district because it was repeatedly singed by the first of the revival that swept through the region. 

00:35:13

In the early years of the 19th century, this awakening was a Protestant religious revival in the early 19th century, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, which sparked a number of religious reform movements. I put, think of tent church revivals, but in the early 18 hundreds in your kind of on the right track, interestingly enough, the parents of the Smith family did not agree when it came to religion. Hmm. But with camp meetings and revivals going on all around them, it was kind of hard for them to not get caught up in the excitement. 

00:35:54

Joseph Smith, seniors, paternal grandfather Azale was a Universalist who oppose evangelical religion all together. Lucy recalled once that Azale came to their front door. After he, after he heard that Joseph Sr attended a Methodist meeting and through Tom Paine's age of reason into the house and angrily bade him to read it until he believed it. Wow. Then on the other side of the family, Joseph senior's, maternal grandfather, Solomon Mac self published a book which described a series of heavenly visions and voices, he said, had led him to his conversion to Christianity at the age of 76. 

00:36:45

By the time Joseph was 12, he started to become interested in religion. And while he did have a persuasion to believe in a religion as a whole, he also wondered whether quote, a Supreme being did exist. Joseph attended the Presbyterian Sunday school, but he really kind of leaned more towards the Methodist church in his beliefs, much like his mother, the Smith's family did agree on one thing when it came to religion and that was engaging in religious folk magic. This are not religious folk magic. 

00:37:29

This is not uncommon at this time, by any means, it looked a bit Muller, you know, so, all right, I looked into it. I'm hoping because this is kind of what I found coming full traditions are also referred to as simply folk magic. They were combined with the early culture and practice of the LDS movement practices of the culture included folk healing, which is the art of using traditional practices like herbal remedies, what people consider manifestation now, which is like the power of suggestion. 

00:38:11

Then there's folk medicine, which is traditional medicine before modern medicine. So kind of like how ancient civilizations would use frankincense for certain things or, you know, different herbal remedies, fuel people. So that's folk medicine, then there's folk magic and that's a way of influencing forces seen or unseen for bad purposes. Kind of think of putting a horseshoe over a door for good luck or keeping Rosemary by your front door, much as myself to keep away like bad things. Like that's what people say that Rosemary does or keeping certain things like that. 

00:38:54

Like finding a four-leaf Clover. That's also all considered folk magic. So it's kind of in that room as well. And then there was divination, which is dousing rods. Now a lot of dowsing rods are used for a lot of different reasons during the time of Lewis and Clark Lewis and Clark actually used dowsing rods to find sources of water. But dowsing rods were also used for other things such as to find graves, to find gemstones, to find oil, et cetera. One of the ways of finding these things and this term of divination is called doodle bugging. 

00:39:39

Now, the reason I bring this up interesting, my mother has always called me Doodlebug as a nickname. We never knew where it came from and never really thought of it. And then I started researching this and thought interesting, you calling me, which probably I'm fine with it. I mean, these have all been incorporated or rejected to varying degrees. And so the culture and practice of modern LDS practices, early church leaders, tolerant of these traditions. But by the beginning of the 20th century, folk practices were not considered part of the conduct of most branches of the movement. 

00:40:23

So all of this was originally a part of the Mormon movement, like all of it. Okay. So that's where all of this kind of like comes in the extent that the founder of the movement, Joseph Smith and his early followers, dissipating in the culture has been the subject of controversy since before the church's founding in 1830. And it continues to this day Joseph's parents and grandparents, all allegedly, allegedly I was waiting for that had visions. And as we said before that they were being communicated with messages from God much like his grandfather. 

00:41:07

So let's see, as I just started looking more into religion, he was growing more and more concerned with the competition among religious denominations. According to his mother, Joseph claimed quote, I can take my Bible and go into the woods and learn more in two hours than you can learn at a meeting in two years, if you should all go the time it was at this time that he claims to have division that resolved all of his confusion. This is known by the latter day saints as the first vision. The first description of this event was not published until 1832, which said that the event occurred in 1821. 

00:41:48

However, most accounts date that this happened in 1820. So I put, it was probably a pretty day, but it was for sure in 1820 that Joseph went to a densely wooded area near his family home. And he was praying then according to him, God and Jesus Christ both appeared to him and told him that his sins were forgiven and that all contemporary churches had quote turned aside from the gospel. Well there, Joseph regarded this event as a vision or an actual visitation by a physical being has been debated because the missionary track published for Joseph Smith's church in 1840, stated that after Joseph saw the light quote, his mind was caught away from the natural objects with which he was surrounded. 

00:42:44

And he was in trap in a heavenly vision. Joseph was understandably shaken and went to speak with a preacher to discuss his experience and hopefully get some answers. The preacher immediately dismissed his story and said it was probably nothing. This vision is considered the first event in the restoration of Christ's church to earth by Joseph Smith's followers. Three years later in 1823, Joseph found himself out in the woods and he was again, praying. This was when an angel by the name of maroon. I visited him. And for those who don't know Merona is an extremely Portant facet to the story. 

00:43:29

When Merona, I became visible to Joseph, the angel told Joseph the Berry location of a book, the book itself was made of golden plates. And in the same location, Joseph would find a breast plate and a set of interpreters, which was to see are stones set in a frame. All of these things could be found at the hill. I think it's the hill Kimora near Joseph's home. This was very exciting for Joseph. And he immediately went to go find the plates they were found, but he was not allowed to take them with him. The angel Maria and I stopped as Joseph went to grab them. 

00:44:13

Joseph came back each year at the same time for four years to try and find the plates again. The fourth year is when Joseph recovered the plates in 1827. And we will get back to this event in a moment During this, the Smith family was not doing well financially. The family was still working on their farm to try and support themselves. And that wasn't working very well either. So to try and help the family, Joseph started taking odd jobs as a treasurer seeker. <inaudible> yes, this was an actual job at the time. 

00:44:54

And Joseph used a sea or stone in order to find lost items to do this. Joseph typically placed a or stone, which is literally like a rock that is kind of like, imagine I was thinking a crystal ball. Now it's like, it's like a VC cup. Like if you cut a Reesie cup in half and you see how it's like brown and lighter brown kind of color layer, that's kind of what the stone looks like. Okay. So he would take that stone and set it in a white stove top hat. You would put his face over the hat to block the light and then see the information in the stones reflection, Joseph and his father quote, achieved something of a mysterious local reputation in the profession. 

00:45:41

Mysterious because there is no record that they ever found anything despite the readiness of some local residents to pay for their efforts. The timeline is a little out of order here. So stick with me. Joseph found the golden plates originally in 1823, he finally brought them out of the woods in 1827. But the events we are about to talk about now happened in 1825. So it's in that middle time before he saw them. And before he took them out of the woods. So in 1825, a wealthy man from south Bainbridge, New York named Josiah Stoll was looking for a Spanish mine that had been lost over time in the harmony township of school, Honda county, Pennsylvania stole traveled with another seeker. 

00:46:28

Who's only known by the last name of Hale to Manchester, to hire Joseph, to help them quote on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys by which he could discern things visible and invisible to the natural eye. The contract made between the travelers said Joseph would locate quote a valuable mine of either gold or silver and also coined any money in bars or in gods of gold and silver. They had been searching for a month. And at this time they had still not found anything. According to hail Joseph was bearing his head and a hat with a stone to locate the mine. 

00:47:09

But as they thought they were getting closer to their objective. Joseph said that there was an enchantment around the location that was so strong. He wasn't able to see it anymore. By the end of the year, the hunt had stopped and Joseph continued to travel with stole on other matters until 1826. It was then that Joseph Smith was arrested and brought to Bainbridge New York. Oh, as it turns out, Stolz nephew put in a complaint that Joseph was a quote disorderly person and an imposter court records show that Joseph who was solely identified as the glass Looker went before the court on March 20th, 1826 on a warrant for an unspecified misdemeanor charge. 

00:47:57

And that the judge issued a minimus, which at this time is an arrest warrant for Joseph to be held later. One of Joseph's associates seemed Oliver Cowdery stated that Joseph was honorably acquitted, but the result of the proceeding is unclear with some claiming that he was found guilty. Others saying he was condemned, but allowed to escape and others, which there was really no evidence for claimed he was discharged for lack of evidence. And that's where we're going to stop for this week, because that is the first time in a series of times that Joseph Smith will be arrested. 

00:48:41

Oh, So this is just the beginning. Huh? And we have not even gotten to the actual book of Mormon note coming out. So yes, there are two parts to the episode this week. Next week we are going to officially get into the death of Joseph and Hiram Smith. And let me tell you, the wild ride has only begun. We've only just begun. It is a crazy ride. As far as everything goes. We'll talk about it a little bit more of the story, honestly, mentally too much to go into and just one episode. So where can I get into the next project? 

00:49:22

Had the capacity In there. Not, not, not today. And if you are a patriarch man, guess what, what you can go get your second episode right now, Benefit Such a benefit of being a Patrion. You yourself can go become a Patrion right now and you can get the second episode. So you do not have to be kept in Mormon suspense, any longer Instant gratification, Which is not something that the Mormons believe in, but you can have it. And if you go to patrion.com/one nation under crime, you can find it as well. You have a website where you can find any and all OEC information that you could be looking for. 

00:50:07

The book of Mormon is not going to be there. Nope, but you can go to one nation under crime and find everything else. Maybe we are one nation under crime on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and at Owen, UC pod on Twitter. If you love our podcast, as much as we do, please go follow us. Recommend us to anyone, give a five star review anywhere that you possibly can do everything you can for us guys. Cause we love you. And we know that you love us And you want us to prosper. You want us to continue to do You, do you want to continue to get our content? Our podcast, podcasting tickets. We don't need to get, I'm fine. I'm good at the hide them up. 

00:50:47

I'm an advocate to grow. I'm a good height. So I'm good here. I'm not need to grow, you know, but if it does be, you love Yourself. I mean, true. True. What does Leah always say star? Exactly. So if you want to go find us on Patrion, we've already told you where you can go and do that. We appreciate you guys sticking around For this week's post Easter Mormon story timing. <inaudible> we appreciate you guys listening to this week's episode of one nation under crime. 

00:51:27

We will see you here. Same time, but Say Crime next time. And remember there isn't always Liberty and justice for all. Nope. Unfortunately, We'll see you guys next week for part two.