Murder Among the Mormons

A short three piece documentary that was actually pretty wild. The documentary style had a great flow and use of archival footage. Pairing current and old interviews with the same subjects was interesting. The doc gave just enough background on Mormon history and documents to get you up to speed but not overwhelm. An unexpected conclusion.

I will call this a big overview of a very dark and horrific act that I had either not known of or remembered. It is a big event as the intersection of terrorism and The Mormon Church. I learned a good bit and I always kept feeling something, perhaps important, regarding the story was missing. I kept coming back to feeling I was trying to "over-think" this thing. This was a simple case of greed and narcisicm gone to a unthinkable level. I think the doc could have been more revealing and more in-depth since it was three installments. Still I was interested. BTW Mark Hoffman's voice is not right...something is way off when you process his voice. He is a total psychopath filled with something quite dark and he got by cloaking it for way too long.

We've been watching a series of Netflix true crime documentaries recently, but of the ones we've watched "Murder Among the Mormons" is the first one with a case that I knew nothing at all about before starting. Though this was interesting, and the story is told in quite a logical way, I came away with more questions and theories about the antagonist than the show provides.

Mark Hofmann is an historical documents dealer with a knack for finding rare items that has made him a wealthy man. His location in Salt Lake City makes him a prime dealer for working with the Mormon church and his location of the "Salamander Letter" has made him a big if controversial name in those circles. Just days before he's due to provide a big haul of letters and documents for verification, a series of bombs explode, killing authenticator Steven Christensen and Kathy Sheets, seriously injuring Hofmann and destroying the cachet.

I'm going to write the rest of the review without spoiling who is behind the bombs, as going in I knew nothing about this case and I'd prefer you to have the same experience, if you can. There are some interesting characters in this doc from the worlds of law enforcement, document dealing and the Mormon church, none more so than Shannon Flynn, whose voice and mannerism are quite the most memorable aspect of the series. The documentary is quite well researched, with many interviews with key characters that are still with us and quite a bit of news footage from the time - though the little re-enactments that they do are played usually for laughs and I could have done without them.

Having finished it, though I understand the motivations for the crimes, I don't feel I understand why the killer escalated to murder so quickly when other options would have worked better. The historical interview that makes up much of the final episode gives the impression that the person is a sociopath and that eventually was going to kill someone when the pressures on them made it the preferable option, but that's my amateur interpretation. I'd have preferred some expert guidance on this from criminal psychiatrists.

Though I doubt it's going to live long in the memory, I was entertained enough by "Murder Among the Mormans" to finish it and though there's an interesting story here, I could have done with more indepth analysis of the murderer.

I didn't remember this incident until I started watching it, then it clicked; something about a Mormon civil war (which would probably be a pretty cool thing to watch). I thought it was a pretty good doc. Being only 3 episodes long I found it to be just about right and not slow or boring at all. If it was any longer it probably would have been, but I didn't find that the case at all. It was thorough and everyone who could be interviewed was included except for the diabolical genius perpetrator. There is definitely something seriously wrong with that knucklehead. All in all It was pretty good and quite short but informative, which is a rarity for Netflix.

This was incredibly well done and on point. Please do the Lafferty Brothers next. Like legit. Has to happen. Keep exposing this kind of information.