Mormonism Unveiled: The Life and Confession of John D. Lee, Including the Life of Brigham Young

In 1857 a wagon train of Arkansas emigrants traveling through Utah on their way to California was attacked by a group of Mormons led by John D. Lee. The murder of 120 men, women, and children is notorious to this day. Although 58 Mormon men participated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Lee was the only man tried for the crime. The involvement of Brigham Young is still debated almost 150 years later. Lee’s autobiography, written when he was in prison awaiting execution by the United States government, was first published in 1877. This facsimile edition is the first reprint of the entire book since 1891. It provides not only the story of the massacre but an insider’s account of the formative years of Mormonism. Active in the establishment of the church first in Missouri and later in Nauvoo, Illinois, Lee advanced in the church hierarchy to become one of the bodyguards of the prophet Joseph Smith and an “enforcer” for the secret terrorist organizations known as the Danites, Death Angels, and Blood Atoners. Mormonism Unveiled provides the best description of Brigham Young’s elevation to the presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints after the assassination of Joseph Smith. It also reveals the origin of polygyny by revelation in the church and how the “sealing” of marriages facilitated this process. Lee describes in detail the beatings, robberies, castrations, assassinations, and Mormon wars with Gentiles in the Midwest that culminated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

This reissue includes the original publisher’s preface and a preface and introduction by Lee’s attorney, W. W. Bishop, as well as an account of Lee’s arrest and execution, transcripts of his trial, names of the assassins and accessories, an appendix on the life of Brigham Young, and a personal account by a victim of Mormon polygyny.