What do you think?
Rate this book
Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath
The long-awaited follow-up to the groundbreaking Massacre at Mountain Meadows.
Published in 2008, Massacre at Mountain Meadows was a bombshell of a book, revealing the story of one of the grimmest episodes in Latter-day Saint history, when settlers in southwestern Utah slaughtered more than 100 members of a California-bound wagon train in 1857. In this much-anticipated sequel, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown examine the aftermath of this atrocity.
Vengeance Is Mine documents southern Utah leaders' attempts to cover up their crime by silencing witnesses and spreading lies. Investigations by both governmental and church bodies were stymied by stonewalling and political wrangling. While nine men were eventually indicted, five were captured and only one, John D. Lee, was executed.
The book examines the maneuvering of the defense and prosecution in Lee's two trials, the second ending in Lee's conviction. Turley and Brown explore the fraught relationship between Lee and church president Brigham Young, and assess what role, if any, Young played in the cover-up. And they trace the fates of the other perpetrators, including the harrowing end of Nephi Johnson, who screamed "Blood! Blood! Blood!" in his delirium as he was dying, more than sixty years after the massacre.
Turley and Brown also tell the story of the massacre's few seventeen children who witnessed the slaughter and eventually returned to Arkansas, where the ill-fated wagon train originated.
Vengeance Is Mine brings the hitherto untold story of this shameful episode in Mormon and Utah history to its dramatic conclusion.
Published in 2008, Massacre at Mountain Meadows was a bombshell of a book, revealing the story of one of the grimmest episodes in Latter-day Saint history, when settlers in southwestern Utah slaughtered more than 100 members of a California-bound wagon train in 1857. In this much-anticipated sequel, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown examine the aftermath of this atrocity.
Vengeance Is Mine documents southern Utah leaders' attempts to cover up their crime by silencing witnesses and spreading lies. Investigations by both governmental and church bodies were stymied by stonewalling and political wrangling. While nine men were eventually indicted, five were captured and only one, John D. Lee, was executed.
The book examines the maneuvering of the defense and prosecution in Lee's two trials, the second ending in Lee's conviction. Turley and Brown explore the fraught relationship between Lee and church president Brigham Young, and assess what role, if any, Young played in the cover-up. And they trace the fates of the other perpetrators, including the harrowing end of Nephi Johnson, who screamed "Blood! Blood! Blood!" in his delirium as he was dying, more than sixty years after the massacre.
Turley and Brown also tell the story of the massacre's few seventeen children who witnessed the slaughter and eventually returned to Arkansas, where the ill-fated wagon train originated.
Vengeance Is Mine brings the hitherto untold story of this shameful episode in Mormon and Utah history to its dramatic conclusion.
520 pages, Hardcover
First published May 30, 2023
107 people are currently reading
2509 people want to read
About the author
Richard E. Turley Jr.
32 books25 followersRichard E. Turley Jr. retired in March 2020 as Managing Director of the Church Communication Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served previously as Managing Director of the Public Affairs Department, the Church Historical Department, the Family History Department, and the combined Family and Church History Department. He also served as Assistant Church Historian and Recorder. An innovator by nature, he helped oversee the creation of the four-volume history Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, the launch of FamilySearch and FamilySearch Indexing, the building of the new Church History Library, the development of the Joseph Smith Papers, and the formation of the Church Historian’s Press. He acquired key books, documents, and artifacts for the Church’s historical collections, including the 1829 Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon. He also served for many years on the Church’s Historic Sites Committee.
He has authored or edited numerous books and articles on Latter-day Saint and Western U.S. history, including Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy; Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case; How We Got the Book of Mormon; and How We Got the Doctrine and Covenants. He was the general editor for The Journals of George Q. Cannon print volumes, as well as coeditor of the series Women of Faith in the Latter Days.
Mr. Turley is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis award and the Historic Preservation Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mr. Turley received a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University, where he was a Spencer W. Kimball Scholar. He later graduated from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU, where he served as executive editor of the law review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and received the Hugh B. Brown Barrister’s Award, given to the student who demonstrates the highest standards of classroom performance.
In September 2023, the First Presidency announced that it had commissioned a new biography of the Prophet Joseph Smith to be written by Mr. Turley.
He has authored or edited numerous books and articles on Latter-day Saint and Western U.S. history, including Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy; Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case; How We Got the Book of Mormon; and How We Got the Doctrine and Covenants. He was the general editor for The Journals of George Q. Cannon print volumes, as well as coeditor of the series Women of Faith in the Latter Days.
Mr. Turley is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis award and the Historic Preservation Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mr. Turley received a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University, where he was a Spencer W. Kimball Scholar. He later graduated from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU, where he served as executive editor of the law review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and received the Hugh B. Brown Barrister’s Award, given to the student who demonstrates the highest standards of classroom performance.
In September 2023, the First Presidency announced that it had commissioned a new biography of the Prophet Joseph Smith to be written by Mr. Turley.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
May 23, 2023
This book and its predecessor “Massacre at Mountain Meadows” are profoundly painful books to read. I approach these books not only as a believing Latter-day Saint but as a decedent of one of the planners and participants. As I prepared to write this review, I reread an entry in my journal I wrote in 2009 when I had finished “Massacre at Mountain Meadows”. I was on a late-night flight. I recall closing the book and just staring out the window into the darkness. I was profoundly moved and wrote the following in my journal. “It is so painful to think that some of our people were capable of such evil acts. Sadly, even today it seems that some of our members are prone to vilification of what they view as the opposition. I pray that this minority element of our culture can change.” That was my prayer then and still is.
My parents were friends with Juanita Brooks who was the first one to write a scholarly work on the Massacre. My mom grew up in Southern Utah. I recall my parents visiting Juanita. I did not read much as a kid. Just was not my thing. But I did read parts but of her groundbreaking book on the Massacre and loved to pepper my Sunday School and Seminary teachers with questions about Mountain Meadow. I didn’t know “jack” but it seemed on this issue I knew more about it than most of my teachers. Never got a straight answer other than the standard decades old lie that blamed the “Indians” and that some of the victims were perpetrators of the Missouri persecutions against the Mormons. Yup, I was an obnoxious kid. Sorry to my teachers.
Just a little background to give color to my reading of this book. My great great grandmother’s husband Francis Jorden, struggled to make a living in the harsh conditions of Southern Utah. Going against the counsel of Church leaders, he decided to try his luck as a gold miner in California. He wrote loving letters to his wife during his absence. The postmaster, Richard Harrison had eyes for Jordan’s wife Jane, so he held all the letters from Francis to Jane. She assumed Francis either died or abandoned her. Upon Jorden’s return he learned that he had been excommunicated and that Jane had been "reassigned” as a plural wife to Harrison."
Frank Jorden, the son of Francis and Jane, became aware of the planning of the Massacre through conversations he overheard that certain perpetrators were aware of. He began to fear for his life. Both his mother and Father who encouraged him to leave. Under cover of darkness Frank left to join his father, never to return. Many of the perpetrators of the Massacre were from Cedar City and worked at or supplied raw materials to the ironworks where Harrison was superintendent. It was at the ironworks where some of the killers mustered. John D. Lee (the only perpetrator executed for his crimes) identified Harrison as a participant.
Now to the review. Full disclosure, I know Rick Turley and Barbra Brown fairly well. I consider them friends. Rick was a year ahead of me in law school and a true genius. Barbara likewise is brilliant and fearless. This book, like “Massacre at Mountain Meadows”, is meticulously researched and a comprehensive account of one of the darkest chapters in American history. It is a gripping narrative that delves into the complex events of Sept. 11, 1857, shedding light on the motives, actions, and aftermath of the evil acts, including the wrongful blaming of the Piute tribe.
One of the hardest things in telling history is to place it in a historical context. The book absolutely excels in this respect. The details of the tensions between the US Government and the Mormons are gripping. It is a history that is mostly lost on later generations. The Republican Party prior to the Civil War essentially declared war on the “twin relics of barbarism, slavery, and polygamy” and disenfranchised the Mormons while sending and Johnson’s Army to quell the “rebellion” of the Mormon people. By examining the perspectives of multiple individuals involved, the authors paint a nuanced picture of the psychological, religious, and societal factors that contributed to the atrocity.
What sets the book apart is the authors' commitment to presenting a comprehensive view of the events. Turley and Brown leave no stone unturned as they meticulously dissect the evidence, including court records, diaries, letters, and oral testimonies, to piece together the sequence of events leading up to the massacre and its aftermath. They separate fact from conjecture, offering a well-reasoned analysis of the motivations and decisions made by the various parties involved. They focus on the human element with a keen understanding of the players, portraying them as complex, flawed human beings rather than mere archetypes. This approach allows readers to grasp the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by those caught up in the events, adding depth and empathy to the narrative. And indeed, in my case a righteous indignation and anger.
For a casual reader, the sheer amount of information and detail might overwhelm those unfamiliar with the historical context. Despite these minor drawbacks, “Vengeance is Mine” as well as “Massacre” are important works that shine a light on a dark period in American and LDS history. It serves as a reminder of the potential consequences of religious extremism, fear, and violence when mixed with political tensions. Turley and Brown's dedication to accuracy and their portrayal of the victims, perpetrators, and native peoples make this book the essential resource for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of this horrific event.
“Vengeance is Mine” is a comprehensive, well-researched, and balanced examination of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. While it may be dense at times, the authors' commitment to accuracy and their focus on the human element make this book an extraordinary contribution to the understanding of this haunting chapter in LDS and American history.
Further recognition should be given to Elder Marlin K. Jensen, who served as Church Historian and was the impetus for this project. Without him I am not sure either book would have been written. Full disclosure, I consider him and friend and mentor for over 40 years. Many years ago, after the Church opened the archives to scholars and issued formal apologies to decedents of those killed in the Massacre, President Gordon B. Hinckley endorsed the project and the apology. One of his sons told me that he had visited the massacre site with his father. They were alone. His dad looked over the site and with tears his eyes said, “I have done everything I know how to do to try and heal this ugly wound.”
My parents were friends with Juanita Brooks who was the first one to write a scholarly work on the Massacre. My mom grew up in Southern Utah. I recall my parents visiting Juanita. I did not read much as a kid. Just was not my thing. But I did read parts but of her groundbreaking book on the Massacre and loved to pepper my Sunday School and Seminary teachers with questions about Mountain Meadow. I didn’t know “jack” but it seemed on this issue I knew more about it than most of my teachers. Never got a straight answer other than the standard decades old lie that blamed the “Indians” and that some of the victims were perpetrators of the Missouri persecutions against the Mormons. Yup, I was an obnoxious kid. Sorry to my teachers.
Just a little background to give color to my reading of this book. My great great grandmother’s husband Francis Jorden, struggled to make a living in the harsh conditions of Southern Utah. Going against the counsel of Church leaders, he decided to try his luck as a gold miner in California. He wrote loving letters to his wife during his absence. The postmaster, Richard Harrison had eyes for Jordan’s wife Jane, so he held all the letters from Francis to Jane. She assumed Francis either died or abandoned her. Upon Jorden’s return he learned that he had been excommunicated and that Jane had been "reassigned” as a plural wife to Harrison."
Frank Jorden, the son of Francis and Jane, became aware of the planning of the Massacre through conversations he overheard that certain perpetrators were aware of. He began to fear for his life. Both his mother and Father who encouraged him to leave. Under cover of darkness Frank left to join his father, never to return. Many of the perpetrators of the Massacre were from Cedar City and worked at or supplied raw materials to the ironworks where Harrison was superintendent. It was at the ironworks where some of the killers mustered. John D. Lee (the only perpetrator executed for his crimes) identified Harrison as a participant.
Now to the review. Full disclosure, I know Rick Turley and Barbra Brown fairly well. I consider them friends. Rick was a year ahead of me in law school and a true genius. Barbara likewise is brilliant and fearless. This book, like “Massacre at Mountain Meadows”, is meticulously researched and a comprehensive account of one of the darkest chapters in American history. It is a gripping narrative that delves into the complex events of Sept. 11, 1857, shedding light on the motives, actions, and aftermath of the evil acts, including the wrongful blaming of the Piute tribe.
One of the hardest things in telling history is to place it in a historical context. The book absolutely excels in this respect. The details of the tensions between the US Government and the Mormons are gripping. It is a history that is mostly lost on later generations. The Republican Party prior to the Civil War essentially declared war on the “twin relics of barbarism, slavery, and polygamy” and disenfranchised the Mormons while sending and Johnson’s Army to quell the “rebellion” of the Mormon people. By examining the perspectives of multiple individuals involved, the authors paint a nuanced picture of the psychological, religious, and societal factors that contributed to the atrocity.
What sets the book apart is the authors' commitment to presenting a comprehensive view of the events. Turley and Brown leave no stone unturned as they meticulously dissect the evidence, including court records, diaries, letters, and oral testimonies, to piece together the sequence of events leading up to the massacre and its aftermath. They separate fact from conjecture, offering a well-reasoned analysis of the motivations and decisions made by the various parties involved. They focus on the human element with a keen understanding of the players, portraying them as complex, flawed human beings rather than mere archetypes. This approach allows readers to grasp the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by those caught up in the events, adding depth and empathy to the narrative. And indeed, in my case a righteous indignation and anger.
For a casual reader, the sheer amount of information and detail might overwhelm those unfamiliar with the historical context. Despite these minor drawbacks, “Vengeance is Mine” as well as “Massacre” are important works that shine a light on a dark period in American and LDS history. It serves as a reminder of the potential consequences of religious extremism, fear, and violence when mixed with political tensions. Turley and Brown's dedication to accuracy and their portrayal of the victims, perpetrators, and native peoples make this book the essential resource for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of this horrific event.
“Vengeance is Mine” is a comprehensive, well-researched, and balanced examination of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. While it may be dense at times, the authors' commitment to accuracy and their focus on the human element make this book an extraordinary contribution to the understanding of this haunting chapter in LDS and American history.
Further recognition should be given to Elder Marlin K. Jensen, who served as Church Historian and was the impetus for this project. Without him I am not sure either book would have been written. Full disclosure, I consider him and friend and mentor for over 40 years. Many years ago, after the Church opened the archives to scholars and issued formal apologies to decedents of those killed in the Massacre, President Gordon B. Hinckley endorsed the project and the apology. One of his sons told me that he had visited the massacre site with his father. They were alone. His dad looked over the site and with tears his eyes said, “I have done everything I know how to do to try and heal this ugly wound.”
December 10, 2023
An essential accounting of a tragic piece of American history. A must read for Utahans, Arkansans, Paiutes, and particularly people with Mormon heritage. But valuable ready for any American. The reporting in this book is more comprehensive than ever before. Barbara Jones Brown, the co-author, has spent time grieving with Arkansans who have family history relating to the massacre and both Brown and Turley have done fantastic reporting for this book. I doubt any book in the future could cover more.
April 23, 2025
An unbiased, thoroughly researched, well-written investigation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Southern Utah, 1857. In a pristine mountain valley west of Cedar City, Utah, 119 Arkansas emigrants were lured from their wagon circle, with the promise of protection if they surrendered their weapons. Then, every one was savagely murdered by mostly Mormon settlers living in and around the area. Seventeen young children survived. All under the age of six, not old enough to remember any details. They were transported from the carnage then fostered to local Mormon families. Eventually, within the next two or three years, they were transported back to Arkansas to be reunited with grandparents, neighbors and extended family members. The horrendous event was shrouded in secrecy, lies and denial. Indians were accused and believed to be responsible for many years. Top church leaders were suspected of having ordered the killings. The emigrants themselves were accused of claiming to have killed the prophet Joseph Smith and raising the intense ire of the community. (Although they’d been nowhere near Missouri at the time of his death.) Even in my lifetime, there wasn’t a straight story of the devastating historical account, what really happened and what happened after to the perpetrators and survivors. Here it is. I feel like I’ve known pieces of this story for most of my life—my older brother suggested I write a paper about it in high school, knowing nothing about it at the time—now I feel like those pieces have been meticulously sorted out and put together in a cohesive, thorough account. Riveting.
August 25, 2023
Mountain meadows was a shameful and tragic event. The predecessor to this book, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, does an amazing job explaining all of the forces that worked together to create such an event.
This book deals with the aftermath. It is a reminder of the impact of how leadership and violent rhetoric can create the conditions for individuals to act in awful and tragic ways. I believe every individual is responsible for their own actions. But there’s no question that there was an environment of violent rhetoric that encourage what ultimately happened at Mountain Meadows.
I believe everybody should read both Massacre at Mountain Meadows and Vengeance is Mine so that we can learn from these events and work to avoid them in the future.
This book deals with the aftermath. It is a reminder of the impact of how leadership and violent rhetoric can create the conditions for individuals to act in awful and tragic ways. I believe every individual is responsible for their own actions. But there’s no question that there was an environment of violent rhetoric that encourage what ultimately happened at Mountain Meadows.
I believe everybody should read both Massacre at Mountain Meadows and Vengeance is Mine so that we can learn from these events and work to avoid them in the future.
June 10, 2023
Wow, what a good book! Best I have read on the Mountain meadows massacre.
April 23, 2024
This was a really hard book, a painful book. Not as bad as Rise and Fail of the Third Reich or In Order to Live, but it ranks with the class of bitter pills we need to swallow, especially from our LDS past. .
February 15, 2025
I almost gave this 3 stars because of how rough this was to read. Not that it wasn’t well-written, well-researched, or interesting, but I guess I’m used to David Grann’s more engaging nonfiction and am unjustly comparing everyone to him. Like this was hard. But! I still learned A LOT. I had no idea that Spanish Fork had an “Indian Farm,” or that the monument I drive past every day is for said farm. I stopped by today and thought it was neat. There’s so much history quite literally in my own backyard. It was almost eerie to read this and be able to picture every city mentioned because I’ve been there. I started this on a drive to St. George!! And now I know that Beaver is where Lee was tried!! And that some of the surviving children from the massacre were briefly taken to Spanish Fork!! Just crazy stuff, and it made me realize that I didn’t stop to consider how the Mountain Meadows Massacre would have such lingering effects through the United States as a whole. It’s such a senseless tragedy, and I wish the book would’ve talked more about the other massacres committed against Utah’s indigenous communities, but I guess you could’ve filled a whole other book with that. It’s really upsetting that the native people were scapegoated for the crime for so long. There’s just a lot of sadness here, but I’m glad I could learn something. Lots of things, actually.
August 11, 2023
My favorite book of 2023, thus far. Not because of the subject matter–it's a gruesome tragedy that never should have happened– but because of how well it explains in detail how the MMM's aftermath fits into the other concurrent events in Utah.
The authors explain, among other things 1) Why it took 20 years to try Lee. 2) Why Lee was tried twice. 3) Why no one else was tried. 4) How the massacre haunted the murderers for the rest of their lives, and much more.
My two favorite parts:
1) Reading how the 17 orphaned children were returned to Arkansas. I knew it had happened, but didn't know any of the details.
2) The final chapter, chronicling a very young Juanita Brooks's first connection to the history of MMM. I won't spoil it for you with the details, but it was a nice touch by the authors to end on that note.
The authors explain, among other things 1) Why it took 20 years to try Lee. 2) Why Lee was tried twice. 3) Why no one else was tried. 4) How the massacre haunted the murderers for the rest of their lives, and much more.
My two favorite parts:
1) Reading how the 17 orphaned children were returned to Arkansas. I knew it had happened, but didn't know any of the details.
2) The final chapter, chronicling a very young Juanita Brooks's first connection to the history of MMM. I won't spoil it for you with the details, but it was a nice touch by the authors to end on that note.
June 28, 2024
This is book 2 of The Mountain Meadows Massacre. The authors are meticulous in laying out all the facts and details and politics, which I appreciate as a historical document, but it can also be tedious to read. I liked that this book follows the surviving children and their lives. We often forget about the survivors. The men who committed the massacre had a "us vs them" mentality and their communities were prone to extremism mixed with religious fervor. There are plenty of lessons to be learned from this.
September 11, 2025
Honestly, the book itself is factful, and this is what i asked for. The actions of people that the book had to describe are haunting, awful, and sad. I am quite disgusted at how any human could do these awful things to another.
August 13, 2023
This was difficult to read but such an important book about history I didn’t know much about before starting this. It is impeccably researched.
December 29, 2023
A great read about a tragic event. I highly recommend this book along with its companion.
January 1, 2024
Reading the Walker, Leonard, and Turley book, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, soon after its publication in 2008 at a formative time in my early adult life deeply impacted my worldview, including my understanding of human nature, social dynamics, religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism, violence, power, conformity, and individual moral conscience and culpability. Ever since then, I have eagerly awaited this sequel in order to read a more complete account of the aftermath, cover-up, and prosecution of the Mountain Meadows atrocity. Though it was a long wait, this sequel did not disappoint. Together, the 2008 and 2023 books present a thorough history of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a mass killing of at least 120 wagon train emigrants that was ordered, executed, and covered up principally by Mormons living in Southern Utah amidst the religious zealotry of the Mormon Reformation and the intense anxiety of the Utah War.
For me, this history is personal — it is a history of not only my people and place (Mormon settlers in the American West), but also of some of my own actual ancestors. Two of the nine men indicted for the massacre are in my family tree, including the man perhaps most responsible for the massacre, Isaac Chauncey Haight, who is my fourth great grandfather (a great great grandfather of my paternal grandfather). Indictee John M. Higbee was the eldest son of another of my fourth great grandfathers, John S. Higbee. Haight, as the Cedar City Stake president, with the approval of William Dame, a neighboring Latter-day Saint stake president and the highest ranking officer of the southern Utah militia, ordered Higbee, John D. Lee, and others (including three of my other fourth great grandfathers in the Cedar City militia — David M. Hunter, John M. Urie, and Joseph Hodgetts Smith) to kill all of the wagon train’s men, women, and children—any “old enough to tell the tale”—in an effort to cover up their killings of several emigrants in an initial attack earlier that week. Haight, Higbee, and others then conspired to deny white Mormons’ role in the massacre generally and their own roles specifically and instead to blame it on local Paiute Native Americans.
The authors’ narrative style was a powerful approach for telling the truth of this grim story. As with the first volume, Turley and Brown were unflinching in their retelling of the massacre’s events. As a result, this book was at times very difficult to read… I felt a lot of intense emotion while listening to the audiobook, from sorrow to anger to disgust, often weeping or swearing under my breath. While the authors explained the context and likely reasons for the actions of the massacre perpetrators and those complicit in its cover-up, they never strayed into rationalizing or excusing those actions. On the contrary, they systematically debunked rationalizations that became common among some Mormons and massacre perpetrator descendants, including those proffered by the perpetrators themselves.
The authors also conducted extensive forays into the historical context and characters involved in the Utah War and political jockeying in Utah territory during the subsequent two decades, generally doing a good job of tying those historical details back into the Mountain Meadows Massacre story. This historical context — especially the distrust and fear between Mormon and non-Mormon or “Gentile” settlers in Utah, but also divisions among and political scheming by some non-Mormon federal appointees — helped explain the double tragedy of why the massacre perpetrators were prosecuted so little, so late, with so little justice for the victims and their families.
Their narrative illustrates how Brigham Young, George A. Smith, and other church leaders exhibited confirmation bias in the way they at times gave Lee, Haight, Dame, and other massacre perpetrators the benefit of the doubt, accepting their lies and refusing to believe the awful reality of their crimes until the testimony against them was presented in undeniable detail by trusted Mormon eyewitnesses. At other times those leaders exhibited extreme callousness and disregard toward Mormons who were brave enough to raise concerns about the perpetrators’ actions, such as George A. Hicks.
At the same time, the authors present clear evidence that Young and other central church leaders did not order the massacre, though some of their policies, doctrines, and preaching contributed to it. The authors also demonstrate that Young did offer to cooperate to at least some degree in the prosecution of the massacre perpetrators, albeit with conditions as a result of their (trauma-influenced) distrust of federal authorities. Some church leaders, such as apostles Amasa Lyman (who ironically later was removed from his apostle role for heresy and excommunicated for involvement in the dissenting Godbeite sect) and Erastus Snow, as well as local southern Utah LDS bishop Lorenzo Roundy, stand out in this narrative as somewhat more courageous in confronting the truth and advocating for justice and transparency. Likewise, even some massacre participants, such as George Spencer and Nephi Johnson, come across as tragic and pitiable figures whose regret for and trauma over following orders to participate in the massacre motivated them to testify against Lee and others to church leaders and civil authorities, while disturbing them throughout their lives, leading in Spencer’s case to his early death from ill health (or possibly suicide, as I have read elsewhere but not in this book).
Jacob Hamblin, deputy Indian agent and Mormon missionary to Native Americans, who did not participate in the massacre but whose home was near the site of Mountain Meadows, seemed in this narrative to be a more morally ambiguous character than I had previously thought. Although he did act to restrain continued violence by John D. Lee and others, I kept expecting him to be more forthcoming, courageous, and constant in his testimony about the massacre to both church and civic authorities than he in fact was — perhaps because I had an overly idealistic image of him as some sort of moral conscience of southern Utah Mormons on the subject of the massacre.
Perhaps most interesting and unknown to me previously were the divisions and differences among non-Mormon federal and territorial appointees. Turley and Brown demonstrate that the story of Utah territorial politics cannot be reduced to Mormons vs. Gentiles. Some non-Mormon federal appointees, such as territorial governor Alfred Cumming, U.S. district attorney Alexander Wilson, Indian Agent Jacob Forney, and U.S. district attorney Sumner Howard, adopted compromise or pragmatic positions that respected the constitutional rights (including the right to serve on juries and to have a jury of their peers and speedy trial) and religious beliefs and practices (including polygamy) of Latter-day Saints, and favored working with the Mormons to secure their allegiance to the United States rather than vilifying them.
At the same time, the authors also illustrate how the craven political calculations of certain non-Mormon politicians and federal appointees, especially Utah chief justice Delana Eckels and U.S. Army commander Albert Sidney Johnston, and the unconstitutional overreaching of some perhaps more well-meaning crusaders such as the judge of Utah’s second judicial district John Cradlebaugh, actually undermined the cause of holding massacre perpetrators accountable in the initial years after the massacre before the Civil War. Similar dynamics played out after the Civil War when momentum resumed toward prosecuting the Mountain Meadows massacre case. The authors seemed to place Utah’s Liberal Party leaders (aka “the Gentile Ring”) Robert Baskin, acting U.S. attorney for Utah and congressional candidate, and James McKean, chief justice for Utah, as well as the editors of the newly founded Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, somewhere between those two categories. They depict them as both politically calculating and morally crusading: scheming to disenfranchise Mormons and strip them of constitutional protections in order to not only limit the harm they saw Mormon leaders and doctrines causing but also to maximize their own chances of seizing power despite being in Utah’s political minority.
Federal Indian agent Jacob Forney came across as one of the people most committed to actual justice for the victims and child survivors, taking personal responsibility for rescuing the children and returning them to their extended families and homes. He was one of the quickest to discern the truth due to his on the ground investigations and communication with local Mormons and Native Americans alike. He also gave one of the most convincing summaries and explanations for the tragic failure of justice to be served when he accused federal appointees such as Eckles for caring more about tying the massacre to Young and vilifying Mormons for political gain (e.g. to boost Johnston in the 1860 presidential election), thus refusing pragmatic and workable options (including accepting Young’s cooperation and agreeing not to send military troops to southern Utah) for indicting, arresting, and trying suspects in the late 1850s soon after the massacre.
On a related note, I especially appreciated Turley and Brown’s attention to the heart-rending details of what happened to the children who survived the massacre and how they were returned to their extended families, though I wish they had included a bit more information about their lives after their return to Arkansas. Similarly, I appreciated that the authors highlighted how Paiutes were used by Mormons as scapegoats and at several points presented different Paiute perspectives, though I was left wanting to hear more of their voices.
Although the authors made clear the role that Haight and Dame, and to a lesser extent the other perpetrators (indicted or otherwise), played in the massacre, much of the narrative — especially in this second book — seemed singularly focused on Lee. This was no doubt a function of the outsized attention directed to Lee by his contemporaries and the more extensive documentary history associated with him and his trials, which in turn were a result of his role as the key on-the-ground leader during the massacre, his letter writing, journaling, and habit of pontificating, his vivid and larger-than-life personality, the place he captured in the American imagination, the way contesting parties used him to make arguments about politics and religion in 19th century Utah and America, and the fact that he was the only person ever tried and convicted for his role in the massacre. But as a descendant of Haight and other massacre perpetrators, I found myself wanting to learn more of how they deflected and evaded legal accountability—and how the trauma of participation in the massacre did or did not affect them and their families.
My most significant critique is that the authors too quickly dismiss the argument that John D. Lee was used as a scapegoat. Although Lee clearly was guilty of first degree murder, it is also clear from the evidence that Turley and Brown themselves lay out that church leaders (e.g. Wells, Brigham Young’s counselor) and members wanted Lee to be convicted in order to end the negative attention directed at the church, and that they did *not* want additional arrests and trials, lest that draw more negative attention to the church. They convincingly dismiss the notion that Sumner Howard, the U.S. district attorney for Utah appointed in 1876 who prosecuted Lee in his second trial, was in cahoots with this strategy, but never explicitly acknowledge what their evidence demonstrates — that the church leadership did not support government efforts to bring Haight, Higbee, Stewart, or even Dame to prosecution.
A final comment on the audiobook version, which was the main way I read this book: This was the best nonfiction audiobook I’ve ever listened to. The narrator, T. Ryder Smith, is an award-winning Broadway actor who often lends his voice to fiction audiobooks. He was an excellent choice to voice a book that deliberately adopts a narrative style with extensive direct quotations from historical figures, as he adopted different accents for different figures. (Smith’s John D. Lee in particular was👌) He even seamlessly switched from character accents in the quoted portions of a sentence to his standard narrator accent in the non-quoted portions. Smith honors and elevates the authors’ goal of creating an accessible historical account.
For me, this history is personal — it is a history of not only my people and place (Mormon settlers in the American West), but also of some of my own actual ancestors. Two of the nine men indicted for the massacre are in my family tree, including the man perhaps most responsible for the massacre, Isaac Chauncey Haight, who is my fourth great grandfather (a great great grandfather of my paternal grandfather). Indictee John M. Higbee was the eldest son of another of my fourth great grandfathers, John S. Higbee. Haight, as the Cedar City Stake president, with the approval of William Dame, a neighboring Latter-day Saint stake president and the highest ranking officer of the southern Utah militia, ordered Higbee, John D. Lee, and others (including three of my other fourth great grandfathers in the Cedar City militia — David M. Hunter, John M. Urie, and Joseph Hodgetts Smith) to kill all of the wagon train’s men, women, and children—any “old enough to tell the tale”—in an effort to cover up their killings of several emigrants in an initial attack earlier that week. Haight, Higbee, and others then conspired to deny white Mormons’ role in the massacre generally and their own roles specifically and instead to blame it on local Paiute Native Americans.
The authors’ narrative style was a powerful approach for telling the truth of this grim story. As with the first volume, Turley and Brown were unflinching in their retelling of the massacre’s events. As a result, this book was at times very difficult to read… I felt a lot of intense emotion while listening to the audiobook, from sorrow to anger to disgust, often weeping or swearing under my breath. While the authors explained the context and likely reasons for the actions of the massacre perpetrators and those complicit in its cover-up, they never strayed into rationalizing or excusing those actions. On the contrary, they systematically debunked rationalizations that became common among some Mormons and massacre perpetrator descendants, including those proffered by the perpetrators themselves.
The authors also conducted extensive forays into the historical context and characters involved in the Utah War and political jockeying in Utah territory during the subsequent two decades, generally doing a good job of tying those historical details back into the Mountain Meadows Massacre story. This historical context — especially the distrust and fear between Mormon and non-Mormon or “Gentile” settlers in Utah, but also divisions among and political scheming by some non-Mormon federal appointees — helped explain the double tragedy of why the massacre perpetrators were prosecuted so little, so late, with so little justice for the victims and their families.
Their narrative illustrates how Brigham Young, George A. Smith, and other church leaders exhibited confirmation bias in the way they at times gave Lee, Haight, Dame, and other massacre perpetrators the benefit of the doubt, accepting their lies and refusing to believe the awful reality of their crimes until the testimony against them was presented in undeniable detail by trusted Mormon eyewitnesses. At other times those leaders exhibited extreme callousness and disregard toward Mormons who were brave enough to raise concerns about the perpetrators’ actions, such as George A. Hicks.
At the same time, the authors present clear evidence that Young and other central church leaders did not order the massacre, though some of their policies, doctrines, and preaching contributed to it. The authors also demonstrate that Young did offer to cooperate to at least some degree in the prosecution of the massacre perpetrators, albeit with conditions as a result of their (trauma-influenced) distrust of federal authorities. Some church leaders, such as apostles Amasa Lyman (who ironically later was removed from his apostle role for heresy and excommunicated for involvement in the dissenting Godbeite sect) and Erastus Snow, as well as local southern Utah LDS bishop Lorenzo Roundy, stand out in this narrative as somewhat more courageous in confronting the truth and advocating for justice and transparency. Likewise, even some massacre participants, such as George Spencer and Nephi Johnson, come across as tragic and pitiable figures whose regret for and trauma over following orders to participate in the massacre motivated them to testify against Lee and others to church leaders and civil authorities, while disturbing them throughout their lives, leading in Spencer’s case to his early death from ill health (or possibly suicide, as I have read elsewhere but not in this book).
Jacob Hamblin, deputy Indian agent and Mormon missionary to Native Americans, who did not participate in the massacre but whose home was near the site of Mountain Meadows, seemed in this narrative to be a more morally ambiguous character than I had previously thought. Although he did act to restrain continued violence by John D. Lee and others, I kept expecting him to be more forthcoming, courageous, and constant in his testimony about the massacre to both church and civic authorities than he in fact was — perhaps because I had an overly idealistic image of him as some sort of moral conscience of southern Utah Mormons on the subject of the massacre.
Perhaps most interesting and unknown to me previously were the divisions and differences among non-Mormon federal and territorial appointees. Turley and Brown demonstrate that the story of Utah territorial politics cannot be reduced to Mormons vs. Gentiles. Some non-Mormon federal appointees, such as territorial governor Alfred Cumming, U.S. district attorney Alexander Wilson, Indian Agent Jacob Forney, and U.S. district attorney Sumner Howard, adopted compromise or pragmatic positions that respected the constitutional rights (including the right to serve on juries and to have a jury of their peers and speedy trial) and religious beliefs and practices (including polygamy) of Latter-day Saints, and favored working with the Mormons to secure their allegiance to the United States rather than vilifying them.
At the same time, the authors also illustrate how the craven political calculations of certain non-Mormon politicians and federal appointees, especially Utah chief justice Delana Eckels and U.S. Army commander Albert Sidney Johnston, and the unconstitutional overreaching of some perhaps more well-meaning crusaders such as the judge of Utah’s second judicial district John Cradlebaugh, actually undermined the cause of holding massacre perpetrators accountable in the initial years after the massacre before the Civil War. Similar dynamics played out after the Civil War when momentum resumed toward prosecuting the Mountain Meadows massacre case. The authors seemed to place Utah’s Liberal Party leaders (aka “the Gentile Ring”) Robert Baskin, acting U.S. attorney for Utah and congressional candidate, and James McKean, chief justice for Utah, as well as the editors of the newly founded Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, somewhere between those two categories. They depict them as both politically calculating and morally crusading: scheming to disenfranchise Mormons and strip them of constitutional protections in order to not only limit the harm they saw Mormon leaders and doctrines causing but also to maximize their own chances of seizing power despite being in Utah’s political minority.
Federal Indian agent Jacob Forney came across as one of the people most committed to actual justice for the victims and child survivors, taking personal responsibility for rescuing the children and returning them to their extended families and homes. He was one of the quickest to discern the truth due to his on the ground investigations and communication with local Mormons and Native Americans alike. He also gave one of the most convincing summaries and explanations for the tragic failure of justice to be served when he accused federal appointees such as Eckles for caring more about tying the massacre to Young and vilifying Mormons for political gain (e.g. to boost Johnston in the 1860 presidential election), thus refusing pragmatic and workable options (including accepting Young’s cooperation and agreeing not to send military troops to southern Utah) for indicting, arresting, and trying suspects in the late 1850s soon after the massacre.
On a related note, I especially appreciated Turley and Brown’s attention to the heart-rending details of what happened to the children who survived the massacre and how they were returned to their extended families, though I wish they had included a bit more information about their lives after their return to Arkansas. Similarly, I appreciated that the authors highlighted how Paiutes were used by Mormons as scapegoats and at several points presented different Paiute perspectives, though I was left wanting to hear more of their voices.
Although the authors made clear the role that Haight and Dame, and to a lesser extent the other perpetrators (indicted or otherwise), played in the massacre, much of the narrative — especially in this second book — seemed singularly focused on Lee. This was no doubt a function of the outsized attention directed to Lee by his contemporaries and the more extensive documentary history associated with him and his trials, which in turn were a result of his role as the key on-the-ground leader during the massacre, his letter writing, journaling, and habit of pontificating, his vivid and larger-than-life personality, the place he captured in the American imagination, the way contesting parties used him to make arguments about politics and religion in 19th century Utah and America, and the fact that he was the only person ever tried and convicted for his role in the massacre. But as a descendant of Haight and other massacre perpetrators, I found myself wanting to learn more of how they deflected and evaded legal accountability—and how the trauma of participation in the massacre did or did not affect them and their families.
My most significant critique is that the authors too quickly dismiss the argument that John D. Lee was used as a scapegoat. Although Lee clearly was guilty of first degree murder, it is also clear from the evidence that Turley and Brown themselves lay out that church leaders (e.g. Wells, Brigham Young’s counselor) and members wanted Lee to be convicted in order to end the negative attention directed at the church, and that they did *not* want additional arrests and trials, lest that draw more negative attention to the church. They convincingly dismiss the notion that Sumner Howard, the U.S. district attorney for Utah appointed in 1876 who prosecuted Lee in his second trial, was in cahoots with this strategy, but never explicitly acknowledge what their evidence demonstrates — that the church leadership did not support government efforts to bring Haight, Higbee, Stewart, or even Dame to prosecution.
A final comment on the audiobook version, which was the main way I read this book: This was the best nonfiction audiobook I’ve ever listened to. The narrator, T. Ryder Smith, is an award-winning Broadway actor who often lends his voice to fiction audiobooks. He was an excellent choice to voice a book that deliberately adopts a narrative style with extensive direct quotations from historical figures, as he adopted different accents for different figures. (Smith’s John D. Lee in particular was👌) He even seamlessly switched from character accents in the quoted portions of a sentence to his standard narrator accent in the non-quoted portions. Smith honors and elevates the authors’ goal of creating an accessible historical account.
December 20, 2024
I am shocked that this book isn't more well known. The detail that Turley and Brown were about to uncover is astonishing. It is shocking how horrible this massacre was and how callous those involved continued to be throughout their lives. I really liked that this was framed from a purely factual standpoint, explaining not only the Church's role in the massacre but also the United States role.
June 6, 2023
Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and its Aftermath, the highly anticipated sequel to the previous book, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, is not your typical historical read. It is a gut-wrenching, emotional experience that left me shaking my head and wondering how brave pioneers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found themselves capable of murdering over one hundred emigrants bound for California, and then covering up the crime.
Massacre at Mountain Meadows, published in 2008 told the story of how this terrible event came about, and the circumstances that led devout Christian men to even consider such a crime. Richard Turley and his co-authors found that they had too much material for just one volume, so the aftermath of the massacre, including the trial and execution of John D. Lee, was saved for a second volume. Taken together, the two books present the most complete retelling to date of this terrible event, and is the result of more than forty years work.
Documented with extensive endnotes, Turley and Brown sifted through thousands upon thousands of pages of correspondence, journals, legal briefs, court transcripts, and newspaper reports to retell the aftermath of the massacre, the return of the surviving children to family members in Arkansas, and the fate of the perpetrators of the murders. The authors chose to use a narrative style to reach as many readers as possible. The result is comprehensive, compelling, and accessible to the average reader. The thoughts of the participants in the crime, investigation, and the prosecutions that followed become evident through personal correspondence and journals.
For example, John D. Lee, just days after the massacre, was speaking in a church meeting and used a shockingly accurate retelling of the bloody event as the subject of his sermon. He was interrupted by a messenger who delivered a note indicating that Church President Brigham Young had instructed the Iron County Militia, the primary participants in the massacre, to let the emigrant train safely leave Utah and continue on to California. That instruction came too late. Lee suddenly quit talking about the massacre. Shortly thereafter, another meeting was held asking the listeners to not talk about Lee’s speech under penalty of violence. [p 49]
Cedar City Stake President Isaac C. Haight and Militia leader and Parowan Stake President William Dame, who initially gave the orders to “use up” the emigrants were not at the Meadows the day of the massacre but toured the site the following day. Lee overheard Dame tell Haight:
“…he would have to report the destruction of the emigrant camp.”
“How?” Haight asked. “As an Indian massacre?”
Dame said he was not sure he would lay the responsibility on Indians.
“How the h—l can you report it any other way without implicating yourself?”
Haight retorted.” [p 33]
Vengeance is Mine is full of such exchanges, recorded in journals and correspondence. The narrative pulls the reader along through the attempts to cover up the massacre, the efforts of various territorial authorities to investigate and fix blame on Church leaders Brigham Young and George A. Smith, and the eventual trials of Lee. Ultimately, Lee was the only participant tried and convicted for his part in the affair. Haight, Dame, John Higbee and other participants spent the rest of their lives on the run, trying to avoid law enforcement and living apart from their families under assumed names.
Brown and Turley make it clear that the territorial judges, prosecutors, and marshals almost universally believed that the corruption began at the top with Brigham Young. Nothing in Utah happened without Young’s knowledge or approval, the argument went, so Young must be responsible. George A. Smith, as Young’s first counselor, had toured the settlements around Cedar City and the Meadows in the weeks leading up to the massacre talking about the fears of the approaching army dispatched by President Buchanan to put down a purported rebellion in Utah. Territorial officials assumed that Smith transmitted the orders for the massacre during that visit.
As Brown and Turley show in their retelling, tensions were high everywhere with the fears of war, and the ongoing religious retrenchment known as the Reformation. Concerned about religious backsliding, Young encouraged sermons “…like pitch fork tines downwards, so that the people might wake up.” [p 14] This was also a time when the since disavowed doctrine of blood atonement was a frequent sermon topic. Such Reformation rhetoric likely played a part in the Parrish-Potter murders in Springville earlier that same year, and other violent acts towards people viewed as apostates.
Turley and Brown are quick to point out that some of the religious elements in play at Mountain Meadows are no longer believed to be doctrines of the Church. As subsequent investigations show, there is no evidence that Young or Smith ordered the massacre, but they did help create an environment, amplified by local leadership, where such actions could be misconstrued as approved.
As with any crime, the coverup becomes a major part of the story. In the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the coverup began as soon as the order from Salt Lake arrived, indicating the emigrants should be left in peace. By then, most of the emigrants’ property had been auctioned off to local members in Cedar City and elsewhere. Being a record-keeping people, Cedar City Bishop Philip Klingensmith had his clerk dutifully record who received what. That record book was later destroyed when the investigations began in earnest. Territorial officials avoided using the telegraph lines to communicate, as they knew that Mormons were operating the telegraph, and that any word of their movements would be shared with those involved in the massacre.
John D. Lee remains the only participant in the massacre who was tried and convicted. Turley and Brown give detailed accounts of the legal maneuvering by both prosecution and defense, and the arguments forwarded by both sides. Lee’s first trial ended in a hung jury, an outcome that was anticipated by both the judge and prosecution. The prosecutor even admitted that he was trying the case in the press. [p 300] It was anticipated that an acquittal or mistrial would force politicians in Washington DC to enact stricter measures against Utah and the Church.
Throughout the period from the time of the massacre to Lee’s second trial, Brigham Young had always offered the assistance of the Church in investigating and prosecuting the accused. Territorial officials continually refused, assuming that Young was not sincere. After it became clear to Young that Lee and others truly had been involved, Lee, Haight, Dame and one other individual were excommunicated, a move that deeply upset Lee. Haight was rebaptized later, but Lee remained outside the church for the rest of his life. In Lee’s second trial, prosecution made it clear that they were not prosecuting the church, but only seeking justice for the victims and the child survivors. A jury made up exclusively of Latter-day Saints returned a guilty verdict. After Lee’s appeals failed, Lee was transported to the scene of the crime at Mountain Meadows, where he was executed by firing squad while sitting atop his coffin.
For this reviewer, I struggled to understand how Haight, Lee, Dame, Klingensmith, and the others could get so caught up as to participate in this tragedy. As one researcher put it, reading all the documentation for the two volumes and editing on a daily basis for months at a time, reduced her to sitting in her locked office, weeping as she worked. [fn 1]
Perhaps that is the value of these two volumes. Massacre at Mountain Meadows and Vengeance is Mine should force all of us to look at ourselves and realize that good people are just as capable of awful acts as well as good acts when we are under stress. The period in which the massacre occurred took place under the threat of imminent war and invasion, coupled with extreme economic hardship where most families in Utah were struggling to put food on the table and survive until the next harvest. Turley and Brown, along with their co-authors of the previous volume, have clearly shown how this terrible stain on the LDS Church’s history could sweep otherwise good people to act in terrible ways. The Saints were on the receiving end of similar violence in Missouri and Illinois. It is both surprising and disappointing to see that they could respond in kind.
Turley and Brown have accomplished a remarkable feat in capturing so much primary source material, and delivering a highly readable text that has lessons for all of us. If you end up finding yourself weeping or not being able to sleep, then the authors have accomplished what they set out to do, making you feel for this senseless tragedy. Vengeance is Mine is worthy of our concentrated attention.
[Fn 1] See Janiece Johnson, Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture, University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Johnson worked for twenty years on this and the previous publication, Massacre at Mountain Meadows as a researcher and editor.
“
Massacre at Mountain Meadows, published in 2008 told the story of how this terrible event came about, and the circumstances that led devout Christian men to even consider such a crime. Richard Turley and his co-authors found that they had too much material for just one volume, so the aftermath of the massacre, including the trial and execution of John D. Lee, was saved for a second volume. Taken together, the two books present the most complete retelling to date of this terrible event, and is the result of more than forty years work.
Documented with extensive endnotes, Turley and Brown sifted through thousands upon thousands of pages of correspondence, journals, legal briefs, court transcripts, and newspaper reports to retell the aftermath of the massacre, the return of the surviving children to family members in Arkansas, and the fate of the perpetrators of the murders. The authors chose to use a narrative style to reach as many readers as possible. The result is comprehensive, compelling, and accessible to the average reader. The thoughts of the participants in the crime, investigation, and the prosecutions that followed become evident through personal correspondence and journals.
For example, John D. Lee, just days after the massacre, was speaking in a church meeting and used a shockingly accurate retelling of the bloody event as the subject of his sermon. He was interrupted by a messenger who delivered a note indicating that Church President Brigham Young had instructed the Iron County Militia, the primary participants in the massacre, to let the emigrant train safely leave Utah and continue on to California. That instruction came too late. Lee suddenly quit talking about the massacre. Shortly thereafter, another meeting was held asking the listeners to not talk about Lee’s speech under penalty of violence. [p 49]
Cedar City Stake President Isaac C. Haight and Militia leader and Parowan Stake President William Dame, who initially gave the orders to “use up” the emigrants were not at the Meadows the day of the massacre but toured the site the following day. Lee overheard Dame tell Haight:
“…he would have to report the destruction of the emigrant camp.”
“How?” Haight asked. “As an Indian massacre?”
Dame said he was not sure he would lay the responsibility on Indians.
“How the h—l can you report it any other way without implicating yourself?”
Haight retorted.” [p 33]
Vengeance is Mine is full of such exchanges, recorded in journals and correspondence. The narrative pulls the reader along through the attempts to cover up the massacre, the efforts of various territorial authorities to investigate and fix blame on Church leaders Brigham Young and George A. Smith, and the eventual trials of Lee. Ultimately, Lee was the only participant tried and convicted for his part in the affair. Haight, Dame, John Higbee and other participants spent the rest of their lives on the run, trying to avoid law enforcement and living apart from their families under assumed names.
Brown and Turley make it clear that the territorial judges, prosecutors, and marshals almost universally believed that the corruption began at the top with Brigham Young. Nothing in Utah happened without Young’s knowledge or approval, the argument went, so Young must be responsible. George A. Smith, as Young’s first counselor, had toured the settlements around Cedar City and the Meadows in the weeks leading up to the massacre talking about the fears of the approaching army dispatched by President Buchanan to put down a purported rebellion in Utah. Territorial officials assumed that Smith transmitted the orders for the massacre during that visit.
As Brown and Turley show in their retelling, tensions were high everywhere with the fears of war, and the ongoing religious retrenchment known as the Reformation. Concerned about religious backsliding, Young encouraged sermons “…like pitch fork tines downwards, so that the people might wake up.” [p 14] This was also a time when the since disavowed doctrine of blood atonement was a frequent sermon topic. Such Reformation rhetoric likely played a part in the Parrish-Potter murders in Springville earlier that same year, and other violent acts towards people viewed as apostates.
Turley and Brown are quick to point out that some of the religious elements in play at Mountain Meadows are no longer believed to be doctrines of the Church. As subsequent investigations show, there is no evidence that Young or Smith ordered the massacre, but they did help create an environment, amplified by local leadership, where such actions could be misconstrued as approved.
As with any crime, the coverup becomes a major part of the story. In the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the coverup began as soon as the order from Salt Lake arrived, indicating the emigrants should be left in peace. By then, most of the emigrants’ property had been auctioned off to local members in Cedar City and elsewhere. Being a record-keeping people, Cedar City Bishop Philip Klingensmith had his clerk dutifully record who received what. That record book was later destroyed when the investigations began in earnest. Territorial officials avoided using the telegraph lines to communicate, as they knew that Mormons were operating the telegraph, and that any word of their movements would be shared with those involved in the massacre.
John D. Lee remains the only participant in the massacre who was tried and convicted. Turley and Brown give detailed accounts of the legal maneuvering by both prosecution and defense, and the arguments forwarded by both sides. Lee’s first trial ended in a hung jury, an outcome that was anticipated by both the judge and prosecution. The prosecutor even admitted that he was trying the case in the press. [p 300] It was anticipated that an acquittal or mistrial would force politicians in Washington DC to enact stricter measures against Utah and the Church.
Throughout the period from the time of the massacre to Lee’s second trial, Brigham Young had always offered the assistance of the Church in investigating and prosecuting the accused. Territorial officials continually refused, assuming that Young was not sincere. After it became clear to Young that Lee and others truly had been involved, Lee, Haight, Dame and one other individual were excommunicated, a move that deeply upset Lee. Haight was rebaptized later, but Lee remained outside the church for the rest of his life. In Lee’s second trial, prosecution made it clear that they were not prosecuting the church, but only seeking justice for the victims and the child survivors. A jury made up exclusively of Latter-day Saints returned a guilty verdict. After Lee’s appeals failed, Lee was transported to the scene of the crime at Mountain Meadows, where he was executed by firing squad while sitting atop his coffin.
For this reviewer, I struggled to understand how Haight, Lee, Dame, Klingensmith, and the others could get so caught up as to participate in this tragedy. As one researcher put it, reading all the documentation for the two volumes and editing on a daily basis for months at a time, reduced her to sitting in her locked office, weeping as she worked. [fn 1]
Perhaps that is the value of these two volumes. Massacre at Mountain Meadows and Vengeance is Mine should force all of us to look at ourselves and realize that good people are just as capable of awful acts as well as good acts when we are under stress. The period in which the massacre occurred took place under the threat of imminent war and invasion, coupled with extreme economic hardship where most families in Utah were struggling to put food on the table and survive until the next harvest. Turley and Brown, along with their co-authors of the previous volume, have clearly shown how this terrible stain on the LDS Church’s history could sweep otherwise good people to act in terrible ways. The Saints were on the receiving end of similar violence in Missouri and Illinois. It is both surprising and disappointing to see that they could respond in kind.
Turley and Brown have accomplished a remarkable feat in capturing so much primary source material, and delivering a highly readable text that has lessons for all of us. If you end up finding yourself weeping or not being able to sleep, then the authors have accomplished what they set out to do, making you feel for this senseless tragedy. Vengeance is Mine is worthy of our concentrated attention.
[Fn 1] See Janiece Johnson, Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture, University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Johnson worked for twenty years on this and the previous publication, Massacre at Mountain Meadows as a researcher and editor.
“
June 1, 2023
An excellent, detailed and clearly presented account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre which took place in Utah in 1857. An understanding of this is essential not only for understanding what was the low point of Latter Day Saint history, but also for understanding the role of violence in the settlement of the American West.
December 5, 2023
This was an unfortunate episode that happened in the wild west. Because it was done by members of a controversial religious group it gets more ink than it deserves. I say this only because history is full of bad stuff like this event. Yes they tried to cover it up because they were worried about what the federal government would do. President Buchanan sent "squaw killer" Kearney who had been involve in Indian massacres himself to make sure law and order in Utah was restored.
Only one man was punished for the massacre and that was 25 years later when he was shot by a firing squad.
It was a terrible event all around. One thing I dont understand is the families of the victims today carry on like it happened yesterday when it happened in 1856 on 9-11. I am not sure if they are sincere or not. I lean towards not. Maybe that will get me in trouble but I don't care.
Only one man was punished for the massacre and that was 25 years later when he was shot by a firing squad.
It was a terrible event all around. One thing I dont understand is the families of the victims today carry on like it happened yesterday when it happened in 1856 on 9-11. I am not sure if they are sincere or not. I lean towards not. Maybe that will get me in trouble but I don't care.
November 29, 2023
An excellent follow-up that provides a history of the aftermath and legal prosecutions involving the mountain meadows massacre. The prosecution(s) of John D Lee was fascinating. It is a testament to the power that a narrative has in persuading people to action. It's a shame that the prosecution (the first one) worried too much about political power and not about exacting justice to the perpetrators of the crime. The crime committed at the meadows and the early prosecution are sad tales of the effects of self-serving individuals acting under the pretense of serving the greater good.
March 19, 2024
Merely the latest apologetic account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre aftermath of why it wasn't Brigham Young's responsibility to bring the murderers to justice.
May 20, 2023
The story goes that J. Golden Kimball was once preaching to a crowd in the South and became concerned when he noticed that only men were present. As he opened his mouth to talk, however,
All at once something came over me and I opened my mouth and said, . . . ‘Gentlemen, you have not come here to listen to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. . . . You have come to find out about the Mountain Meadows Massacre and polygamy, and God being my helper I will tell you the truth.’ And I did. I talked to them for one hour. When the meeting was out you could hear a pin drop.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre is a topic that tends to have that effect, and a long-anticipated book on the topic is about to come out.
Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown is an exceptional and highly-recommended book that delves deep into the aftermath of the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre. The authors have done a remarkable job in presenting a comprehensive and detailed account of the massacre and its cover-up.
The book is a follow-up to the 2008 publication Massacre at Mountain Meadows and takes readers on a journey through the aftermath of the gruesome massacre. It examines the attempts of the local southern Utah leaders to conceal their crime by suppressing witnesses and disseminating lies. Government and church investigations were hindered by stonewalling and political maneuvering, and the authors provide insight into these challenges.
The authors delve into the trial proceedings of John D. Lee, the only person executed for the massacre. They analyze the complex relationship between Lee and church president Brigham Young, and question Young’s involvement in the cover-up. The book also details the fates of the other perpetrators and survivors.
Turley and Brown’s writing is well-researched and presents a balanced perspective. They have successfully conveyed the gravity of the event while maintaining sensitivity to the victims and their families. The authors’ willingness to confront the difficult aspects of this history is commendable and reflects the utmost respect for the truth. It was not something that was easy or light to read, but still very well done.
There were many interesting insights that the book provided of which I wasn’t aware. It made it very clear that even though John D. Lee was the only person ever successfully prosecuted and executed for carrying out the massacre that there were efforts to indict others. Those other efforts were thwarted by a variety of circumstances, ranging from an inability to capture the suspects (like Isaac Haight), plea bargains for testifying, and government agent refusals to accept assistance from the Church. Some of the interesting facts that came up were that Latter-day Saints had a role in the eventual purchase of Russian America (Alaska) by the United States and that John D. Lee mentioned Heavenly Mother in his sermons. But the details of the John D. Lee trial was probably the section of the book that was most new to me.
Vengeance Is Mine is an exceptional book that serves as a valuable contribution to the history of Mormonism and Utah. The authors’ openness and depth of research is remarkable and presents a clear and thorough account of one of the most shameful events in American history.
All at once something came over me and I opened my mouth and said, . . . ‘Gentlemen, you have not come here to listen to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. . . . You have come to find out about the Mountain Meadows Massacre and polygamy, and God being my helper I will tell you the truth.’ And I did. I talked to them for one hour. When the meeting was out you could hear a pin drop.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre is a topic that tends to have that effect, and a long-anticipated book on the topic is about to come out.
Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown is an exceptional and highly-recommended book that delves deep into the aftermath of the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre. The authors have done a remarkable job in presenting a comprehensive and detailed account of the massacre and its cover-up.
The book is a follow-up to the 2008 publication Massacre at Mountain Meadows and takes readers on a journey through the aftermath of the gruesome massacre. It examines the attempts of the local southern Utah leaders to conceal their crime by suppressing witnesses and disseminating lies. Government and church investigations were hindered by stonewalling and political maneuvering, and the authors provide insight into these challenges.
The authors delve into the trial proceedings of John D. Lee, the only person executed for the massacre. They analyze the complex relationship between Lee and church president Brigham Young, and question Young’s involvement in the cover-up. The book also details the fates of the other perpetrators and survivors.
Turley and Brown’s writing is well-researched and presents a balanced perspective. They have successfully conveyed the gravity of the event while maintaining sensitivity to the victims and their families. The authors’ willingness to confront the difficult aspects of this history is commendable and reflects the utmost respect for the truth. It was not something that was easy or light to read, but still very well done.
There were many interesting insights that the book provided of which I wasn’t aware. It made it very clear that even though John D. Lee was the only person ever successfully prosecuted and executed for carrying out the massacre that there were efforts to indict others. Those other efforts were thwarted by a variety of circumstances, ranging from an inability to capture the suspects (like Isaac Haight), plea bargains for testifying, and government agent refusals to accept assistance from the Church. Some of the interesting facts that came up were that Latter-day Saints had a role in the eventual purchase of Russian America (Alaska) by the United States and that John D. Lee mentioned Heavenly Mother in his sermons. But the details of the John D. Lee trial was probably the section of the book that was most new to me.
Vengeance Is Mine is an exceptional book that serves as a valuable contribution to the history of Mormonism and Utah. The authors’ openness and depth of research is remarkable and presents a clear and thorough account of one of the most shameful events in American history.
December 22, 2025
Regarding the work / book itself: This, and its precursor, are the best treatments on this topic one might read. Scholarship at its finest. Inspiring in its quality and effect.
It’s effect? Here follows a reflection on one person’s experience.
Sad.
Profoundly sad.
The human capacity to do evil is grievous.
The history i.e. people, events, circumstances, sociality, and etc which has come to be labeled as the Mountain Meadows Massacre manifests the worst in human behavior: fear mongering, fanaticism, conspiracy, cover-up, conscience-salving, self-justification, self-preservation, blaming, deceiving, greed, willing complicity, happy gullibility, and seemingly endless and layered variations of such as single and combined phenomena, behaviors directed outwardly at others and behaviors aimed inwardly.
And in making that enumeration my minds eye hadn’t yet turned toward the dastardly deeds of John D. Lee and those most responsible particularly Higbee, Haight, and Dame. Scheming, violence, brutality, objectification, hatred, covetousness, greed, cowardice, evasion, and so forth.
A microcosm of filth. A Petri dish of putrid infection. A pustule on the face of the earth.
Surely these are among those things which God observed when he wept before Enoch (Moses 7:28-33).
After several years (7, 8, …10?) of actively consuming scholarly historical works associated with the faith I adhere to oddly I feel both enlightened and weary.
• Enlightened and gladly re-directed or freshly-directed toward a more accurate understanding of God. Naive assumptions about God have been eviscerated. God is not my projection of Who He might be. Nor is He your projection. God is not a projection that any human intellect may construct. Nor is His character. Nor His attributes. His justice is not justice as humans may describe it. His mercy is not mercy as humans might describe it. Hallelujah.
• Wearied by the seemingly endless and utter humanity of even God’s appointeds. But then what is to be expected? Clearly, utter humanity.
It has been delightfully refreshing to begin a study of The Old Testament. That is perhaps an unexpected expression.
It’s effect? Here follows a reflection on one person’s experience.
Sad.
Profoundly sad.
The human capacity to do evil is grievous.
The history i.e. people, events, circumstances, sociality, and etc which has come to be labeled as the Mountain Meadows Massacre manifests the worst in human behavior: fear mongering, fanaticism, conspiracy, cover-up, conscience-salving, self-justification, self-preservation, blaming, deceiving, greed, willing complicity, happy gullibility, and seemingly endless and layered variations of such as single and combined phenomena, behaviors directed outwardly at others and behaviors aimed inwardly.
And in making that enumeration my minds eye hadn’t yet turned toward the dastardly deeds of John D. Lee and those most responsible particularly Higbee, Haight, and Dame. Scheming, violence, brutality, objectification, hatred, covetousness, greed, cowardice, evasion, and so forth.
A microcosm of filth. A Petri dish of putrid infection. A pustule on the face of the earth.
Surely these are among those things which God observed when he wept before Enoch (Moses 7:28-33).
After several years (7, 8, …10?) of actively consuming scholarly historical works associated with the faith I adhere to oddly I feel both enlightened and weary.
• Enlightened and gladly re-directed or freshly-directed toward a more accurate understanding of God. Naive assumptions about God have been eviscerated. God is not my projection of Who He might be. Nor is He your projection. God is not a projection that any human intellect may construct. Nor is His character. Nor His attributes. His justice is not justice as humans may describe it. His mercy is not mercy as humans might describe it. Hallelujah.
• Wearied by the seemingly endless and utter humanity of even God’s appointeds. But then what is to be expected? Clearly, utter humanity.
It has been delightfully refreshing to begin a study of The Old Testament. That is perhaps an unexpected expression.
February 27, 2024
A more than worthy follow-up to the great Massacre at Mountain Meadows published by Oxford UP in 2008. When I read that book I felt that it was an incomplete story since they only dealt with the incident itself and none of the repercussions (aside from jumping ahead to the execution of John D. Lee over a decade later). But I was aware that the authors were under contract to write a "part 2" up, and I'm glad they have finally produced this volume.
Very interesting to see all the competing interests between those who perpetrated the massacre, LDS leadership (who were lied to and who thus always advocated for a full investigation), the carpet-bagging judges and government officials, the federal government (which was shortly consumed with the Civil War), the Native Americans, the families of the surviving children, and the local Latter-day Saints in southern Utah all pulling and pushing in different ways at different times with different motivations.
In the end, I feel justice was not fully served. Only John D. Lee ever was tried and executed, while at least everybody else who was part of the "tan bark council" should have received the same sentence, and perhaps the militiamen under their command responsible for doing reprehensible things while "just following orders."
Someone should have stood up to stop it. Nobody did. And while the children who survived were returned to their relatives in Arkansas (just to be around for the horrors of the Civil War), the perpetrators basically got away with it with the one exception, and that feels like he was a scapegoat for the whole affair.
The book outlines very well why this is the way the state of affairs ended being the way they did, showing how at each step people took reasonable and logical actions based on their points of view and their differing interests. In the end, though, I hope the Judge of Us All does a better job than the US justice system of the 19th century did. (He will.)
Very interesting to see all the competing interests between those who perpetrated the massacre, LDS leadership (who were lied to and who thus always advocated for a full investigation), the carpet-bagging judges and government officials, the federal government (which was shortly consumed with the Civil War), the Native Americans, the families of the surviving children, and the local Latter-day Saints in southern Utah all pulling and pushing in different ways at different times with different motivations.
In the end, I feel justice was not fully served. Only John D. Lee ever was tried and executed, while at least everybody else who was part of the "tan bark council" should have received the same sentence, and perhaps the militiamen under their command responsible for doing reprehensible things while "just following orders."
Someone should have stood up to stop it. Nobody did. And while the children who survived were returned to their relatives in Arkansas (just to be around for the horrors of the Civil War), the perpetrators basically got away with it with the one exception, and that feels like he was a scapegoat for the whole affair.
The book outlines very well why this is the way the state of affairs ended being the way they did, showing how at each step people took reasonable and logical actions based on their points of view and their differing interests. In the end, though, I hope the Judge of Us All does a better job than the US justice system of the 19th century did. (He will.)
March 17, 2024
Vengeance is Mine is the companion work to 2008's Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Together these books set out to be the authoritative study of the 1857 tragedy in Southern Utah. The first volume examined the massacre itself, while this new work looks at the aftermath - the fate of child survivors, the cover-up, and the search for answers and justice. Ultimately John D. Lee was executed, while other perpetrators with equal culpability (William Dame, Isaac Haight, John Higbee, Philip Klingensmith, etc) escaped punishment.
My major take-away from this book is that the tragedy at Mountain Meadows became a huge political issue. Utah's Liberal Party (anti-Mormon) and many Western newspapers badly wanted to prove Brigham Young was ultimately responsible, in hopes of stripping the church of its leading role in state politics. John D. Lee's first trial was set up in such a way that a hung jury was inevitable; the plan was to leverage this to get the federal government to take all Mormons off juries and disenfranchise them entirely. Ultimately this plan failed, but the church's national reputation was greatly damaged.
Finally, 20 years after the massacre (much of the delay is due to the intervening Civil War, which distracted the United States government for quite some time...), John D. Lee alone was prosecuted and punished. I was struck by the fact that even after his relationship with Brigham Young deteriorated, and after being offered immunity if he would testify that Pres. Young had condoned the massacre, he still insisted Southern Utah community leaders acted independently.
Vengeance is Mine is a pretty exhaustive study, and as such it contains a lot of details, maybe more than some readers really want to hear. But I applaud the work of Richard Turley and his associates.
My major take-away from this book is that the tragedy at Mountain Meadows became a huge political issue. Utah's Liberal Party (anti-Mormon) and many Western newspapers badly wanted to prove Brigham Young was ultimately responsible, in hopes of stripping the church of its leading role in state politics. John D. Lee's first trial was set up in such a way that a hung jury was inevitable; the plan was to leverage this to get the federal government to take all Mormons off juries and disenfranchise them entirely. Ultimately this plan failed, but the church's national reputation was greatly damaged.
Finally, 20 years after the massacre (much of the delay is due to the intervening Civil War, which distracted the United States government for quite some time...), John D. Lee alone was prosecuted and punished. I was struck by the fact that even after his relationship with Brigham Young deteriorated, and after being offered immunity if he would testify that Pres. Young had condoned the massacre, he still insisted Southern Utah community leaders acted independently.
Vengeance is Mine is a pretty exhaustive study, and as such it contains a lot of details, maybe more than some readers really want to hear. But I applaud the work of Richard Turley and his associates.
December 15, 2023
I had read Turley's earlier book about the events leading up to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but it appears that I did not write a Goodreads review. This book covers the whole story quite well and is graciously dedicated to Juanita Brooks which is dramatically and emphatically explained on the last two pages -- especially if you have read Brooks' autobiography, "Quicksand and Cactus.". This book becomes a little tedious as it covers the political details of the John D. Lee trials and follows out the lives of the others that were indicted but never prosecuted or even apprehended. Turley is extremely thorough in his documenting, and I was a little surprised at first to see as one of his "Abbreviations" MU "William W. Bishop, ed., 'Mormonism Unveiled, or The Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee (Written by Himself).'" My surprise was explained as I read Turley's book. William W. Bishop was one of Lee's defense lawyers who was granted publishing rights to Lee's journals as partial payment for his legal service because Lee had no other way to pay him. Bishop was anti-Mormon and distorted Lee's writings -- hence, the title of Bishop's book. A more reliable source in Turley's "Abbreviations" is MC "John D. Lee, 'A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876,' ed. Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks."
May 18, 2023
4 stars, Horrible Tragedy
VENGEANCE IS MINE: THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE AND ITS AFTERMATH
By Richard E Turley and Barbara Jones Brown
The Mountain Meadows Massacre is a sad, sad story of true events that happened to a wagon train of people, in Utah, who were hoping for a chance at a better life. This book is the follow-up story of what happened to the perpetrators of the horrendous crimes that took the lives of innocent men, women, and children. Seventeen children were spared and returned to their starting place of Arkansas.
This is the conclusion to the story, with very few people being prosecuted for their crimes. Only one man was executed for his misdeeds.
There is a marker at the church in Carrollton, Arkansas memorializing the wagon train victims and survivors. They brought rocks from Mountain Meadows in Utah to Arkansas to make the base of the memorial.
This book, though informative was a little hard to read, it was set up more like a reference book.
I received a complimentary copy of #VengeanceIsMineTheMountainMeadowsMassacreAndItsAftermath #VengeanceIsMine from #OxfordUniversityPress #Oxford I was under no obligation to post a review. #HistoricalNonFiction #Religion #Mormon #Utah #Arkansas #Mormon
VENGEANCE IS MINE: THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE AND ITS AFTERMATH
By Richard E Turley and Barbara Jones Brown
The Mountain Meadows Massacre is a sad, sad story of true events that happened to a wagon train of people, in Utah, who were hoping for a chance at a better life. This book is the follow-up story of what happened to the perpetrators of the horrendous crimes that took the lives of innocent men, women, and children. Seventeen children were spared and returned to their starting place of Arkansas.
This is the conclusion to the story, with very few people being prosecuted for their crimes. Only one man was executed for his misdeeds.
There is a marker at the church in Carrollton, Arkansas memorializing the wagon train victims and survivors. They brought rocks from Mountain Meadows in Utah to Arkansas to make the base of the memorial.
This book, though informative was a little hard to read, it was set up more like a reference book.
I received a complimentary copy of #VengeanceIsMineTheMountainMeadowsMassacreAndItsAftermath #VengeanceIsMine from #OxfordUniversityPress #Oxford I was under no obligation to post a review. #HistoricalNonFiction #Religion #Mormon #Utah #Arkansas #Mormon
December 10, 2023
What a heavy, heart-rending subject! This is essentially a tragedy in its truest sense. A tragedy of a group of people who made terrible choices, then justified them, then tried to cover them up. They murdered the innocent and sought to blame it on others and blame it on the victims. This is a warning to all of us that leave the path of love and righteousness, or who try to give reasons for departing from the Spirit of Truth in our hearts. I have read about this subject many times, but not in this depth. And I realize that growing up here in Utah, many people were/are still laboring under misconceptions about this terrible deed, which became a stain on an entire people. My great-great grandparents lived very close to where this happened. They were old and feeble at this time, so I doubt they knew much about it, or the perpetrators. It is not mentioned in their journals. However, my great-grand uncle, Hosea Stout, is mentioned in this book, as someone who knew the law and gave his opinion. But his opinion was based on what he heard -- the lies of the perpetrators -- so his judgments were misinformed. Just like many are to this day. I'm glad I read this book, but I'm not sure I would want to again.
January 16, 2025
I first learned of this book on a podcast that I like called "Church History Matters" and the same day looked to see if my library system had it. It did, in audiobook form, a good thing since it would have taken me quite a while to read it on my kindle. I had heard some things about the Mountain Meadows massacre, but not much. I had read about half of the book by Jon Krakauer but quit it because of his determination to equate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with violence. I had read "Into Thin Air" by Mr. Krakauer and so assumed that his book about Mountain Meadows would be just as good. It definitely wasn't.
This book answered all my questions. According to the podcast, the church is determined to be transparent about Mountain Meadows. I believe that this book is. There are certainly unflattering things about the church members who were involved. The book also explains the historical background and atmosphere that lead to it. This was not to justify it, but to explain it.
All of this is to say that I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about this disgraceful episode.
This book answered all my questions. According to the podcast, the church is determined to be transparent about Mountain Meadows. I believe that this book is. There are certainly unflattering things about the church members who were involved. The book also explains the historical background and atmosphere that lead to it. This was not to justify it, but to explain it.
All of this is to say that I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about this disgraceful episode.
May 1, 2025
Probably one of the best recent books out there on Mountain Meadows. The LDS historian and Barbara Jones Brown contributed with the LDS Church's knowledge and assistance, helping to put a lot of this to rest...although ultimately it never really will be resolved. Barbara is still doing research and is often in St. George meeting with people to discuss the history and people around Mountain Meadows and has been helpful in researching my own questions. I highly recommend the "Massacre at Mountain Meadows" by Turley & Walker before this book. Both books together have a lot of information regarding many facts, those accused by Lee, as well as Federal Indictments and the details of each person suspected to have participated in an unbiased way. I had no idea my 4th Great Grandfather was on the Federal Indictment, and I wish I could find the testimony of prosecutors to the Grand Jury that served that indictment...but it is gone with history. Mountain Meadows is a often forgot or misunderstood and missed bit of Western Pioneer history that should be looked at much closer, not just the event, but those involved in it as well as the victims.
December 5, 2023
For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Vengence is Mine" is a devastating read. How can good people so quickly become so completely evil? It is a hard question. For those who are not of that belief, the same question applies and can be extended to many acts of evil, especially the war the United States government waged on Native Americans. The book is well-written and thoroughly documented. It is and probably will remain the standard by which all other efforts about the Mountian Meadows Massacre are judged. There are no-holds-barred as the authors explain the roles of church leaders, citizenry, President Buchanan, and the ineptitude of the government in bringing the perpetrators of the awful crime to justice. "Vengence is Mine" is an essential addition to the history of the West. Highly recommended, but it will haunt the reader. I have visited Mountain Meadows a few times. After reading this book, I have no desire to return.
July 27, 2023
Heard about this book in a news article recently. Wow. The amount of research that went into this book is very impressive. What a tragic story. Heartbreaking crime. Very informative in regards to UT/Federal Government tensions of the time. I’m glad I read it but feel a little heartsick at learning more about such a horrible event. Ended up reading it over Pioneer Day…which was…interesting.
This book really highlighted the complexity and various events and misunderstandings and the history in such an approachable way, even for me who is just a casual reader.
I have family roots in Panguitch and couldn’t help wondering what stories my ancestors could’ve told about this time.
As is par for the course of this time period, there seemed to be very little recorded through the lense of women.
This book really highlighted the complexity and various events and misunderstandings and the history in such an approachable way, even for me who is just a casual reader.
I have family roots in Panguitch and couldn’t help wondering what stories my ancestors could’ve told about this time.
As is par for the course of this time period, there seemed to be very little recorded through the lense of women.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews