The Untold Story of the Death of Joseph Smith

Summary

Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, was a controversial figure who secretly practiced polygamy despite publicly condemning it. A newspaper exposed his abuses of power as mayor and his polygamy. Smith destroyed the printing press and fled charges, but returned, likely to his death. At Carthage Jail, Smith had a smuggled pistol and killed two in the mob attacking his cell. Mormon tour guides omit the pistol when describing Smith’s 'defenseless' state. The video maker has interrogated guides about contradictions regarding the pistol, but says they tend to evade the facts.

Takeaways

• 😯 Joseph Smith was secretly practicing polygamy while publicly denying it, which upset followers and led to backlash
• 😠 Joseph Smith ordered the destruction of a printing press that published criticism about him abusing power and practicing polygamy
• 🤨 Joseph Smith fled charges and had to be persuaded to return, seen by some as cowardly
• ⏳ Joseph Smith waited in jail after being charged with treason for declaring martial law
• 🔫 A pistol was smuggled into Joseph Smith's jail cell prior to the mob attack
• 🔥 Joseph Smith shot 3 people when the mob rushed his jail cell, killing 2
• 😞 Joseph Smith seemed depressed while in jail awaiting his fate
• 🍷 Joseph Smith drank wine in jail supposedly to lift spirits, against Mormon teachings
• 😶 Mormon tour guides omit Joseph Smith's pistol and shots fired when telling the story
• 🤥 Some Mormon sources still claim Joseph Smith only defended himself with a cane, despite evidence of his pistol

Q & A

How many wives did Joseph Smith have and what was controversial about some of them?

Joseph Smith likely had around 20-30 wives. Controversially, at least 10-11 of them were married to other living men at the same time. This seems to contradict the common Mormon argument that polygamy was instituted by God to raise righteous seed.

What did the Nauvoo Expositor newspaper reveal about Joseph Smith?

The Nauvoo Expositor exposed Joseph Smith's secret practice of polygamy, which he had publicly denied. It also criticized his abuse of power as Mayor of Nauvoo.

Why did Joseph Smith order the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor printing press?

Joseph Smith was furious over the Expositor's publication revealing his polygamy and abuse of power as Mayor. He ordered the press destroyed to silence his critics.

Why did Joseph Smith initially flee to Iowa rather than go to Carthage to face charges?

Joseph Smith had many enemies and feared for his life, so he initially fled across the Mississippi River to avoid imprisonment or harm.

How did Joseph Smith obtain the gun he used in the Carthage jail?

Cyrus Wheelock smuggled in a pistol to Joseph Smith in the Carthage jail. Some tour guides omit this controversial detail.

Did Joseph Smith use alcohol while in Carthage jail, and why?

Yes, wine was brought to Joseph Smith in jail admittedly to lift his spirits, not for sacramental purposes, though Mormons typically abstain from alcohol.

How did the mob gain access to Joseph Smith's cell if he was holding the door shut?

The cell door was warped and the lock didn't work, so Joseph Smith could not have kept the mob out by holding it shut as claimed.

Did Joseph Smith have any chance of escaping the mob alive?

Probably not. The cell offered little real security or defense against the large mob.

Why do some tour guides omit Joseph Smith's use of a gun against the mob?

The use of lethal force by Joseph Smith seems at odds with his typical portrayal by Mormons as an innocent martyr and may be controversial.

What parallels do Mormons draw between Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ?

Some Mormons compare Joseph Smith's death at Carthage to Jesus' crucifixion, shedding their blood as martyrs for their followers.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Joseph Smith's death and the misconceptions around it

Bill McKeever introduces himself and his Mormonism Research Ministry. He notes that many Mormons misunderstand what led to Joseph Smith's death and persecution, thinking it was purely due to his righteousness. McKeever says Smith did things to upset his close followers, was involved in controversy, and there are more details around his story than Mormons usually know.

05:02

😕 Joseph Smith's secret polygamy exposed through newspaper

McKeever explains that Joseph Smith practiced polygamy secretly while publicly condemning it. A newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor exposed this, attacking Smith's abuse of power and lies about polygamy. Smith had up to 30 wives, some teenagers, and was even married to wives of living men. His polygamy contradicts common Mormon arguments defending the practice.

10:05

😠 Events leading up to Joseph Smith's death at Carthage Jail

After the newspaper's expose, Smith destroyed its printing press, declared martial law, and fled charges, seeing enemies threatening his life. Summoned back, new treason charges were brought and he was jailed at Carthage. There he had a smuggled pistol, drank wine against Mormon practices, and was approached by a mob, ultimately shot while trying to fight them off.

Keywords

💡polygamy

The practice of having multiple spouses, especially wives. Smith secretly practiced polygamy even though he publicly denied it. This contributed to his enemies and loss of followers, as exposed in the Nauvoo Expositor newspaper. It shows Smith's controversies and abuse of power.

💡Nauvoo Expositor

A newspaper published exposing Smith's polygamy and abuse of power. Smith had the printing press destroyed, leading to his arrest and imprisonment at Carthage Jail.

💡Carthage Jail

The jail where Smith was held prisoner and ultimately killed. A significant location for understanding the events leading up to Smith's death.

💡martial law

Smith declared martial law using the Nauvoo Legion army to protect himself after destroying the Expositor. This raised the charges against him and contributed to his imprisonment.

💡prophet

Smith was considered a prophet by followers of Mormonism. His death draws comparisons to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in its significance for the Mormon church.

💡mob

A group of armed men rushed the jail cell, leading to Smith and his followers trying to fight them off, before he was ultimately killed.

💡pistol

Smith had a smuggled pistol in the jail cell, used to shoot at the attacking mob. Its presence contradicts the claim he only used a walking stick.

💡alcohol

Smith drank wine to relieve their heavy spirits, despite the Mormon prohibition on alcohol. Shows controversial behavior.

💡followers

Smith lost followers over controversies like polygamy and declaring martial law. They contributed to the mob that attacked and killed Smith.

💡governor

The governor ordered Smith to Carthage to resolve the charges over destroying the printing press. He was killed while technically in state custody.

Highlights

Joseph Smith had as many as 20-30 wives, including 11 that were married to other living men.

The Nauvoo Expositor exposed Joseph Smith's secret practice of polygamy and abuse of power as mayor.

Joseph Smith ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor printing press which led to his arrest.

Joseph Smith fled to Iowa to avoid charges but returned, seeing himself as a martyr like Jesus.

The charge against Joseph Smith changed from riot to treason.

Joseph Smith compared going to Carthage Jail to Jesus going to Mount Calvary.

Joseph Smith had a smuggled pistol in Carthage Jail that he used to shoot 3 men.

The jail cell did not have functioning bars or locks to secure Joseph Smith.

Joseph Smith ordered wine in jail despite the Mormon prohibition on alcohol.

Some claim up to 200 men were part of the mob that attacked the jail.

Tour guides avoid mentioning Joseph Smith's pistol though they know he had one.

The tour guide story of fighting off the mob with canes contradicts the pistol.

John Taylor confirmed Joseph Smith shot 3 men, killing 2.

When confronted, the tour guide admitted Joseph Smith had a pistol.

Tour guides say the pistol was "brought in" not "smuggled" to downplay it.

Transcripts

My name is Bill McKeever, and I'm the founder

and director of Mormonism Research Ministry

We've been around since 1979, mainly trying to help

Christians better understand the Mormon faith,

and hopefully help them in ways that they can

more effectively dialog with their Mormon friends.

Unfortunately, a lot of Mormons I don't think

really understand all the things that went on

that lead to Joseph Smith's death

All they see is a lot of what they perceive as just

unjust persecution, the fact that he was jailed

several times. But I find that in my experience

that a lot of Mormons really don't understand what were all

the reasons for all these things

Why was he in jail for this?

All they ever understood was that, well he

must have just, because of his righteousness

and unrighteous people trying to silence him,

that this is why he was incarcerated, when

there's really more to the story than that.

One of the things that I find very interesting

about Mormonism is that its tie with American history

and of course, studying this subject I've been able to

go and visit a lot of the very special sites,

even sacred sites, of Mormonism

Site that Mormons consider to be very special to them

Of all the places that I've been, the one that I find

to be the most intriguing would have to be

the Carthage Jail.

In order to give you a better understanding

of what this is all about, I probably should

give you a little bit of history there.

Joseph Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo

which was about twenty miles away on the banks

of the Mississippi

in Illinois, about twenty miles away from Nauvoo

And he was the mayor of the town,

and of course he was a very controversial figure

and he was doing some things that had really upset

a lot of very closer followers

So much so that a lot of of these followers started

to fall away from him.

And were really upset with his lifestyle

Seven men got together to produce a newspaper

called the Nauvoo Expositor

It was supposed to be a weekly newspaper

It ended up only coming out with one edition

And the reason was because Joseph Smith was just furious

over this edition that was really attacking

his abuse of power as mayor, and also was

exposing the fact that Joseph Smith was practicing

polygamy secretly

Smith had been lying about polygamy, and

actually condemned polygamy outright

but he was practicing it secretly

and these men knew this

Interviewer: How many wives did he have at this point?

How many wives Joseph Smith actually had is a matter of controversy

but some say he had probably as many as twenty, maybe thirty wives

a lot of these wives, at least ten,

Richard L Bushman, a Mormon historian admits that Joseph Smith

had at least ten wives that were simultaneously

married to living men at the time

Todd Compton in his book, In Sacred Loneliness

mentions that he thinks there were eleven women that he was married to

that were also married to living men at the time

Why this is important is because it seems

to nullify the one argument that many Mormons raise when it comes

to the subject of polygamy, and that the reason

God instituted it in the first place was because

he needed to raise up seed, well,

that doesn't even seem necessary if Joseph Smith is

marrying married women, and we have no evidence

whatsoever to show us that any of these husbands

were either impotent or sterile.

So that argument really doesn't hold.

Joseph Smith is probably the best argument against that.

It's found in Jacob, chapter 2, verse 30 in the Book of Mormon.

And plus we really don't have any proof that Joseph Smith

had children for many of these relationships

There is speculation, but there is really no concrete evidence

Interviewer: How young were some of these women?

Some of these women were actually in their teens

Joseph Smith at this time, you have to understand

was in his thirties.

Well, Joseph Smith, because of this behavior

as I mentioned, it caused quite a few enemies

So, they tried to expose this through this newspaper

Joseph Smith was outraged by the things that they were saying

and he ordered the printing press to be destroyed

which is was

And in order to protect himself and his church

from the outcry from the locals,

he calls the Nauvoo Legion, which was a standing army

Some estimate that there could have been as many as five thousand

men in this army.

But he calls his Nauvoo Legion into effect and

declares martial law.

Well, Joseph Smith is eventually ordered by the governor

to meet in Carthage and to get this matter

straightened out. Governor Thomas Ford was involved at the time

But Joseph Smith, knowing that he had so many enemies that would

really hated him, and there was threats against his life

and instead of going to Carthage, Joseph

is going to flee the area, he crosses the Mississippi

with his brother Hyrum

and he is over near a town called Montrose, Iowa

which is directly across the river from Nauvoo

Members in the Church talk to Emma, his wife,

into writing him a letter to encourage Joseph Smith to return

and in the letter, it purportedly has a comment in there

that refers to Joseph Smith as being a coward for leaving

his church behind.

Joseph Smith makes this romantic comment that

if his life isn't worth anything to his friends, then

it's not worth anything to him, and so he is going

to go back to Illinois, and he's going

to face these charges, knowing full well

that, at least in the way history is written now,

that he is probably going to live.

Before he leaves Nauvoo, he makes the comment

that he is going as a lamb led to the slaughter

this messianic connection that I have often heard

going to Carthage Jail, while going through various tours

you hear this messianic connection made many times,

regarding Joseph Smith. In fact,

you hear comments such as, the Carthage Jail

is like the Mormon Calvary.

Jesus shed his blood for the Christian church on Mount Calvary

Joseph Smith shed his blood for the Mormon Church at Carthage.

Joseph Smith ends up going to Carthage, Illinois, and

he is going to stay at a hotel.

He's eventually confronted by a constable by the name of

David Bettisworth. And he learns through this constable

that now the charge, instead of being riot, as it was originally

is now treason. Apparently connected with him declaring martial law

So now the charges have become very serious

and so Smith is incarcerated at the Carthage Jail

and it was at the Carthage Jail that he is

waiting for this to all be settled

and during that time he is allowed to visit with friends

and he is in the jail cell. At the end he's in the jail cell with his brother

Hyrum, another gentleman by the name of John Taylor, who

would later become the third president of the Mormon Church

and also a man by the name of Willard Richards

While they are waiting in the jail

he is visited by a man by the name of Cyrus Wheelock

Now there is an interesting story about all this

Joseph Smith received this smuggled pistol from Cyrus Wheelock

If you were to ever take the tour at Carthage Jail

they never mention the smuggled pistol,

I've been there several times. Never do the tour guides

volunteer the information regarding the smuggled pistols that Joseph Smith

and his brother had

But it all goes back to this man by the name of Cyrus Wheelock

Well, one of the times when I was going through the tour,

the tour guide again left that part of the story out

so when he opened up for questions and answers I raised my hand

and I asked about the smuggled pistol.

And I actually quoted from the Documentary History of the Church,

volume 7, where it talks about this, page 101-103

and when I mentioned that book to the tour guide

he said, well, you have to be careful about the books that you read,

because there is a lot of erroneous material out there.

And I went, but wait a minute, the Documentary History of the Church, that's your book

You know, that's put out by the Mormon Church, which is where

I am getting that story.

And he goes, oh, oh, the Documentary History of the Church,

yeah, that's a good book. Well I'll tell you about the

smuggled pistol. And he starts to tell me about this elaborate story of

how Cyrus Wheelock actually went up to the guard,

he was guarding the entrance to the jail,

and opened up his coat, and he said, I have

a gun here, and I've come to kill Joseph Smith

and the guard lets him in.

Now, I've never heard this story before

I don't know where this guy is getting this story

and this is the first time I'm hearing it. This is just

intriguing to me, and I'm thinking about this

If we were to transport ourselves back into that time period

and imagine, here we are, in 1844, it's June

and a man comes up to a guard and says,

I have a gun, and I'm going to go inside and

I'm going to kill the prisoner that you're supposed to be guarding,

and you let him in. OK, that sounds pretty strange to begin with.

But then the guy went on to tell us, the tour guide went on to say that

you know, eventually the guard was relieved, and a new

guard came on duty. Now, think about this,

you just let a guy go into a jail with a gun, to assassinate

your prisoner. And he hasn't come out yet.

OK, and you haven't heard the gun go off.

So, you leave your post and allow someone new to come and

take your place, and you don't look into this?

I mean the story is just so far-fetched.

But this man firmly believed that is what happened

Basically Cyrus Wheelock leaves the gun with Smith,

and there is another Derringer that's involved that is given to Hyrum,

Joseph Smith's brother. And as they were there in the jail

they were waiting, you know, for this thing to all be settled,

and there is another section in Joseph Smith's story where he talks about

how they were, you know, had a very heavy spirit

It was probably a very depressing time for them,

because they know the situation does not look very good for them

And so they order some wine to be brought to the jail,

and Smith admits that this wine was not for sacrament purposes

but that it was to relieve their spirits, and so

it was actually meant to, I guess to be somewhat intoxicating,

to make them feel better, which is kind of odd

because Mormons aren't supposed to drink alcoholic beverages

but yet it seems perfectly OK for Joseph Smith to do that

Eventually the jail is approached by a mob

How many are in the mob? We really don't know

and again the numbers fluctuate, you know, some say

as many as two hundred people were involved in this mob,

and a group of men go up the stairs towards the upstairs room where Joseph Smith was being held

and they're rushing the door. You have to understand, the jail

cell that Joseph Smith was in did not have bars on it,

it had a merely a door, and the door didn't even latch

It was warped, and the lock didn't even work,

so, I remember the first time that I went to the Carthage Jail

it was back in the 1980's, and we had a tour guide

by the name of Elder Salt, from Salt Lake City

I mean, it's hard to forget that name

And I remember Elder Salt telling us the story of how

the only defense that Joseph Smith and the olders that were in

the jail cell with him had was by holding themselves against the door

and fighting off their attackers with their walking sticks

And he repeats this three times. The only defense they had

was by holding themselves against the door

and fighting off their attackers with their walking sticks

And after telling this very emotional story

then we were the only non-Mormons there, and the rest

of the people in there were all a group from BYU

that was a busload of BYU students that had just been dropped off

And so, he tells this story and he bears his testimony to the truthfulness of it

And of course there is this resounding amen.

And then he says, are there any questions?

And so, I raised my hand, and I said, you mentioned three times that the only defense

that Joseph Smith and the others had was by holding themselves

against the door and fighting off their attackers with their walking sticks

I said, but I remember reading in volume 7, page 101-103 of the Documentary History of the Church

that Joseph Smith had a smuggled pistol

and that he used that pistol to shoot three people, two of whom died

And it was interesting because you could hear, you know, it was like the proverbial Tabernacle tour,

you could hear a pin drop

It was dead silent

And I'll never forget Elder Salt, the tour guide, he put his arms behind his back

he rocked on his heels looking a the floor

and he said, yes, there was a gun

and he proceeded also to mention the Derringer that Hyrum had,

that I did not bring up

It made me wonder, this man gave this emphatic story,

that the only defense Joseph Smith had, and the other in the jail,

was by holding themselves agianst the door, fighting off

their attackers with a walking stick. Yet all the time this man

knew he had a smuggled pistol.

He didn't deny the fact that Joseph Smith fired the pistol.

But he did say, we don't know where the bullets went.

To which I said, well, John Taylor seemed to know,

he said that he shot three people, two of whom died

Obviously we know at least three of the bullets went into somebody

And of course, he didn't really want to readily admit to that part of the story

but he did know that there was a gun, but at the same time

he kept insisting that, the only defense was holding themselves against the door

which now we know, and he was admitting, was not the case

That I found very disconcerting

Everytime I go and I visit the Carthage Jail, like I said, I have never

heard them bring up the gun. One time I asked one of our tour guides

Wasn't there a smuggled pistol, and she said, well, it wasn't smuggled,

it was brought in.

What does that mean?

Was it legal at that time to bring guns in to prisoners,

I mean, come on, this is silly, what kind of an answer is that?

But they will not tell you anything anything about that.

So last time I went to Carthage we had a sister missionary, and she also failed to mention

the gun. I had a long discussion with her afterwards, and she knew all about it.

She knew all about the gun.