Review by Doug Gibson
In “Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath” (Oxford University Press, 2023), authors Richard E. Turley
Jr., and Barbara Jones Brown relate, 19 years after the massacre, the second
trial of John D. Lee, the only man convicted.
It was a quick trial. One that easily garnered a
conviction from a jury comprised entirely of Mormon men. As the book relates,
this was in direct contrast to an earlier trial of Lee – before a jury of
Mormons and non-Mormons – that resulted in a hung jury.
The reason for Lee’s conviction was simple. In this
second trial, prosecutor Sumner Howard focused solely on the evidence against
Lee, and did not waste time, and taxpayer dollars, attempting to convict LDS
leaders Brigham Young, George A. Smith, and the faith itself. The first trial
was a semi farce, with prosecutors, a newspaper (the Salt Lake Tribune), and a
Utah political party hoping that failure to secure a conviction would lead to
federal action that would crush the Mormon faith and its political power.
To get a hung jury, prosecutors in the first trial
openly insulted the faith of the Mormon jurors during the trial. With a more
mature prosecutor, Howard, actively working with Mormon cooperation --
something the previous prosecution had refused to do – testimony against Lee
from participants and observers clearly established Lee’s guilt of truly
horrible crimes.
There is truth that Lee, executed on the site of the
massacre, was a scapegoat. The slaughter of 100-plus emigrants involved dozens
of conspirators. William Higbee, Nephi Johnson, Philip Klingensmith, Isaac
Haight, are examples of those who escaped court justice. But Lee was guilty. He
deserved to be shot for his crimes.
“Vengeance is Mine …” is a follow-up to the 2008
book “Massacre at Mountain Meadows,” of which Turley was one of the authors.
The follow up provides a thorough recap of the years after the massacre,
including how the Civil War put the issue aside for a while.
The book describes a period of rhetorical “fire-and-brimstone”
eras leading to the massacre – the Mormon Reformation of the mid 1850s, the
assassination of apostle Parley P. Pratt, and the movement of federal troops to
Utah. Speeches from Young, Smith and others promised violence -- and alliance
with Native Americans -- if the federal government threatened the Mormon faith.
It’s not difficult to imagine a gross over-response to a perceived threat to
settlers, given the harsh rhetoric from ecclesiastical leaders.
I’ve read just about every book published on the
Mountain Meadows Massacre. For some reason the horrors of the massacre hit
hardest while reading “Vengeance is Mine ...”. Perhaps it’s the book’s
narrative approach. The authors are very effective in conveying the horror of
what occurred.
Offered a white flag of truce from Lee, the
emigrants surrendered their weapons, with a promise of being led to safety.
Shortly into the march, the men were shot – most in the head – by the supposed
Mormon protectors.
As awful as that is, there was a worse fate for
woman, infirm men, and nearly all children 7 or over. They were knifed and
clubbed to death by Native Americans and settlers. Seventeen children were
spared, only because Lee and other conspirators felt they wouldn’t be able to
remember. There was a very young survivor, about 1, being brought to a home
with her arm essentially hanging by a thread; a bone was shattered. The
descriptions of the aftermath are sickening. They include Mormon participants
laughing hysterically as they (unsuccessfully) tried to bury massacre victims. There’s
an account of Lee – during an LDS church address – saying the massacre was the
fulfilment of a revelation from God that he had received in a dream. I can’t
get that out of my head – fast and testimony thanksgiving for killing.
An iconic presence through the book are bones, hair,
and clothing littering the once-beautiful
site of the massacre. Repeatedly, wolves and other predators uncover
meager efforts to bury the massacred. Even 19 years later, as Lee meets his
fate, bones still litter the site.
The historian Hannah Arendt described evil as banal.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre was banal evil. It was so stupid. Vicious men,
full of prejudices and hate – motivated by unwise speeches -- tried to get
Paiute Indians to kill emigrants from Arkansas.
That failed. When Mormon settlers shot at two emigrants, with one killed
and the other fleeing to the wagons, the fate of the entire party was sealed.
Lee and others were worried that survivors would relate their crimes once they
arrived in California. It was ridiculous to think that killing 100-plus more
people would hide a crime.
So, everyone had to die. No one waited for a
messenger dispatched to Salt Lake City to get Brigham Young’s advice. He said
to let the emigrants pass through. But it was too late. The cover up began. “It
was all the Paiute’s fault.” … “Those emigrants killed were comprised of
prostitutes and former tormenters of the faith in Missouri.” “They poisoned a
cow and killed Indians and a young settler boy.” All lies; the ringleaders knew
it.
But these false rationalizations endured for scores
of years.
As mentioned, Lee – while guilty – served as a
scapegoat for the massacres. It’s a compliment to the authors’ writing skills
that one can feel a small measure of sympathy for Lee as over time he is
abandoned by his faith, many of his wives, most of his church colleagues, and
even the man he arguably loved most in the world, Brigham Young.
However, those most culpable did suffer, as the
authors relate. Isaac Haight lived a nomadic, rough life. Every time he tried
to settle into conventional Mormon life, outrage eventually sent him fleeing.
He died of pneumonia. William Stewart had
a lonely, nomadic, running-away life. He died in Mexico due to gangrene in his
leg. John Higbee eventually became insane before his death. His life “was a
living hell,” a former Mormon is quoted as saying.
Philip Klingensmith became a loner, trying to avoid
the stigma of his mere existence. Reports seem to indicate that he died in the
same manner as Loyal Blood, the character on the run in E. Annie Proulx’s
novel, “Postcards.”
And Nephi Johnson, while living a long life, never
escaped the personal hell that his participation in the massacre brought him.
Prior to his death, trying to speak to a young Juanita Leavitt (Brooks), all he
could utter was “Blood! BLOOD! BLOOD!”
This is an excellent, well-researched history book
by two talented historians. Both “Vengeance is Mine …” and “Massacre at
Mountain Meadows” belong together as must-reads to learn the story, beginning
to end, of the 1859 atrocity in Southern Utah.
