To quote (“No questions exist about BY’s role as an accomplice after the fact of the massacre; the evidence by the authors simply do not exonerate him.”) Mr. Young, in my readings on the subject, there is no definitive proof that he was an accomplice after the fact. What is your supposed proof? Conclusions by authors is insufficient. If we were to rely on Authors conclusions, we would all be forced to believe that JFK was murdered by 1)the Mafia (due to his justice departments investigation into organized crime) or 2)Fidel Castro (because of his anger about the bay of pigs fiasco) or 3) LBJ himself (because of his insatiable lust for power) Of course one of these may be true (although its highly doubtful) but they cant all be true. Your stated view is not research, but rather biased conjecture in search of something which so neatly fits with your obviously biased beliefs.

Believe what you will, but please dont insult us by stating that your findings are fact. They are not.

By the way, It also could have been Joe DiMaggio on that grassy knoll. Because (I have no proof of this, but it was said by a friend of mine in law school) “He didnt like his ex wife playing around with the President”.

Get real and be honest

Good advice. So where is your evidence?

Specifically, if you have real evidence (not just hearsay, innuendo, or conjecture) that Brigham Young conspired with George A. Smith or anyone else to wipe out the wagon train, please produce it.

This book does not address Brigham’s role after the massacre so my review won’t either. However, you might want to check out a few prior posts I did on a lecture by Thomas Alexander to see that it is quite possible to have questions.

http://www.fairblog.org/2008/01/16/thomas-alexanders-arrington-lecture-on-the-mmm/

http://www.millennialstar.org/2006/09/23/mountain-meadows-massacre-discussion/

I am not up on my WWII history so I can’t comment on the similarities between the two events, but classifying the MMM as a war crime may be a good start. I agree and the book would agree with you that Young and Smith gave no direct orders and had no direct knowledge of the MMM.

I will put off saying much more until I cover the effects of Brigham’s Indian policies and the book’s theory of for mass killings.

No questions exist about BY’s role as an accomplice after the fact of the massacre; the evidence by the authors simply do not exonerate him.

As constructive principals before the massacre, BY and George A. Smith are culpable as were the Japanese commanders in the Phillipines in WWII, who having no direct knowledge and having issued no orders to violate the Filipinos, nonetheless were responsible for the horrors that happened in their roles as leaders and commanders. So Young and Smith are as well as culpable.

The real issue was the massacre, as Bagley argues in Blood of the Prophets and Innocent Blood, a direct plot before the atrocity by the LDS, from Young to the Iron County leaders, to wipe out an emigrant train. If not, give the evidence. If so, give the evidence.

Let’s have no more wussying on the issue.