Forensic Document Analysis - Forgeries of Mormon Church Documents
Pipe bombs exploded on October 15, 1985 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
One bomb killed Mormon bishop and businessman Steven Christensen while the other killed Kathy Sheets.
The package that killed Mrs.
Sheets was intended for her husband, Gary, who was also a bishop in the Mormon Church.
The very next day, a third bomb was set off inside Mark Hofmann's vehicle.
Mr.
Hofmann, who survived, informed law enforcement authorities that he had noticed a suspicious package sitting on the seat of his car.
When he reached to pick it up, it exploded.
Crime scene investigators knew right away that Hofmann was not being truthful about his statement because physical evidence showed that he had been kneeling in the seat of his car when it went off.
Hofmann was immediately put at the very top of the list of suspects in other similar bombings.
As the investigation continued, criminal investigators learned that Hofmann was an expert at finding old documents and had sold many of these artifacts to the Mormon Church.
However, they also learned that these documents were really fakes.
This raised red flags on the part of authorities that Hofmann planted the bombs in an attempt to cover up his forgeries.
The case terminated when investigators confronted Hofmann with evidence that showed that he had faked these documents.
Forensic document examiners William Flynn and George Throckmorton discovered several things that were not right.
Descenders, letters having tails, such as Y and J, seemed to overlap with bigger letters, such as L and T.
This was evident when the Y's and J's appeared in lines above the lines containing the L's and T's.
This kind of overlapping was said to be impossible using the handset type that is consistent with those used in the 1600's.
Furthermore, forensic document examiners also made note of the alligator effect.
The alligator effect refers to the cracking and breaking of ink from the use of chemical oxidants that were used to artificially age the look of the ink.
The natural aging process would not create this kind of change.
When confronted with damning evidence, Hofmann pleaded guilty to the bombings and the forgeries and received life in prison.
He also described to criminal investigators how he pulled off the most famous hoaxes in the history of the Mormon Church.
One bomb killed Mormon bishop and businessman Steven Christensen while the other killed Kathy Sheets.
The package that killed Mrs.
Sheets was intended for her husband, Gary, who was also a bishop in the Mormon Church.
The very next day, a third bomb was set off inside Mark Hofmann's vehicle.
Mr.
Hofmann, who survived, informed law enforcement authorities that he had noticed a suspicious package sitting on the seat of his car.
When he reached to pick it up, it exploded.
Crime scene investigators knew right away that Hofmann was not being truthful about his statement because physical evidence showed that he had been kneeling in the seat of his car when it went off.
Hofmann was immediately put at the very top of the list of suspects in other similar bombings.
As the investigation continued, criminal investigators learned that Hofmann was an expert at finding old documents and had sold many of these artifacts to the Mormon Church.
However, they also learned that these documents were really fakes.
This raised red flags on the part of authorities that Hofmann planted the bombs in an attempt to cover up his forgeries.
The case terminated when investigators confronted Hofmann with evidence that showed that he had faked these documents.
Forensic document examiners William Flynn and George Throckmorton discovered several things that were not right.
Descenders, letters having tails, such as Y and J, seemed to overlap with bigger letters, such as L and T.
This was evident when the Y's and J's appeared in lines above the lines containing the L's and T's.
This kind of overlapping was said to be impossible using the handset type that is consistent with those used in the 1600's.
Furthermore, forensic document examiners also made note of the alligator effect.
The alligator effect refers to the cracking and breaking of ink from the use of chemical oxidants that were used to artificially age the look of the ink.
The natural aging process would not create this kind of change.
When confronted with damning evidence, Hofmann pleaded guilty to the bombings and the forgeries and received life in prison.
He also described to criminal investigators how he pulled off the most famous hoaxes in the history of the Mormon Church.
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