Category: Magic and Money Digging
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More Discoveries!
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In his book, Nightfall At Nauvoo, the Mormon writer Samuel W. Taylor commented that “the Salt Lake City Messenger, contains some of the liveliest reading ever to emerge from the city of the Saints.” In the Messenger we have tried very hard to provide information that is both accurate and…
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“Salamandergate”: Mormon Church Caught in Magic Cover-up
Jerald and Sandra Tanner summarize the evidence for and against the authenticity of Mark Hofmann’s questionable documents, expressing their views candidly for the record.
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Embarrassing Letters
Jerald and Sandra Tanner report on two important letters (Josiah Stowel letter and Martin Harris letter) that seemed plausible but not without troubling questions.
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Moroni or Salamander?
Reported Find of Letter by Book of Mormon Witness By Jerald and Sandra Tanner For a month or two there have been rumors circulating that an extremely important letter written by Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris has been discovered. Although there has been an attempt to keep the matter quiet until the document has…
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Joseph Smith’s Use of Magic Circles and Animal Sacrifice
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner As we indicated in the last newsletter, we are preparing a book entitled, Mormonism, Magic and Masonry. Because of the amount of material that has become available on this subject and because of typesetting problems and the time we have spent forming our non-profit corporation, we have not yet finished…
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Mormon Researcher Finds Smiths’ 1825 Money-Digging Agreement
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In Lippincott’s Magazine we find this strange story about Joseph Smith’s money-digging activities in Pennsylvania: . . . On a wilderness hill . . . his peek-stone discovered a ton of silver bars . . . The third hole had been sunk fifteen out of the necessary twenty feet when the treasure once more jumped to…
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Mormonism & Magic
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum are considered by the Mormon people to have been two of the greatest men who ever lived. The Doctrine and Covenants says that “their names will be classed among the martyrs of religion; . . . From age to age shall their names go down to…
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The Changing World of Mormonism: Chapter 4
Joseph Smith and Money-Digging In the Salt Lake City Messenger for August, 1971, we announced one of the most important discoveries since Joseph Smith founded the Mormon church in 1830. This is the discovery by Wesley P. Walters of an original document which is more than 140 years old. This document, found in Norwich, New York, proves…
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Joseph Smith’s “Caractors” Found!
Important Discovery Puts President Kimball On The Spot By Jerald and Sandra Tanner On May 3, 1980, the Church Section of the Mormon newspaper, Deseret News, reported that an amazing discovery had been made: A hand-written sheet of paper with characters supposedly copied directly from the gold plates in 1828, and also bearing other writing…
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Wesley P. Walters: “Money Digging in New York & Joseph Smith’s 1826 Trial”
Audio archive of a 1976 lecture by Rev. Wesley Walters, the man who first located the documents relating to Joseph Smith’s 1826 arrest for being a ‘glass looker.’ He also pioneered the research on Smith’s claim of a revival in Palmyra in 1820.