By Jerald Tanner
In the Messenger for June 1985, we reported that we had learned that someone had “been making up material and attributing it to Joseph Smith. Since such an individual has the ability to create the text of a document like the Salamander letter, we are making a very serious investigation into this matter. We hope to have more to report at this in the next issue of the Messenger.”
(As George Smith’s letter pointed out, the Salamander letter was supposed to have been written by Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris in 1830. This letter is very controversial because it links Joseph Smith to the occult.)
The following is a report on the investigation I conducted. On October 6, 1984, a man by the name of Kerry Ross Boren wrote a letter to Dean Jessee, a noted Mormon scholar who was making a critical examination of the Harris letter to determine whether it was authentic. In this letter, Mr. Boren offered important new information which could help Professor Jessee verify the Salamander letter:
I am an inmate at Utah State Prison, . . . My purpose in contacting you at the present time is due to the recent publicity pertaining to the letter of Martin Harris . . . Joseph Smith was my second great grandfather and I have access to, and have had the privilege of, examining some papers and personal effects of Joseph Smith which have never before been seen or published. . . . One of the important things that the information clarifies are the facts behind the Martin Harris letter. . . . I have an expanded version of the “white salamander” story from Joseph’s own account.
If we can trust copies of letters provided by Mr. Boren (they have every appearance of being authentic), Dean Jessee visited him at the prison and also sent him eight different letters. By January 9, 1985, Mr. Jessee seemed to be rather enthusiastic about the matter:
In reading over the material you have sent I see its importance more than ever for a proper understanding of the Harris letter . . . the most harmful thing we can do right now is to remain silent if there is information available that will put Joseph Smith in a better light. . . . there will be all kinds of questions asked, and much criticism brought against the Church. The best ammunition for facing this issue comes from the material you have presented. (Letter dated January 9, 1985)
Even though Dean Jessee seemed to be impressed with the copies of the documents Mr. Boren provided, he did note that “some of the phrasing and usage of words is foreign to Joseph Smith’s literary style. There are also a few contradictions of fact. . . . Being able to see the actual handwriting of the documents would possibly provide answers to these questions” (Ibid.). Mr. Boren only provided his own handwritten copies of the material, and when Jessee asked for xerox copies, Boren replied that he could not “gain access to the original materials until such time as I am released from this place, and therefore can only provide copies of the information . . .” (Letter dated March 17, 1985). The correspondence between Jessee and Boren apparently ended with this letter.
On May 23, 1985, Mr. Boren wrote us a letter in which he made some incredible claims. He related that he had had access to “some of the papyri, translations of portions of the plates, letters, personal history, genealogy, etc.” While I had serious doubts about these claims, I was very interested in any material relating to the forgery of Mormon documents. At that time I was unaware that Mr. Boren claimed to have material similar to the Salamander letter. In any case, I provided a researcher with the information I had about Kerry Ross Boren, and he was able to obtain copies of documents Boren had previously given to Dean Jessee.
One of the documents which Boren provided was his handwritten copy of an account of Joseph Smith’s early visions, which was supposed to have been authored by Smith himself! The account of the First Vision in this document is similar to Joseph Smith’s “Strange Account” of the First Vision (see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 145-146). It goes on, however, to say that the Lord revealed “a curious stone” to Joseph Smith which he was to use to find the gold plates of the Book of Mormon. The Lord also told him that when he arrived at the place where the records were buried he would be given “a sign” of a “lowly frog but not just a frog but a white frog . . .” On the appointed day, Joseph Smith went to the hill and “saw a frog of the purest white I had ever seen proceed forth out of a hole in the ground at the bottom of a large stone . . .” Joseph removed the stone and saw “a large room or cavern” which contained “plates of gold” and other “ancient items of curious workmanship . . .” Before he could go into the cavern, however, Joseph “again saw the large white frog and immediately above it in the air a shaft of brilliant light descending [and] an angel appeared in the midst . . . and then said unto me behold my name is Nephi . . .”
Mr. Boren also provided a copy of a letter which was supposed to have been written by Joseph Smith to Isaac Morley in 1835. In this letter Joseph Smith detailed some of his early money-digging experiences. In another manuscript which is eight pages long, Mr. Boren gives a summary of a document written by Joseph Smith. This is also filled with material concerning Joseph Smith and money-digging.
Mr. Boren provided other documents and a list of 52 different items he has had access to. He claims that he has seen the “Mummy” of Pharaoh Necho, three rolls of papyrus, thirteen separate pieces of papyri, a revelation on polygamy that is “more lengthy and detailed” than the one published by the church, a large stack of “correspondence between early Church figures, including many by and to the Prophet,” a translation of the lost “Book of Lehi” and other lost books, a translation of the Book of Abraham which contains “much not found in the present published version,” and what appears to be original manuscripts of “Newton and also da Vinci.”
Although I was only able to examine copies of a small portion of this purported collection, it did not take me long to conclude that it was spurious. I could plainly see how material was plagiarized from different portions of published material and combined to give some very unique interpretations. Michael Marquardt also examined the purported documents and reached the same conclusion.
In all fairness to Mr. Boren, I should say that I do not know for certain that he made up the documents. He claims that Joseph Smith gave the documents to his “third great-grandfather, Isaac Morley,” for safekeeping and that they have passed down to one of his relatives who has them stored in the basement of a house in California. Although it seems very unlikely, Mr. Boren could have made his copies from material in someone else’s possession. In any case, there is not the slightest chance that the documents could be genuine. They bear all the earmarks of fabrication.
On June 18, 1985, I had a personal interview with Kerry Ross Boren at the Utah State Prison. While much of his story is very difficult to believe, some of his statements seem to have some basis in fact. One of his claims is that he was a ghost writer for the historical part of Robert Redford’s book, The Outlaw Trail, which was published in 1979. While it does not prove his assertion, I found him mentioned at least fifteen times in Redford’s book. In the Forward, Robert Redford gives “special thanks” to “Kerry Boren,” and on page 24 he refers to “Kerry Boren, our historian.” I have found that Mr. Boren has coauthored a book entitled, Footprints in the Wilderness: A History of The Lost Rhoades Mines, and has also written a number of articles for magazines. On page 173 of her book, Butch Cassidy My Brother, Lulu Parker Bentenson refers to “Kerry Ross Boren, a recognized authority on outlaw history, National Center for Outlaw and Lawman History, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.” While some historians do not have much respect for Mr. Boren’s work, it must be conceded that he has a great deal of ability as a writer.
Proves Letter?
Mr. Boren’s contention that the material he has copied helps clarify “the facts behind the Martin Harris letter” must be completely rejected. As I have already pointed out, the material Boren has presented bears unmistakable evidence of falsification. Furthermore, he has not produced any real evidence that the original manuscripts even exist.
While Kerry Ross Boren sets his material forward with the claim that it supports the Salamander letter, it could raise the question of whether Boren himself had the ability to produce such a document. In his letter of January 9, 1985, Dean Jessee mentioned an important similarity between the Salamander letter and Boren’s material:
. . . the reference to Harris’s having a dream and waking with a coin in his hand, and upon seeing the cavern, throwing the coin back (which is also mentioned in the Harris letter), is very important right now for my work on the Harris letter.
The reference which Professor Jessee speaks of reads as follows in the Harris letter:
I later dream I converse with spirits which let me count their money when I awake I have in my hand a dollar coin which I take for a sign Joseph describes what I seen in every particular says he the spirits are grieved so I through back the dollar.
This statement in the Salamander letter seems incomplete. It does not tell where Harris threw the coin back to. It would be very difficult to throw the coin back into the dream or into the spirit world. Mr. Boren’s material seems to provide a logical answer to this question. In Boren’s summary (“not a verbatim account”) of a manuscript written by Joseph Smith, we find the following:
Martin Harris and Joseph Knight, Sr. came down from Manchester together soon after the treasure was discovered. Harris had had a dream about the Treasure and had awakened with a silver coin in his hand. Taking this to be a sign, he went forthwith to Colesville. . . .
Harris had expressed to Knight that he thought Joseph Smith was a fake, and had stolen the treasure from them . . . but when they confronted Joseph, he related Harris’ dream in detail without being prompted.
Harris would not be content until he had seen the Treasure for himself, to be content that Joseph had not removed any of it. After much persuasion, Joseph agreed to take Harris as far as the place where the buckets of silver coins were located . . . Upon seeing the piece, Harris was content and tossed his coin back into the lot, swearing an oath that he would never reveal anything which he had seen.
The parallels between the two accounts are too strong to be ignored. If it could be established that Boren’s material was in existence before the Salamander letter was discovered in late 1983, it would seem to show that it (the Salamander letter) is a forgery—i.e., a condensed version of the material Boren provided us with. The other explanation, of course, is that the Salamander letter provided structural material for someone with a vivid imagination. In this case, it would not reflect on the Harris letter. Mr. Boren insists that his material is genuine and predates the discovery of the Salamander letter.
While I have not yet found any compelling evidence that Mr. Boren’s material predates the discovery of the Salamander letter, there are some stories in a book he coauthored with Gale R. Rhoades which sound like the account of Harris throwing the coin back. According to Boren and Rhoades, Joe Walker told of going into a sacred mine with Butch Cassidy. He claimed he found a rock that “shined like almost solid gold.” Cassidy, however,
told me anyone who took any part of that gold would have the curse of God placed upon him . . .
I slipped a small piece of that gold in my pocket but when we stepped outside, Butch drew his gun and told me to put it back. . . . I went back and put that piece of rock—about the size of my hand—on top of one of those leather bags, . . . (Footprints in the Wilderness: A History of The Lost Rhoades Mines, page 355).
The account of Cassidy chastising Walker for taking the sacred gold sounds similar to Joseph Smith rebuking Harris in the Salamander letter for taking the spirit’s coin. On page 378 of the same book, we read of a man named Joseph R. Sharp who went to the mine and tried to remove the gold. As he “prepared to climb from the mine,” he was met by two Indians—apparently “apparitions delegated to watch over the sacred Ute gold.” One of them
spoke with a voice of authority; calm, yet loud and in perfect English, saying: ‘Put the gold back, Leave here and never return or you will surely die.’
As quickly as the Indians had appeared, they disappeared, and with no apparent means of departure; vanished, as it were, into thin air! Mr. Sharp was taken aback by this weird display and he tossed the gold back into the mine. . . (Footprints in the Wilderness, page 378).
The reader will notice that Mr. Sharp “tossed the gold back into the mine.” In the Salamander letter, Martin Harris throws “back the dollar.” While my copy of the book was not printed until 1984, I have located a copy printed in 1980 which contains the same stories. This would be at least three years before the Salamander letter was discovered.
In the March 1984 issue of the Salt Lake City Messenger, we pointed out that the Salamander letter contains some striking parallels to Mormonism Unvailed (published in 1834) and a manuscript written by Joseph Knight (first published in BYU Studies, Autumn 1976). When I examined the Boren manuscript, which contains the report concerning Martin Harris’s dream, I found parallels to both of these publications. Furthermore, in a note to Dean Jessee, Mr. Boren specifically mentioned the “Willard Chase affidavit” which was published in Mormonism Unvailed and contains important parallels to the Salamander letter. The parallels between Boren’s manuscript and the Joseph Knight account are so strong that they cannot be explained away as mere coincidence. Some of the parallels are even to footnotes which Dean Jessee has provided to go along with Joseph Knight’s account. One of the more interesting parallels (which is also similar to the Salamander letter) is found on pages 5 and 6 of Boren’s manuscript:
. . . the angel instructed him that he could remove the plates one year from that date, if he would obey certain commandments and follow certain instructions. He would be required to bring someone with him. Someone who would be able to remove the plates.
When Joseph inquired as to whom that person would be, the angel told him only to look to the stone for instruction. Upon doing so, he saw Emma Hale, . . .
The reader will notice how similar this is to Joseph Knight’s account:
. . . and the personage appeard and told him he Could not have it now. But the 22nt Day of September nex he mite have the Book if he Brot with him the right person. Joseph says, “who is the right Person?” The answer was you will know. Then he looked in his glass and found it was Emma Hale, . . . (Brigham Young University Studies, Autumn 1976, page 31)
Perhaps it is only a strange coincidence that both the Salamander letter and the Boren material have parallels to Joseph Knight’s account and Mormonism Unvailed, but the parallels do raise the question as to whether Mr. Boren or someone who has seen his material could have written the Salamander letter.
Although physical tests which have been made on the Salamander letter seem to show that it is authentic, Lyn Jacobs has stubbornly refused to tell where he obtained it. The Deseret News, April 28, 1985, said that “The letter was purchased in late 1983 by Jacobs and Mark Hofmann . . .” The crime which Kerry Ross Boren was sent to prison for was apparently committed in August 1983. It would appear, then, that if he had anything to do with the Salamander letter, it would have been before he was jailed in August, 1983. Mr. Boren maintains that he has not had any contact with either Lyn Jacobs or Mark Hofmann. I have no way of knowing whether this statement is true.
The tests which have been performed on the Salamander letter indicate that if it is a forgery, no ordinary person could have produced it. It would have to be the work of a very skilled forger. Only a person familiar with old documents, chemistry and the process of document authentication could prepare a letter that would have a chance of passing the tests the Salamander letter was submitted to. As far as I know, Mr. Boren has never been charged with forgery, and he has not offered to sell me any documents. Boren claims that he is “not an expert in document authentication.” He maintains, however, that “as a genealogist and researcher I have spent most of my life working with such items and am fully capable of recognizing them as being of the period and scope in question.” (Letter dated June 15, 1985)
Mr. Boren was obviously at home with old letters and journals. In his manuscript “The High Uintahs,” he spoke of the “Kerry Ross Boren Collection” of documents. The letters in this collection went back to the 1830s. I have been told that Boren even had original Jesse James material. A photograph of a portion of an important letter he discovered relating to Butch Cassidy was published in the Westerner, May-June 1973. One thing that is a little suspicious about the letter is that Boren chose to suppress the names of both the writer and the recipient (see pages 41 and 62).
It is interesting to note that like Joseph Smith, Mr. Boren has spent some time searching for treasures. In the book Footprints in the Wilderness, page 399, we find a picture of Boren which is labeled: “Author Kerry Ross Boren with metal detector in search of Uintah Mountain treasure.” On pages 415-416 of the same book, Boren and Rhoades wrote:
. . . the Lost Rhoades Mines; those fabulous and fantastic . . . veins of pure and enticing gold still exist . . . Their various estimates range from “enough gold to pay off the national debt” to “enough gold to pave the streets of New York City”. . . .
Should any of our readers someday endeavor an expedition into the Uintahs in a quest for this gold, the authors would wish you the best of luck . . . Who knows? Maybe we’ll see you in the mountains.
Like the Salamander letter, the book by Boren and Rhoades also contains accounts of the treasure being guarded by “the spirits,” and on pages 367-371 we read of “the spirit” who was directing a clairvoyant who was searching for a lost gold mine.
One thing that should be of great concern to scholars is the fact that there seems to be an attempt in the Boren material to duplicate the spelling errors of Joseph Smith. This, of course, shows that there has been a very serious study of the writings of Joseph Smith with intent to deceive. Whether the author of the Boren materials has actually taken the final step and prepared documents which have the appearance of dating back to Joseph Smith’s time is not known.
As Mormon documents increase in value, the possibility of forgery will also increase. I have recently learned that another man in Southern Utah has been forging documents relating to the Smith family. The forgeries were so good that they have passed into archival collections.
In my investigation I have been seriously handicapped by secrecy. Mr. Boren maintains that the basement of a house in California contains the original documents from which he made his copies. He claims, however, that he cannot release the location of this house. When I turn to the Salamander letter, I find the same problem. Lyn Jacobs refuses to tell me where he obtained it.
If I had investigative power like the FBI or could subpoena documents, it probably wouldn’t take me long to learn the answer to the question I have concerning Mr. Boren’s relationship to the Salamander letter. If, for instance, I could force Lyn Jacobs or Mark Hofmann to reveal where the Salamander letter was obtained, I might be able to learn if it was really in existence prior to the time Mr. Boren came on the scene. Furthermore, I could compel Mr. Boren to reveal the location of the “original” documents (if any such documents exist) as well as the material he has stored at the prison and material in the possession of his friends. His papers would probably prove very helpful in determining the truth about his claims.
Since I have no power to gain access to the documents and information I need most, I am unable to provide a conclusive answer regarding Mr. Boren’s relationship to the Salamander letter. Perhaps some of those reading this paper can provide help. If anyone has any pertinent information on the Salamander letter, Kerry Ross Boren, Lyn Jacobs or Mark Hofmann, it would really be appreciated.
The information I have used in this article is only a summary of a 10-page report I have written on Mr. Boren and his documents. The entire report is published under the title, Mr. Boren and the White Salamander.
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