E71: UTBOH Fact, Fiction and the Murder Case

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:26)
Hello, Summer Sunstone Mormon History Podcast listeners. This is Lindsay Hansen Park. And before we get started today, I hope you've got your tickets to the 2022 Sunstone Symposium happening in Sandy, Utah, July 27th through the 30th this year. For any listener, any Mormon history nerd, anyone who has an interest in Mormonism at all, we want you to come and hang out with us this summer. It's an incredible conference where we have a lot of fun.
We've got a lot of speakers talking about all kinds of things in Mormon history that you're just going to love. Plus, we have some of the actors and folks who worked on Under the Banner of Heaven, who will be at the conference. And you can talk to them and interact with them personally. I'm really excited about that.
To look at our program, go to sunstone.org and check out our program and also register. We have a special coupon code for 15% off. For any Sunstone Mormon History Podcast listeners, just put in Fawn2022, that's Fawn like in Brody. Fawn2022 in the checkout to get your 15% off.
Bryan and I are going to be hosting a trivia night as well for the really deep Mormon history nerds. So stay tuned for more in signups for that. And Maroni Jessup, Mormon fundamentalist, friend of the podcast, is going to be organizing a kickball game. Mormon fundamentalist against ex-Mormons playing kickball. What better way to build Zion and get people to get along than in a ruthless game of kickball? So yes, check us out on sunstone.org. And while you're at it, throw a donation and support the podcast.
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:02)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:04)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the everlasting hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:31)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:37)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:45)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:10)
If you're tuning in to listen to Under the Banner of Heaven Fact vs. Fiction, this is our mini-series this summer going over what is true and what is about FXs Under the Banner of Heaven streaming exclusively on Hulu. I was one of the paid consultants for the show, and so we're going over the historical inaccuracies and accuracies of the show.
So far, we've covered the first three episodes, and we promised we'd go over the crime itself.
So today, this is not dedicated to an episode of the show, but the actual crime in the Lafferty case. We wanted to dedicate an entire episode for that reason so you can understand the details of the case as you're watching to see for yourself sort of the things that are true and the liberties that were taken with the show. And like I said, in the LDS community especially, there's a lot of folks who are quick to say there's a lot of inaccuracy in the show. And those usually come from people who don't actually know a lot about the case itself. So that's why Bryan and I are doing this. And then I promise to our regular history listeners, we'll get back to Mormon history and the Mormon succession crisis happening in Nauvoo very soon. We're just gonna use the summer to do some fun breakdowns of television series. And Bryan and Christina and I are gonna do a few episodes talking about the documentary Keep Sweet.
So stay tuned for that as well. Before we get into Bryan's interview with an attorney who worked on the case, Creight Horton, who is a lovely man, very thoughtful and has a lot of interesting things to say. The interview is spectacular. I'm excited for it. I'm just gonna give you sort of a timeline of the actual Lafferty case. And before we get into it, I have to say, this episode has strong trigger warnings for violence, domestic violence, blood atonement and misogyny. Some of the things will be hard to listen to. I'm going to be reading directly from the court records and the Supreme Court of Utah's decision on the case. So if those upset you, maybe just skip over this episode. But like I said, it's important to get into the details of what actually happened in real life. And then when Bryan and I are talking about the series, you'll kind of understand what we're talking about.
And another caveat before I read from the trial notes. There have been discussions, especially in our Sunstone Online Facebook Watch Group, which you're absolutely welcome to join the Sunstone Under the Banner of Heaven Watch Group, where we discuss all things under the banner of heaven. And we've got folks who were involved in the case or family members of Brenda and Erica Lafferty, who will talk to you. It's a pretty great place. But there's been a lot of talk about this idea of, were the killings, were the murders religiously motivated? Now this is an important sensitive subject, especially because the victim's family, namely Sharon Wright, who is a sister and sort of the steward of Brenda's legacy, has talked about how it's very important for her to draw some distinctions between religious killing and a revenge killing. Those themes are absolutely gonna come up in this episode today as we talk to the attorney on the case and you'll see why. So this is just a reminder, when you're talking about this, this story is not about proving the church true or false. It's actually just a story about what happened to these two beautiful individual and her baby. As you'll see, Dan Lafferty was absolutely motivated by religion and not only motivated by it, he used it to justify it. Now those distinctions aren't often talked about or explored because I don't think there are good answers and a lot of people don't know what to do with that. Did Mormonism make Dan Lafferty?