'Murder Among the Mormons': How Netflix documentary directors retold the story of Mark Hofmann's forgeries, bombings

A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons."

(Courtesy of Netflix)


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SALT LAKE CITY — "Nobody is immune to deception. And we're all vulnerable to it, we're all susceptible to it." Those are words from director Jared Hess that ring more true than ever before after watching his latest project, "Murder Among the Mormons."

Hess co-directed the three-part Netflix documentary with Tyler Measom. The series retells the story of Mark Hofmann and three bombings that killed two people, rocked Salt Lake City and ultimately ruined multiple lives in 1985.

The true crime documentary series premieres today on the streaming service. This story will discuss some minor spoilers for the series. Some may be very familiar with the events surrounding the bombings, but for some this will be new, so consider this fair warning if you do not know the story and would like to go in to the series cold.

What sets 'Murder Among the Mormons' apart

Hofmann's bombings, forgeries and deception are a part of Utah history, but many of us don't know as much as we think we do.

"I think what you'll find is that so many people didn't know that this even happened right here in the town that they lived," Measom said. "The pain that is still hanging over the city is palatable. You know, people's lives were lost. Millions of dollars were lost."

Both Measom and Hess live in Utah, which became very apparent when the latter took a swig of soda from his Crown Burger cup during the interview. Both spent time growing up in the Beehive state with ties to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These anchors from their past and present made this a passion project for both directors.

"This is a story that is in our DNA," Measom said. "This is our culture, these are our people. Our fingerprints and our love and passion is on it much more than any other film."

And just like any other fingerprints these ones are very unique. In many ways "Murder Among the Mormons" is similar to other true crime documentary series you've seen before. There is a sense of danger, a spark of intrigue and yearning to find out "who dunnit" even if you already know the ending.

But there was something uncommon about this film I had trouble putting my finger on. Something that made it stand out in a way from its peers. It wasn't until I asked about a certain sequence in the series that seemed to have Hess's signature written all over it that I gained clarity on what set "Murder Among the Mormons" apart.

The scene is a re-enactment of Hofmann, the culprit behind all of the chaos, and his business associate, Shannon Flynn, who knew nothing of his friend's dealings, as they drove Hofmann's Toyota MR2 out to the West Desert to shoot their fully automatic weapons into the hills.

Measom was able to shed light into that scene and why this series felt unique and fresh to its many counterparts, and it has to do with these two different directors tackling the same medium, together.

"When you have the sensibilities of a narrative filmmaker, and a nonfiction filmmaker, and we bring those together to kind of have this hybrid of true, but also fun," Measom told me. "It was really great to kind of mold those two storytelling models together."

Mark W. Hofmann during a court appearance on April 15, 1986, in Salt Lake City. (Photo: Ravell Call)
Mark W. Hofmann during a court appearance on April 15, 1986, in Salt Lake City. (Photo: Ravell Call)

Hess made a splash in Hollywood with his cult classic "Napoleon Dynamite." His other films include "Nacho Libre," "Masterminds" and "Gentleman Broncos." Hess and true crime documentary aren't exactly synonyms. His film "Masterminds" is based off a real crime, albeit one of the most absurd and silly ever committed. But on this trek to the desert in "Murder Among the Mormons" you could feel Hess's filmmaking sense of humor come through.

In the other director's chair, however, you have Measom. He's an award-winning documentary filmmaker with films like "An Honest Liar," "Sons of Perdition" and "Biography: I Want My MTV."

This combination of styles gives "Murder Among the Mormons" its own flavor and it's one that should resonate with those both familiar and unfamiliar with the story.

A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons."
A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons." (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)

Resonating outside Utah

As someone born and raised in Utah the series was an adventure for me. I was seeing neighborhoods I grew up in and landmarks that have acted as constellations for me as I've navigated through Salt Lake City streets the past 30-plus years. I recognized names and knew some of the players involved all while having some knowledge of the crimes involved thanks to growing up in a home with a self-described crime-junkie mother.

But what about those who aren't from Utah? The ones who know nothing of the state's unique and often misunderstood culture? Those who have never heard of Mark Hofmann or the Angel Moroni? What about those who don't know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the LDS Church and the Mormon Church are all one in the same? Would this story resonate with them?

This was never something Hess and Measom were worried about.

"It's a great true crime story on multiple levels with twists and turns and surprises," Measom said.

"When we've tested it with people that know nothing about it, they're blown away by it," Hess added. "They've never heard of it. This is such a regional thing that happened."

While the true crime aspect will undoubtedly intrigue people everywhere, the lack of knowledge about Utah and the church was a hurdle the co-directors had to overcome in order to tell the story the right way.

As Measom put it, the story just happens to be set within a "unique cultural environment than the rest of the country and the rest of the world."

Tackling the history of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Hess and Measom originally pitched the idea as a six-part series, but ultimately it was cut down to three one-hour episodes.

"There wasn't just one crime that occurred," Hess said. "Mark Hofmann was a career criminal for six years."

In addition to the hours that could be made just to handle Hofmann's crimes there was also the history of the church that needed to be covered in order to give unfamiliar audiences the gravity of Hofmann's forgeries.

"We needed to be able to set up the founding tenets of the faith… Joseph Smith, the Angel Moroni, the gold plates," Hess said. "Then later understand why the white salamander was such a disruption, and kind of a threat to that sacred origin story of the faith."

Hess said he and Measom often had to ask themselves if the information they were giving was too much "Mormon inside baseball."

But it was that unique history and culture that gave Hofmann the ability to do what he did.

"We told a story that was set within a particular culture in which a person utilized that culture to perpetrate numerous crimes," Measom said.

As is clear in the title of the series, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints plays a significant role in the documentary, and the co-directors knew that it would likely strike a chord for better or worse with some people.

"A lot of people will look at this, and won't watch it for the fear that we may be poking fun of the church, or, you know, defiling sacred, sacred things. But we don't do it by any means," Measom said. "We tell the true story of what happened."

A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons."
A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons." (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)

Many of Hofmann's forgeries rewrote the history of the church and caused discord and confusion among many of its members when they were brought to light. The church tried to acquire some of the pieces and did purchase some of them. Both Hess and Measom know some see this as a dark chapter in the history of the church, but they were impressed and grateful for the honesty and openness they received from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"They did not shy away from telling us what had happened. And mistakes were made," Measom said. "They were duped. They were duped just as much as anyone else was. And there's, there's kind of no shame in it in many ways. I mean, there's no shame in being dunked on by Michael Jordan. Mark Hofmann was the best and he fooled a lot of people."

Hofmann deceived people all over the world, from members of the Latter-day Saints church, to American history buffs, to Emily Dickinson fans.

"Mark was able to fly his wares and his faulty documents, because he did research. Deep dive research, where most people wouldn't spend hours upon hours in the libraries. Not only would he find the paper from the time and the ink from the time, the pen from the time, but he'd also be able to duplicate the handwriting and the writing style," Measom said. "When Mark was around, and he presented somebody with a never-before-found Emily Dickinson document, a poem that had been hidden for years, and it just been discovered, and I'm an Emily Dickinson fan, of course, I'm going to buy it, of course, I might overlook a few things."

Diving into the history of the bombings

Measom and Hess, however, didn't overlook anything.

"We scanned and digitized thousands upon thousands and thousands and thousands of pieces, everything," Measom said of their preparation to make the series and tell the story.

Measom and Hess started on the project back in 2017 and have been consumed by telling this story the right way ever since. As they started reaching out to people involved in the story they were shocked at how much was saved.

"I think many of the people, if not all of them, knew at the time that this was something historic, so they kept everything," Measom said.

A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons."
A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons." (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)

One of the treasure troves they came across was from Hofmann's ex-wife, Dorie Hofmann. They said she handed over boxes filled with VHS tapes of Hofmann with his young family and news reports about himself he had recorded on TV. They gathered materials across the country from Boston, New York and Arkansas and of course here in Utah. They gathered archived footage and documents from the church, the Utah Attorney General's office and multiple local news stations.

One of the most haunting recordings uncovered, however, was found very late in the process.

Measom and Hess were in contact with the widow of Ken Farnsworth, one of the detectives from the case. She was willing to share a dozen boxes filled with documents, videos and tapes with the filmmakers.

"He kept everything," Hess said. "And one of those was a tape. And we couldn't listen to it, because who has a tape player?"

The project was in post-production at this point, but they still turned all of this over to their editor. He managed to listen to the tape and it just so happened to be the tape from Christensen's answering machine at his office the day he was killed.

The editor took those recordings and wove them into the series in one of the most powerful and striking moments of the three episodes.

"He (the editor) just surprised us with that scene," Measom said. "When you think you'd heard everything, and you think you've seen everything, and then you pair the video with that never-before-heard audio, you know, as a filmmaker, when you live that story for so long, you're rarely surprised."

Mark Hofmann conferring with attorney Ron Yengich in 1987. (Photo: Tom Smart, Deseret News)
Mark Hofmann conferring with attorney Ron Yengich in 1987. (Photo: Tom Smart, Deseret News)

It's a story and a warning for today

These events took place nearly 40 years ago, but Hess and Measom aren't just telling a decades old story, they're giving all of us a cautionary tale for today.

"The themes of this… are so relevant now in the world of misinformation that we live in," Hess said. "Ultimately… nobody is immune to deception. And we're all vulnerable to it, we're all susceptible to it. And we just have to really be smart about the stories that we choose to believe in… the narratives that we choose to live by. That's more relevant, obviously, these past couple years than before."

Jared Hess.
Jared Hess. (Photo: Ray Boone, KSL TV file)

Episode three dives into Hofmann's painstaking forgery process. With all of the care he put into those documents, Measom says it was "difficult" to disprove the authenticity of his forgeries in the 1980s. Today, however, it's much easier to catch those lies, but we still let ourselves fall into similar traps Hofmann was setting nearly four decades ago.

"We have at our fingertips any information for the most part we want, and literally at our fingertips. Yet most people still don't want to dig a little deeper. We want to believe what we want to believe," Measom said. "Even though it's really easy to find out if that Facebook post is real or not. People want to believe what they want to believe. And they'll overlook what they want to overlook."

Both Hess and Measom hope that the series can act as a kind of warning about what is lurking right in front of us waiting to take advantage of us as soon as we let our guard down.

"I'm kind of astounded that, in today's era, we are being led along by such silly notions. And that there's always a snake in the grass, willing to sell us outlandish ideas," Measom said. "I'm guilty of it just like everyone else. But I just think we all need to be careful that we're not being given a document by Mark Hofmann in whatever form Mark Hofmann might take."

A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons."
A still shot from the Netflix documentary series "Murder Among The Mormons." (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)

What makes Utah and its culture special

While the directors are excited to share this story with the world they're also excited to show off Utah and its people. While there was so much heartache and pain administered at the hands of Mark Hofmann, Measom believes the true underlying nature of Utah's residents came shining through.

"The fingerprints of Mark Hofmann still have effects today. And when you talk to these individuals that haven't opened up for decades, you can feel how much it still affected them and affects them even today," Measom said. "I think if anyone was hurt outside of the people that were killed, it was all Alvin Rust."

Rust was the owner of Rust Coin and was a victim of Hofmann's forgeries. In the series Rust plays a significant role and in a beautiful moment talks about his forgiveness to Hofmann and the pain he caused him and his family.

"To be able to forgive. That kind of Christ-like love, you know, you don't get from many people, if any," Measom added. "And if there's one thing to take away from the faith in Utah, is this ability to overcome that kind of pain. And to say, that person made a mistake, and I made a mistake, and I'm going to be better because of it. And that's the part of the culture that got taken is the same part of the culture that is able to move on. And that's the beauty of the people here in Utah, you know, and I love Utah, I live here."

"Murder Among the Mormons" is rated TV-14. All three episodes are now available on Netflix.

Correction: A previous version reported that filmmakers Jared Hess and Tyler Measom received a dozen boxes of Steve Christensen's old things Christensen's widow. They actually received a dozen boxes of items related to the bombings that belonged to Ken Farnsworth, one of the detectives from the case. Farnsworth's widow gave them the boxes.


John Clyde

About the Author: John Clyde

John has grown up around movies and annoys friends and family with his movie facts and knowledge. He also has a passion for sports and pretty much anything awesome, and it just so happens, that these are the three things he writes about. Contact him on Twitter at @johnnypclyde.

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John has grown up around movies and annoys friends and family with his movie facts and knowledge. He also has a passion for sports and pretty much anything awesome, and it just so happens, that these are the three things he writes about.

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