Just when we thought we’d talked enough about disappointing Mormon men, George A. Smith pulls us back in. In this unflinching episode, we unpack how the so-called “Father of Southern Utah” helped lay the groundwork for one of the darkest moments in LDS history, the Mountain Meadows Massacre. With a wig in one hand and militia orders in the other, George A. stitched together settlements, sermons, and scorched-earth strategies with unsettling loyalty. We trace his rise through Mormon aristocracy, his bombastic style, and his deeply entangled role in the violent summer of 1857.
SHOWNOTES:
- Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Richard Turley and Glen Leonard
- The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks
- Blood of the Prophets.; Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley
- American Massacre.; The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857 by Sally Denton
- Historical Topography: A New Look at Old Sites on Mountain Meadows
- Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath by Richard Turley and Barbara Jones Brown
- Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Andrew Jenson and David H. Morris Collection by Richard Turley and Ronald Walker
- The Mountain Meadows Massacre.; A Special Report by J.H. Carleton, Bvt. Major U.S.A. Captain 1st Dragoons 1859 by J. H. Carelton
- BYU Studies, 2008. Paperback. special issue–“Mountain Meadows Massacre Documents”–includes excerpts from Andrew Jenson and David Morris collections.
- Brigham Young: American Moses by Leonard Arrington
- Emma Lee by Juanita Brooks
- Useful to the Church and Kingdom: The Journals of James H. Martineau, Pioneer and Patriarch, 1850-1918, vol. 2
- Mormonism Unveiled or The Life and Confessions of the late Mormon Bishop John D. Lee
- John D. Lee: Zealot – Pioneer Builder – Scapegoat by Juanita Brooks
- The Aiken Party Executions and the Utah War, 1857-1858 by David L. Bigler
- Problems with Mountain Meadows Massacre Sources by Richard E. Turley Jr.
- The Earliest Written Account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre?by Connell O’Donovan
- To Feed a Tree in Zion: Osteological Analysis of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre by Shannon A. Novak and Derinna Kopp