Category: American History

John D. Lee played a central role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre—helping plan the killings, deceiving the victims under a white flag, and later admitting to personally murdering “five emigrants and possibly six.” He also looted the bodies, claimed that God preserved his life during the attack, and slept soundly the night after the massacre. Yet, despite these actions—and his own confessions—Lee is still sometimes remembered as a scapegoat. He helped craft that narrative himself, not by initially denying his guilt but by protesting that he alone was punished while others escaped justice.

There was a coverup in the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It was perpetrated by local religious leaders and massacre participants, some of whom purposefully deceived Brigham Young about what happened. The cover-up set in motion a confusing series of events with consequences that can still be seen today. The tragic story of the massacre’s aftermath is now available in a new book by Rick Turley and Barbara Jones Brown, published by Oxford University Press. In this interview, they explain the complicated aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.