SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A document discovered earlier this year that blamed Mormon Church leader Brigham Young for the 1857 massacre of 120 Arkansas pioneers is a fake, a forensic examiner said Tuesday.
William Flynn, a private Phoenix examiner hired by the National Park Service, said the engraved sheet of lead appeared to be the work of convicted con man Mark Hofmann.
The sheet, dated 1872, was engraved with words purportedly written by John D. Lee, the only man held accountable for the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah.
Its authenticity had been questioned ever since it was found in January inside a former trading post called Lee's Fort during a restoration.
The document says Lee and other Mormon leaders murdered the California-bound pioneer families on orders from Young.