A Salt Lake City document examiner has publicly concurred with an Arizona colleague that the lead scroll found at Lee's Ferry by the National Park Service was not signed by Mountain Meadows massacre participant John D. Lee.
"Although it is not possible to 'positively' eliminate Lee as the author of the writing on the lead scroll, the evidence is overwhelming that John D. Lee did NOT inscribe the lead plate with either the words or the name, 'J.D. Lee,' " George Throckmorton of Independent Forensic Laboratories in Salt Lake City wrote in his report to the Park Service, the agency announced Tuesday.
Throckmorton had declined to comment last week when William Flynn, who also examined the scroll at the Park Service's request, declared that handwriting discrepancies led him to conclude the document was a forgery.
The inscription is dated January 1872 and claimed LDS Church President Brigham Young had ordered the slaughter of the members of an Arkansas wagon train bound for California at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah in September 1857. Lee was executed by firing squad in 1877 for the massacre, the only participant ever tried and convicted in the crime.
A Park Service volunteer cleaning rodent dung from Lee's Fort at the historic Colorado River crossing discovered the rolled up lead sheet in January, triggering speculation whether the cryptic message was genuine or not. After examining original diaries written by Lee and held in the archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Throckmorton and Flynn determined that the handprinted signature on the scroll was not inscribed by Lee.
Although Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Superintendent Kitty Roberts said in a statement the Park Service has "complete faith in both Mr. Flynn and Mr. Throckmorton as subject matter experts," the agency will pursue another scientific analysis of the scroll.
Park staff is attempting to locate a laboratory that will be able to perform an "isotopic analysis" of the lead sheet, which will help pinpoint the source of the lead. The Park Service wants to determine if the lead used for the inscription was mined during the late 19th century and whether it was from a mine in the southwestern United States. The results of that analysis are expected to be announced in July.