Mark Hofmann & "Murder Among the Mormons" Pt 1 - Mormon Stories 1405: Sandra Tanner

When Netflix released "Murder Among the Mormons" in 2021, viewers watched a story about bombs and forged documents. The series captured Mark Hofmann's violence, but it barely scratched the surface of why Mormon historians had spent years preparing for exactly this kind of deception. Sandra Tanner, who spent decades exposing uncomfortable church history alongside her husband Gerald, sat down with John Dehlin on Mormon Stories Podcast to explain what the cameras missed. Her account suggests the Hofmann scandal was not an aberration. It was the inevitable result of a church that had spent a century teaching its members to value faith over documentation.

The Researchers Who Saw It Coming

The Tanners occupy a unique position in Mormon studies. They resigned from the LDS Church in the 1960s, back when the only exit routes were murder, adultery, or apostasy. They chose the third option after Gerald's mother forced him to investigate historical claims. This launched them into what Sandra describes as the most extensive independent research project in Mormon history. While scholars like Fawn Brodie and Michael Quinn made significant contributions, Sandra argues no one has matched the sheer volume of primary source documentation the Tanners collected and published.

Hofmann's forgeries worked because he understood Mormonism's weak points. At fourteen, he had forged rare coins by altering mint marks. This same age carries heavy weight in Mormon tradition. It was Joseph Smith's age when he claimed his first vision. Both men operated in