My name is Bill McKeever, and I'm the founder
and director of Mormonism Research Ministry
We've been around since 1979, mainly trying to help
Christians better understand the Mormon faith, 
and hopefully help them in ways that they can 
more effectively dialog with their Mormon friends.
Unfortunately, a lot of Mormons I don't think
really understand all the things that went on 
that lead to Joseph Smith's death
All they see is a lot of what they perceive as just
unjust persecution, the fact that he was jailed
several times. But I find that in my experience
that a lot of Mormons really don't understand what were all
the reasons for all these things
Why was he in jail for this?
All they ever understood was that, well he
must have just, because of his righteousness
and unrighteous people trying to silence him,
that this is why he was incarcerated, when
there's really more to the story than that.
One of the things that I find very interesting
about Mormonism is that its tie with American history
and of course, studying this subject I've been able to 
go and visit a lot of the very special sites,
even sacred sites, of Mormonism
Site that Mormons consider to be very special to them
Of all the places that I've been, the one that I find
to be the most intriguing would have to be
the Carthage Jail.
In order to give you a better understanding
of what this is all about, I probably should
give you a little bit of history there.
Joseph Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo
which was about twenty miles away on the banks
of the Mississippi
in Illinois, about twenty miles away from Nauvoo
And he was the mayor of the town, 
and of course he was a very controversial figure
and he was doing some things that had really upset
a lot of very closer followers
So much so that a lot of of these followers started
to fall away from him.
And were really upset with his lifestyle
Seven men got together to produce a newspaper
called the Nauvoo Expositor
It was supposed to be a weekly newspaper
It ended up only coming out with one edition
And the reason was because Joseph Smith was just furious
over this edition that was really attacking
his abuse of power as mayor, and also was
exposing the fact that Joseph Smith was practicing
polygamy secretly
Smith had been lying about polygamy, and 
actually condemned polygamy outright
but he was practicing it secretly
and these men knew this
Interviewer: How many wives did he have at this point?
How many wives Joseph Smith actually had is a matter of controversy
but some say he had probably as many as twenty, maybe thirty wives 
a lot of these wives, at least ten,
Richard L Bushman, a Mormon historian admits that Joseph Smith
had at least ten wives that were simultaneously
married to living men at the time
Todd Compton in his book, In Sacred Loneliness
mentions that he thinks there were eleven women that he was married to
that were also married to living men at the time
Why this is important is because it seems
to nullify the one argument that many Mormons raise when it comes
to the subject of polygamy, and that the reason
God instituted it in the first place was because
he needed to raise up seed, well,
that doesn't even seem necessary if Joseph Smith is
marrying married women, and we have no evidence
whatsoever to show us that any of these husbands
were either impotent or sterile.
So that argument really doesn't hold. 
Joseph Smith is probably the best argument against that.
It's found in Jacob, chapter 2, verse 30 in the Book of Mormon.
And plus we really don't have any proof that Joseph Smith
had children for many of these relationships
There is speculation, but there is really no concrete evidence
Interviewer: How young were some of these women?
Some of these women were actually in their teens
Joseph Smith at this time, you have to understand
was in his thirties.
Well, Joseph Smith, because of this behavior
as I mentioned, it caused quite a few enemies
So, they tried to expose this through this newspaper
Joseph Smith was outraged by the things that they were saying
and he ordered the printing press to be destroyed
which is was
And in order to protect himself and his church
from the outcry from the locals, 
he calls the Nauvoo Legion, which was a standing army
Some estimate that there could have been as many as five thousand
men in this army.
But he calls his Nauvoo Legion into effect and 
declares martial law. 
Well, Joseph Smith is eventually ordered by the governor
to meet in Carthage and to get this matter
straightened out. Governor Thomas Ford was involved at the time
But Joseph Smith, knowing that he had so many enemies that would
really hated him, and there was threats against his life
and instead of going to Carthage, Joseph
is going to flee the area, he crosses the Mississippi
with his brother Hyrum
and he is over near a town called Montrose, Iowa
which is directly across the river from Nauvoo
Members in the Church talk to Emma, his wife,
into writing him a letter to encourage Joseph Smith to return
and in the letter, it purportedly has a comment in there
that refers to Joseph Smith as being a coward for leaving
his church behind.
Joseph Smith makes this romantic comment that
if his life isn't worth anything to his friends, then
it's not worth anything to him, and so he is going
to go back to Illinois, and he's going
to face these charges, knowing full well
that, at least in the way history is written now,
that he is probably going to live.
Before he leaves Nauvoo, he makes the comment
that he is going as a lamb led to the slaughter
this messianic connection that I have often heard
going to Carthage Jail, while going through various tours
you hear this messianic connection made many times,
regarding Joseph Smith. In fact, 
you hear comments such as, the Carthage Jail
is like the Mormon Calvary.
Jesus shed his blood for the Christian church on Mount Calvary
Joseph Smith shed his blood for the Mormon Church at Carthage.
Joseph Smith ends up going to Carthage, Illinois, and
he is going to stay at a hotel. 
He's eventually confronted by a constable by the name of
David Bettisworth. And he learns through this constable
that now the charge, instead of being riot, as it was originally
is now treason. Apparently connected with him declaring martial law
So now the charges have become very serious
and so Smith is incarcerated at the Carthage Jail
and it was at the Carthage Jail that he is
waiting for this to all be settled
and during that time he is allowed to visit with friends
and he is in the jail cell. At the end he's in the jail cell with his brother
Hyrum, another gentleman by the name of John Taylor, who
would later become the third president of the Mormon Church
and also a man by the name of Willard Richards
While they are waiting in the jail
he is visited by a man by the name of Cyrus Wheelock
Now there is an interesting story about all this
Joseph Smith received this smuggled pistol from Cyrus Wheelock
If you were to ever take the tour at Carthage Jail
they never mention the smuggled pistol,
I've been there several times. Never do the tour guides
volunteer the information regarding the smuggled pistols that Joseph Smith
and his brother had
But it all goes back to this man by the name of Cyrus Wheelock
Well, one of the times when I was going through the tour, 
the tour guide again left that part of the story out
so when he opened up for questions and answers I raised my hand
and I asked about the smuggled pistol. 
And I actually quoted from the Documentary History of the Church,
volume 7, where it talks about this, page 101-103
and when I mentioned that book to the tour guide
he said, well, you have to be careful about the books that you read, 
because there is a lot of erroneous material out there.
And I went, but wait a minute, the Documentary History of the Church, that's your book
You know, that's put out by the Mormon Church, which is where
I am getting that story. 
And he goes, oh, oh, the Documentary History of the Church, 
yeah, that's a good book. Well I'll tell you about the 
smuggled pistol. And he starts to tell me about this elaborate story of
how Cyrus Wheelock actually went up to the guard, 
he was guarding the entrance to the jail, 
and opened up his coat, and he said, I have
a gun here, and I've come to kill Joseph Smith
and the guard lets him in.
Now, I've never heard this story before
I don't know where this guy is getting this story
and this is the first time I'm hearing it. This is just
intriguing to me, and I'm thinking about this
If we were to transport ourselves back into that time period
and imagine, here we are, in 1844, it's June
and a man comes up to a guard and says, 
I have a gun, and I'm going to go inside and
I'm going to kill the prisoner that you're supposed to be guarding,
and you let him in. OK, that sounds pretty strange to begin with.
But then the guy went on to tell us, the tour guide went on to say that
you know, eventually the guard was relieved, and a new
guard came on duty. Now, think about this, 
you just let a guy go into a jail with a gun, to assassinate
your prisoner. And he hasn't come out yet.
OK, and you haven't heard the gun go off.
So, you leave your post and allow someone new to come and 
take your place, and you don't look into this?
I mean the story is just so far-fetched. 
But this man firmly believed that is what happened
Basically Cyrus Wheelock leaves the gun with Smith, 
and there is another Derringer that's involved that is given to Hyrum,
Joseph Smith's brother. And as they were there in the jail
they were waiting, you know, for this thing to all be settled, 
and there is another section in Joseph Smith's story where he talks about 
how they were, you know, had a very heavy spirit
It was probably a very depressing time for them, 
because they know the situation does not look very good for them 
And so they order some wine to be brought to the jail, 
and Smith admits that this wine was not for sacrament purposes
but that it was to relieve their spirits, and so 
it was actually meant to, I guess to be somewhat intoxicating,
to make them feel better, which is kind of odd
because Mormons aren't supposed to drink alcoholic beverages
but yet it seems perfectly OK for Joseph Smith to do that
Eventually the jail is approached by a mob
How many are in the mob? We really don't know
 and again the numbers fluctuate, you know, some say 
as many as two hundred people were involved in this mob,
and a group of men go up the stairs towards the upstairs room where Joseph Smith was being held
and they're rushing the door. You have to understand, the jail
cell that Joseph Smith was in did not have bars on it, 
it had a merely a door, and the door didn't even latch
It was warped, and the lock didn't even work, 
so, I remember the first time that I went to the Carthage Jail
it was back in the 1980's, and we had a tour guide
by the name of Elder Salt, from Salt Lake City
I mean, it's hard to forget that name
And I remember Elder Salt telling us the story of how
the only defense that Joseph Smith and the olders that were in
the jail cell with him had was by holding themselves against the door
and fighting off their attackers with their walking sticks
And he repeats this three times. The only defense they had
was by holding themselves against the door
and fighting off their attackers with their walking sticks
And after telling this very emotional story
then we were the only non-Mormons there, and the rest
 of the people in there were all a group from BYU
that was a busload of BYU students that had just been dropped off
And so, he tells this story and he bears his testimony to the truthfulness of it
And of course there is this resounding amen. 
And then he says, are there any questions?
And so, I raised my hand, and I said, you mentioned three times that the only defense
that Joseph Smith and the others had was by holding themselves
against the door and fighting off their attackers with their walking sticks
I said, but I remember reading in volume 7, page 101-103 of the Documentary History of the Church
that Joseph Smith had a smuggled pistol
and that he used that pistol to shoot three people, two of whom died
And it was interesting because you could hear, you know, it was like the proverbial Tabernacle tour,
you could hear a pin drop
It was dead silent
And I'll never forget Elder Salt, the tour guide, he put his arms behind his back
he rocked on his heels looking a the floor
and he said, yes, there was a gun
and he proceeded also to mention the Derringer that Hyrum had,
that I did not bring up
It made me wonder, this man gave this emphatic story,
that the only defense Joseph Smith had, and the other in the jail,
was by holding themselves agianst the door, fighting off
their attackers with a walking stick. Yet all the time this man
knew he had a smuggled pistol. 
He didn't deny the fact that Joseph Smith fired the pistol. 
But he did say, we don't know where the bullets went.
To which I said, well, John Taylor seemed to know, 
he said that he shot three people, two of whom died
Obviously we know at least three of the bullets went into somebody
And of course, he didn't really want to readily admit to that part of the story 
but he did know that there was a gun, but at the same time
he kept insisting that, the only defense was holding themselves against the door
which now we know, and he was admitting, was not the case
That I found very disconcerting
Everytime I go and I visit the Carthage Jail, like I said, I have never
heard them bring up the gun. One time I asked one of our tour guides
Wasn't there a smuggled pistol, and she said, well, it wasn't smuggled, 
it was brought in. 
What does that mean?
Was it legal at that time to bring guns in to prisoners, 
I mean, come on, this is silly, what kind of an answer is that?
But they will not tell you anything anything about that.
So last time I went to Carthage we had a sister missionary, and she also failed to mention
the gun. I had a long discussion with her afterwards, and she knew all about it. 
She knew all about the gun.
