Vengeance Is Mine, Richard E. Turley
Vengeance Is Mine, Richard E. Turley
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Vengeance Is Mine
The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath

Author: Richard E. Turley, Barbara Jones Brown

Narrator: T. Ryder Smith

Unabridged: 17 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 05/30/2023


Synopsis

The long-awaited follow-up to the groundbreaking Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Published in 2008, Massacre at Mountain Meadows was a bombshell of a book, revealing the story of one of the grimmest episodes in Latter-day Saint history, when settlers in southwestern Utah slaughtered more than 100 members of a California-bound wagon train in
1857. In this much-anticipated sequel, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown examine the aftermath of this atrocity.

Vengeance Is Mine documents southern Utah leaders’ attempts to cover up their crime by silencing witnesses and spreading lies. Investigations by both governmental and church bodies were stymied by stonewalling and political wrangling. While nine men were eventually
indicted, five were captured and only one, John D. Lee, was executed.

The book examines the maneuvering of the defense and prosecution in Lee’s two trials, the second trial ending in Lee’s conviction. Turley and Brown explore the fraught relationship between Lee and church president Brigham Young, and assess what role, if any, Young played in
the cover-up. They trace the fates of the other perpetrators, including the harrowing end of Nephi Johnson, who screamed “Blood! Blood! Blood!” in his delirium as he lay dying more than sixty years after the massacre.

Turley and Brown also tell the story of the massacre’s few survivors: seventeenchildren who witnessed the slaughter and eventually returned to Arkansas, where the ill-fated wagon train originated.

Vengeance Is Mine brings the hitherto untold story of this shameful episode in Mormon and Utah history to its dramatic conclusion.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Laurel

An essential accounting of a tragic piece of American history. A must read for Utahans, Arkansans, Paiutes, and particularly people with Mormon heritage. But valuable ready for any American. The reporting in this book is more comprehensive than ever before. Barbara Jones Brown, the co-author, has sp......more

Mountain meadows was a shameful and tragic event. The predecessor to this book, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, does an amazing job explaining all of the forces that worked together to create such an event. This book deals with the aftermath. It is a reminder of the impact of how leadership and violen......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Wow, what a good book! Best I have read on the Mountain meadows massacre.......more

Goodreads review by Mark

This was a really hard book, a painful book. Not as bad as Rise and Fail of the Third Reich or In Order to Live, but it ranks with the class of bitter pills we need to swallow, especially from our LDS past. .......more