Mark William Hofmann (born December 7, 1954) is an American counterfeiter, forger, and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of fake documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. When his schemes began to unravel, he constructed bombs to murder three people in Salt Lake City, Utah. The first two bombs killed two people on October 15, 1985. On the following day, a third bomb exploded in Hofmann's car. He was arrested for the bombings three months later, and in 1987 pled guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, one count of theft by deception, and one count of fraud.
Early life
Mark Hofmann was born in 1954 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Lucille (née Sears) and William Hofmann (1928–1993). He was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). According to Richard and Joan Ostling, Hofmann was by this time a "closet apostate" motivated not only by greed but also by "the desire to embarrass the church by undermining church history". and the LDS Church was forced to confirm the discovery and publicly present the document to the RLDS Church.
In 1984, longtime critics of Mormonism Jerald and Sandra Tanner became the first to declare the Salamander letter a forgery, despite the fact that it, as well as others of Hofmann's purported discoveries, would have strengthened the Tanners' arguments against the veracity of official Mormon history.