The blue haze, it turned out, came from blue household ammonia; ammonia increases oxygen levels, and oxygen speeds up the aging process. Hofmann would also age his papers by putting them in a fish tank, along with a little toy train transformer. When he turned on the transformer it would create ozone. And "ffffft," Shannon Flynn said, "that thing just aged 100 years in 10 minutes." Hofmann also aged his documents by ironing them and letting weevils munch on them.

The hardest mystery to crack was the ink. Finally, after consulting with Ph.D. chemists and trying formula after formula, Throckmorton was at a toy store one day buying a present. And there, in the science aisle, was a chemistry set. "Green copperas," said the front of the box — one of the inks listed in an old book police had taken from Hofmann's basement. The discovery helped solve the case.

Like the murders themselves, Hofmann's forgeries were what Linda Sillitoe and Allen Roberts, authors of "Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders," call "a delicate balance of care and risk."

A Betsy Ross letter now owned by Al Rust is one of Hofmann's sloppier efforts — he found a letter from another Betsy, added the "Ross" and changed the date. The problem was that the oft-married Betsy wasn't a Ross in 1812.

"He told the police that if his wife needed $20 worth of groceries he'd do a $20 forgery," Ashworth said. "It's ridiculous he took that kind of risk. But I can see why. At the end we were buying whole collections that didn't exist."

At one point he even created some forgeries by ordering negatives at a printing company next door to one of his document dealers. "I think as the years went by," Sanders said, "his arrogance went through the roof, his sense of omnipotence, that he could fool anyone, anytime."

Kathy Sheets' family hopes that this 20th anniversary of the bombings will be the end of the protracted attention on Mark Hofmann, this near-glorifying of a man who murdered two people.

"I think they've kind of idolized him and given him a unique status I don't think he deserves," said Kathy Sheets' daughter Gretchen Sheets McNees, now a detective with the Salt Lake City Police Department. "Yes, he did these forgeries, but he also killed two people and didn't care who he killed."

The interest in Hofmann continues, though. Sometimes his forgeries bring extra money just because they were forged by Hofmann, says Throckmorton, who points to a first-edition Book of Mormon signed by Joseph Smith. The book was worth $200,000 with the signature, $150,000 without the signature — and $175,000 if the signature proved to be a Hofmann.

Hofmann, meanwhile, spends 22 hours a day in his prison cell, Board of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford says. There is a bunk bed but no chairs. He and his cellmate, Lafferty, share a TV and headphones. A controversial plea bargain kept Hofmann from the firing squad. He was sentenced to five-years-to-life — but the next year, after a lengthy interview, the Utah Board of Pardons told him he'll never get out of prison.

Occasionally, Hofmann apparently sits on his bed and writes poetry, which he mails to family members.

Rare book dealer Ken Sanders has a copy of one poem, which he keeps in the store's safe along with several other pieces of Hofmann memorabilia. The poem is called "Hallelujah!"

Think I, each hour as the cop walks by:

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com