Young 'did not order massacre'

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There is insufficient evidence to say former LDS

Church President Brigham Young ordered the Mountain Meadows Massacre,

and ample evidence that says he did not, according to the church's

assistant historian.

      Richard Turley is one of three authors employed by the LDS Church

who has spent the past six years writing a book about the 1857 massacre

of 120 Arkansas wagon train emigrants in southern Utah. He told

participants at the annual conference of the Mormon History Association

on Saturday his conclusion, "based on the totality of evidence, is that

Brigham Young did not order the massacre."

      The book is scheduled for release sometime this summer or fall.

      "He did not order it. Instead, local (church) leaders in the

charged environment of the Utah War made a series of horrible

decisions" that "led to the murder of 120 men, women and children, not

one of whom deserved to die," Turley said.

      The question of Young's potential culpability has "haunted our

dreams and pressed itself upon our memories" the past six years, Turley

said, as the authors worked with "several dozens and maybe hundreds" of

researchers that examined documents from archives across the country,

looking for any evidence related to the murders.

      Before seeking to verbally dismantle two different theories some

historians have used as evidence that Young did order the massacre,

Turley said his research had not brought him to a personal crisis of

faith because "my faith is in the Lord, Jesus Christ" and not in human

beings, including church leaders.