Comments about ‘DNA, anthrax and a Mountain Meadows Massacre murder mystery’

I've read thousands of pages of 19th century journals and letters and many of them are quite sobering. It really is a different world where people were very vulnerable. Settling the West wasn't as romantic as some would have you believe. It was a world where death always followed close behind.

Henry Drummond,

I've never thought of 'settling the west' as romantic. I've thought of it as people trying to live somewhere free from harassment. My saying that on this article isn't meant to say I feel those acts were justified. They certainly weren't. I'm just saying that I've never been taught or learned anything relating to people coming here as a romantic tale.

Interesting article.
I had read a theory that Brigham Young was poisoned because his symptoms were similar to poison. I guess it was believed he died from a ruptured appendix.

You don't befriend your "adoptive" son for twenty years following a hideous massacre, then send him up to the firing squad as the only scape goat, and keep your appendix in compliance.

Something hideous occured to the conscience and soul in the Deseret that no one wants to speak of even yet. You know what they say about that famous river in Egypt... Denial ain't pretty and its consequences are fatal.

More research, Brother Turley. Thank you for your diligence.

A sore on the nose of a teenage boy followed by swelling and death sounds like fulminant sepsis due to staph aureus or group A streptococcus. Cases like this are uncommon, but still seen today. Since both agents are bacterial and DNA is relatively stable, perhaps the Sorenson guys can find it on sequencing of some of the pathologic samples. (If they can't, we are set up to try it at the U of U.) Anthrax is far less likely. Deliberately isolating Bacillus anthracis from environmental samples is hazardous as this microbe is at the top of the CDC's list of select agents.