One of the easiest 10 out of 10's of all time. I loved everything about this book. I never remember really learning anything about what happened legally after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. So pretty much everything in this book was new to me and it was super fascinating. It was so extremely thorough but never boring and never a simple recitation of data/information. It was told in such an enjoyable and readable narrative. It really was impressive when you consider all the moving parts and characters in play, but everything was kept in perfect order and was never confusing. As for the history itself, there were five men ultimately indicted and put to trial for the murder of Joseph on the legal theory of conspiracy and not that they were the actual men who fired the bullet(s) that killed him. Thomas Sharp and Levi Williams seemed to be the biggest scumbags of the five. The book provides so much detail about the legal maneuverings of both the prosecution and defense; but again, it was never boring. The defense pulled an unprecedented move on the day the trial was supposed to begin by submitting affidavits from the indicted murderers saying that they felt prejudiced against by the local sheriff and county commissioners. The Judge went for it and got Elisors to select a new jury and the final jury had no Mormons even though Mormons were a huge portion of the population of Hancock county. The prosecution did a pretty poor job overall, but was put in a very tough situation, including Mormons not wanting to help or be involved at all. Basically, there were three main witnesses for the prosecution that provided enough details, that if believed, was enough to convict four of the five men. The problem was that two of the three witnesses were discredited pretty easily by a very good defense team. The prosecuting attorney unexpectedly during closing arguments removed all three witnesses from consideration even though that was the entirety of his case. When all was said and done, there really wasn't any way a jury could convict any of the five men even if there were Mormons in the jury. Another shady character was Franklin A. Worrell who pretty obviously was committing perjury by not being fully truthful on the witness stand. He was the lieutenant in charge of the Carthage Grays which were the guards at the jail who pretty clearly were part of the orchestrated effort to kill Joseph, including most likely having his men fire blanks into the mob. There are a thousand other details I could mention. The last thing I'll mention is that it was interesting that the same five men were going to have a trial for the murder of Hyrum right after they were acquitted for the murder of Joseph. The prosecutor asked for more time and was granted it. He then went to work and had several promising leads with new witnesses but randomly didn't even show up on the day of the trial. The trial was continued to the next day and he didn't show up again and so the case was dismissed. The authors conclude based on a letter from the prosecutor to Governor Ford that Ford basically was satisfied with the trial for Joseph's murder and didn't need the prosecutor to push any further for a trial for Hyrum. Also, the book had a bunch of interesting details about what happened after the trial and leading up to the Mormons exodus from Nauvoo. Such a great book and really a must read. Highly recommend.
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