Summary
Chapter 11 explains the events that likely led to the publication of The Peace Maker, which most scholars agree was not written by Joseph Smith. The most accepted explanation is that Smith published the pamphlet to test his followers' reaction to the doctrine of polygamy, which Smith had been secretly practicing for years. He begins taking multiple wives after sleeping with a sixteen-year-old convert in her parent's home, a crime for which he is tarred, feathered, and nearly castrated by his followers. He then secretly marries his sixteen-year-old maid, Fanny Alger, after his wife, Emma, catches them together. Smith also frequents brothels.
Smith looks to the Old Testament to find scriptural justifications for his promiscuity. Between 1840-1844, he marries nearly forty women, including pubescent girls, coercing them with the threat that the "salvation of [their] whole family depended on" consenting to the marriage. He marries several girls while they were in his care as his adopted children.
Emma Hale, Joseph's first wife, refuses to accept polygamy and even threatens to take a plural husband herself. Smith addresses this disobedience in the doctrine regarding polygamy, calling out Emma by name, saying if she refuses to accept the polygamy, it will mean her damnation. The doctrine also states that only men could take plural wives.
William Law, Emma and Joseph Smith's friend, hates polygamy and begs Smith to rescind the doctrine. When Smith then attempts to seduce Law's wife, Law splits from Smith and establishes the Reformed Mormon Church. Then, Law publishes a newspaper article criticizing Smith and promising to provide evidence of his amorous affairs. In response, Smith has the entire printing operation destroyed.
Smith then publicly expresses his desire to establish a theocratic government in the United States, further angering his Gentile neighbors. Since, at that time, Mormons held all political power in Nauvoo, the Gentiles issue a call to arms. Smith flees town and is imprisoned upon his return. An angry mob forces its way into the jail and murders Smith, his dramatic death cementing his memory as a martyr for the Mormon faith.
Chapters 13-16 profile Ron and Dan Lafferty and explain the events leading up to the murder of Brenda and Erica. After sinking further into fundamentalism, Dan takes a second wife, a Romanian immigrant named Ann Randak, instead of his stepdaughter. After, the Lafferty brothers, except for Ron, regularly meet in their father's chiropractic office to discuss theology and politics. Dan starts acting on his extremist beliefs, giving back his Social Security card and his driver's license, ignoring speed limits, and refusing to pay taxes. Despite his complete disregard for law and order, Dan runs for Sheriff of Utah County on a promise to instate laws based on a literalist interpretation of the Constitution.
Dan does not evade the law forever; prior to the election, he is pulled over and evades arrest, but is eventually apprehended and charged. During his trial, Dan serves as his own attorney and, after being belligerent with the judge, is held in contempt of court. His brothers then riot in the courtroom and try to place the judge under a "citizen's arrest." Watson Sr. accuses Dan of "hypnotizing" his family members when his brothers also become fundamentalists.
Allen Lafferty, the youngest brother, initially hides his fundamentalist beliefs from his wife, Brenda, an educated, ambitious Mormon woman. Brenda's reservations about the Lafferty family became unbearable when Watson Sr. dies of diabetes after refusing life-saving medical treatment and Allen begins beating her.
Ron Lafferty, unlike Dan, had a difficult relationship with his father, which impacted his relationship with authority generally. Ron assumed a parental role in the family and frequently rebelled against superficial church teachings, such as wearing a suit jacket while on a mission. Ron initially disapproves of his brothers' fundamentalist beliefs. However, the Lafferty wives complain to Dianna about The Peace Maker, and ask Ron to intercede on their behalf. Ron obliges, but Dan quickly converts his older brother to his cause. Dan promises that Ron would be the next president of the new LDS Church, and the other brothers would be his council. The School of the Prophets, composed of Bernard Brady, the Prophet Onias, and the Lafferty brothers, then disseminates a pamphlet advocating plural marriage and criticizing the ordination of black Mormons to the priesthood.
Emboldened by his new fundamentalist beliefs, Ron quits his job, though he was already under great financial strain, and begins abusing Dianna and their children. Dianna confides in Brenda, who urged Dianna to leave Ron, which she does, assisted by Chloe Low and Richard Stowe. Devastated by his divorce, Ron grows more and more belligerent and succumbs to self-destructive behaviors, such as gambling. Then Ron begins to receive "revelations" from God, which he types on Bernard Brady's laptop. The first of these is written from the perspective of God and warns Dianna to return to Ron or face damnation during the imminent end times.
Ron receives the "removal revelation," where God allegedly instructs him to ritually murder his enemies who are "obstacles" to achieving the kingdom of God. Ron shares this revelation with the School of the Prophets; some believe it is authentic, while others, including Bernard Brady, believe Ron has gone insane. Brady then writes a notarized affidavit, the full text of which is included in the text, about his concern that Ron might kill, but he does not notify the police or Brenda.
Chapter 16 opens with a poem from William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming," which describes an apocalyptic scenario in which a monster, not Christ, appears. The chapter then recounts the events of the murder in graphic detail, told mostly in Dan's own words. Ron selects Pioneer Day, an important Mormon holiday, to carry out the removal revelation. In a grim, beat-by-beat description, Dan recounts the murders, including Brenda saying that she knew he would murder her, begging for her child's life, and Erica screaming for her mother.
Analysis
By examining the evidence of Joseph Smith's frequent paramours, the text argues that he conceived the doctrine of plural marriage to maintain a reputation of respectability and spiritual legitimacy while still indulging his desires. Like the Lafferty Brothers and the Jeffs family, Smith looked to scripture for evidence to justify the beliefs he already held. This is not the only commonality between the founder of the faith and his fundamentalist successors; the FLDS patriarchs in the text marry underage girls and emotionally blackmail them by saying that the women's salvation depends on accepting the marriage.
Krakauer directly quotes Smith's doctrine regarding polygamy, just as he includes the text of Ron Lafferty's "removal revelation" verbatim. In the doctrine, Smith calls out his first wife, Emma, by name, using the perspective of God to compel her to stay married to Joseph. This unabashed invocation of God mirrors Ron Lafferty's first revelation, in which the voice of God compels Dianna to return to Ron, on pain of eternal damnation. William Law intercedes on Emma Smith's behalf, which parallels how Ron Lafferty's friends and Brenda interceded on Dianna's behalf.
The parallels between Joseph Smith's story and the FLDS of the twentieth century do not end there. Law is so enraged by Smith's behavior that he splits from Smith and establishes the Reformed Mormon Church. This schism is a pivotal moment in Mormon history. First, Law legitimizes the Mormon Church as an entity separate from Joseph Smith, establishing a claim for it as true and holy even if its founder is corrupt. Second, Law creates a tradition that continues to the modern day, where fundamentalist sects splinter and form new, "reformed" versions of the religion when prophets disagree. When Dan runs for Sheriff of Utah County, it recalls Brigham Young's attempt to establish an independent legal system in Utah.
Watson Sr. accuses Dan of "hypnotizing" his brothers by converting them to his fundamentalist principles. Not only does this statement acknowledge Dan's leadship role and personal charisma, it recalls in the prologue when the jury foreman claims Dan "hypnotizes" two jurors into voting against the death penalty. This strange power to hypnotize is likely not literal, but it attests to the intrigue and mystery that religious zealots cultivate. For instance, throughout the text, Krakauer remarks on Joseph Smith's near-superhuman charisma; he converts Marinda Johnson simply by looking into her eyes.
The pamphlet the School of the Prophets disseminates parallels the Peace Maker and the various other revelations Joseph Smith prints and publishes. This method of preaching, coupled with Dan's belief in the immutability of texts like the United States Constitution, evidences a reverence for the written word that is part of Mormon culture broadly.
In the "removal revelation," Ron compares Todd, his original chosen hitman, to Porter Rockwell, Joseph Smith's bodyguard and a notoriously violent man. Though the LDS church has argued that Porter Rockwell was not a murderer, his cultural impact is clear. Fundamentalists like Ron and Dan revere Rockwell as an emblem of violent justice.
Brenda's family justifiably laments that, though many people knew of Ron's "removal revelation," none of them warned Brenda. This withholding of information results from the FLDS culture of secrecy; God's word is protected and revered above all else, even human life. For example, FLDS communities, like Bountiful and Colorado City, are geographically and socially isolated; members refuse to speak out about the church. Even the founding text of the Mormon faith is shrouded in mystery; the golden plates were hidden for generations, written in an inaccessible language, and then returned to Moroni to preserve their secrets.
Dan is shameless and unremorseful as he recounts the murders. He claims that Brenda stated she had the sense Dan would eventually murder her. To Dan, Brenda's premonition affirms the murder was the will of God. To the reader, acquainted with Brenda's education and disillusionment with the Lafferty family, it is more likely that Brenda (if she said this) knew Dan's behavior before the murder was abnormal and wrong.
Dan reveals a disconcerting fact; after beating Brenda and getting his "revenge," Ron tries to abandon the "removal revelation" altogether. Clearly, for Ron, the revelation wasn't a matter of religious piety but a twisted way to act out his anger about his divorce. Dan, who had "no bad feelings" for Brenda, feels called to finish the killings despite his brother's protests.
