author
John Doyle Lee
1812–1877
An early Mormon pioneer on the American frontier, he became one of the most controversial figures in Utah history. His life is most often remembered for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the dramatic trial and execution that followed.
1 Audiobook
The Mormon Menace: The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite
by John Doyle Lee, Alfred Henry Lewis
About the author
Born in Kaskaskia, Illinois, in 1812, John Doyle Lee joined the Latter Day Saint movement as a young man and became an active early member of the church. He worked as a missionary, helped gather with other church members in Nauvoo, and later moved west to Utah, where he took part in the settlement of the territory.
Lee's place in history is tied above all to the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which a wagon train traveling through southern Utah was attacked and more than 100 emigrants were killed. Historians and reference works describe him as a participant and later the only man convicted for the crime. After years of investigation and two trials, he was found guilty of murder.
He was executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows in 1877. Because of the violence of the event and the long debate over responsibility, Lee remains a deeply controversial figure in the history of the American West and early Latter-day Saint settlement.