Mark Hofmann
| Mark Hofmann | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mark William Hofmann December 7, 1954 Salt Lake City, Utah, USA |
| Status | Incarcerated |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Document dealer |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment |
| Spouse(s) | Doralee Olds "Dorie" Hofmann (1979–1987, divorced) |
| Motive | Covering up forgeries |
| Conviction(s) | Murder, forgery, fraud (pleaded guilty January 7, 1987) |
| Killings | |
| Date | October 15, 1985 |
| Killed | 2 |
| Weapons | Mail bombs |
Mark William Hofmann (born December 7, 1954) is an American counterfeiter, forger and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. When Hofmann's schemes began to unravel, he constructed bombs to murder two people in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has been serving a life sentence at the Utah State Prison in Draper since 1988.
Hofmann was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) by two devoutly religious parents. Hofmann was a below-average high school student, but he had many hobbies including magic, electronics, chemistry, and stamp and coin collecting. He and his friends were said to have made bombs for fun on the outskirts of Murray, Utah. According to Hofmann, while still a teenage coin collector, he forged a rare mint mark on a dime and was told by an organization of coin collectors that it was genuine.
Like many young men in the LDS Church, Hofmann volunteered to spend two years as an LDS missionary, and in 1973 the church sent him to the England Southwest Mission, where he was based in Bristol. Hofmann told his parents that he had baptized several converts; he did not tell them that he had also perused Fawn Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith, No Man Knows My History. While in England, Hofmann also enjoyed investigating bookshops and buying early Mormon material as well as books critiquing Mormonism. Hofmann later told prosecutors that he had lost his faith in the LDS Church when he was about fourteen, and a former girlfriend believed he performed his mission only because of social pressure and the desire not to disappoint his parents.
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