There have been some who have asked just what problems I find with
Randy Jordan's reporting accuracy, credibility, etc. I am not going to
engage in a debate on this matter, but will post my observations with
supporting documentation and let those who read this article make up
their own minds, although I think that most minds are already made up.
   Randy has a self proclaimed "vast knowledge" of LDS history, which
should encompass facts/knowledge presenting both sides of an issue. I
invite any perusers of this article to examine Randy's past posts on
anything LDS and ascertain if he presents an impartial point of view. He
claims to be presenting the plain and unvarnished truth.

  My first example wll be concerning the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It
is Randy;s contention that Brigham Young had foreknowledge of the
Mountain Meadows Massacre, and actually was the planner of the deed. One
of the references that he uses is David Bigler's "Forgotten Kingdom".
This is what Bigler had to say on the subject:

 "Hamblin and some twelve Indian chiefs . . .met with Brigham Young and
his
 most trusted interpreter, 49-year-old Dimick B. Huntington, at Great
Salt
 Lake.  Taking part in this pow-wow were Kanosh, the Mormon chief of the

 Pahvants; Ammon, half-brother of Walker; Tutsegabit, head chief of the
 Piedes; Youngwuds, another Piede chieftain, and other leaders of desert

 bands along the Santa Clara and Virgin rivers.  Little was known of
what
 they talked about until recently when it came to light that Huntington
 (apparently speaking for Young) told the chiefs that he "gave them all
the
 cattle that had god to Cal[ifornia by] the south rout[e]." The gift
"made
 them open their eyes," he said.  But "you have told us not to steal,"
the
 Indians replied. "So I have," Huntington said, "but now they have come
to
 fight us & you for when they kill us they will kill you."  The chiefs
knew
 what cattle he was giving them. They belonged to the Baker-Fancher
train."
 (Bigler,  Forgotten Kingdom, 168)

   Bigler apparently got his information from Dimick Huntington's diary.
Here is the excerpt.

Tuesday Ist Sept.57. Konosh the Pahvant Chief, Ammon & wife (Walker's
brother) & 11 Pahvants CAME IN TO SEE B & D & FIND OUT ABOUT THE
SOLDIERS. Tutseygubbit, a Piede Chief over 6 Piedes bands, Youngwuols
[?] another Piede & I gave them all the cattle that had gone to Cal. the
south rout It made them open their eyes.  They sayed that you have told
us not to steal.  So I have, but now they have come to fight us & you,
for when they kill us then they will kill you.  They sayed the[y] was
afraid to fight the Americans & so would raise grain and we might fight.

   The purpose of this meeting as stated, was to find out about the
soldiers that were on their way to Utah at the time. But that part of
the excerpt is left out of Bigler's book. Excerpts from Dimmick's diary
are available for those who would like to get a clearer, contempoaneous
picture of what was the primary concern at the time.

   Another source that Randy uses is Hans P. Freece:

Former Mormon Hans B. Freece, in 1907, offered:

"The murdered emigrants were of the Methodist faith and were on their
way to
California to seek new homes. The chief cause of the massacre was a
desire on
the part of the Mormons to come into possession of the new wagons, fine
horses
and all the abundant farming implements which the emigrants had; all
valued at about $300,000

   How credible is Freece? How well did Randy check his sources? His
information would seem to have come from "Letters of an Apostate Mormon
to His Son", by Hans B. Freece, 1907. If that is Randy's source, he did
not read very much of it, because Hans himself tells us, in an indirect
way, that he was not in Utah at the time of the Mountain Meadows
Massacre. In a letter dated April of 1907, he tells of his early
experiences in Utah. Upon first arriving in Utah, he did not speak or
understand English very well, but was able to find a fellow countryman
(Denmark) who had been in Utah a while and was able to guide and
interpret for him. I will quote directly from the copy I have of the
letter.
" During our journey to San Pete County, this newly found friend told me
of his early experiences. He had been a tailor in a large city in
Denmark. He had come to Utah just before Johnston was ordered to march
here with his regiment. He had been sent with others to oppose
Johnston's entrance to Salt
Lake Valley."

   Hans does not give many dates or names in his letters, but from his
own narrative he tacitly acknowledges that he was not in Utah when the
Mountain Meadows massacre occurred. Randy does not seem to know this
(which someone with a vast knowledge of LDS history should), or if he
did, he did not point it out in his post. He just presented the excerpt
as an authoritative reference.

   Another aspect of Randy's investigative reporting is a seeming
blanket belief in any negative reports against concerning the LDS,
especially if they come from oficial sources. Let us take the case of
Judge W. W. Drummond, for example.
   Randy reports:
In 1855, one of the succeeding associate justices, William W. Drummond,
tendered his resignation, and included among his reasons:

"That Brigham Young is the head of the Mormon Church; and, as such head,
the
Mormons look to him, and to him alone, for the law by which they are to
be
governed; therefore no law of congress is by them considered binding in
any
matter; that he [Drummond] knew that a secret, oath-bound organization
existed
among all the male members of the Church to resist the laws of the
country, and
to acknowledge no law save the law of the priesthood, which came to the
people
through Brigham Young; that there were a number of men 'set apart by
special
order of the Church', to take both the lives and property of any person
who may
question the authority of the Church."  [Drummond was undoubtedly
referring to
Young's "Avenging Angels" such as Porter Rockwell and "Wild Bill"
Hickman.]
"That the records, papers, etc., of the supreme court have been
destroyed by
order of the Church, with the direct knowledge and approbation of
Governor
Young, and the federal officers grossly insulted for presuming to raise
a
single question about the treasonable act.  That the federal officers of
the
territory are constantly insulted, harassed, and annoyed by the Mormons,
and
for these insults there is no redress.  That the federal officers are
daily
compelled to hear the form of American government traduced, the chief
executives of the Nation, both living and dead, slandered and abused
from the
masses as well as from all the leading members of the Church.  The judge
also
charged discrimination in the administration of the laws as against
Mormon and
Gentile; that Captain John W. Gunnison and his party were murdered by
Indians,
but under the orders, advice and direction of the Mormons; that the
Mormons
poisoned Judge Leonidas Shaver, Drummond's predecessor; that Almon W. ,
secretary of the Territory, had been killed on the plains by a band of
Mormon
marauders, who were 'sent from Salt Lake City for that purpose, and that
only';
under direct orders of the presidency of the Church of the Latter-Day
Saints,
and that Babbitt was not killed by Indians, as reported from Utah."

   Randy does not tell you that Judge Drummond had abandoned his wife
and family upon his appointment as a Utah Territorial Judge and brought
with him a prostitute whom he passed off as his wife (CHC Vol 4-Chapter
CIII with quotes from H. H. Bancroft and Jules Remy). Even LDS critic
William A. Linn noted Drummond's complete lack of fitness for the
position.
    Randy does not tell you that Judge Drummond had a Fillmore merchant,
Isaac Abrhams, horsewhipped for publicly speaking out against this
charade. It apparently was the heat from the disclosure of his perfidy
and the horse whipping incident which were the motivating factors in
Judge Drummond leaving Fillmore for Carson County and then for
California where he began his editorial tirades against the Mormons (CHC
Vol 4-Chapter CIII)
   Randy also does not tell you that the allegations raised by Judge
Drummond concerning the records and papers of the Supreme Court were
refuted by the incoming Governor Cumming in his investigation.
   Randy does not tell you that : "died in Great Salt Lake City in June
1855 of an inflammation of the inner ear (compounded by the jurist's use
of opium)".(Harold Schindler, Salt Lake tribune article "Saints Invited
to Flock to Zion").
   Concerning the death of Almon Babbitt, Randy does not tell you that
no credible report report,  in any way implicates any whites, LDS or
not. But in fact the reports of Indian agent Thomas Twiss (Nebraska
Historical Society Vol 18, page 199), his brother-in-law, and his wife
affirm that it was the Cheyenne Indians who perpetrated this act. (CHC
Vol. 4, Chapter CIII)
   Of course, one of Randy's athoritative sources (although he did not
quote her on this one), Ann Eliza Young (Wife Number Nineteen) states
that Almon Babbitt was murdered by the Mormons because he was an
apostate fleeing to the East. However every other source that I have
offered on Babbitt aver that he was heading East to pick up the mail (he
was a mail carrier), when he was killed. Check it out. But it says much
about her credibility.

   And finally, on the Danite question, Randy does not understand why
and how the following list of names effectively refute his (and that of
many others) writings on the Danite question.

Philastus Hurlbut
John C. Bennett
William Law
Wilson Law
Thomas B. Marsh
Orson Hyde
Sampson Avard
Hans B. Freece
Charles Ivins
Charles Foster
Robert Foster
Francis Higbee
Chauncey Higbee
J. H. Beadle
William "Wild Bill" Hickman
Warren Parrish
W.W. Phelps
David Whitmer
William McLellin
Burr Riggs

   If any of you do not know, do a little research and the light might
dawn.

Glenn