True Crime

Like many other people out there, I am obsessed with true crime. Especially ones that happen in religious situations; like the case of Mark William Hofmannn. The biggest question is always “How can someone do that?” but the overall topic is very interesting. I like hearing the victims thoughts and how they saw the story. A big thing about liking true crime is because we don’t understand, it’s out of pure curiosity. But there’s a lot more reasons as to why. In the article “12 Reasons Why We Love True Crime” they cover things like how we like it because we like the adrenaline rush, because we like to be scared but be in control of it. We also just want to solve the puzzle. Try to look into and guess who did it, before the police say we got them.
In the Netflix documentary about the “Murder Among Mormons” it tells us about the case of Mark William Hofmannn, a known forger and convicted murderer. Regarded as one of the most successful forgers in history. He killed 2 people in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hofmann made notes that the police later found of his bombs and plans. Hoffman was arrested in 1986 in January on a number of 27 counts. Shocker, I know. The counts were first degree murder, theft by deception, constructing a bomb, delievering the bomb, possessing a bomb, and communication fraud. The theft by deception added another 5 counts, which was added later. In the beginning, Hofmann tried to maintain innocence. However, at his hearing, prosecutors gathered enough evidence to tie him to the bombs. A lot of the prosecution team believed they were being stonewalled by the LDS church members. In the documentary, there were a lot of things I liked, from who they interviewed down to simply how they put the facts into it. They kept it interesting when they were telling about how he found those documents for the church. But they didn’t even hint that they were forged until the police told the plot twist. They told how he grew his name in the church. Slowly bringing the things to light. Obviously everyone still suspected that he was doing these things. When the detective said he was guilty it was so satisfying. But one of the things I liked most about this documentary was the people they brought in. One of the interesting ones was the bookseller with all of the books he first had used to fraud. He had all the history of the other christian books as well. They brought everyone they could into it, even his wife which is crazy in and of itself. She never questioned why she wasn’t allowed into the room where he kept and built his bombs. Stating it was “just one less room to vacuum.” Which, as someone who knows about true crime and is just a nosy person; I’d go into that room; except she didn’t even question it. Truly shows how much people trusted him and how demented he was.