the Carthage Conspiracy A Vision and Commentary By Enoch Theos Last Updated April 1999 http://www.enochvisions.org/           Last Summer, on the evening of June 27th, 1997, the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr., I was pondering over church history as I was studying it before I went to bed.  As I laid down in bed a vision was opened up before me- I was taken away in a light and when the light faded I was at another place.

I soon noticed the Prophet Joseph Smith standing near by me the center of the room where I was taken, and saw 3 other men in the room as well.  These men couldn't see me standing there even though everything seemed real- I could not interact with anyone in the room.  I knew I was in the upper room of Carthage Jail.

I began to hear shouting from outside and heard men coming up the stairs. Joseph Smith told Willard and his Brother Hyrum Smith to guard the door to the cell. Willard stood on one side with his cane raised and Hyrum leaned up against the door as much as he could asking Willard to assist him since the lock on the door wasn't holding very well.

A single shot rang out at close range blowing through the lock of the door. Another single shot rang out coming through the door and hitting Hyrum in the face- with a shocked look in his eyes he stumbled across the room saying "Brother, I am a dead man." and fell dead at the feet of Joseph in the center of the room.

Joseph kneeled down and held Hyrum in his arms weeping.  The door at the time is kicked open - behind the door are two men standing with guns aimed - they fired into the room hitting John Taylor several times- he fell to the floor and crawled under the bed on the right side of the room where he then became unconscious.

There Joseph stood in the middle of the room shocked at the scene and asking Willard Richards if he was alright.  Willard Richards shook his head in the affirmative- shaking and nervously at the same time pulling something from under his clothing.  Now shaking even more- gun in hand pointed at Joseph Smith, Joseph stands back a bit and with a stern but saddened voice he says "Finish it."  The gun goes off hitting Joseph in the chest.

Willard then drops his gun to the floor and turns away from the Prophet toward the two men at the door.

Only stunning Joseph he acts like he didn't believe Willard would do it and suddenly turns around to run from the room toward the window. Willard then stands in front of Joseph Smith. The men at the door begin firing as one bullet hits Willard in the chest but not wounding him, he falls to the floor covering his head and shouting "Sorry, sorry, sorry, Lord forgive me!" The two men then fire into Joseph's  back and someone shouts "He has a gun!" Joseph crashes through the window shouting "Oh Lord, My God!"  He falls face first to the ground outside.  Willard Richards then runs to the window.

Joseph still alive at this point but bewildered from the fall on his face leans up against the wall of the building.  The two who barged into the room now turn and run back down the stairs to the prophet laying outside. They run up to him and one man bashes Joseph in the face with the butt of his gun knocking him to the ground.  They then fire three more shots into him.  One man leans down with a bayonet as if he is to deface the body of the now dead prophet when suddenly a shaft of heavenly light falls upon the body like lightning.  The men run off frightened as Willard watches all this from the window with not one shot being fired at him-

John Taylor then awakes from under the bed moaning and sees Willard at the window and says "Willard, don't leave me, take me with you."  Willard then walks back and forth in the room for a bit and then decides to pull John out from under the bed and drags him into the adjacent cell upstairs.  As he is doing this he cries in a manner of disbelief and denial to John Taylor "This isn't happening... they didn't kill the prophet and his brother did they? This isn't happening is it?  They didn't kill them... Oh what shall we do now?  What shall we do..."

Willard puts John Taylor under a straw mattress and tells him the mob may be coming back.  They never did.  It was finished.

The vision then closes and I am taken back to reality.

Vision recorded on June 28th, 1997

I visited Carthage in early June of this year, 1998 for this first time and took the tour of the jail.  As I stood in the room where the martyrdom took place I was amazed at how much it looked the same as my vision even though I had never been there.  The tour guide played a recording of the re-enacted events.  Willard Richards was barely mentioned in the recording until the end of the tape where it says he was looking out the window.  My friend Randall then asked the tour guide why wasn't Willard Richards hurt?  The tour guide didn't have any explanation except that it was written that Joseph prophesied to Willard that someday he would be in a shower of bullets but would not be harmed.

Now there was little evidence of a shower of bullets- there was only two bullet holes in the room- one in the lock and one in the door.

Also the recorded history of the martyrdom was written in the Doctrine and Covenants by Willard Richards since he was the church historian so how much was altered I am not sure.  John Taylor only tells us as much as he can remember - because he of course does not remember what went on while he was under the bed.

The prophecy of Willard Richards not getting harmed also did not come out till years after the martyrdom.  No where was it reported by anyone except Willard.

John Taylor's account was altered- not only that he was influenced by Willard and took what Willard told him as truth.  John was ill in bed for some time after the incident and Willard did all the reporting and recording of the accounts- even John Taylor's.

If you were a detective and researched into the events that took place in that room there are a lot of things that do not fit - and in these days Willard would have been an immediate suspect.

The first account is from Willard Richards who was in the room with Joseph when he went out of the window.:

"Joseph attempted, as the last resort, to leap the same window... when two balls pierced him from the door, and one entered his right breast from without, and he fell outward, exclaiming,-"Oh Lord, my God!" As [Joseph's] feet went out of the window my head went in, the balls whistling all around. He fell on his left side a dead man."

There are two lies within this statement.  One is that Willard claims Joseph tried to leap out the same window that John Taylor tried to leap out of - John Taylor says he tried to climb out the side bedroom window by the bed.  Joseph fell out the opposite window adjacent to the door.

The final sentence is a lie since Joseph did not die on impact - several others outside saw Joseph get up and lean against the wall dazed from the fall and then the men come up and hit him and shoot him.  Also if Joseph is getting shot in the back from two bullets in the room, at the same time Willard claiming to be right behind him looking out the window how did those bullets circle around Willard and hit Joseph in the back?  If you have been to Carthage Jail there is not much room for him to be standing near Joseph while he was getting shot in the back-

An account of one of the assassins...

"The door flew open; I saw two men in the room. We shot at them several times; at length one of them fell on the floor (Willard Richards) ; the other [Joseph Smith] jumped out of the window. I ran down the stairs to see where he was. When I got to him he was trying to get up. He appeared stunned by the fall. I struck him in the face and said: "Old Jo, damn you, where are you now!" I then set him up against the well-curb and went away from him. Signed, Wm. Webb"

"It seems to me [Joseph] came out head first, and he was shot while passing through the window... [On the ground] I think he raised himself to a sitting position. A young man went up and struck him either with the end of his gun or a bayonet. "

Several of these accounts also state that after he was hit in the face by Webb, the mob shot him and he fell over on his face, "a dead man."

There were various inconsistencies and lies in the statement made by Willard Richards.

Willard reported this about the death of Hyrum Smith

"From the holes in his vest (the day was warm, and no one had his coat on but myself), pantaloons, drawers, and shirt, it appears evident that a ball must have been thrown from without, through the window, which entered his back on the right side, and passing through, lodged against his watch, which was in his right vest pocket, completely pulverizing the crystal and face, tearing off the hands and mashing the whole body of the watch.  At the same instant the ball from the door entered his nose."

First I will say that when you compare the two reports of the martyrdom-  Willard's story has some differences with John Taylor's story.  Willard mentions that Hyrum was also shot in the chest as he was falling backwards and that the bullet lodged in his head.  If this was true why wasn't there another bullet hole in the door?  Willard as stated above says he was wearing his coat.   John Taylor writes...

"The weather was hot, we all of us had our coats off, and the window was raised to admit air."

The window he was referring to was the one on the right side of the room over the bed- not the window that Joseph fell out of and the supposed bullet that hit Hyrum in the back came through.

Also John Taylor reports that Joseph had a gun and ran to the door and discharged three balls into the hallway.  Willard does not report this once in any of his reports.  How could he forget something that significant?  Notice only 3 balls were dislodged from the gun.  This is the very gun that Willard shot Joseph with- Joseph didn't have the gun- Willard had it in his coat that he admitted he was wearing but for some reason John claimed everyone had their coats off.  One bullet was discharged at close range into Joseph's chest-  Willard then dropped the gun, and a member of the mob came into the room and emptied two more bullets from that same gun into Joseph's back as he was climbing out the window.  Another shot hit Joseph in the chest again from outside the building.

There is evidence that John Taylor's report of the martyrdom may have been altered and more things were added.  Also there is evidence that the information which John Taylor reported was coaxed to him.  Here is some more interesting information from John Taylor's report-

"It would seem that immediately after my attempt to leap out of the  window, Joseph also did the same thing, of which circumstance I have no  knowledge only from information.  The first thing that I noticed was a cry  that he had leaped out of the window.  A cessation of firing followed, the mob rushed downstairs, and Dr. Richards went to the window.  Immediately afterward  I saw the doctor going towards the jail door, and as there was an iron door at  the head of the stairs adjoining our door which led into the cells for  criminals, it struck me that the doctor was going in there, and I said to him,  'Stop, Doctor, and take me along.'  He proceeded to the door and opened it,  and then returned and dragged me along to a small cell prepared for criminals."

Here you see that John Taylor admits someone was giving him information about what happened and only Willard Richards could have told him what happened.  Also note that John Taylor also noticed some odd behavior by Willard.  Was Willard just going to leave John there to die as well?

Being on the second floor of the house and Hyrum being on the other side of the room about 15 feet away from the windows the ball of a rifle would have had to traveled from the street going straight up in the air into the window and then changing direction at least twice and hitting Hyrum in the back- that's a pretty magical ball there to have gone straight up, smashed through a window turn around, fly through Hyrum's body and then smash his watch. This story does not match with the others- Hyrum was reported to have been shot in the face and fell back instantly.

The watch that was smashed by the bullet was not on Hyrum's person but was in Willard's breast pocket and was smashed when he was shot in the chest thus dropping him to the floor but not killing him.

It is also interesting to note that Willard here admits that he was the only one in the room wearing his coat- in my vision I saw him pull the gun out from under his coat.  He was the fattest man in the room- so why the hell did he have his coat on in the middle of the summer?

Also note that Willard was the one who took the bodies to the coroner to have them prepared- the spirit shows me now that he at this time removed the broken watch from his pocket and placed it on the body of Hyrum Smith. Willard told Joseph that he would die in his place and was very adamant about going to Carthage with him.  Of course he was going to die in his place so that the conspiracy would be hidden if he were dead.  He told John Taylor....

"This is a hard case to lay you on the floor,  but if your wounds are not fatal, I want you to live to tell the story."  I expected to be shot the next moment, and stood before the door awaiting the onset.

He wanted to have John left alive to tell an inaccurate account- he knew John was under the bed and did not see what happened.

Not only did several witnesses see him fall on his face and others see him get hit in the face- there is now physical evidence that he had several facial fractures.  Joseph Smith's own son said the death-mask was inaccurate..  Joseph Smith's skull was also studied and several fractures were found on the face which resulted in the entire face of the skull decomposing while the skull of Hyrum only had a bullet hole in it.

There is also physical evidence in the death mask and a mention in the historical record that the nose was stuffed with cotton.
This action was probably done for several reasons:

1. Cotton packing would keep the plaster out of the nose when making a death mask.
2. It may have been used to pack the nose and help splint the fractured distorted face into a more normal position. This kind of packing to splint and support fractures is still used today.
3. It prevented body fluids from leaking out. The historical record indicates cotton was used on both Hyrum's and Joseph's bodies for this purpose so as to prepare them for viewing.

Medical texts state that leaking cerebral-spinal fluid from the nose is a classic sign of Le-Forte facial trauma. The packing of the
nose could have done to stop this rather gory symptom for the public viewing. However, regardless of the reason, it would also
push down on the Le-Forte I fracture and cause a greater displacement of the separation of the maxilla (upper teeth.) This
would easily account for the elongated area of the upper lip and therefore the retrognathic condition of the lower face (i.e. the extremely recessed lower jaw) As one can see, facial trauma gives numerous rationale for the differences between the death mask and his living image, the JS Photograph.

Returning to history for a moment, we find an interesting description of the death mask by Joseph Smith Jr's son, Joseph Smith
III. He knew his father, lived with his father, and was nearly 12 years old when his father died. Certainly he knew as well as
anyone what his father looked like. Joseph III may not have known about his father's facial fractures, but he definitely had a
problem with the distortions created by them when artists reproduced his father's image using the death mask. He said:

"...the expression about the lower part of the face, taken from the death mask, which I saw reproduced in Ogden...several years ago, gives too full prominence to the lips and chin."

Now that new light has been shed in all this confusion may we consider this photo for what Joseph Smith's son and our experts
say it is: An Actual Photograph of Joseph Smith the Prophet.

There were other witnesses who saw the shaft of light- in fact a research study done by Time-Life books on the Mormon Pioneers states a couple accounts of the shaft of light and also has a painting made by one of the witnesses from the street showing the light coming down on the two mob members at the body and several others running away.  Take note that Willard Richards reported there were hundreds of armed men outside- why would these men run in fear of a few unarmed Mormons? I tend to believe the mob actually was not that large and this was pulled off by only a few men and Willard Richards.

Well this we did know- Randall just asked why he wasn't hurt to see what the tour guide would say. But also since there is evidence that he was hurt than that prophecy he claimed Joseph Smith gave him was inaccurate or in my opinion never given to him since it told him he would not be hurt in the shower of bullets.

I am not totally certain but from what the tour guide told us- the house was used to live in for years after that but any of the original bullet holes still remained.  The blood was in fact cleaned up by the request of Spencer W. Kimball when he came
there and said "It is time to forgive and to wipe this place clean but we will not forget."

Yes it may have been John Taylor's account but it was recorded by the church historian Willard Richards.

Some parallels to this story.  Jesus was also betrayed and led to death by one of his apostles and close friends, Judas.  It just so happens that Judas and Willard Richards had things in common- they were both in charge of keeping the records and keeping track of the monies for the apostles.

Some other interesting information- some years before the death of Joseph- the brethren persecuted Willard Richards constantly and accused him several times of foul play and conspiracy- I can show the records from church history.  His excuse for being innocent was that he was revealed to be an apostle.  Most of the accusers of Willard eventually apostatized from the
church, I think because they knew the truth about him.  Too bad Joseph found out too late.

So what can I say except this vision I saw I know was from God and I now know it to be the true events of what took place on that day- As I stood in that room in June with all those dedicated church members being told the wrong story I felt sick to my stomach and wanted to speak out and tell them what I knew- but I then realized that if I did so those people would have chased me out of the room and hated me just like the mob who conspired to kill Joseph because he spoke the truth.  And I understood at that time more of what Joseph had to go through more than I ever did before- the feelings of loneliness in his calling and being betrayed by the church he loved and friends he trusted with his life.

Enoch Shemna