Documents released Thursday regarding the Mark Hofmann murder-fraud investigation reaffirm a local author's view that LDS Church officials are misrepresented in three published Hofmann books.
The police transcripts were requested by Wilford W. Kirton Jr., general counsel for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and by Salt Lake Tribune reporter Mike Carter to clarify the role of LDS leaders in the early stages of the investigation.Kirton's request was on behalf of attorney-author Richard E. Turley who contends authors of the three Hofmann books - "Mormon Murders" "A Gathering of Saints" and "Salamander" - "overstepped their bounds in speculating on the motives of church officials."
After reviewing the police documents, which concern interviews between police and church authorities, released by City Attorney Roger E. Cutler, Turley concluded the new information was "mildly informative," containing "nothing startling."
The police reports only represent 1 percent of the information Turley has gathered for his book. Turley, who serves as the church's managing director of the Historical Department, has not been commissioned by the church to write this fourth Hofmann book, but church officials endorse his efforts, he said.
In gathering documentation for his book, which will be published by a private company in early 1990, Turley has conducted multiple interviews with LDS officials, investigators, prosecutors and associates of murder victims Steven Christensen and Kathleen Sheets, killed by Hofmann's handmade bombs Oct. 15, 1985.
"Now I am more convinced than ever that the church officials' roles have been misrepresented and misunderstood in the other three books," said Turley.
The author compares his research to piecing together a complex jigsaw puzzle. "The books published so far have put together half of the pieces of the puzzle. And some of those are put together wrong. Other pieces don't belong to the puzzle at all. And some pieces have been fabricated to fill in the gaps. My book supplies the other half of the puzzle.
"I think people will be surprised how much the puzzle is changed when all the pieces are there."
Allen D. Roberts, who co-authored "Salamander" with Linda Sillitoe, agrees with Turley regarding the just-released police documents' general incompleteness.
"This information is too sketchy and too preliminary to draw any conclusions. The material only covers a three-month period at the very beginning of the case when no one knew where the case was headed. There's no mention of Hofmann as a possible forger.
"There's nothing in these police documents that would reverse any of our conclusions regarding the church's role in the Hofmann case."
The three key church officials interviewed by police in the early stages of the Hofmann investigation cooperated with Roberts and Sillitoe by responding to a written list of questions which they used in "Salamander," Roberts said.
While it is not Salt Lake City's policy to release investigative records, Cutler said the records were voluntarily handed over because investigators had granted interviews to authors of the Hofmann books, raising the question of "selective disclosure."
The city wanted to avoid an appearance of "treating one group of journalists differently than others."
References found in the three Hofmann books citing investigators' impressions of church officials' "truthfulness" in answering police questions are not a part of the official transcript. Explaining the reason for possible omissions, Cutler said, "Investigators don't put personal opinions like, `He's a liar' in the official report. They keep materials like that in their own private memos. Most of that material would usually be thrown away, but perhaps investigators kept their notes because of the unusual public interest in the Hofmann case."
More detailed information of police records can only be obtained through a court subpoena or civil deposition, said Cutler.