Killing of Joseph Smith

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Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother, Hyrum Smith, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, United States, on June 27, 1844, while awaiting trial in the town jail on charges of treason. As a result of the 1838 Mormon War and a state executive order by Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs, a large group of Mormons, including Smith and his brother, had to flee Missouri. In 1839, the group settled in Commerce, Illinois, where Smith soon became mayor and which he renamed Nauvoo. In 1844, a group of ex-Mormons who opposed polygamy and who had recently been excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints established the Nauvoo Expositor newspaper. On June 7, 1844, the newspaper published its first (and only) issue, which criticized Smith and other church leaders, reporting that Smith was practicing polygamy, marrying the wives of other men, teaching a "plurality of Gods", and alleging that he intended to set himself up as a theocratic...

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