A STORY OF FAITH WRITTEN IN BLOOD
Latter Day Shame will chronicle the lives and deeds of three powerful leaders in the early Mormon Church, each of whom shared a personal connection to its most controversial prophet, Brigham Young. The first episode will depict frontier lawman Hosea Stout, whose rise to power as Utah’s first Attorney General is intrinsically linked to his dark deeds as a bodyguard, enforcer, and assassin for Mormon leadership, including his alleged poisoning of Joseph Smith’s brother and heir apparent at the behest of Brigham Young.
The second episode explores the macabre Mormon ritual known as blood atonement. The horrors of this sinister practice will be laid bare through an examination of Brigham Young's ally, Bishop Warren Snow, who castrated his romantic rival in a vicious act of religious brutality. The final episode will delve into the history of Brigham Young's confidant Major John D. Lee, a veteran turned judge who butchered American civilians in one of the most tragic chapters in Mormon history--the Mountain Meadow Massacre.
HOW WE’LL TELL IT
A vintage 19th century aesthetic will provide the backdrop for this docuseries. Narration and archival photographs will wrap around in-person interviews with history experts and the characters’ living descendants, while pivotal scenes will be portrayed through dramatic reenactments that capture intense moments of political struggle, sacrifice, and shocking violence.
meet our subjects
HOSEA STOUT
Hosea Stout was an early Mormon pioneer, soldier, chief of police, and powerful politician in Utah Territory. Stout was a study in contrasts; at once both a diligent missionary and vicious firebrand whose penchant for violence secured him the position of personal bodyguard to Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Hosea was later implicated in the assassination of Smith’s brother, Samuel Smith, which Stout allegedly perpetrated at the behest of Samuel’s bitter rival, Mormon Prophet Brigham Young.
WARREN SNOW
Warren Snow was a Mormon bishop and militia general in the Black Hawk War. Ruthless and calculating, Snow was infamous for using his power to take whatever he wanted, destroying any who got in his way. Such was the fate that befell Thomas Lewis, a young criminal who refused to give his wife to Snow. In the dead of night, Snow and his frontier posse ambushed and mutilated Lewis before leaving him for dead in a pool of his own blood. Both Snow and his ally Brigham Young justified this murder through a Mormon doctrine known as “Blood Atonement.”
JOHN D. LEE
John D. Lee was a frontiersman, polygamist, and prominent leader in the Latter-Day Saint Movement. Lee participated in the savage slaughter of American pioneers known as the Mountain Meadow Massacre, in which 120 civilians were butchered by Mormon militiamen disguised as Native Americans. Lee blamed Native Americans for the massacre, but later found himself blamed by his own adoptive father, Brigham Young. For his reluctant part in the slaughter, Lee was sacrificed to appease public sentiment, renouncing Young moments before being executed by firing squad.