Under
the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, 2003, Excerpts
Ever since the
assassination, non-Mormons had stepped up their violent campaign to drive the
Saints from Hancock County. Throughout the summer of 1845 anti-Mormon
vigilantes roamed the county setting fire to Mormon homes and farms. By September 15, 1845, forty-four Mormon
residences had been burned to the ground.
A few days later, a
bank of Mormons captured a youthful Gentile man named McBracking, whom they
suspected of burning Mormon homes. McBracking begged for his life, but the
Saints weren’t in a forgiving mood. They castrated him, cut his throat, sliced
off one of his ears, and shot him two or three times.
By now passions were
at flash point on both sides of the conflict. Posses of enraged Mormons and
Gentiles ranged back and forth across the county in a rampage of arson and
plunder, burning more than two hundred homes.
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