The Salamander Letter was one of hundreds of documents concerning the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church; see also Mormon) that surfaced in the early 1980s. This document alleged that the Book of Mormon was given to Joseph Smith, Jr by a being that changed itself into a salamander, not an angel as Smith claimed.
Produced by Mark Hoffman, who had been responsible for the discovery of many of these new documents, the letter was subjected to careful examination by experts, who believed the letter to be real. Understandably, the LDS Church was interested. After reviewing the letter Gordon B. Hinckley took the advice of the experts and conceded that the letter was real. He arranged for the purchase of this document for over one million dollars, intending to add it to his organization's archives.
By this time, Hoffman drew suspicion for discovering so many astounding documents that others had missed. He was also struggling under massive debt, and with delivering on deals that he had made. When he learned that the pedigree of the Salamander Letter was under investigation, in 1985 he turned to making bombs. Two people were killed and then Hoffman himself was injured when a bomb went off prematurely. The police investigated this wave of destruction, and during a search of his home found a studio in the basement where he could create counterfeited documents. Many of the documents Hoffman has sold were proven to be forgeries by a new forensic technique developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, chiefly to detect his forgeries.
