Media coverage of the Mountain Meadows Massacre

This Confession was published in 1877, and expressed Lee's opinion that George A. Smith was sent to southern Utah by Brigham Young to direct the massacre.

[2] In 1872, Mark Twain commented on the massacre through the lens of contemporary American public opinion in an appendix[3] to his semi-autobiographical travel book Roughing It.

While the historical works among these critiqued (often in polemic fashion) early Utah's religious teachings and rhetoric, a caricature drawn from out of their criticisms came to find its place, in stereotype form, in popular fiction and entertainment.

These included his own field notes, excerpts of witnesses' diaries, affidavits, newspaper reports, and the transcriptions from the LDS Church's internal investigations.

The first detailed and comprehensive work using modern historical methods was The Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1950 by Juanita Brooks, a Mormon scholar who lived near the area in southern Utah.

Brooks found no evidence of direct involvement by Brigham Young, but charged him with obstructing the investigation and for provoking the attack through his rhetoric.

[9] Bagley pointed to what he said was strong circumstantial evidence of Young's involvement through Smith, and through his early September 1857 meeting with Paiute Indian leaders Tutsegabit and Youngwids.

Mormonism Unveiled; or the Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee , was Lee's account of the massacre, published soon after his execution in 1877. [ 2 ]
An example of the massacre's early public notoriety, this sketch of the massacre site appeared on the cover of the August 13, 1859 issue of Harper's Weekly . Inside, an article quoted Major J.H. Carleton's report describing the scene as "one too horrible and sickening for language to describe. Human skeletons, disjointed bones, ghastly skulls and the hair of women were scattered in frightful profusion over a distance of two miles."