Bomb Day 2: Other Targets? Oct 16, 1985 (Hofmann Bombings)

We’ll continue our discussion about the Mark Hofmann bombings. After a night’s rest, the bombs continued the next day again, but this time Mark himself was the victim.

Curt Bench: Remember I told you about warning Mark and so the next day which is the 16^th of October [1985] I’m driving. Actually I had been somewhere to try to negotiate a deal that was based on information I had gotten from him, so I’m driving back to my office and on the news said there was a third bomb. Keep in mind this is surreal for our area. I mean these bombings are going on. Nobody knows what’s going on. Nobody knows why, there’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of uncertainty and then when there’s a third bomb and then I find out that it’s Mark Hofmann that’s the victim, I about drove off the road, and I remember hitting my steering wheel and saying aloud to myself, ‘Mark why didn’t you listen to me?’ He didn’t seek safety and he was the third victim.

In preparing for another interview, I was surprised to learn that a young missionary by the name of David Rosenvall actually witnessed and heard the bomb blast that injured Hofmann. David will describe his reactions to the loud noise he heard as he left the Salt Lake Temple that day.

David Rosenvall: The day before I was to enter into the MTC [Missionary Training Center], I was at the Salt Lake Temple and coming out from that experience and our car was parked on Main Street just beside the Deseret Gym. As I got to the car, was putting some things in there, just up the road and just behind the Deseret Gym there, there was an explosion and at the time I had no idea what it was or what was going on. We quickly ran up there to see it. There were about 20 people gathered around somebody on the road. You could see that he was injured and hurt. I didn’t know who it was at the time.

Was it an accident? Was it intended for someone else, or did Mark purposely injure himself? These are some great questions and Curt Bench will talk about the answers to these questions in our conversation. (Don’t forget to check out Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3!) What do you remember about the Hofmann bombings?

Check out our conversation…

https://gospeltangents.com/shop/transcripts/bomb-day-2-targets-oct-16-1985/

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