In the recent Netflix documentary, “Murder Among the Mormons,” Mark Hofmann is heard on a prison recording that he was trying to commit suicide with the 3rd bomb. However, police reports indicate the 3rd bomb blast was a mistake. Brent Ashworth tells why he thinks the 3rd blast was an accident.
GT: Let me just set that up. Because Shannon Flynn when I interviewed him, he said that he thought that it was a suicide attempt. And we did hear a prison recording where Mark said it was a suicide attempt, but George Throckmorton, and the ATF basically knew when that bomb went off, they knew immediately, number one, that Mark was the bomber. And number two, they said it was an accident. So help us help us resolve that conflict.
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Brent: But anyway, the point was, is that they sent [ATF agent] Jerry Taylor and Mark was still in the hospital coming out of his coma or whatever. He blew his kneecap and a couple of fingers off. And Jerry said, “I want to be the first to ask him questions.” So they did. They brought him up. And when Mark came to, [Jerry] just asked him, “What happened?”
Brent: Mark said, “Well, I got to my car.” And it was a little MR2. We’d sat on there several times to do deals as I told you before. And he opens the door and he says, “This package fell off the dashboard and onto the seat and blew me into the street.” Well, that’s not what the eyewitnesses said either. The eyewitnesses said that they saw this man get partway into the [car.] He was sitting on the seat with his right hip. Both feet were still on the pavement. Here’s what the eyewitnesses said. He was leaning into the car when the thing blew up.
GT: To put it in the backseat or something?
Brent: Yeah. In the process George said that he hit the the gearshift which set the mercury switch off. It was mercury switch activated.
GT: All he had to do was tip the package.
Brent: All he had to do was tip it. He hit the gear shift. It was right in his way, moving the thing to the back. I mean it was very little room to work in and he hit the gear shift and that set the bomb off. He was blown into the street. If he’d had the door shut, if he was trying to commit suicide, he would have been killed. But he wasn’t tryng to commit suicide. In fact, the eyewitnesses said he couldn’t figure out what he was leaning into the car with. He’s trying to stay as far away from it as he could. But he hit the gearshift.
GT: I would think he’d put it in the trunk. But I know there were important documents in the in the trunk.
Brent: Well, I was mostly just junk he put in there to make look like a McLellin Collection. You know what? They showed me a lot of that stuff and most of it was Civil War documents of General McClellan. I mean, he’s a pretty smart guy. But General McClellan didn’t spell his name the same way as William McLellin.
How did a Civil War general get mixed up in this? Check out our conversation….
