Kathleen Kimball Melonakos today announced publication of a non-fiction work on the early history of the Mormon (LDS) Church, which presents evidence of counterfeiting money by church founder Joseph Smith and other early church leaders beginning with Joseph Smith Sr., father of the Mormon Church founder.
The inner-circle secret counterfeiting affected the fate of the Smith brothers and the Mormon migration to Utah. Secret Combinations: Evidence of Early Mormon Counterfeiting 1800-1847” is available on Amazon, through Utah Lighthouse Ministry (utlm.org), Benchmark Books, and mormoncounterfeiting.com. An EBook PDF version is available on the website.
This is the first book documenting this aspect of Mormon history. It contains over 1,400 footnotes and 100 photos and illustrations.
Book Synopsis: Using original documents and on-site research in Vermont, New York, Missouri, Michigan, Illinois and Utah, this book begins with figures in 18th- and 19th-century America who developed secret networks to promote counterfeiting and other illegal schemes and often used religion as a cover.
Kathleen states, “The historical record indicates how Joseph Smith, Sr., father of the Mormon Church founder, was involved in counterfeiting and how this involvement was passed on to Joseph Smith, Jr. and was practiced by Mormon leaders throughout the development and migration of the early church.”
The pre-publication version has received enthusiastic reviews from such leading historians of Mormonism as Sandra Tanner, Will Bagley, Charles Larsen and Dr. James Beverly, Professor of Religion at Tyndale Seminary. The book is described as riveting, fast-moving and revealing on an “explosive topic.”
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