JOHN D. LEE
(John Doyle Lee)
It is generally believed that after several decades of protecting Lee, Brigham Young and the Mormon Church which had ordered Lee to carry out the Massacre, used Lee as a sacrificial lamb. They were under incredible pressure and the church was about to be outlawed. They gave Lee up, and no one else was ever implicated after Lee’s death.
Lee was guilty but was also the scapegoat and was executed by the Army for his part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The inquiry stopped with his execution and exactly who wrote and approved Lee’s orders still is not known. Some believe that the authorities made a deal with the Mormon leadership. The Mormons gave up Lee, and the investigation stopped there.
Following his orders from higher religious authorities, Lee led an attack on an emigrant wagon train and murdered all but 17 young children in what has become known as The Mountain Meadows Massacre. It is one of the worst scandals of Mormon history. Lee and the others thought that they were “defending” their religion, not unlike some Muslims who justify their terrorism.
John Doyle Lee was an American pioneer and prominent early member of the Latter Day Saint Movement in Utah. Lee was later convicted as a mass murderer for his complicity in the Mountain Meadows massacre, sentenced to death and was executed in 1877.
