In December 1977, 1,800 copies of an anonymous booklet suddenly appeared in a Salt Lake City storage unit. The booklet was intended to rebut the research of Gerald and Sandra Tanner—but what followed became one of the strangest episodes in modern LDS Church history.
The Tanners began tracing the booklet’s origins, eventually connecting large portions of it to historian D. Michael Quinn and the LDS Church History Department. But the real bombshell wasn't simply discovering who wrote it. The booklet itself contained surprising historical admissions about Joseph Smith, plural marriage, the 1826 glass-looking trial, changes to historical texts, and connections between Mormon temple practices and Freemasonry.
The fallout was swift. Leonard Arrington's History Division came under increased control, his position as official church historian was removed, and the brief era of relatively open LDS historical scholarship began to close.
This is the story of “Dr. Clan Destine”—the anonymous historical operation that may have helped trigger the very crackdown it was intended to prevent.
📜 In this episode:
• The mysterious 1977 storage-unit discovery
• The anonymous booklet Gerald and Sandra Tanner's Distorted View of Mormonism
• The investigation by Gerald and Sandra Tanner
• D. Michael Quinn and the academic fingerprints
• Leonard Arrington and the Church History Department
• The booklet's surprising historical admissions
• The rise of “Dr. ClanDestine”
• The February 1978 Tanner exposé
• Arrington's demotion and the end of the “Camelot” era
• The closing of the archives
The story raises a fascinating question: Does hiding uncomfortable history actually protect an institution—or does it eventually create an even bigger public scandal?
Welcome to another edition of the Mormon News Roundup.
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