December 7, 1954 - Mark Hofmann

His forgeries didn't just deceive collectors — they reshaped how scholars and church officials understood early Mormon history, with fabricated documents accepted as genuine by leading experts for years. When investigators began closing in, he turned to pipe bombs to silence those who might expose him, killing two people in Salt Lake City in 1985. The combination of archival sophistication and calculated violence sets Hofmann apart as a case study in how fraud, when sufficiently skilled, can rewrite institutional memory.

From Wikipedia

Mark William Hofmann (born December 7, 1954) is an American counterfeiter, forger, and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of fake documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. When his schemes began to unravel, he constructed bombs to murder three people in Salt Lake City, Utah. The first two bombs killed two people on October 15, 1985. On the following day, a third bomb exploded in Hofmann's car. He was arrested for the bombings three months later, and in 1987 pled guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, one count of theft by deception, and one count of fraud.

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