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Aiken massacre (Utah)

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Coordinates: 39°24′33″N 112°03′01″W / 39.4093°N 112.0504°W / 39.4093; -112.0504
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Aiken massacre
LocationNephi area of the Sevier River; Willow Creek, Mona; and Warm Creek Hot Springs area of Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, United States[1]: 471–472, 474 
Coordinates39°24′33″N 112°03′01″W / 39.4093°N 112.0504°W / 39.4093; -112.0504
DateNovember 25 and 28, 1857
Target
  • Murdered: John Aiken (25), Thomas L. Aiken (27), John Achard (33), Andrew Jackson Jones, and Horace Bucklin[1]: 464 
  • Escaped: John Chapman[1]: 463 
Attack type
False imprisonment then mass lynching
Deaths5
PerpetratorsBrigham Young, Porter Rockwell, Wild Bill Hickman, Jacob G. Bigler, Sylvanus Collett, John S. Lott, John R. Murdock, and George Dalton[1]: 469–470, 474 
Motive

The Aiken massacre was an 1857 lynching in central Utah of five Californian travelers reportedly at the orders of top leaders in Mormonism's largest denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[2][3][4] The victims were apprehended on trumped up charges of spying, imprisoned, then murdered, though two escaped with injuries, but were killed two days later.[1]: 471–472 [5][6] This occurred two months after the Mountain Meadows massacre and was part of the impetus for the Utah War (1857–1858).[1]: 457 [7]

In 1877 Porter Rockwell and Wild Bill Hickman were indicted for the massacre.[8][9] In his confession, Hickman stated that after Bucklin ("Buck") had escaped the murder attempt that territory governor and top church president Brigham Young ordered him to finish the job.[2][10]: 278 [11] According to historian John G. Turner it is likely Young was involved in the death of four of the party members, along with a trader Richard Yates a month before.[3] The Aiken massacre's name comes from the brothers Thomas and John Aiken of the group who were killed.[1]: 457 [12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Bigler, David L. (2007). "The Aiken Party Executions and the Utah War, 1857–1858". Western Historical Quarterly. 38 (4). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press: 457–476. doi:10.2307/25443606. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 25443606.
  2. ^ a b c Bigler, David L. (2007). "The Aiken Party Executions and the Utah War, 1857–1858". Western Historical Quarterly. 38 (4). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press: 457, 474. doi:10.2307/25443606. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 25443606. [The Aiken massacre] exposes the condition that led to the Mountain Meadows massacre and Brigham Young's autocratic leadership. ... The Aiken party murders, ordered by Mormon leaders ... are also a haunting reminder of the fear and desperation millenialist Mormons felt, and the absolute power Brigham Young exerted over the lives of all who entered the territory. ... In his confession, Mormon gunman William A. Hickman matter-of-factly described [how] Brigham Young called him to his office about that time and said: 'The boys have made a bad job of trying to put [Horace Bucklin] out of the way.' It was up to the feared Mormon executioner, Young allegedly said, 'to get him out of the way, and use him up.'
  3. ^ a b c Turner, John G. (September 20, 2012). Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (1st ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 284–285. ISBN 978-0-674-04967-3 – via Internet Archive. Given [Homer] Brown's comment it seems probable that [Brigham] Young sanctioned their [the Aiken party's] deaths. ... William Hickman later claimed to have shot [Horace Bucklin] at Young's behest .... In addition to his likely complicity in the deaths of four members of the Aiken party, Young sanctioned the murder of Richard Yates, a trader ....
  4. ^ Bancroft, Hubert Howe; Bates, Alfred (1889). "Chapter XIX: The Utah War". History of Utah, 1540–1886. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. XXVI. San Francisco: History Company. pp. 562–563. OCLC 4694895 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Keenan, Jerry (April 27, 2016). The Terrible Indian Wars of the West: A History from the Whitman Massacre to Wounded Knee, 1846–1890. McFarland Publishing. pp. 379–380. ISBN 978-1-4766-2310-8 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Bigler, David L.; Bagley, Will (October 22, 2014). The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-8061-8396-1 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ MacKinnon, William P. (October 27, 2016). At Sword's Point, Part 1: A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 316. ISBN 978-0-8061-5726-9 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Hall, Roger A. (August 16, 2001). Performing the American Frontier, 1870–1906. Cambridge University Press. pp. 93, 228. ISBN 978-0-521-79320-9 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Kelly, Charles; Hoffman, Birney (November 22, 2019). Holy Murder: The Story of Porter Rockwell. Pickle Partners Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-83974-043-5 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Schindler, Harold (1983). Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder. University of Utah Press. ISBN 978-0-87480-204-7 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ Hickman, William (June 2009) [1872]. Brigham's Destroying Angel: Being the Life, Confession, and Startling Disclosures of the Notorious Bill Hickman, the Danite Chief of Utah. Bedford, Massachusetts: Applewood Books. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-4290-1975-0 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ "The Aikens Murder Trial". Salt Lake Tribune. October 15, 1878. p. 2 – via University of Utah. Higher quality image available here.
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