Part 3, Chapter 17 Summary and Analysis

Krakauer takes his readers back in time again as he turns from his story of the Lafferty brothers back to the history of the Mormon Church. Porter Rockwell has just ridden to Nauvoo with the terrible news that Joseph Smith has been killed. Along with their grief over the loss of their leader, the Mormons have to deal with the decision of who to select as their new prophet. Although they had no clear guidelines describing how to go about choosing this new leader, the people decided on a new leader based solely on his ideas about the practice of polygamy. Anti-polygamists hoped the role of the new prophet would be filled by Joseph's younger brother. However, this brother mysteriously died before a new prophet could be chosen. Krakauer mentions evidence indicates the brother may have been poisoned.

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