It took a Federal Judge, John C. Cradlebaugh, to kick into gear the necessity of attempting accountability for the Meadow Mountain Massacre: “A deeply religious man, he found that his ideas of Christianity were far different from those of this sect, that his own deeply held view of angels bore no similarity to those of the Avenging Angels of Mormondom...as he would later report to Congress, that 'the Mormon church is guilty, of the crimes of murder and robbery as taught in their books of faith.'” (Sally Denton, p. 191)
One of the ways we know that the Mormon church was implicated – either as part of the plot or criminal cover-up – is how the wagon train's plunder was dealt with:
“The plunder proceed with a strange quiet. Women from Cedar City and nearby settlements arrived to remove the calico dresses and lace pinafores of the women and children, pulling off their expensive shoes, and ripping earrings, brooches, and rings off the corpses, most to be turned over to the church. 'Their fine stock, their pleasure vehicles, their musical instruments, and abundant and elegant outfit, excited the cupidity of the sacerdotal robbers,' the Salt Lake Daily Tribune later reported...” (Denton, P. 149)
“'There was no clothing left on man, woman or child, except that a torn stocking leg clung to the angle of one.” Haight, Higbee, and Dame would argue asa well over the distribution of goods. The bloody clothing and bedding that had been gathered by the women and others were taken to the cellar of the church tithing office in Cedar City...As for the reported $100,000 worth of gold said to be on the train, most of what was retrieved—the actual amount would never be revealed—was turned over to the church treasury in Salt Lake City. The forty wagons were given to local Mormons for use in hauling lead ore from Nevada. The carriages emblazoned with stags' heads were transported to Salt Lake City, where at least one of them was used by Brigham Young. Approximately nine hundred head of cattle were corralled near Cedar City, branded with the church's 'cross,' and driven north to the capital.” (Denton, p. 150)
Klingensmith was a Lutheran to Mormon convert who became a witness in the Lee trial: "He told how he traveled to Salt Lake City in October 1857 and in the presence of Lee and another witness discussed with Young the details of the murders and the distribution of the plunder. Klingensmith testified that Young ordered him to turn over all the loot from the massacre to Lee. The cattle had been branded with a cross--the church designation...” (Denton, p. 224)
Per Denton, the Cedar City Mormons post-massacre “flaunted their windfall”: “...others passing through the territory remarked on the new prosperity among the settlers. A drover named Hugo Hickman had observed the 'poverty and rags' worn by the residents of Cedar City in early 1857. But now he 'was greatly surprised to see the people so well dressed, in States Jeans [jeans made in the United States instead of homespun in Zion], Silks and Satins...rich in clothing, cattle, wagons, julery [sick] and money.' Hickman wrote in his diary that a local friend told him 'all the property and clothing' he saw 'knocking around came from the Mountain Meddows.' [sic].” (Denton, p. 173)
****The bloody clothing and bedding that had been gathered by the women and others were taken to the cellar of the church tithing office in Cedar City****
I read, long ago, that the tithing office stank like a slaughter house for years afterward.
”...two of the children cruelly mangled and the most of them with their parents' blood still wet upon their clothes, and all of them shrieking with terror and grief and anguish...” (Denton, p. 139) “Georgia Ann Dunlap was eighteen months old. Her parents and seven sisters and brothers had just been executed in front of her eyes, and she was now alone with her five-year-old sister, Prudence Angelina, who could not stop sobbing.Emberson Tackitt, four, had watched his mother hacked to death, while his father, two older brothers, an aunt, and three cousins were being shot and their throats cut a few yards away. Gushing blood from the gunshot wound that had mangled her ear, Sarah Frances Baker, three, her five-year-old sister, Mary Elizabeth, and the youngest of the surviving infants, nine-month-old William, had just watched the slaughter of their parents and a seven-year-old sister. Felix Marion Jones was eighteen months old.
Within a few minutes his family had been wiped out, and he would not be able to remembered anything about his murdered mother, father and sister.
Christopher “Kit Carson” Fancher, five, along with his twenty-two-month—old sister, Triphenia, had seen their wounded father shot in his litter and their mother murdered with an ax, while six brothers and sisters under the age of nineteen were being killed nearby.
Nancy Sophrona Huff, at four, was the sole survivor of a family of six annihilated in the same ways. One child died as they arrived at Hamblin's ranch.
Another, one-year-old Sarah Dunlap, had had her left arm nearly severed by a musket ball. Clinging frantically to her, their dresses soaked in blood, were her sisters Rebecca, six and Louisa, four. They had all seen the slaughter of their seven brothers and sisters, as well as both parents, and Rebecca had pried her baby sister from the arms of their dead mother.” (Denton, p. 140)
“One-year-old Sarah Dunlap was shot in the elbow, sending all of the children into a frenzy 'One of the Mormons ran up to the wagon, raised his gun and said 'Lord my God, Receive their spirits. It is for Thy Kingdom that I do this,' reported Sallie Baker. [the mormon equivalent of Alah Akbar!] She then watched as McMurdy fired at two men who were comforting each other, killing them both with one bullet. She saw the wag driver bludgeon a fourteen-year-old boy to death with the butt of a gun.” (Denton, p. 137)
How Did they feel about their crime against humanity?
“The plunder proceed with a strange quiet. [Mormon] Women from Cedar City and nearby settlements arrived to remove the calico dresses and lace pinafores of the women and children, pulling off their expensive shoes, and ripping earrings, brooches, and rings off the corpses, most to be turned over to the church. 'Their fine stock, their pleasure vehicles, their musical instruments, and abundant and elegant outfit, excited the cupidity of the sacerdotal robbers,' the Salt Lake Daily Tribune later reported...”