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What about the magic underwear? What specifically does it protect from? Does it only protect the covered areas? Is it effective for non-Mormons? Is it bullet proof? Does it itch?

Well, since it is rooted in Mormon folk superstition, I think we need to look at the spooky spirits Smith was most afraid of in the 1830s & 1840s...and how they cont'd to "haunt" the Mormons after that into the 1870s...When the Mormons STILL claim to this day that the signers of the Declaration of Independence appeared as ghosts in their St. George, Utah Mormon temple!

1830s - Mormons running amok amongst spirits of all kinds!

"Soon after the Gospel was established in Kirtland...many false spirits were introduced, many strange visions were seen, and wild, enthusiastic notions were entertained; men ran out doors under the influence of this spirit, and some of them got upon the stumps of trees and shouted, and all kinds of extravagances were entered into by them; one man pursued a ball that he said he saw flying in the air, until he came to a precipice, when he jumped into the top of a tree, which saved his life; and many ridiculous things were entered into... (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 213-214)

1840s: Brigham Young says demons were IN the Mormon church!

Obviously these spirits were having their way with early Mormons. So did it stop by a dozen years into the early church?

No! By 1842, Smith was still saying: "Or who can drag into daylight and develop the hidden mysteries of the false spirits that so frequently are made manifest among the Latter-day Saints?" (TOPJS, p. 204)

AND: "There have also been ministering angels in the Church which were of Satan appearing as an angel of light." (TOPJS, p. 214)

Smith went on to describe a "sister's" first vision in which "Many true things were spoken by this personage, and many things that were false. How, it may be asked, was this known to be a bad angel? (TOPJS, p. 214)

1850s: The Evil Spirit Haunting of the Salt Lake City Tabernacle -- Even During Broad Daylight!

"Well, these evil spirits are ready to prompt you. Do they prompt us? Yes, and I could put my hands on a dozen of them while I have been on this stand; they are here on the stand; Could we do without the devils? No, we could not get along without them. They are here, and they suggest this, that, and the other." Brigham Young, JoD, 3:369, June 22, 1856

* I have had many interviews with Brother Joseph until the last 15 or 20 years of my life; I have not see him for that length of time." JoD, 21:317-318, October 10, 1880, cf. JoD, 19:229

"Joseph Smith continued visiting myself and others up to a certain time, and then it stopped." -- Lds "apostle" Heber C. Kimball, Deseret Weekly News, 53:112, Temples of the Most High, 1896, p. 345

1870s: The Haunting of the St. George Lds Temple by the Supposed Signers of the Declaration of Independence!

Lds "prophet" Wilford Woodruff, before becoming the Mormon "prophet," served as president of the temple in St. George, Utah. It was in that temple that endowments for the dead were performed for the first time "in this dispensation" (see Doctrines of Salvation, 2:171). While serving there, President Woodruff was visited by the spirits of many “eminent men” who had died.

Per Woodruff:
“The spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, ‘You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we … remained true to it and were faithful to God.’ These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence [of the United States of America], and they waited on me for two days and two nights. … I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother McAllister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and fifty other eminent men, making one hundred in all, including John Wesley, Columbus, and others” (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, sel. G. Homer Durham [1946], 160–61).

In a Mormon Sunday School lesson about this, they ask their learners:
• What can we learn from these two stories? (Answers could include that those who are dead are anxious for us to perform ordinances for them and that we should be diligent in our efforts to redeem the dead.) (Lds Sunday School lesson from "Doctrine and Covenants and Church History," "The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn to Their Fathers," p. 3)
Source: LDS Sunday School Lesson