On this day 167 years ago Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, and his brother Hyrum were assassinated while in Carthage Jail charged with treason. Earlier that month, some of Smith’s opponents had published a newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor, containing criticisms of Smith. The paper caused public outrage, and the Nauvoo City Council, of which Smith was the mayor, ordered the city marshal to destroy the paper and the press on which it had been printed.
Unsurprisingly, the destruction of the press led to heightened tensions between the Mormon community and others, and on 18 June Smith declared martial law and arranged for a militia of 5,000 to protect Nauvoo, which was a city in the state of Illinois. The Illinois governor proposed to resolve the situation by holding a trial in Carthage, and on 25 June Smith and a number of his followers surrendered to the Carthage constable.
Smith and his brother were charged with riot and treason, for having declared martial law, and they were remanded in custody. Late in the afternoon of 27 June 1944, a mob broke into the jail and fired numerous shots, killing first Hyrum Smith and then Joseph Smith. Five men were subsequently tried for the murders, but all were acquitted. A schism then followed in the Mormon church, but the majority followed Brigham Young to Utah to become the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.