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Killing of Joseph Smith

1844 assassination of Latter Day Saint founder in Carthage, Illinois

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 12, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother, Hyrum Smith, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, United States, on June 27, 1844, while awaiting trial in the town jail on charges of treason.

Editorial summary

“Killing of Joseph Smith” enters the record as 1844 assassination of Latter Day Saint founder in Carthage, Illinois. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Killing, Joseph and Smith can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1844—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Killing, Joseph and Smith.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Killing of Joseph Smith” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Killing, Joseph and Smith provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1844.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Killing of Joseph Smith”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Killing of Joseph Smith primary sources, Killing of Joseph Smith archive and Killing research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Killing of Joseph Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.