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Mark Hofmann

American counterfeiter, forger and convicted murderer

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ4354485 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mark William Hofmann (born December 7, 1954) is an American counterfeiter, forger, serial bomber and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of fake documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. When his schemes began to unravel, he constructed bombs to murder three people in Salt Lake City, Utah. The first two bombs killed two people on October 15, 1985. On the following day, a third bomb exploded in Hofmann's car. He was arrested for the bombings three months later, and in 1987 pled guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, one count of theft by deception, and one count of fraud.

Early life

Mark Hofmann was born in 1954 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Lucille (née Sears) and William Hofmann (1928–1993). He was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was a below-average student at Olympus High School, but had many hobbies including stage magic, electronics, chemistry, and stamp and coin collecting. Hofmann and his friends were said to have made bombs for fun on the outskirts of Murray, Utah.

Editorial summary

“Mark Hofmann” enters the record as american counterfeiter, forger and convicted murderer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mark, Hofmann and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1954, 1985, 1987, 1928—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1954-12-07. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Mark, Hofmann and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Mark Hofmann” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mark, Hofmann and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4354485. VIAF identifies the subject as 43315786. The Library of Congress control number is n86026426. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954, 1985, 1987 and 1928.

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.

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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.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Mark Hofmann primary sources, Mark Hofmann archive and Mark 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.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mark Hofmann” 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.