'Murder Among the Mormons': What the Mormon Church Has Said About the Netflix Doc

Murder Among the Mormons is streaming now on Netflix, and tells the story of forger Mark Hofmann, known for creating fake documents purporting to be from the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as well as a series of three bombings that killed two people.

As a Vox review of the Netflix true crime series points out, "[Murder Among the Mormons] wants to portray Mormonism as an intimidating shadow that loomed over the events that unfolded in Salt Lake City in 1985, when the two deaths occurred and when the church was embroiled in controversy over the events surrounding the crime."

Despite this, however, there has been no real backlash from the Mormon church over the documentary, especially compared to the way in which other newer religious sects like Scientology tend to deal with documentaries against them.

Murder Among the Mormons co-director Jared Hess (who previously made Napoleon Dynamite), himself a member of the church, said that he showed it to family members to gauge how anti-Mormon its sentiment was. He told Bustle, "My brother said it was educational [and] actually helped clear the air with some of the details."

Co-director Tyler Measom, meanwhile, said to Esquire about the expected LDS Church reaction to the three-part series, "I think what is going to happen within the members of the church and within the community is, I think they're going to be pleasantly surprised by the amazing story itself, I hope.

"I also think that they will likely go into it with a number of assumptions of why the film was made and what might be in it that won't really... that aren't necessarily going to come to fruition."

Dorie Olds, the ex-wife of documentary subject Mark Hofmann, has also spoken about how much she liked the Netflix doc when she watched it. She told Deseret News, "I would tell those people who came to see me the truth, and I would talk about the Spirit and talk about God and talk about feeling supported. That part of the story really hasn't ever been told.

"I thought it was amazing all that made it in (the Netflix docuseries), the smoothness of the transition to each piece and how they put it all together. It was amazing. The editing was great."

Writing for the Religion News Service, LDS Church member Jana Riess reviewed the show, writing, "I was largely impressed with the religious sensitivity they brought to the story. There is no Mormon-bashing here, no axe to grind; mostly, they want to understand how these murders occurred and how so many people could have been duped by the killer for so long." She also wrote, "If anything, it lets the Church off the hook a little too easily."

Murder Among the Mormons is streaming now on Netflix.