Illinois in 1844 was a dangerous, violent place -- but it was not without law, and the law had its champions.  After Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered in the Carthage Jail on June 27th, Governor Thomas Ford set out on a yearlong crusade (often without allies and wading through considerable political opposition) to bring the killers to justice.  Struggling to find a prosecutor willing to take the case, he finally found an ally in the mercurial, hard-drinking Josiah Lamborn.      

This episode covers the first half of the trial -- Lamborn's struggle to get useful evidence from reluctant witnesses.  We discuss how some witnesses were openly hostile, using their testimony to denounce Mormons (one, John Williams, testified that Mormons were "hellhounds" and should all be "exterminated.").  Finally, in desperation, Lamborn called Frank Worrell to the stand, a committed anti-Mormon as any in Hancock County.  We explore that and more on this second episode on the trial of the Carthage killers.

To learn more about the information in this episode, please check out:  Dallin H. Oaks & Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (1979).