the three-part netflix miniseriesMurder Among the Mormons by directors Jared Hess and Tyler Measom is a story about construction—of forged documents and lethal bombs, but also of memory and meaning. The documentary details the story of Mark Hofmann, the master document forger who murdered two individuals as his web of deceptions unraveled. Despite the title, however, the docuseries is not centered on the murders of Hofmann's victims Steve Christensen and Kathy Sheets; rather, the nearly three-hour docuseries focuses on Hofmann, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ relationship with its past, and Hofmann's impact on the religious tradition.By focusing on Hofmann, his forgeries, and the LDS Church's engagement with historical documents, Murder among the Mormons invites questions about cultural memory's construction. Who is crafting Latter-day Saint history and memory? Whose stories are seen as legitimate within the religious tradition and why? On a broader level, this documentary seeks to critique systems of power and highlight the struggle to define the faith's past. The series presents the desire to wield control over the church's history as Hofmann's primary motivation to forge documents. More specifically, the series rests on the questionable premise that church leaders influence and even falsify the history of the faith by buying and then locking away potentially damaging historical documents, reminiscent of the tabloid media practice known as “catch and kill.” The filmmakers not only position Latter-day Saint leaders and Hofmann in a struggle over the past but also criticize both parties for their desire for control.At the same time, the miniseries participates in that battle. Hess and Measom employ old news clips, interviews, and reenactments, at times blending the sources. In episode 3, for instance, we see the back of a man's head as he watches Apostle James E. Faust's 1983 general conference address “The Keystone of Our Religion,” which references a forged Lucy Mack Smith letter. Over this scene, Hofmann's former associate Brent Metcalfe remarks, “You can only envision Mark listening to a General Authority standing at the pulpit declaring one of his documents, that he's forged, to be proof of the Book of Mormon's authenticity” (17:19–32). This editorial decision demonstrates that the directors are not neutral bystanders; they are constructing memory as well. Through reenactment, an imaginary moment acquires an air of truth and legitimacy that, when audiences think back on the series, they will likely recollect as fact, not conjecture.More than grappling with broad questions of representation and memory, the portrayal of this dark period during the 1980s addresses a wound in the Latter-day Saint community. While the murders rocked the religious group, the directors imply that questions about the trustworthiness and even legitimacy of church leaders caused more lasting pain. The series prompts viewers to ask, “How could a fraudster like Hofmann deceive living prophets? Shouldn't God have revealed the truth about the documents? How honest have church leaders been about the faith's history? Why are some documents closed to the public eye?”Murder among the Mormons attempts to make sense of this trauma by offering simple interpretive frameworks. Scholars characterize trauma as an experience that doesn't “fit.” As Cathy Caruth explains, a traumatic event “literally has no place, neither in the past, in which it was not fully experienced, nor in the present, in which its precise images and enactments are not fully understood.”1 Using a familiar narrative to frame trauma often helps the healing process by giving meaning to the experience. On one level, the docuseries presents a simple story of justice: Hofmann is serving a lifetime sentence for the murders. On another level, the filmmakers employ the cultural script of the so-called evil genius. Viewers encounter reenactments of moments in Hofmann's life, from his correctly answering every question in the popular Latter-day Saint board game Celestial Pursuit to his expertly forging documents in his home. Near the end of the series, Hoffman's former friend and business associate Shannon Flynn admits that “No one has come close to doing what he has done. The depth of knowledge and understanding, and his autodidactic ability, is unprecedented. His ability to deceive? Unparalleled” (53:43–54:05). Audiences not only hear Hofmann's desire to fool, but also his lack of regard for others. Commenting about the murders and his eleventh-hour decision about who would receive the bombs, he remarks, “My thoughts are that's no great harm done, you know, [they] might have died in a car accident” (32:18–20). Framing Hofmann as an evil genius tries to make him and his actions comprehensible.In offering easy-to-understand explanations for the events, these frameworks arguably salve some wounds. Looking closer, however, Murder among the Mormons harms Latter-day Saint audiences in the way it misrepresents the constructed-ness of history. For example, the documentary presents Metcalfe declaring: “The church is in kind of an ironic situation. On the one hand, they are driven by history. And they want to preserve documents. But on the other hand, what do you do with documents that have the potential of destroying someone's faith?” (12:10–30). Through this either-or scenario, Metcalfe presents a reductive view of both archival work and historical interpretation.Selection is inherent in the process of engaging with the past. As Marita Sturken contends, “Memory and forgetting are co-constitutive processes; each is essential to the other's existence.”2 We construct memory by including certain details while excluding others in order to convey desired values or messages. By obscuring this process, the documentary fails to give viewers the tools to grapple with the choices made by church leaders, who often consider the advice and expertise of academics and archivists. Some might disagree at times with how the religious institution interprets and presents the past, but critical nuance comes from understanding that the construction of history and memory is never outside systems of power. We must ask: How do larger contexts influence church leaders’ perspectives and responses? How have interpretations of the past changed over time and why? How do certain stories—and particular interpretations of these stories—serve the Latter-day Saint community?The Hofmann era poses important questions about how we craft a narrative and make sense of the LDS Church's history. However, the series also generates valuable questions of its own about this complex, painful history. Murder among the Mormons invites scholars and students alike to grapple with the damage caused by Mark Hofmann's forgeries and interrogate attempts to make sense of an ongoing trauma.