Below are photos taken at the 2007 meeting, New Author Review, in Cedar City, Utah.
WAYNE A. CAPURRO
Author of WHITE FLAG: America's First 9/11
Wayne A. Capurro is a lifetime resident of Northern Nevada , a family man and a broker/owner of a real estate company. He is also the great-great grandson of Philip Klingensmith, the former Mormon Bishop of Cedar City , Utah who participated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Capurro first became interested in the Mountain Meadows Massacre 43 years ago when his Uncle Harry told him about the dark family secret. His Uncle being a known trickster, the teenager decided to go to his Grandmother Violet Callahan for the truth. Grim faced she walked away, only to return with the 1950 edition of Juanita Brooks: The Mountain Meadows Massacre. "Its better that you get this from me than from someone else." was all she said.
Over the years, the fascination grew as it became clear how few people knew, or admitted to knowing, about this tragic event. As a number of historical non-fiction works were produced this changed, somewhat. However, in Capurro's opinion, the Mountain Meadows Massacre does not occupy its rightful place in the study of American History.
Descendants of victims and perpetrators deserve to have the secrets revealed and the record set straight. The story should not be laid to rest and forgotten. Much good can come from understanding the motivations and causes of what was clearly the crime of the century.
Capurro's idea to produce this version in historical novel form was born about a dozen years ago. The amount of research needed to accomplish this is but one reason its taken him so long to complete this work. As America struggles to resist a religious fanaticism from the Middle East, that would destroy freedom and enslave the human race if it could, we should not ignore what occurred in our own country 150 years ago on September 11. WHITE FLAG: America's First 9/11 | For more information click here
From left to right: karl F. Kelly, the author's cousin and a great great grandson of Philip Klingensmith. He is a veterinarian at Zephyr Cove, Lake Tahoe, NV., Wayne A. Capurro, Harry M. Callahan (author's uncle) and is the great grandson of Philip Klingensmith and the first person to ever mention the Mountain Meadows Massacre to the author when he was 13 years old. He lives in Virginia City, NV and is a Hollywood actor who appeared most recently in the HBO series "Deadwood".
Barbara Jones Brown
Barbara Jones Brown graduated with a degree in journalism and English from Brigham Young University. She has worked as professional writer and editor for nearly twenty years.
In 2005 she was hired as an editor by the LDS Family and Church history Department. Since then she has been editing Massacre at Mountain Meadows, which will be published by Oxford University press in 2008.
Barbara is a member of the Oregon-California Trails Association, the Utah Historical Society, Utah Westerners, and the Mormon History Association.
"In 2003 Logan Hebner started interviewing Southern Paiute elders for an oral history project. Though it didn't focus on the massacre, stories began to emerge and it became clear that not only were these accountsuntold, but that their story had never been comprehensively collected and considered.
Research quickly revealed that existing stories were, for the most part, well maintained cover-up lies. Mr. Hebner helped produce a conference of Paiute elders in 2005 to discuss the issue. At the end of that conference the elders entrusted him to finally tell their story.
He wrote a letter to LDS President Hinckley stating that it was time to face the truth about the Southern Paiute and LDS role in perpetuating the coverf-up story. Richard Turley, Editor in Chief for the discussions on are ongoing.
A book of the interviews with the Southern Paiute elders, along with photographs by Michael Plyler, is forthcoming. He is also writing a book about the Southern Paiute account of the Massacre and his experinces in trying to find resolve with the LDS Church."
