Aiken massacre (Utah)

The Aiken massacre was an 1857 lynching in central Utah of 5 Californian travelers at the orders of top leaders in Mormonism's largest denomination the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).^{[1]: 457 [2][3]} The victims were apprehended on trumped up charges of spying, imprisoned, then murdered, though two escaped with injuries, but were killed two days later.^{[1]: 471–472 [4][5]} This occurred a month after the Mountain Meadows massacre and was part of the impetus for the Utah War (1857–1858).^{[1]: 457 [6]} In 1877 Porter Rockwell and Wild Bill Hickman were indicted for the massacre.^[7][8] The massacres name comes from the Aiken brothers Thomas and John of the group who were killed.^{[1]: 457 [9]}

Aiken massacre
Location	Nephi area of the Sevier River; Willow Creek, Mona; and Warm Creek Hot Springs area of Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, United States^[1]^: 471–472, 474
Coordinates	39°24′33″N 112°03′01″W / 39.4093°N 112.0504°W / 39.4093; -112.0504
Date	November 25 and 28, 1857
Target	Murdered: John Aiken (25), Thomas L. Aiken (27), John Achard (33), Andrew Jackson Jones, and Horace Bucklin^[1]^: 464 Escaped: John Chapman^[1]^: 463
Attack type	False imprisonment then mass lynching
Weapons	Iron bars, Guns^[1]^: 471
Deaths	5
Perpetrators	Brigham Young, Porter Rockwell, Wild Bill Hickman, Jacob G. Bigler, Sylvanus Collett, John S. Lott, John R. Murdock, and George Dalton^[1]^: 469–470, 474
Motive	War hysteria about a possible invasion Mormon teachings against outsiders during the Mormon Reformation period Orders from Brigham Young

References

1. Bigler, David L. (2007). "The Aiken Party Executions and the Utah War, 1857–1858". Western Historical Quarterly. 38 (4): 457–476. doi:10.2307/25443606. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 25443606.
2. Schindler, Harold (1983). Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder. University of Utah Press. pp. 271–278. ISBN 978-0-87480-204-7.
3. Bancroft, Hubert Howe; Bates, Alfred (1889). "Chapter XIX: The Utah War". History of Utah, 1540–1886. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. XXVI. San Francisco: History Company. pp. 562–563. OCLC 4694895 – via Internet Archive.
4. Keenan, Jerry (April 27, 2016). The Terrible Indian Wars of the West: A History from the Whitman Massacre to Wounded Knee, 1846–1890. McFarland Publishing. pp. 379–380. ISBN 978-1-4766-2310-8.
5. Bigler, David L.; Bagley, Will (October 22, 2014). The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-8061-8396-1.
6. MacKinnon, William P. (October 27, 2016). At Sword's Point, Part 1: A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 316. ISBN 978-0-8061-5726-9.
7. Hall, Roger A. (August 16, 2001). Performing the American Frontier, 1870–1906. Cambridge University Press. pp. 93, 228. ISBN 978-0-521-79320-9.
8. Kelly, Charles; Hoffman, Birney (November 22, 2019). Holy Murder: The Story of Porter Rockwell. Pickle Partners Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-83974-043-5.
9. "The Aikens Murder Trial". Salt Lake Tribune. October 15, 1878. p. 2 – via University of Utah. Higher quality image available here.