Don Verdean, which starred
Sam Rockwell as a phony “Biblical Archaeologist” was “100%” inspired by the Hofmann case. For Measom, a documentary filmmaker whose films include
Sons of Perdition, this project was right up his alley.
“I caught wind that Jared was interested in it as well,” Measom says. “So we had a sushi lunch, and right there at that time, we said, ‘Let’s do it together.’”
The filmmakers wanted to tell the story of
Murder Among the Mormons from the point of view of those who were there. “That was the most important aspect,” Hess says, “being able to interview the people that were there on the day of the bombings, that lived and worked with Mark, in the years before, just explain how they were deceived and they were affected and how their livelihoods were destroyed.”
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Netflix s Murder Among the Mormons co-directors Jared Hess and Tyler Measom were both young six and 14, respectively when a series of Salt Lake City bombings killed several high-profile members of the Mormon church in 1985. The murders drew national attention to the church, which, after a century of being viewed as a sort of outsider religion plagued by 19th-century extermination orders and persecution campaigns, had become and remains one of the fastest-growing denominations in the United States.
The violent nature of the crimes was a juxtaposition against a religious group that is often caricatured for its unrelenting optimism (as David Foster Wallace once wrote, There s always a Mormon around when you don t want one, trying your patience with unsolicited kindness ), and as such, the bombings captured tabloid attention, which quickly gave way to conspiracy theories.