Mountain Meadows massacre
In September 1857, local militia and Indian allies in southern Utah murdered about 120 emigrants who were traveling by wagon to California. The dead included men, women and children, and the perpetrators were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The site was 35 miles southwest of Cedar City.
It wasn’t until 1875 that John D. Lee was tried for his part in the massacre. While an estimated 40 to 50 men participated in the massacre, Lee was the only one to ever go to trial. Although the first trial ended in a mistrial, a second in 1877 found him guilty.
Lee was executed at the site of the massacre. He sat on his coffin to pose for a photo. A Smithsonian article states, “an hour before noon, he shook hands with the men around him, removed his coat and hat and faced the five men of the firing party. ‘Let them shoot the balls through my heart!’ Lee shouted. ‘Don’t let them mangle my body!’
“On U.S. Marshal William Nelson’s command, shots rang out in the ravine where so many shots had rung out 20 years before, and Lee fell back onto his coffin, dead.”
