Antimormon Gunman Planned to Massacre Mormons in Their Temple

A federal judge has refused to release a man accused of plotting a shooting rampage at an LDS temple in South Jordan.

Federal prosecutors fought U.S. Magistrate Judge Sam Alba's decision to release Benjamin Speakman to a halfway house, claiming he was a danger to the community. In a ruling handed down late last week, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball agreed.

"Not only did the defendant fantasize about deadly rampages, he amassed a significant arsenal of guns, knives and ammunition with which to carry out those rampages," Kimball wrote. "Defendant sought help before following through with his fantasies, which is fortunate. But he has a recent history of changing his medication dosage and not taking his medications."

Kimball ordered Speakman, 27, back into the custody of U.S. marshals pending his trial next month. He agreed to review his decision if Speakman is medically stabilized prior to trial.

He planned to kill his wife, his mother-in-law and then storm the LDS Church's Jordan River Temple, shooting whoever got in his way as he went to the celestial room — where he planned to kill himself.

Police seized a number of guns from Speakman's car and home, including the shotgun, an AK-47, a 9 mm handgun and more than 200 rounds of ammunition.

Category:

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Tags:

• Antimormon
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• Agains
• Salt
• Lake
• Benjamin
• Speakman
• Shawn
• McCraney
• Follower
• Guns
• Massacre
• LDS
• Jordan
• River
• Temple

[BornAgainstMormons]

1197 Views

[lkidler]

If he had been able to carry out his plans, the church would have to rename the Jordan river Temple, the Columbine Temple! ;-)

I'm grateful he wasn't able to carry out his plans.

[BornAgainstMormons]

@lkidler It would be like when Zechariah was killed behind the temple.

[omiolo]

Those insisting that the Gadianton robbers emerged solely from Joseph Smith's environment have not considered other periods, other environments, as much as they should have. . .

[BornAgainstMormons]

@omiolo We must look at the big picture.

[leSavaii]

This person watched too much of Shawn McCraney's (& others) hates spreading show towards other Christians, especially towards the leaders of the LDS.Church

[omiolo]

The damage included broken glass and numerous pictures that were vandalized. Two exterior glass doors and a window in the church nursery were broken. Fire extinguisher cases were smashed.

What appeared to be water was spilled in the chapel.

Church members didn't have a cost estimate for the damage that occurred overnight Monday.

[omiolo]

That's when Romney rallied the group using a combination of humor and motivational tactics drawn from Napoleon Hill's book "Think and Grow Rich," McBride said. Not only that, but Romney also increased the conversion goal.

By Jan. 1, 1969, the missionaries had turned things around.

[omiolo]

Two forthcoming volumes in the Journals series will feature Joseph

smith's lengthy Nauvoo journals, kept primarily by scribes Willard

Richards and William Clayton. These journals, covering almost every

day of Smith's life from mid-December 1841 to his murder in June

1844, report his activities and discourses as he administered the

affairs of growing church and introduced new religious doctrine

while also serving a city mayor and head of the militia.

[omiolo]

Joseph Smith's second journal includes some of the earliest versions

of his revelations. The final three journals in this volume,

document the origins of the "Mormon War" in Missouri and Joseph

Smith's early efforts to establish a new headquarters for the church

in Commerce (later Nauvoo), Illinois.

[outlander145]

@BornAgainstMormons Then again, I don't know if you have some newsfeed or something saying whether they really married in the temple or not. It's also highly likely they married sometime in Las Vegas. It's also likely they didn't have the kind of cash to go through with that, which in that case is where my knowledge of their whereabouts ends.

[BornAgainstMormons]

@outlander145 I don't think a condominium is a halfway house either, but I don't know for sure. Everything I read said he was in a halfway house for a while.

[BornAgainstMormons]

@lkidler Or the Jordan Temple Massacre.

[BornAgainstMormons]

@majinish Very good point.