Mark hofmann's 'oath of a freeman' for sale at auction

[smac97]

Here:

Quote

One of the most notorious forgeries in U.S history, The Oath of a Freeman, is heading for sale at Heritage Auctions.

The famously fake document will be offered in Dallas next month, complete with an incredible backstory of deception, murder and mayhem.

The ‘Oath’, dated circa 1638, was a pledge of loyalty taken by new members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The small single-page broadside was said to be the oldest English document ever printed in North America.

No original copies were known to survive, until one was discovered between the pages of a rare volume in a New York bookshop in 1985.

Countless experts examined the document and proclaimed it genuine. It was valued at $1.5 million, and even attracted interest from the Library of Congress.

But it was actually the work of Mark Hoffman – a master forger-turned murderer, and the subject of the recent Netflix true crime series Murder Amongst the Mormons.

Although The Oath of a Freeman is a fake, it’s a historic fake with an incredible story attached. And it’s expected to sell for upwards of $10,000 when it hits the block on June 10.

Here's the actual posting of the auction item.

A YouTube video about it:

Per the video, the item is being offered up for auction by Justin Schiller.  Per this article (which goes into substantially more detail than the above links), the sale has been authorized by court order.

Thanks,

-Smac

[Jamie]

Too many occurrences of the letter f.   Trying to understand what he meant reminded me of this guy:

 

[JLHPROF]

1 hour ago, smac97 said:

Here:

Here's the actual posting of the auction item.

A YouTube video about it:

Per the video, the item is being offered up for auction by Justin Schiller.  Per this article (which goes into substantially more detail than the above links), the sale has been authorized by court order.

Thanks,

-Smac

Imagine if this famous fake fetched anywhere close to the amount Hoffman was hoping to get when it was considered genuine.

[CV75]

1 hour ago, Jamie said:

Too many occurrences of the letter f.   Trying to understand what he meant reminded me of this guy:

Kind of like a Richard Pryor stand-up routine?

What is a SREEMAN, anyway?

[InCognitus]

1 hour ago, smac97 said:

Per the video, the item is being offered up for auction by Justin Schiller.  Per this article (which goes into substantially more detail than the above links), the sale has been authorized by court order.

So how do we know that document is the original forgery, and not a fake?

[JLHPROF]

50 minutes ago, InCognitus said:

So how do we know that document is the original forgery, and not a fake?

They compared it to the real one...

[JAHS]

2 hours ago, Jamie said:

Too many occurrences of the letter f.   Trying to understand what he meant reminded me of this guy:

 

I am sure you figured out how they wrote the letter "S" in those days if it was at the beginning of a word.

[ksfisher]

3 hours ago, Jamie said:

Too many occurrences of the letter f.   Trying to understand what he meant reminded me of this guy:

 

It's a long S.  It was in style at the time to use a long S in place of a small s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

[Jamie]

17 minutes ago, ksfisher said:

It's a long S.  It was in style at the time to use a long S in place of a small s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

In ftyle then, huh.  What if fome people wanted to revive that tradition?  Who or what would ftop them?  Afide from not having that character on a keyboard?  I fuppofe we could juft refort to ufing the letter f to come af clofe to it af we could.

[katherine the great]

I hope some of the proceeds go to his poor ex-wife.

[JustAnAustralian]

2 hours ago, Jamie said:

In ftyle then, huh.  What if fome people wanted to revive that tradition?  Who or what would ftop them?  Afide from not having that character on a keyboard?  I fuppofe we could juft refort to ufing the letter f to come af clofe to it af we could.

 

[JustAnAustralian]

5 hours ago, smac97 said:

Per the video, the item is being offered up for auction by Justin Schiller.  Per this article (which goes into substantially more detail than the above links), the sale has been authorized by court order.

This is interesting. It goes back to part of a thread on MDDB a while ago where we were wondering a genuine Hofmann forgery would itself be valuable because it's a Hofmann forgery.

[InCognitus]

There could be a nice profit for these items, especially when the more famous ones are going for $10,000.

•   scamazon

Original Mark Hofmann Salamander Letter   

Author:  Mark Hofmann      Kindle Version:  (Not available) 

Publisher:   Central Utah Correctional Facility, Gunnison, UT.

Condition:  Original cracked ink and authentic stolen old paper, aged to perfection.

On Sale!   Only $9,899!     (5 in Stock)

Edited May 27, 2021 by InCognitus

[Kenngo1969]

11 minutes ago, InCognitus said:

There could be a nice profit for these items, especially when the more famous ones are going for $10,000.

Original Mark Hofmann Salamander Letter   

Author:  Mark Hofmann      Kindle Version:  (Not available) 

Publisher:   Central Utah Correctional Facility, Gunnison, UT.

Condition:  Original cracked ink and authentic stolen old paper, aged to perfection.

On Sale!   Only $9,899!     (5 in Stock)

 

[JustAnAustralian]

2 hours ago, InCognitus said:

There could be a nice profit for these items,

Looks a bit big. Maybe if there were a smaller version.

[Bernard Gui]

11 hours ago, smac97 said:

Here:

Here's the actual posting of the auction item.

A YouTube video about it:

Per the video, the item is being offered up for auction by Justin Schiller.  Per this article (which goes into substantially more detail than the above links), the sale has been authorized by court order.

Thanks,

-Smac

I'll open the bidding.....$.01.

[Robert F. Smith]

22 hours ago, Jamie said:

Too many occurrences of the letter f.   Trying to understand what he meant reminded me of this guy:

................................

Actually, although they seem to be one letter, they are distinguishable.  The old F has a crossbar, the old S does not.

[Robert F. Smith]

14 hours ago, InCognitus said:

..........................................

Author:  Mark Hofmann      ..............

Publisher:   Central Utah Correctional Facility, Gunnison, UT......................

By the way, when does Mark next come up for a parole hearing?

[Jamie]

19 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Actually, although they seem to be one letter, they are distinguishable.  The old F has a crossbar, the old S does not.

Good point.  I called the long s a letter f because I didn't recognize or associate it as a letter s and it looked a lot like an f to me.  I had never even heard of a long s, or a short s.  I had only heard of capital and lower case letters before this.

[longview]

1 hour ago, Robert F. Smith said:

By the way, when does Mark next come up for a parole hearing?

He killed two people.  He deserves life imprisonment.  But on the other hand, he ought to be released while his brain is still lucid so he can be grilled for his attempts to defame the church.

[Robert F. Smith]

5 hours ago, longview said:

He killed two people.  He deserves life imprisonment.  But on the other hand, he ought to be released while his brain is still lucid so he can be grilled for his attempts to defame the church.

He was sentenced to life, but with the possibility of parole.  I don't know how the Parole Board feels.  His plea bargain was conditional on his making a clean breast of all his forgeries, but he did not keep his side of the agreement, terminating his prosecutor interviews before he had finished his lengthy confessions.  For that reason alone, I think that he should remain in prison until he dies.

[Calm]

17 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

don't know how the Parole Board feels. 

Didn’t he try to take out hits on the parole board?

I don’t expect him to get out unless he is very old and deemed incapable of doing much more than get dressed by himself.

He is not in maximum anymore.

https://www.deseret.com/2016/9/19/20596479/mark-hofmann-moved-out-of-maximum-security-after-28-years#mark-hofmann-conferring-with-attorney-ron-yengich-in-1987

If he is 65 now, I can see him getting out in ten years assuming no illnesses.  Edited:  No, make that at least 15 as I keep forgetting 70s are the new 60s these days.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Calm

[InCognitus]

2 minutes ago, Calm said:

Didn’t he try to take out hits on the parole board?

I don’t expect him to get out unless he is very old and deemed incapable of doing much more than get dressed by himself.

I think he's still dangerous as long as he can hold a pen and sign Martin Harris's name. I wouldn't trust him for anything.

[Calm]

6 minutes ago, InCognitus said:

I think he's still dangerous as long as he can hold a pen and sign Martin Harris's name. I wouldn't trust him for anything.

He damaged his dominant arm when he tried to kill himself once.  Can’t hold a pen anymore iirc.  Definitely lost fine motor skills.  
 

I will be surprised if they let him out, but other killers have gotten parole in surprising cases IMO.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Calm

[Robert F. Smith]

6 hours ago, InCognitus said:

I think he's still dangerous as long as he can hold a pen and sign Martin Harris's name. I wouldn't trust him for anything.

He is highly respected by his fellow inmates for (1) his forgeries, and (2) embarrassing the LDS Church.  He also managed to pass a polygraph test (lie detector) by an expert at the Univ of Utah -- the expert was certain he was innocent.