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Draft:Olive Coombs

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Olive Coombs was an Utah school teacher murdered by Mormon leaders for investigating the Mountain Meadow's Massacre. The book "Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows" provides a look at her quest for justice versus those whose obligation it is to cover up crimes.

Olive Coombs was not so fortunate. A San Bernardino refugee, the widow shared her fellow exiles' interest in the murders. Mormon adventurer Walter Gibson told Brigham Young the massacre was the chief grounds for apostasy in San Bernardino. After her husband died on the road to Utah, Coombs settled in Cedar City with two daughters to teach school. She "acted too interested in this incident, asked too many questions about it. Word went out that she was collecting evidence and planned to publish her findings." A barroom debate accused her of "being a wolf in sheep's cloth-ing, pretending to teach their children while she tried to fasten crimes on their par-ents." George Wood, who had been a militia officer in Cedar City in 1857, went to her house and shot Coombs twice, killing her. The Parowan probate court convicted him of murder and sentenced him to life in prison, but Gov. James Doty pardoned Woods in 1865.33[1]

References

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  1. ^ Bagley, Will (2002). Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3639-4.