Utah/Crime and violence/Castration in the 1800's

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Question

I have read about a group of men (LDS) that went around castrating immoral men (who were also LDS) with the expresspermission of local church leaders. These events supposedly happened during the Brigham Young's administration. It is claimed that Brigham was aware of and approved of this and may have given the order. What can you tell me about this?

Answer

Critics (often relying on D. Michael's Quinn's treatment) have over-simplified and sensationalized this event. Critics claim that Bishop Warren S. Snow forcibly castrated twenty-four-year-old Thomas Lewis, whose “crime” was wanting to marry a young woman that was desired by an older man as a plural wife. Critics also claim that Brigham Young wrote in a letter his approval after the fact in 1857.

The full story gives a somewhat different picture of these events. Warren Snow's biographer explains the matter thusly:

1. These events occurred during the Mormon Reformation, when inflammatory rhetoric called for harsh punishment for sin and crime. For Brigham the time for the actual implementation of such punishment was not yet, and partly hyperbole designed to stir a sinful population to improvement. Some listeners like Snow got confused and took things literally. [See FAIR wiki article:Blood atonement]
2. The rumor that Lewis was being punished for competing against an older polygamist is likely false. Kathryn Daynes gives another example where Brigham Young advised a young woman to marry a single, young man against her parents wishes that she marry a older polygamist. ^{[citation needed]}
3. Even if there is an element of truth in point #2, Lewis was being transported to the penitentiary for a sexual crime. He was not an innocent who was attacked simply for desiring a marriage.
4. While being transported at night, Snow and his gang secretly intercepted Lewis and carried out the castration.
5. Joseph Young (Brigham's brother) of the Presidents of the Seventy later learned about the incident and was incensed and “entirely disapproved” of it.
6. When Brigham Young heard about Lewis' sex crime and the punishment, he reiterated his stance that the time for such measures was still in the future, and not to be implemented in the here-and-now.
7. Brigham did not think Warren Snow did what was right, but felt Warren was “trying to do right” and that he should be sustained in his calling as Bishop.
8. Warren wanted Brigham to write a letter to members in Sanpete county to explain Warren’s action. Brigham declined to do, indicating that that would make matters worse. “Just let the matter drop, and say no more about it and it will soon die away amongst the people,” Brigham counselled.^[1]

Conclusion

The castrated male was guilty of sexual assault. Brigham and other Church leaders did not approve the action.

Critics try to use this as an example of a "tip of the iceberg," problem, implying that many such extra-legal castrations occurred—this event is remarkable because no other such incidents have come to light.

Endnotes

1. [note]  John A. Peterson, "Warren Stone Snow, a man in between : the biography of a Mormon defender," Master's Thesis, BYU (1985) 112–115. off-site