Mormons and Crime (Steve Mayfield)

Gospel Tangents Podcast

We're going to be discussing Mormons and crime. Steve Mayfield passed away on March 30, 2024. This interview is from 2018 where we discussed his collection of Mormon crime, both good guys and bad guys. For example, did you know that it was a Mormon FBI agent who arrested Patty Hearst following her participation of a bank robbery? We'll also discuss one of the most notorious spies in U.S, history, Robert Hanssen. Hanssen was also a Mormon FBI agent who passed secrets to the Russians. Of course, Steve also has a collection on the Mark Hofmann case, and we'll discuss his work with George Throckmorton who discovered how Mark Hofmann was forging documents. The "Dead Lee Scroll" is also a forgery we'll discuss, that hasn't been definitively tied to Hofmann. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/JzCO6LI5lXg transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Mormon Connection to Patty Hearst Kidnapping Introduction I’d like to introduce Steve Mayfield. We’ll talk about Mormon involvement in the Patty Hearst kidnapping case. Did you know that it was a Mormon FBI agent that arrested Patty? Check out our conversation… GT: 00:01:01 Welcome to Gospel Tangents. Steve: 00:01:03 Thank You. GT: 00:01:04 I'm excited to have Steve Mayfield here. He is a documentation collector and we're going to talk a little bit about Mark Hofmann. We're going to talk a little bit about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. We're going to talk a little bit about the FBI and Mormons. Steve: 00:01:31 Yes. GT: 00:01:32 Which I think will be a lot of fun. So, Steve has some amazing stories and so why don't you get us a little bit about your background? Steve: 00:01:36 Okay. GT: 00:01:37 How did you get involved in collecting? Steve: 00:01:39 Oh, gee. Well, I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. For those interested in genealogy, I'm a seventh generation Latter-day Saint. So, my family history goes all the way back to Ohio in one family line and Nauvoo. And I've always had an interest in history. When I was in high school, my desire was to be a history teacher specifically, maybe teach seminary or institute. But when I was a senior in high school, this was way back in 1974. Most people weren't even around. We had one of these field trips to San Francisco and it included Golden Gate Park, the Chinese Tea Garden, an unofficial trip to the Haight-Ashbury, for those who remember that area, and also tour the FBI office. And I just fell in love with what people in the FBI did, all that work that I wanted to become the next was Efrem Zimbalist Jr, who happened to be the star of the TV show FBI back during the '60s. After I graduated from high school, I served my mission in Colorado-Nebraska. And in late 1972 I was assigned to way out east to Grand Island, Nebraska, which is kind of hard for person used to mountains when it's all flatland and wintery. One of the members of the local LDS district presidency out there was also the local FBI agent. So, we had a number of conversations. I indicated my interest in working with the FBI. And so, he suggested, well, get hired on as a clerk or clerical position with the bureau and then get a college degree and then you might become an agent. So, we put the paperwork in. I came home in February of '73 and then by July I had received my appointment to work as a file clerk in San Francisco. Steve: 00:03:27 I was there for four years. Of course, all this time I'm worried. I love history, but yet I'm in law enforcement. How can I intermingle? Well, my whole working career has been in law enforcement, but I seem to have come across historical occurrences in each of the agencies I worked for. When I was at the FBI, I was there during the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.