Can forensic science help us with the Joseph Smith photo? A daguerreotype surfaced in 2020 that some believe shows Joseph Smith. On October 9, a new documentary, Brother Joseph Again: Exploring the Visual Image of Joseph Smith Jr., goes to theaters to try to settle it — with people on both sides of the argument, and forensic work that gets into physics, ballistics and 3D modeling.

Joseph Smith Photo?

When the Smith family graves were exhumed in 1928, nobody knew which body was which. Patrick believes the skulls were misidentified, and the evidence is the wound that killed Hyrum. Hyrum was shot in the face. In one skull, the entire facial structure has collapsed, which Patrick says is exactly what happens when a bullet ruptures the small bones of the face and the flesh later decays. The other skull is nearly intact, missing only the upper jaw, and when the team overlaid the wound location, there was solid bone right where Hyrum’s injury should be.

I’ve heard strong opinions on both sides of this. Lachlan Mackay has told me the skulls were mixed up; Curtis Weber once insisted they weren’t. Patrick says Curtis has since said publicly that his 2008 study was flawed, though Curtis hasn’t endorsed Patrick’s conclusions either.

Then there’s the death mask. Patrick lists the problems: cotton stuffed in the nose, the chin tied up, the weight of the plaster, dehydrated eyes, and injuries Joseph received outside Carthage Jail, which eyewitnesses described in letters, journals and trial minutes. (He’s saving those details for the film.)

The most surprising piece of evidence comes from John Taylor, who knew Joseph well and was with him at the martyrdom. Taylor tried to use the death masks to make a true likeness of Joseph and Hyrum and concluded, “We failed.” Once the masks are matched to the skulls and a few millimeters are adjusted, Patrick says, the face begins to look remarkably like the daguerreotype.

Some of my favorite moments came when Patrick described the access his team received. The Church, which now owns the locket, let them film at Carthage Jail and the Mansion House, and the Community of Christ opened its archives, including Joseph’s sword, pocket watch and epaulets. Along the way, Patrick gained a new respect for Sutcliffe Maudsley, long dismissed as a caricature artist, whose work turned out to be surprisingly accurate. Patrick is also candid about the case against him.

John Hajicek, who provided the Maudsley image of Emma wearing a locket, remains a skeptic. We know Emma owned a locket and a daguerreotype of Joseph, both now lost. But between Joseph Smith III and Lois Smith Larsen there is a 110-year gap in which no one seems to mention this locket at all.

So, are the skulls switched? Is the man in the locket Joseph? Patrick has made the most thorough case I’ve seen, and I’m still weighing it. Over these two episodes we’ve gone from Emma’s verdict on the paintings, through provenance and the 1928 camera, to skulls, masks and skeptics. Now it’s your turn to decide. Brother Joseph Again opens in theaters Friday, October 9; Patrick says opening weekend decides how long it stays, so go see it. The companion book from Greg Kofford Books arrives in November.

Listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts. Do you think it is Joseph Smith or someone else? Why? Are you going to see the movie?

Chapters
0:00 Intro
2:26 Smith Larson daguerreotype discovered 2020, published 2022
3:04 Scannell daguerreotype & “What did Joseph look like?”
10:40 2001 Master’s thesis on the succession
12:21 Why it’s called the Smith Larsen daguerreotype
16:21 Why it isn’t Hyrum
20:29 Exhuming the bodies to save them from the Keokuk Dam in 1928
22:28 Rebuilding the skulls in 3D — and finding the 1928 camera
24:19 The forensic artist