Item Detail
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4707
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4
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0
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English
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Walter Murray Gibson, Great Mormon Rascal
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American West
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Spring 1964
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1
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18-27, 77
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Walter Murray Gibson, an opportunist and impostor of talent and audacity, used the Mormon Church as a vehicle for his own ambitions. Without personal integrity he charmed Brigham Young, embraced the faith, and was given a missionary-at-large commission to convert the natives of the Pacific, especially Japan. As their self-appointed spiritual leader, Gibson improved the physical condition of the natives of Lanai, one of the Sandwich Islands. Though excommunicated in a showdown with the Church, he parlayed himself into Hawaiian politics to cabinet status and the prime ministership. The revolution of 1887, which he triggered, was his downfall. He was rescued from the noose on a technicality by the British consul.