In writing of the 116 pages in Mormonism—Some Curious Facts, The Signs of the Times, Mormon Delusions and Monstrosities (1842) John Nathaniel Townsend Tucker (pen name J. N. Tucker) wrote, “The Prophet Joseph is warned that the 116 pages of manuscript stolen from Martin Harris were changed by those into whose hands they had fallen, with the intention to make them conflict with the reproduction of them, should the Prophet again translate that part of the work.”[1]
This is significant for by age seventeen, J. N. Tucker was hired as a “practical printer” by his cousin Pomeroy Tucker, foreman of the Book of Mormon printing. In a May 23, 1842 letter written from Gorton, Connecticut, J. N. Tucker wrote in Signs of the Times, Mormon Delusions and Monstrosities (1842) of a hoax played on Martin Harris in the printing process of the Book of Mormon:
I was a practical printer and engaged in the office where it was printed, and became familiar with the men and their principles, through whose agency it was “got up.” . . . We had heard much said by Martin Harris, the man who paid for the printing, and the only one in the concern worth any property, about the wonderful wisdom of the translators of the mysterious plates, and resolved to test their wisdom.
Accordingly, after putting one sheet in type, we laid it aside, and told Martin Harris it was lost, and there would be serious defection in the book in consequence, unless another sheet like the original could be produced. The announcement threw the old gentleman into quite an excitement. But after a few moments’ reflection, he said he would try to obtain another. After two or three weeks, another sheet was produced, but no more like the original than any other sheet of paper would have been, written over by a common schoolboy, after having read, as they did, the manuscript preceding and succeeding the lost sheet.
As might be expected, the disclosure of the plan greatly annoyed the authors, and caused no little merriment among those who were acquainted with the circumstances. As we were none of us Christians, and only labored for the ‘gold that perisheth,’ we did not care for the delusion, only so far as to be careful to avoid it ourselves, and enjoy the hoax. Not one of the hands in the office where the wonderful book was printed ever became a convert to the system, although the writer of this was often assured by Martin Harris, if he did not he would be destroyed in 1832.
Yours in the gospel of Christ,
J. N. Tucker
Gorton, May 23, 1842
There is too much similarity in this hoax to brush it aside. In the “lost page hoax,” there are elements of humor and malicious deception. The hoax was to trick Martin Harris into believing a page of the Book of Mormon text was missing. It was a deliberate plan to pass off a falsehood to deceive Martin. The hoax revealed that J. N. Tucker was privy to the account of the missing 116 pages and to the pages being altered. Notice in this deception, it goes beyond the mere playful to cause discomfort and emotional harm to Martin.
When typesetter John H. Gilbert was asked about J. N. Tucker, he said that J. N. Tucker “did not work in the office at the time the alleged incident was to have occurred.” According to Gilbert: “Tucker went to Groton, CT, got married, became a preacher—Baptist I believe—committed some crime—was tried and acquitted on the plea of insanity—he was a ‘bad egg.’” (When Church Historic Sites was refurbishing the Grandin Building, Susan Black wrote for them the history of the Grandin Building and press, etc. Historic Sites gave me a list of men who worked on the press when the Book of Mormon was being published. Among those named was J. N. Tucker.)
A Story to Tarnish the Character of Martin Harris
In a June 8, 1842 letter J. N. Tucker wrote of Lucy Harris being deaf and of Martin Harris being willing to heal her of the affliction if she paid him $1,500. The story was reprinted in John C. Bennett’s The History of the Saints; or, An Expose of Joseph Smith and Mormonism (1842):
Mrs. Harris, the wife of Martin Harris, was so [upset] with the monstrous wickedness and folly of her husband, and the trio who were engaged with him, that she would not follow him nor live with him. His conduct was not such as a man of God would have been. After he had been absent about two years, and frequent reports of his having power to heal the sick, &C. had reached his neighborhood, he returned and assured his wife that he could cure her of deafness with which she was afflicted.
But as a condition of so doing, required her to put into his hands about $1,500 of money which she had managed to secure out of the sale of his property which he sold on joining the “latter day saints” colony. She assured him he should have every dollar as soon as her hearing was restored. But he very wisely replied, he could “have no evidence of her faith until she put the cash down”—so of course she remained deaf, and Martin went back to the “promised land” with pockets as light as when he came.[2]
This story lacks the element of a hoax. It is an attempt by J. N. Tucker to show that Martin Harris still was a follower of Joseph Smith after a two year absence from Palmyra. The story reveals Martin continued to believe in miracles and was greedy. This is illustrated by his refusal to heal his wife unless she financially reimbursed him. Anyway the story is read, the character of Martin Harris can’t be redeemed.
In researching J. N. Tucker, we found one of the most talented yet despicable suspects in our search for the 116 pages. We also found that although later he was addicted to brandy and opium and committed to an insane asylum, when he wrote the hoax about a missing page and the story to tarnish Martin’s character, he was sane and respected in literary and ecclesiastical circles.
The Whereabouts of John Tucker—Preacher and Newspaper Man
J. N. Tucker moved from Palmyra to Groton, Connecticut, just like John H. Gilbert said, but not immediately. After the printing of the Book of Mormon, J. N. Tucker worked in a printing office at Lyons, New York and served the village of Lyons as an assistant clerk. In that quaint village, he was converted to the Congregational faith. His brother-in-law Reverend Herman J. Eddy testified that as a Congregationalist, J. N. Tucker was “engaged in prayer I noticed him on his knees with his eyes to the ceiling talking to God as if he was His equal.”
When becoming disaffected with the Congregationalists, J. N. Tucker joined the Baptists and was ordained to the ministry. His reason for turning to the Baptists was, “The Baptists needed a reform, and he intended to reform them.” The Baptist Register of Utica, New York frequently posted poems and other articles from his pen. When the Baptists proved unwilling to accept his reformation ideas, J. N. Tucker abandoned the faith and became a disciple of “Unionists,” a conspicuous sect that accepted politician and philanthropist Gerrit Smith as their patron saint. At this point, J. N. Tucker had become addicted to brandy and opium.
By 1843, he had moved to Syracuse, New York and entered a partnership with James Kinney to print the Democratic Freeman, a weekly abolitionist newspaper. In Syracuse, he was a much sought for lecturer by the Masonic and Odd Fellows.[3]
By summer of 1847, J. N. Tucker had relinquished his post in the editorial field and turned to politics.[4] He ran as an Independent for the New York Assembly in fall of 1847.[5] He lost the election, but that was not the end of his political ambition. On January 1, 1848, he was appointed an assistant clerk of the New York Senate in Albany.[6]
In Albany, J. N. Tucker made the acquaintance of Reverend Jabez Swan, a prominent revivalist. J. N. Tucker was reconverted and restored to his lost privileges in the Baptist Church. He became a preacher to the “colored” Baptist Society in Albany until being rotated out of the Senate clerkship.[7]
In 1851, J. N. Tucker was sent by Baptist Ministries to Vincent, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, during his two years in Vincent, he again picked up the habits of drinking and using opium. The habits enslaved him and brought him into reproach with the Baptist Church. It was reported, “He left the town with a disgust for it that was heartily reciprocated.”[8]
J. N. Tucker was next assigned to be the reverend of the Baptist Church in Madison County, New York. In Madison, he lost his Christian standing due to his addictions. He moved onto Brooklyn, where he was hired as an editor for Brooklyn Daily Freeman.[9]
John Tucker murdered his Three Year Old Son
By 1854, J. N. Tucker held the belief that he was an object of hatred by the Irish Roman Catholics. He believed the Irish of Brooklyn, led by their priests, were plotting to kill him and that soon he would be a martyr.[10] As further evidence of an unsound mind, on August 2, 1854, J. N. Tucker killed his three year old son Vincent Tucker—
A child was killed by its father in Brooklyn. This last murder was committed by J. N. T. Tucker, editor of the Brooklyn Daily Freeman, and the victim was his youngest, child—a bright, lovely boy of three years. Tucker had previously purchased brandy as cholera medicine of an apothecary, went home and locked the door. A young child, three years of age, was lying in a small bed in the room asleep at the time; he drank the brandy just purchased, threw the vial out of the window, opened a drawer and took out a razor, with which he went to the bed where the child lay; he took the child in his arms, and, taking a seat on the floor, opened the razor and deliberately cut the child’s throat, nearly severing the head from the body! Mrs. Tucker rushed to the rescue of her child, when this fiend knocked or forced her down to the floor, and made live distinct cuts on her face and neck with the razor, one about five inches in length, across the left side of her face and neck, extending from the mouth to the vertebra; one cut parallel above on the neck, another below in the same position, one cut across the throat, and another perpendicularly down the chin. These cuts, with the exception of the first named, are from two to three inches in length. She is not considered seriously injured. Her escape from instant death seems almost a miracle. In her struggles to escape from his grasp, (he having one hand on her throat all the time,) Mrs. Tucker was thrown in different parts of the room. The neighbors secured Tucker. The wounds of Mrs. Tucker are supposed not to be dangerous.[11]
If wanting more details of the murder, it was further reported—
Between nine and ten o’clock in the evening of Wednesday, August 2, 1854, loud and alarming cries were heard issuing from the apartment occupied by Mr. Tucker and family, at No. 403 Atlantic street [in Brooklyn], and before midnight the awful truth was known throughout the entire vicinity, that a pretty, bright, innocent little boy of four years had had his throat cut by his maniac father, and it was then believed that the wife and mother lay dying from the ghastly wounds received by the same destroying hand. The next morning the city was convulsed with excitement over this horrid butchery. The facts elicited before the coroner and at the subsequent trial of Tucker, were substantially as follows:
On the previous Sunday, Tucker had borrowed a pistol of Mr. Denise, alleging that he was going to a public meeting, and in case he was attacked could defend himself. It was loaded with buckshot. He had not returned the weapon. After tea on the fatal Wednesday evening he invited his wife to walk with him, giving as a reason that he was afraid to walk the streets alone. She consented, and every Irishman they met he cursed in an undertone, yet loud enough to be heard by several persons. His wife remonstrated. She told him that if he did not stop swearing at the people she would not walk with him. He then drew the pistol from his pocket. She screamed and ran from him. The demon then took possession of him. His own wife he believed to be in league with the Irish. She ran to their residence and locked herself in one of the rooms. Tucker then went to the drug store of Horman Camp, No. 470 Atlantic Street. Approaching Mr. Camp excitedly he said: “You give me some cholera medicine d—d quick; I have an awful case of cholera in my family.” Mr. Camp asked him what he would have. He replied: “The best brandy you have got. My name is Dr. Tucker. Hurry up your stumps and give it to me as quick as h—l.” From Mr. Camp’s testimony at the trial it appears that Mr. Tucker had called at the store on previous occasions, and had taken the whim to claim the title of physician.
Visiting Demise’s apartments Demise asked him for the pistol. He said it was upstairs, and then went for it and returned it. Tucker then went back to his rooms, and soon after Mr. Demise heard cries from one of the children. Presently they were repeated in an alarming manner, with shouts of “Murder! Murder!” Accompanied by Cornelius Myers and a Mr. Henderson, boarders in the house, Demise hurried upstairs. They found the door bolted and burst it open. A most shocking spectacle was presented. The body of the handsome little boy Vincent, aged four years, was lifeless upon the floor.
The father had taken his child from the bed where he lay sleeping, as if to fondle him, and seizing a razor from the drawer in the room had cut the boy’s throat, nearly severing the head from the body. His wife entered the apartment at the moment this was accomplished, and her blood was chilled with horror at the appalling sight. The madman was still cutting at the child’s neck as if it were a log, his dark eyes gleaming with demoniac satisfaction. Another child, a girl of 12 years, escaped from the room. He then made a wild attack upon his wife, attempting to cut her throat. She struggled with him, and had yielded in exhaustion and sickening despair to his savage fury when the door was burst open. She lay upon the floor at a little distance from her dead boy, with a severe cut extending from her mouth along the cheek to the back of her neck, two lesser cuts behind the ears, another across the throat, and another severing the flesh on the chin from her lip to her throat. Fortunately, no arteries were cut, and with careful nursing she ultimately recovered. Tucker made a desperate but brief fight against the three men but was soon overpowered. The room was in great disorder, and the floor slippery with the warm life blood.
The alarm had by this time aroused the neighborhood. In custody of Officer Carroll, of the Third District Police, Tucker was immediately conveyed to the Station House, then situated in Butler Street, near Court, and now occupied by Justice Delmar as a Court Room.
When an Eagle reporter visited Tucker in his cell the next day, the prisoner said he was “intoxicated last night and got into a scrape, he could not say what.” He complained of ill health.
From Mrs. Tucker’s statements it appeared that her husband was jealous of her, and that on every night since the Sunday previous he had indulged in the frightful freak of sitting by her with a pistol in his hand, threatening to shoot her if she moved.
Committed to Jail
On Friday, August 4, 1854, J. N. Tucker was taken to jail in Brooklyn. A reporter from the Evening Post called at the jail to see him. The reporter was initially denied admission. The jailor said that J. N. Tucker was in “an awful frame of mind” and could not see any person, and that even the Reverend Mr. Eddy, a brother-in-law of the prisoner, had been denied admission. The reporter was persistent and gained admission. He wrote of his interview—
Reporter—I have come to see how you are this morning.
Prisoner—I am glad to see somebody, but I cannot be allowed to see any person.
Reporter (observing that the prisoner had a terrible black eye and confusions on his face, and that his shirt front was covered with blood)—How did you get your face bruised so badly?
Prisoner—I don’t know, indeed; I must have been in a disturbance somewhere. (Rather excited.) What am I brought here for, do you know? I cannot imagine. I have been told that I have killed my wife and child— (speaking earnestly)—do tell me, are they alive?
Reporter—I know nothing about it, except that your child has been cut by some person. Your wife I know for certain is not dead.
Prisoner (becoming cheerful)—Thank God! When did you see her?
Reporter—Yesterday, but . . .
Prisoner (somewhat confused and twisting his shirt about)—Well, you see my finger is cut and must have bled; also my face (feeling the wounds there).
Reporter—Have you and your wife had any serious family quarrels together?
Prisoner—I don’t wish to say anything about that.
Reporter—How often have you been married?
Prisoner (very coolly)—Three times.
Reporter—Did you have any children by your first wife?
Prisoner—No.
Reporter—How many have you living?
Prisoner—Six; four by my second wife, and two by my present.
The reporter described J. N. Tucker as being five feet eight inches in height, having a dark complexion, hazel eyes, black short hair, and a stout physique. He penned of his nervous temperament. His age was forty-two.
His Trial and Escape
J. N. Tucker remained in jail until his trial on December 6, 1854 in the Court of Oyer and Terminer before Judge Strong. His defense attorney sought to prove his insanity. Witnesses, who testified against him, were from localities where he had formerly lived. Others, who had known him from boyhood, testified to his unaccountable peculiarities of mind. On December 12, 1854, Judge Strong charged the gentlemen of the jury to determine a verdict. Two days later, the jury reported seven for conviction and five for acquittal.
J. N. Tucker was remanded to jail. On January 22, 1855, he was brought before Judge Moore. His attorney A. K. Hadley urged his discharge on the ground of insanity. Doctors from the Insane Asylum at Utica, New York testified to his insanity. The judge agreed and J. N. Tucker was conveyed to the Insane Asylum at Utica.
On May 4, 1855, an article posted in the New York Times titled “Gone to the Asylum” reported that J. N. Tucker “has greatly improved since he came here. He has considerable talent as a writer, and is a very useful contributor to the Opal, a monthly periodical we print here, edited and written by the patients in the Asylum.”[12]
Escaped from the Insane Asylum at Utica, New York
On July 20, 1855, J. N. Tucker escaped from the Insane Asylum at Utica. Under an assumed name “Sherman,” he went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he found employment as a printer.
Little is known of his life for the next twelve or fourteen years, except that he sank under the weight of his habits to poverty and degradation. As he neared the end of his life, J. N. Tucker was seen wandering the streets of Toledo, Ohio. Being refused admission to a low dwelling, he crawled into the cellar of a warehouse. He was later found dead.
[1] Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:525.
[2] J. N. Tucker, “Mormonism—Some Curious Facts,” The Signs of the Times [Boston], June 8, 1842, pp. 79–80; Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 3:36.
[3] “The Tucker Tragedy of 1854,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 18, 1854.
[4] Onondaga Standard, September 8, 1847.
[5] Onondaga Historical Association; Onondaga Standard, October 10, 1847.
[6] Onondaga Historical Association.
[7] “The Tucker Tragedy of 1854,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 18, 1854.
[8] “The Tucker Tragedy of 1854,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 18, 1854.
[9] “The Tucker Tragedy of 1854,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 18, 1854.
[10] “The Tucker Tragedy of 1854,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 18, 1854.
[11] “J. N. T. Tucker,” The Buffalo Daily Republic [Buffalo, NY], July 14, 1855; “J. N. T.,” Daily American Organ [Washington DC], February 26, 1855; “Rum’s Doings,” Vermont Watchman and State Journal [Montpelier, VT], August 11, 1854; “J. N. T. Tucker,” The Buffalo Commercial [Buffalo, NY], May 7, 1855.
[12] New York Times, May 24, 1854.