Romney will not be in line for this film
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney won’t be in the audience when “September Dawn,” a movie about the killing of 120 unarmed Arkansas pioneers by Mormon settlers in Utah in 1857, opens in many theaters Friday.
Romney, a Mormon whose ancestors include Parley Pratt, a prominent Mormon murdered in Arkansas several months before the Sept. 11, 1857, massacre at Mountain Meadows, said, “No,” when asked during an interview Wednesday whether he’d see the film.
“That was a terrible, awful act carried out by members of my faith,” the former governor of Massachusetts added. “There are bad people in any church, and it’s true of members of my church too.”
Romney noted that one man, John D. Lee, was executed for his role in the execution-style killings of men, women and children in a wagon train bound for California. He also rejected the claim by some that Brigham Young, then the president of the Mormon church, shared direct responsibility for the attack.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
