In the mid-1980s, as investigators scrambled to make sense of a string of explosives delivered across the United States by the Unabomber, a series of parcel bombs exploded in Salt Lake City, killing two people and injuring two more. The crime was not the work of Ted Kaczynski, but of one of the injured bomb victims, Mark Hoffman. Hoffman's scandalous story is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, "Murder Among the Mormons," which devotes three episodes to exploring how Hoffman, acclaimed collector of rare Mormon Church documents, became a murder bomber and criminal fraudster. To summarize

: Hoffman, raised in a strict Mormon family, became disillusioned with the religion and began using the forgery skills he had developed in his youth to produce documents that seemed to reveal previously unknown information about the formation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After successfully deceiving church leaders and historians, Hoffman increased his work and branched out into creating forged documents outside the authority of the church. Despite his success, however, Hoffman soon found himself heavily in debt and unable to deliver some of the rare documents he had promised to various buyers. Not surprisingly, he was unable to deliver some of the rare documents he had promised to various buyers.

When one of the bombs exploded in Hoffman's car and eyewitness accounts began pointing to Hoffman, all his plans began to fall apart. What happened to Hoffman and where is he now? [Because the first two bombs had been sent to a well-known rare document collector and Hoffman was far less visible, the bomb in Hoffman's car immediately seemed suspicious to investigators. However, it took several months before investigators actually traced the October 1985 bombing to Hoffman. He was arrested in January 1986, after a huge web of fraud and forgery had finally been unraveled (opens in new tab).

The most damning evidence included the discovery of the woodblocks that Hoffman used to produce the original "Freeman's Oath," which was allegedly first printed in the United States in the 1630s, and an analysis by noted forensic examiner George Throckmorton of several documents that Hoffman had sold. He found that the documents were written in a different ink than the period in which they were claimed.

Due largely to this and other discoveries by Throckmorton, Hoffman was arrested in early 1986 and charged with 27 counts, including first-degree murder, bomb manufacture and delivery, and various forms of fraud.

Side note: Despite these discoveries, not all of Hoffman's forgeries were immediately recovered and debunked. This is because they had been bought and sold through a vast network of collectors and buyers for several years. For example, it was not until 12 years after the bombing that Emily Dickinson's poem (opens in new tab) was revealed to be an original by Hoffman.

In a controversial move by the prosecution, no trial actually took place. In January 1987, a year after his arrest, Hoffman was offered a plea deal to plead guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of theft by deception, thus avoiding a trial in which he could have faced the death penalty. Instead, the then 32-year-old was sentenced to five years to life in prison, and the judge recommended that he not be released, the Associated Press (opens in new tab) reported at the time.

On the same day of the plea and sentencing, he was taken to the maximum security Utah State Prison in Draper, after which a "letter of remorse" he had written was reportedly delivered to the victims' families. Many of the families were not convinced: "I don't think he was remorseful. I think he wrote the letter to appease his parents," Jean Gorton, sister of bombing victim Kathleen Sheets, told the Associated Press.

A year after his sentencing, Hoffman wrote a letter (open in new tab) to the Utah State Board of Pardons and Paroles, detailing his childhood obsession with forgery, his claim that planting the bomb prevented him from being exposed as a fraudster, and that the bomb found in the car was actually intended for himself, not an unknown third victim. He detailed his claims that the bomb found in his car was actually meant for himself, not an unknown third victim. He also testified in person before the parole board, after which the board reportedly promptly ordered him to spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole.

Hoffman was subsequently excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in August 1988 his wife, Drury, filed for divorce (opens in new tab). More recently, after nearly 30 years in prison, Hoffman was moved from maximum security to a low security cell at the state prison in Gunnison, Utah, in late 2015 (opens in new tab). The move reportedly represented a decision by authorities that Hoffman was no longer a danger to himself or those around him, allowing him more time for recreation and more contact with other inmates.