In September 1857, a party of emigrants camped beside a spring on a flat pasture in Utah, known as Mountain Meadows. Within days of their arrival, their wagon train – which included about 140 men, women and children – was attacked. Within a week, all except seventeen of the youngest children were dead. Those killed were unarmed and each of the men had been struck down simultaneously, not by the Indians present, but by a Mormon militiaman whose leader had, moments earlier, agreed to protect the emigrants from harm.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre took place on 11 September 1857. Until the Oklahoma bombing in 1995, it was the largest mass murder of United States citizens; even after ‘9/11’ 2001, it remains the third largest.

All Who Can Tell presents a concise, chronological account of the massacre, based on the most illuminating eyewitness accounts. It also views the world as a whole, in order to expose the strong, underlying cause of the massacre.

The story is one of conflict, courage and controversy. The conflict is over; the courageous lie silent beneath the meadowland; but the controversy has yet to be resolved.