In this solo bonus episode, Hannah takes a deeper look at a case first raised in the Missionary Culture episode — the 1977 murder of Elder James E. Christensen by his missionary companion while serving in the Louisville, Kentucky mission under mission president Reed Benson, son of LDS Church president Ezra Taft Benson.
James Christensen was a kind, earnest young man from Moroni, Utah, who had suffered permanent neurological damage after a catastrophic car-train collision as a teenager. Despite this, he was determined to serve a mission. He was paired with a companion who subjected him to weeks of escalating physical abuse, culminating in James being forced into a scalding bathtub. He died on January 2nd, 1977, at the age of 24.
His killer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter — and served not one day in prison.
Hannah draws on Steve Benson's posts on the Recovery from Mormonism message board, correspondence from James's relative Angela Voss, and testimony from Reed Smith, who served as mission assistant to Reed Benson at the time. Together they paint a picture of institutional failure, victim-blaming, and a church culture that prioritized its own reputation over justice for James and his family.
Content warning: physical abuse, murder, institutional cover-up