My personal favorite conspiracy theory as regards the authorship of the Book of Mormon, though, was proposed in correspondence to me several years ago. The originator of the theory claimed that the Book was actually written not by Joseph Smith nor any of his identified contemporaries, but by a group whose motivations were completely secret, whose date and location and number were utterly unknown, and who had left no historical traces whatever behind them. He couldn’t identify them, either, whether individually or as a group. So I’ve come to label them the “Illuminati.” (Wikimedia CC; click to enlarge.)
Almost since the beginning, Sidney Rigdon has been a principal suspect among those who don’t want to believe Joseph Smith’s account of the Restoration. He consistently declined the honor:
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