On October 27, 1938, the Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs, issued Executive Order 44, one of the most astonishing documents in the history of religious freedom in America. It declared,  “the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary.” Yes, the Governor of Missouri ordered the extermination of all Mormons.   The image above depicts what happened a few days later. About 250 vigilantes attacked a Mormon community called Hauns Mill and massacred 17 people. A nine-year-old boy, Sardius Smith, was still alive, having crawled under the bellows for protection. He pleaded for his life. One soldier put his gun to the boy’s head and, according to an eyewitness, “literally blew off the upper part of it, leaving the skull empty and dry while the brains and hair of the murdered boy were scattered around and on the walls.” When one of the other militia men suggested that his actions were excessive, the gunman replied, “Nits make lice.”  

Source: nineteenth-century painting by C. C. A. Christensen