The King of Confidence

In 1843, James Strang vanished from a rural town in New York. Months later he reappeared on the Midwestern frontier and converted to Mormonism. In the wake of the murder of the sect's leader, Joseph Smith, Strang unveiled a letter purportedly from the prophet naming him successor, and persuaded hundreds of fellow converts to follow him to an island in Lake Michigan, where he declared himself a divine king