[Frank Evans] Richard L. Evans called me by phone, stating that the State Narcotics officer had called his attention to a quantity of opium, an opium pipe, and some other trinkets known by the State to be in the Information Bureau, and requested Richard to give him permission to destroy same. Richard immediately thereafter met an F.B.I. man whom he knows well and asked him for advice on the matter, stating that the stuff has been there “since time immemorial.†The F.B.I. man stated that he was in that department of the service and asked that the stuff be delivered to him for destruction, stating that he could get an order therefor but preferred to do it quietly, he knowing that the church had no intention of violating the law by possessing the opium. I suggested to Richard that he get a little time to consider the matter and to follow some proper procedure so that the matter might be referred to the Church Attorney for investigation and that a report thereof should be made promptly to the First Presidency. Richard called me later, stating that he had made this arrangement with the F.B.I. man, and Attorney Albert R. Bowen was accordingly asked to make the investigation and report early so that the matter could be taken to the First Presidency.
[Source: Frank Evans, Diary]
Note the minor but very understandable error of the diarist in recalling someone's full name. Frank Evans should have stated Albert E. (Ernest) Bowen.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this quantity of opium was "leftover" from James E. Talmage's experiments with the substance from many years previous, as he had recorded in his diaries.
ReplyDeleteOr could this quantity of opium have been seized from Apostle Moses Thatcher who had a terrible addiction to the substance that was well-known by the 1st Presidency and other Apostles?
ReplyDelete