One of the elders at Council Bluffs, in a dispute over some trifling matter, warned one of the brethren not to cross a certain boundary-line in his field or garden. He braved the threat, and the other shot him dead. The murderer offered to expiate his crime, but for years no one was found willing to "help him," and he lived on miserably under the influence and teaching of the "blood atonement." He seemed to be unhappy when living with the Saints, and was equally so when among the Gentiles; he finally returned to Zion, and engaged in business in Salt Lake City. One evening he was walking quietly home, the firing of a pistol was heard, and the dead body of a man was soon after picked up. A report was circulated that John G. . . . n had committed suicide. But another, and probably more correct account, was believed by those who knew of his "sin unto death."

Though John was no coward beyond the consciousness of guilt, he probably had an aversion to getting a "committee appointed" as the apostle Grant recommended, and going to an appointed place and there having his "blood shed" by the kindly committee. A specified time and place and executioners could not well be pleasant to think of, and John was supposed to have arranged with some friend who "loved him as himself," to take him unawares and "spill his blood." John was properly conveyed to the cemetery, and the veil fell upon his career.