George W. Schweich relates to I. Woodbridge Riley that he attempted to get David Whitmer to confess to fraud, who refused.
George W. Schweich, Letter to I. Woodbridge Riley, April 6, 1899, rep. The Founder of Mormonism: A Psychological Study of Joseph Smith, Jr. (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1902), 219–220
I have begged him to unfold the fraud in the case and he had all to gain and nothing to lose to but speak the word if he thought so—but he has described the scene to me many times, of his vision about noon time in an open pasture—there is only one explanation barring an actual miracle and that is this—If that vision was not real it was HYPNOTISM, it was real to grandfather IN FACT.