No Forgiveness: Family, Polygamy, Murder, and Justice among Idaho’s pioneering Mormons

By Daniel H Neal

Book Information

• $24.00 paperback
• 213 pages, 6×9 in
• 22 black and white photographs
• Published June 2025
• ISBN: 978-1-7334897-7-5
• Subject:  Western History, Idaho and Utah history, Mormons, Pioneers.


On the morning of July 5, 1911, D.S. Neal left his house south of Sorensen Creek in Idaho’s Teton Valley to irrigate his field. His neighbor, Ellington Smith strapped his Winchester Model 86 to his saddle, mounted his bay horse and rode the short distance to where Neal was working. Smith dismounted, climbed the fence, and stepped into the field.

Thus begins the story of the murder of David S. Neal and the subsequent trial of Ellington Smith. Both men were members of the same Mormon ward and came from polygamous families.

Drawing from family letters, historical newspapers, state archives, and interviews, the author presents a detailed narrative of the two families involved, Smith’s insanity defense at trial, the conditions at the Idaho State Penitentiary, and the many prominent businessmen and politicians who took sides in the case.

Meticulously researched and written by Neal’s grandson, journalist Daniel H. Neal, the book intertwines a hidden family history with themes of politics, the culture of Mormon theocracy, plural marriages, and frontier justice.

Interviews with the Author:

KSL Broadcasting Salt Lake City UT:
https://www.ksl.com/article/51354789

Idaho Magazine:
https://www.idahomagazine.com/article/no-forgiveness-idaho/

About the Author

Dan Neal is a former editor-in-chief of the Casper Star-Tribune who worked as a reporter and editor in Wyoming and Washington for more than 25 years. He grew up in the Mormon country of southeastern Idaho and studied at BYU and Idaho State University. After his career in journalism, he directed Wyoming’s Equality State Policy Center as an advocate for open government, voting rights, and workplace safety.  He and his wife Judy live in Casper, Wyoming. They have three children, Emily, David, and Kate, and live with two cats, Fuzz and Puff.

Reviews:

This book belongs on the shelf alongside the great epics of the American West. It gives voice to the saints and skeptics, the settlers and survivors, whose stories still echo in the valleys they tried to tame. In doing so, Daniel H. Neal offers something rare and lasting: a personal history that transcends the personal, and a Mormon story that is unmistakably, indelibly American.
—Lindsay Hansen Park is an American Mormon feminist blogger, podcaster, and the executive director for the Salt Lake City-based non-profit Sunstone Education Foundation.

Part family history and part community reckoning, No Forgiveness is wholly enjoyable. This riveting tale with fleshed-out characters and engrossing scenes does a lot more than just unpacking a fascinating murder — it makes pioneer life come alive, highlighting the humanity of all involved.
— Benjamin E. Park, American Zion: A New History of Mormonism
After furnishing the rich historical context of his ancestors’ conversion to Mormonism and their settling in southeastern Idaho, Dan Neal tells the compelling story of his grandfather’s 1911 murder by a fellow Mormon and how the tragedy impacted the victim’s widow and her five young children. I highly recommend No Forgiveness.
—Larry E. Morris, author of The Fate of the Corps: What Became of the Lewis and Clark Explorers After the Expedition
No Forgiveness is the story of an early 20th-century murder in a Mormon corner of Idaho, and of the two families most affected: “Here on Earth, a stream of sorrows cascaded over both.” Dan Neal is a member of one of the families; his account, therefore, is deeply personal while honoring the faith and choices of its subjects. Neal’s research gives us a bright, clear window on the time.
—Tom Rea, founder and editor emeritus of WyoHistory.org.