Strang knew just how to manage these hardworking, faithful people, and
the reason so many were beginning to think favorably of polygamy was
because they were taught that only those who were faithful could be
sealed, and in this way were counted God's elect. But there were a large
number of women who came to the island that had been better taught than
to believe in such a doctrine, which was the reason of Strang's failure
to enforce the law.
The two men who shot Strang had their own wrongs to avenge. Bedford had
been whipped, he claimed unjustly. The other man, Wentworth, also had
much bitterness in his heart of treatment he had suffered from Strang.
So the two had planned to shoot him at their first opportunity.
Immediately after they shot him they ran to the U. S. steamer Michigan
and gave themselves up to the officers saying, "We have shot Strang and
are willing to suffer the consequences." They were taken to Mackinac
Island and put in jail, where they remained about one week. One dark
night the door was unlocked and a man said to them. "Ask no questions,
but hurry to the dock and go on board the steamboat that is there." They
did so. Nothing was ever done in the way of giving these men a trial.
Public sentiment was so great at the time against the Mormons it would
have been impossible to find a jury to convict them.