As mentioned above, Bradley does a thorough job documenting Lucy's motives and everything that revolved around her as a primary suspect of "
The Crime." Lucy ever denied her involvement with the theft and continued to deny it even on her death bed in 1836. In the beginning, Martin believed his wife was responsible but later changed his tune as Bradley reasons how "in the end, what most persuaded Martin of Lucy's innocence was a her continual denial until the moment of her death." Martin was simply unable to believe that Lucy could continue to maintain a lie about the theft.
Don Bradley wrote:Lucy Harris's continued denial of having committed the theft ultimately convinced the one person who had the greatest reason to blame her for the crime, and who had started the rumors of her guilt in the first place—her estranged husband Martin.
Bradley documents how Martin Harris never accepted the D&C 10 revelation that labeled him "a wicked man." For Martin, that revelation was an offence and he refused to accept it. Harris ultimately came to believe in a
idiosyncratic theory that the actual culprit was the original angel who gave the plates to Joseph came back down and took the manuscript from his locked bureau. So, in the end, Martin blamed the angel!
Bradley reasons that "Lucy had motive to claim credit for the manuscript theft even if she did not do it" because she could have discredited Smith's D&C revelation about the manuscript being stolen by "wicked men" who "altered" the words in order to disprove a renewed translation of the same work. But Lucy did not strike back with any kind of confession and continued to deny having stolen the manuscript until her last breath.
I can't help but bring up a very important point that Bradley fails to explore regarding Lucy's culpability and guilt; what if she had confessed to stealing the manuscript and more or less given Smith the finger (f-you) and laughed in his face? One can imagine how easy it might be for a "strong-willed woman" having an "irascible temper" and known to be "pretty high on combativeness" to simply laugh in the face of Joseph Smith because "she was very bitter against the work."
REASON FOR DENIAL: Lucy committed a crime. It was a theft. It was stolen property.
POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES: Smith filing charges against Lucy for theft. Lawsuit, court trial, and penalties affixed if found guilty.
Did you ever think about that, Don? If Smith had sued Harris it stands to reason he could have recouped losses
$$$ in winning a lawsuit and poor Lucy would have faced the humiliating penalty of legal consequences.