season, but that nothing could be done until the Twelve got home, because the appointment of a prophet and the directions for salvation of the church from the perils they were in, was contained in sealed packages directed to them. Orson Hyde and others of the Twelve, who were then in the east, stated in public congregations in New York, Philadelphia and other cities, that Willard Richards had written to them that the appointment of a prophet was left with him, under seal, to be opened on the return of the Twelve. This assertion was so often made that the whole church were daily expecting to hear a new prophet proclaimed. On the 8th day of August, 1844, when Sidney Rigdon endeavored to obtain authority to lead the church, John P. Green, marshal of the city of Nauvoo, told them, "They need not trouble themselves about it, for Joseph had appointed one James J. Strang, who lived up north, to stand in his stead." The sudden death of John P. Green immediately after this declaration (under very extraordinary circumstances) left Willard Richards [the cousin of Brigham Young] and John Taylor sole repositors of all documents on this subject, except this letter. After the return of the Twelve, the alleged promise of the "sealed packages" naming Smith's successor appears to have been dropped. Corroboration in Postal Records and Alleged Cover-up When Strang's supporters attempted to prove that Smith had mailed the letter using postal records in Nauvoo, they found that the corresponding portion of the Nauvoo postal records were missing. However, the records remained intact in the Chicago and Burlington post offices, showing that the letter was indeed mailed from Smith to Strang. Although Brigham Young quickly denounced the letter as a "wicked forgery," this did not stop two of the apostles in the Quorum of Twelve from supporting Strang, together with William Marks (Nauvoo Stake president), members of Smith's family (including his sisters, mother and widow) and many others. Questions of authenticity Experts agree that the postmark on the letter is genuine. Strang's opponents at first challenged falsely that the stamp was the wrong color and subsequently challenged the authenticity of the stamp by pointing to a tiny dot on the postmark, just before the "J" in "June"–one that they claimed should not have been there. Strang, however, produced several letters mailed from Nauvoo on June 19, all of which