In the late 70s, early 80's, a slew of "new LDS information" came into light. One of these was "The Salamander Letter" a letter that purported to be written by Martin Harris, one of the first witnesses of the authenticity of the book of Mormon. In the letter, it claimed that Joseph Smith saw a Salamander that apparently told him about the Golden Plates. It goes on and on. It's a very, very strange letter.
It's also a total fraud.
Created by the expert forger and convicted murder Mark Hoffman, some people still think that the Salamander letter is legit, and they use it as a stick to beat the church.
The church also thought it was real. Oops. Yes, the church made a mistake, but that just goes to show how talented (and evil) Hoffman was.
In todays world, the origins of Mormonism seem very bizarre, so people are willing to believe almost anything about Smith.
Sadly, it's something that LDS have to get used to. We need to better train our apologists so they don't fall for this kind of thing again.
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