Danites

Danites, or DESTROYING ANGELS, a secret society founded by Joseph Smith in 1838, professedly merely for the defence of the Mormon sect against the mob. The members, originally some 300 in number, were bound by an oath, under penalty of death, to sustain the 'first presidency' and one another in all things, whether right or wrong. They were divided into companies of fifties and tens, with suitable officers, and a general over the whole; special 'destruction companies' were appointed for the purpose of burning and destroying, at first by way of reprisal; but afterwards assassinations, to fulfil prophecies of Smith's, were laid to their charge. Remembrance of the society's operations was revived by the trial, conviction, and execution of Bishop John D. Lee, in 1877, for the massacre of a train of 140 non-Mormon emigrants at Mountain Meadow, near Utah, twenty years before.