I've Heard This One: The Cain/Bigfoot Legend

Like most large organizations that have been around for awhile, the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) have their own stories, myths, legends, folklore, or whatever you want to call them, outside of events recorded in official histories. A recent article at the Daily Mail looks at one of the most widely known ones (at least in the LDS Church): "The secret legend linking Bigfoot to the Bible's first murderer." An excerpt:

    The connection between Cain and Bigfoot was first popularized by Spencer W Kimball in his 1969 book 'The Miracle of Forgiveness,' which retold Patten’s 1830s account. 

    Abraham Smoot, an early leader of the Mormon Church, is said to have written down Patten's encounter years later, which was then used in Kimball's book.

    Smoot described how Patten claimed he was riding a mule when he noticed a giant stranger walking beside him.

    The being came up to Patten's shoulders despite the Mormon leader being high off the ground in his saddle.

    'His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle. He wore no clothing, but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark. I asked him where he dwelt, and he replied that he had no home, that he was a wanderer in the earth and traveled to and fro,' Patten said, according to Smoot.

    'He said he was a very miserable creature, that he had earnestly sought death during his sojourn upon the earth, but that he could not die, and his mission was to destroy the souls of men,' the Mormon leader added.

As the article mentions, this is not official doctrine or belief. Just one of those spooky type of stories that gets passed around; similar to some of the stories of miracles and visitations that get passed around but aren't part of any official history, and sometimes are very personal.  

    Here is another article--"When Cain Appeared to Joseph Fielding Smith's Brother & Talked with an Apostle" from LDS Living--that discusses Patten's account as well as another, similar incident. And "Do Latter-day Saints Believe that Cain Is Bigfoot?" at Saints Unscripted delves into the origin of the association between Patten's account and Bigfoot, which wasn't until the 1980s.