William Hooper Young was born on March 13, 1871, in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. He came from one of the most prominent families in early Mormon history. His father, John Willard Young, was an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and his grandfather was Brigham Young — the founder of Salt Lake City and the second president of the LDS Church. Raised in the heart of the LDS community, Young was immersed in religious tradition and expectations from an early age.

During his early adulthood, Hooper Young served as a Mormon elder and undertook missionary work in the eastern United States between 1891 and 1892. However, his life soon diverged from the strict standards of his faith. In 1893, he left Salt Lake City and began drifting across various cities including Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., and Hoboken. His lifestyle grew increasingly transient and unstable. Reports from relatives suggested that Young developed a morphine addiction and may have left Utah under suspicion of prior violent behavior, though no formal charges were brought at the time.

As he distanced himself from both the church and his family, Young struggled to maintain employment and stability. His behavior became increasingly erratic, and by the time of the 1902 murder case, he had effectively severed ties with the disciplined religious path of his youth.

On September 19, 1902, the body of Anna Pulitzer was discovered in the Morris Canal in Jersey City, New Jersey. She had been stabbed in the abdomen, and there were bruises on her head. Pulitzer was married but had previously been arrested for solicitation. A cab driver reported that, days before her death, he took Pulitzer and an unknown man to an apartment belonging to Hooper Young's father in New York City.

When police searched the apartment, they found empty beer bottles, a bloody carving knife, and blood on bedsheets and various surfaces in the apartment. In a notebook, they discovered the phrase "blood atonement" along with biblical references discussing atonement. It was later determined that Pulitzer died from a drug overdose caused by chloral poisoning, and the injuries to her abdomen and head occurred post-mortem.

Hooper Young was arrested in Derby, Connecticut, where he was found drunk and in disheveled clothing. He initially denied his identity but eventually confessed to being Hooper Young. He claimed that he, Pulitzer, and a man named Charles Simpson Eiling were in the apartment the night she died. Young stated that he left to buy whiskey and returned to find Pulitzer dead. He alleged that Eiling was the one who killed her and that he helped Eiling hide the body out of fear of embarrassing his father. Young confessed that he attempted to dismember Pulitzer's body but could not carry on after making one cut. He did not confess to disposing of her body in the canal, though he acknowledged knowing what happened to it. A search for Charles Eiling was conducted, but no one matching that name was found.

Once the newspapers linked Hooper Young to the murder, many speculated on his motives. Some suggested that the murder was connected to the Mormon concept of blood atonement, while others believed Young may have had a past affair with Pulitzer when he was serving as a Mormon missionary. However, the actual motive for the murder was never clearly established.

Hooper Young's trial began on February 4, 1903. He pleaded not guilty at first but changed his plea to guilty of second-degree murder on February 10. The judge accepted this plea and sentenced him to life imprisonment at Sing Sing, stating that experts indicated Young may have been medically insane at the time. Because he pleaded guilty, no full trial was held, so the facts surrounding his claims and motives were never fully examined in court.

In early 1924, Young was paroled and lived with his father in New York City until his father's death later that year. By 1928, he was in California looking for one of his half-sisters. In June 1937, he made a Social Security claim. By July 20, 1938, Young was in Folsom Prison for another crime involving sexual offenses and was sentenced to up to 15 years. He passed away in Folsom Prison on December 6, 1939.