[NOTE TO BOB]: EVERY indication points to Porter Rockwell as a notorious murderer who killed enemies or alleged enemies of the Mormon church. I have amended my entry below to regarding Gov. Boggs. The case is somewhat murky. [NOTE TO KEITH] Murder is a legal term. Rockwell was charged with murder, but died before the trial could determine one way or another. Also, if you read my post carefully, you will see that the passage dealing with the Utah War is a quotation from onlineUtah.com. Their sources are listed at the end. MANY indications point to Porter Rockwell as the man who fired two shots at Governor Lilburn W. Boggs (who survived). Boggs had signed an extermination order to rid his state of the Mormons. Rockwell was known as the body guard of Joseph Smith, and went by the moniker The Destroying Angel for his association and collaboration with the Danites, a group of Mormon frontiersmen who responded to anti-Mormon intimidation and violence with their own brand of intimidation and violence. According to Utah.gov, the following sequence has led many to assume that Porter Rockwell did fire the shots: QUOTE: "[D]uring the spring of ‘42, word circulated that Smith had predicted the impending demise of Lilburn W. Boggs, former governor of Missouri and the man who had ordered that state's militia to "exterminate" the Mormons. The prophet was quoted as saying Boggs "will die by violent hands within a year." Not too long afterward, Orrin Porter Rockwell, Smith's distant cousin and close friend, noticeably was absent from Nauvoo. On May 6, 1842, an assassin outside the Boggs home shot through a window, striking the man in the back of the head as he sat reading in his living room. Miraculously, Boggs survived four large buckshot wounds, two in the brain and two in the neck. By the first of August, a warrant for Rockwell charging him with attempted murder was issued, and, on March 4, 1843, he was arrested in St. Louis and jailed. SNIP [John] Bennett [mayor of Nauvoo--disgruntled with Smith], humiliated and publicly disgraced, set out to destroy him. He wrote a series of letters for publication in the Sangamon Journal exposing Smith "and his secret doctrine of spiritual wifery, among other things." He also claimed Smith had sent Rockwell to kill Boggs, and that after the shooting the Mormon prophet had said "The Destroying Angel" had done the work "as I predicted." From that day forward, Rockwell bore the sobriquet "Destroying Angel." Smith and Rockwell had been arrested—Rockwell for assault with intent to kill, and Smith for being an accessory "before the fact." When two deputies took them in custody, Smith obtained writs of habeas corpus and the deputies reluctantly turned over their prisoners to the Nauvoo city marshal. The two men were released as soon as the deputies were out of sight. The warrant for Smith was set aside as "nebulous" by a circuit judge. Back in St. Louis, Rockwell was ordered to trial. He escaped jail once and was recaptured. A Missouri jury found him guilty, but because of his long confinement awaiting trial, he was sentenced only to "five minutes in the County Jail." After nine months on the run and in Missouri dungeons, he was free to return to Nauvoo." [END QUOTE] For more on Porter Rockwell, here is the entry regarding him from the Utah History Encyclopedia: http://www.onlineutah.com/historyrockwell.shtml "Orrin Porter Rockwell was a frontiersman, Utah pioneer and plainsman, and reputed Mormon "Destroying Angel." This controversial and colorful figure was characterized in newspapers and journals of his day as a notorious gunman and religious zealot. He was born in Belcher, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, in 1813 and was one of the early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "As a settler in Jackson County, Missouri, in the mid-1830s, he was caught up in the so-called Mormon War of 1838, in which Missourians acting under an "extermination order" issued by Governor Lilburn W. Boggs drove the Mormons from the state. It was during this turbulent period that Rockwell became identified with the "Danites," a band of Mormon stalwarts who organized for the defense of fellow church members against their antagonists. In 1842 Rockwell was accused of the attempted assassination of Boggs, the man who had ordered the expulsion of the Mormons four years earlier. Boggs survived the shooting, and after months in Missouri jails Rockwell was freed when no indictment was brought against him. "It was on his return to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the church had relocated, that Rockwell became the subject of an astonishing prophecy by Mormon leader Joseph Smith on Christmas day of 1843. Smith said that as long as Rockwell remained loyal and true to his faith, he need fear no enemy: "Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee!" "Joseph Smith's death at the hands of a mob at Carthage, Illinois, spurred a Mormon exodus from Nauvoo. It was during this time of upheaval that Rockwell shot and killed Frank A. Worrell, who was menacing Hancock County Sheriff Jacob Backenstos. Rockwell had been hastily deputized only moments before the shooting, a fact which made the incident no less sensational when it was learned that the dead man had been the militia lieutenant in charge of protecting Joseph Smith when the Mormon prophet was assassinated the year before. "The Mormons, now under the leadership of Brigham Young, crossed the plains to Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Rockwell was one of the territory's earliest lawmen--deputy marshal for the provisional state of Deseret in 1849. When President James Buchanan appointed Alfred Cumming to replace Brigham Young as Utah's governor in 1857 and ordered a large contingent of U.S. troops to escort the new chief executive to his mountain offices, Rockwell was among the number of Mormons chosen by Brigham Young to harry and harass that "Utah Expedition," which Young considered nothing less than an invasion "by a hostile force who are evidently assailing us to accomplish our overthrow and destruction." "In November 1857 Rockwell was involved in an attack on a half-dozen Californians known as the Aiken party, who were attempting to reach U.S. troops wintering at Fort Bridger. Twenty years later, Rockwell would be indicted on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of John and William Aiken. "By the spring of 1858, Brigham Young agreed to amnesty terms offered by President Buchanan, and the Utah Expedition, commanded by Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston, proceeded to establish Camp Floyd south of Great Salt Lake City. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Colonel P.E. Connor, who was ordered to Utah with the California Volunteers to "protect the mails from Indian depredations," hired Rockwell as a guide and scout for infantry and cavalry in an action against a band of Shoshones at Bear River near present Preston, Idaho, in January 1863. "During his lifetime, Rockwell attracted the curious, the celebrity seekers, and the myth makers. To journalists, authors, and world travelers he was as well known as Brigham Young. He became a legend as a rough-and-ready frontiersman, a scout, a marksman, a man of iron nerve and a man of unswerving loyalty. "Orrin Porter Rockwell died of natural causes on 9 June 1878 in Salt Lake City, while awaiting trial on Aiken murder charges. Rockwell's notoriety followed him to the grave, and grew, unencumbered by fact. The Salt Lake Tribune editorialized that he "participated in at least a hundred murders . . . ." He has remained in the eyes of the public one of the best known of the early Mormon settlers of Utah." See: Harold Schindler, Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder (1966; second edition 1983); and Frank Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah (1913).

In a popular biography on the life of Orrin Porter Rockwell, there is no evidence that Porter ever made the attempt. The only time it is even mentioned is when Porter, in responce to the question, stated that had he made the attempt he would have succeeded. So the answer that it was Rockwell is not only misleading but according to the biography, wrong.

After twenty years of research on this topic, I can only conclude two things: (1) Joseph Smith never prophesied that Governor Boggs (my Second Great-Grandfather) would die a violent death. (2) Porter Rockwell did not try to assisinate the governor. There is much evidence to support my findings. Through the research of historical documents, you too will learn the truth. The unfortunate fact is that much of what we read is concocted by hate.

Governor Boggs had a grudge against the LDS Church and against Joseph Smith. He ordered the extermination order against the LDS Church in Missouri that said that "Every Mormon will leave the State of Missouri or be exterminated!", denying thousands of innocent citizens the right to bear arms, to own property, and religious freedom. He had no respect for the law or the constitution. He condemned the Mormons to death by a mob of renegade Missourians with no trial. The only law the Mormons broke were that they were Mormon and they lived in Missouri, but yet that is the reason Boggs condemned them to death. The Missourians drove the Mormons out of their homes in the dead of winter with no clothes on their backs, shoes on their feet, old, young, healthy, sick, pregnant, etc. He allowed the Missourians to rob, steal, and plunder the Mormons' property, rape their women and children, destroy their crops, homes and livestock, and even kill them. He also played a key role in the arrest and assassination of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith. Lilbourn Boggs was an evil man and had lots of enemies. He had no respect for the law or the constitution. He was a lying murderous man, especially for his involvement of the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. He broke almost every law in the book to have Joseph Smith arrested with no crime to charge him with, arresting witnesses in favor of Joseph Smith so they couldn't testify in court, and then took him to Carthage, which was out of the jurisdiction of Joseph's home. Boggs knew that he would have a better chance of convicting or even assassinating Joseph Smith in Carthage because the Mormons had more enemies there. I tend to doubt that Governor Boggs knew who tried to assassinate him. He just held a grudge against Porter Rockwell and against the LDS Church. There was never enough evidence that Porter Rockwell attempted to assassinate Governor Boggs to convict him. Funny thing about the constitution of this country! It states that a man is innocent until proven guilty. I think we owe that right to every one of the citizens of the United States, whether they are living, dead, Mormon, Catholic, male, female, or regardless of their race, thank you very much! Porter Rockwell was not convicted for a reason, under the protection of the constitution. But then, again, he was also innocent. Just a side note, Porter Rockwell was a dead shot. If you read his history, you will learn that Porter Rockwell was a Lawman. That is why he killed so many people. He was enforcing the law, while at the same time trying to defend himself and his own life. More than once, he single handedly took out whole gangs of thieves and murderers by himself, killing them all. He was right when he said that if he made an attempt on Governor Boggs' life that Governor Boggs would have been dead. A man like Porter Rockwell faced his opponents head on. He didn't sneak around through people's windows or back doors, shooting them in the back. My point is, you can believe a history written by Lilbourn Boggs and his allies, keeping in mind their history of violence and corruption, or you can believe the history written by the LDS people that had to live through this nightmare, being guilty only of belonging to the Mormon Religion and striving to live the teachings of Jesus Christ. In a court of law, who would you view as the more credible witness?

Noooooo! Say it ain't so! A Mormon trying to do something ilegal, couldn't be!

This is a very misleading question. You could've rephrased it to show that you were talking about 150 years ago. Once again, I am no advocate for the mormon cult or any of its lies, but seriously, you make sound as if it is current information you just heard. -2

SHORT ANSWER: The evidence is circumstantial and second hand but compelling. LONG ANSWER: Perhaps this will help: "...in 1842 Joseph Smith very probably did send Orrin Porter Rockwell to assassinate Governor Lilburn W. Boggs of Missouri. John Whitmer, one of the eight Book of Mormon witnesses, reported that "it is a well known fact that he was hired by Smith to kill Boggs."[30] William Law, one-time member of the First Presidency, says that Joseph told him "I sent Rockwell to kill Boggs,"[31] and General Patrick E. Connor relates Rockwell telling him: "I shot through the window and thought I had killed him, but I had only wounded him; I was damned sorry I had not killed the Son of a bitch!"[32] Bushman simply asserts that Rockwell's "innocence was proven."[33] I would be very interested to hear Bushman make a case for that. [30] John Whitmer's History, p. XXI. [31] Interview with William Law (March 30, 1887) The Daily Tribune, Salt Lake City (July 31, 1887) p. 6. [32] Quoted in Harold Schindler, Orrin Porter Rockwell, Man of God/ Son of Thunder (Salt Lake City Utah, University of Utah Press, 1966) 73, from Wilhelm W. Wyl [Wymetal], Mormon Portraits, Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and His Friends (Salt Lake City, Utah, 1886) 255. [33] Bushman, Joseph Smith, p. 468." "...the oft-mentioned reason that the Mormons hated Governor Boggs was his infamous "extermination order" issued October 27, 1838, in which he wrote: "The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace their outrages are beyond all description."[27] He probably used the term "extermination" as an intentional allusion to the July 4, 1838, speech of Mormon leader Sidney Rigdon, which Joseph Smith had afterward printed up as a pamphlet, in which Rigdon said: "And that mob that comes on us to disturb us; it shall be between us and them a war of extermination, for we will follow them, till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us: for we will carry the seal of war to their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed—Remember it then all MEN."[28] Brigham Young later said that: "Elder Rigdon was the prime cause of trouble in Missouri, by his fourth of July oration."[29] [26] William Swartzell, Mormonism Exposed, Being a Journal of a Resident in Missouri from the 28th of May to the 20th of August, 1838 (Pekin, Ohio: By the Author, 1840), pp. 29-30, 42-43. [27] LeSeuer, 1838 Mormon War, p. 152. [28] Oration Delivered by Mr. S. Rigdon on the 4th of July, 1838, at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, by Sidney Rigdon (Far West: Printed at the Journal Office, 1838) (New Mormon Studies CD Rom). [29] Times & Seasons 5:667 (Oct. 1, 1844)" http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no111.htm#Review

It wasn't proved. Where's the evidence?.... on and on. The Bible says "Every matter will be established by the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses". If those witnesses are telling the truth, as they see it. If they are "LYing for the Lord". Then that's another thing, right?