Reddit reviews Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder

Mormons do crazy really well.

Orrin Porter Rockwell

Once called by the Reno Gazette in 1891, a decade after his death, "the Destroying Angel of Mormondom".

In his grand jury hearing for an accusation of trying to assassinate Governor Boggs of Missouri, the jury was convinced to acquit "in part by his reputation as a deadly gunman and his statement that he "never shot at anybody, if I shoot they get shot! ...""

A man traveling across the US writing a book about the people he met said the following of Rockwell:

>But he [Porter Rockwell] was that most terrible instrument that can be handled by fanaticism; a powerful physical nature welded to a mind of very narrow perceptions, intense convictions, and changeless tenacity. In his build he was a gladiator; in his humor a Yankee lumberman; in his memory a Bourbon; in his vengeance an Indian. A strange mixture, only to be found on the American Continent.

A few websites and books

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/porterrockwell/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_Rockwell

https://www.amazon.com/Orrin-Porter-Rockwell-Man-Thunder/dp/087480440X

The details were found in Harold Schindler's book. Here's what we have.

Second-Hand Testimony

• In 1841, Joseph made a public prophesy that Boggs would be killed by violent hands within a year. John Bennett had this remark surrounding those events, "Mr. O. P. Rockwell left Nauvoo for parts unknown to the citizens at large. I was then on terms of close intimacy with Joe Smith, and asked him where Rockwell had gone? 'Gone,' said he, 'GONE TO FULFILL PROPHECY!' Rockwell returned to Nauvoo the day before the report of the assassination reached there."
  
  
• In 1843, Joseph Jackson (Warsaw Journal) printed that Joseph stated, "O.P. Rockwell to Missouri to assassinate Gov. Boggs". He also claimed Joseph offered him $3000 to do what Rockwell failed to do. (That's about $75,000 today).
  
  
• in 1863, Colonel Patrick Connor claimed Rockwell admitted that he (Rockwell) shot Boggs. Note that these were confidants, and this was claimed to have occurred while they were traveling to the Shoshone camp prior to the bear river massacre.
  
  
• In 1887, William Law stated that Joseph said, "I sent Rockwell to kill Boggs, but he missed him, it was a failure; he wounded him instead of sending him to Hell"
  
  Corroborating Evidence
  
  
• The pistol which shot Boggs was a pepperbox pistol that belonged to a local gunshop owner. Witnesses placed Porter in the shop just prior to the pistol going missing. This pistol was found outside of Boggs' window after the attempted assassination.
  
  
• He can be placed in Independence Missouri at the time of the attempt.
  
  
• He was given a reward when he returned to Joseph in Nauvoo. Joseph set him up with a bar inside of his mansion home, which was also the local inn.
  
  
• He was a "destroying angel" (part of the Danite band)