Legends of the Old West - ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL Ep. 3 | “A Mormon Samson”

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Porter Rockwell is arrested for the attempted murder of Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs, and Rockwell rots in jail for nearly a year. After a perilous journey to his new home in the Mormon settlement of Nauvoo, Illinois, Rockwell is reunited with the head of his church, Joseph Smith. But the reunion doesn’t last long. The LDS church suffers a devastating tragedy that requires a change of leadership.   Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured   For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Porter Rockwell was arrested in St. Louis for the attempted murder of former Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs, he was thrown in jail for three days. Then, he was shackled by the wrists and ankles and loaded into a stagecoach for transport to Independence, Missouri. After a day and a night bumping over the trail with seven passengers in the coach, the stagecoach driver stopped in the evening for a drink at a tavern. He left Rockwell under the watchful eye of the bounty hunter who had captured him. When the driver emerged from the tavern sometime later, he was noticeably swaying. He climbed back into his seat, slapped the reins, and resumed the journey.

A mile down the road, he drove the horses into a tree. The coach overturned and broke the bolt that held the axle to the body. Rockwell climbed out of the coach, still shackled, and checked on the other passengers. Instead of trying to escape, he found the spare bolt and replaced the damaged pin. With the other passengers, Rockwell pushed the coach upright and stepped back in. Then he fell asleep as they continued toward Independence. A short time later, Rockwell was jarred awake when the coach tilted and one of his fellow passengers slammed into him as the horses outside stomped and whinnied. The coach had plowed into an embankment and was wedged against it.

The horses were scared, and the driver was now so drunk that he had passed out. The bounty hunter refused to remove the heavy irons and chains that bound Porter's legs, but they climbed into the driver's seat and continued the trip. When the coach arrived at the next station, the sheriff forgivably misunderstood the situation. There were two men on the driver's bench and a handful of passengers in the coach, one of whom was fast asleep. The sheriff assumed that the prisoner was the man who was sleeping. The sheriff looked up at the two men on the driver's bench and asked if the prisoner had been any trouble.

The bounty hunter said, That isn't Rockwell. This is. The sheriff looked past the bounty hunter to the man who was actually operating the reins. Porter Rockwell was driving himself to jail. The sheriff shook his head, looked at the passed out driver in the coach and said, I swear, that other fellow looks guiltier than either of you. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of controversial figure

Oren Porter Rockwell, the rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre. This is Episode 3, A Mormon Samson. For months in an Independence, Missouri jail, Porter Rockwell waited while Mormon prophet Joseph Smith worked on a plan to free his friend. Years earlier, when their situations were reversed, Rockwell had snuck tools to Smith while he waited in a jail cell. Joseph Smith reportedly offered a man named Joseph Jackson a reward of $3,000 if he would find a way to free his friend and, quote, kill old Boggs on his way out of town. Jackson, it turned out, was working as an agent of one of Smith's enemies, and when he visited Rockwell in jail, it was to try to coerce a confession. But the jail was so full of prisoners that Jackson couldn't find an opportunity to speak with Porter.

He left without a confession, without freeing Rockwell, and without killing Lilburn Boggs. In April of 1842, Rockwell got a new cellmate, and the man was tossed into his cell with his saddlebags. Looking through his new friend's belongings, Porter recognized fire steels, small metal tools that are used to start a fire in the wilderness. That night, the pair began the laborious process of drawing the steel across a link of chain. Two days later, they were able to saw through the last link that they needed to effect an escape. Now, they waited for the jailer to bring their dinner. As the man bent to pick up some dishes, Rockwell and his cellmate sprang to their feet and rushed

past the jailer. They pushed him backward into the cell, slammed the door shut, and locked it. Rockwell removed the key from the door, tossed it through an open window, and ran down the stairs. They passed the jailer's wife and yelled to her that they hadn't hurt the man. Behind the jail, they faced a 12-foot-high wooden fence. Rockwell was not a tall man, but his adrenaline was pumping as he leapt for the fence and felt his fingers wrap around the top of the tall boards. Struggling, he pulled himself over, fell to the other side, and started to run. But behind him, he could hear the voice of his cellmate, yelling that he couldn't make it over the fence. Rockwell ran back to the fence, climbed back to the top, and grabbed the prisoner's shirt collar.

He yanked the man up and over the fence. Porter Rockwell was legendary among his fellow saints for his untiring strength, but he had just spent two months in jail with meager food and no exercise. Porter's strength flagged and slowed as he ran to escape. The sheriff and his deputies, who had heard the yells of the jailer and his wife, were able to track him down. If I hadn't have stopped to help him, Porter panted, I would have been free. An angry mob threatened to hang Rockwell for his attempted escape, but the sheriff returned him to jail, this time chaining him from the wrists and ankles

in the jail's basement. His already poor rations were reduced to a piece of cold cornbread and whatever scraps of meat the jailer didn't finish with his meal. If Rockwell refused to eat, the same meal was offered the next day. As days turned to weeks, Rockwell's hair and beard grew long and infested with lice. The new irons were so tight initially that his wrists were swollen. But after three weeks, he had lost enough weight that they were loose enough to slide up to his elbows. Now, the sheriff offered Rockwell a deal. If Rockwell would set up Joseph Smith to be captured, Rockwell could name his price and Jackson County would pay it. Rockwell replied,

I'll see you all damned first, and even then I won't. Months passed before Rockwell was finally brought to court, where he was told that the grand jury had refused to indict him for the attempted murder of Boggs, but that they did indict him for his attempted escape. When he was asked to pick an attorney to represent him from the lawyers in the courtroom that day, Rockwell was surprised to see the face of Alexander Donovan, the same man who had represented the Saints in Jackson County

and refused an order to execute Joseph Smith during the Mormon War in Far West. Donovan agreed to represent Porter, who was thrown back into jail to await trial. Weeks later, the judge assigned his trial to Clay County, ostensibly so that the jury would be more impartial than in Jackson County. After five months in the same clothes, Porter was finally allowed to change into a clean shirt. As two lawmen escorted him to Clay County, they were forced to escape at a full gallop when they discovered that an ambush had been set up by vigilantes to capture their prisoner. Then the judge in Clay County declared that the trial had been incorrectly moved,

and another attempt to capture Porter was foiled on the way back to Independence when the route was changed at the last minute. Rockwell's trial still hadn't started, and the situation was already chaos. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch. And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage.

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Porter's jailers returned him to his old nasty clothes and to his old cell, but the chaos didn't stop. Porter made another escape attempt by detaching the stovepipe that led from his dungeon cell to the room above. He squeezed his emaciated frame through the small hole. He squeezed his emaciated frame through the small hole. Using the dipper from a water pail, he was able to move the bolt that locked the inner door, but was too weak to open the outer door. He squeezed back through the hole to his cell and was determined to repeat the attempt the next day. The following evening, he again removed the stovepipe, struggled through the small hole in the floor, and made it into the room above, only to find that he still couldn't open the outer door. Exhausted from the

exertion, Porter passed out on the floor, where he was discovered by jailers the next morning. For his efforts, Porter was rewarded with double chains and half rations. And then, finally, a jury was impaneled to hear the evidence against Porter Rockwell for the crime of attempted jailbreak. In the state of Missouri, the law said that to find Porter guilty, the jury must be presented with evidence that he had broken a lock, a door, or a wall to escape the clutches of justice. Porter had simply pushed past the jailer and through the open door. But the judge told the jury that the actions qualified. The jury deliberated for a short time and returned a guilty verdict and a sentence.

Porter had been initially arrested for the attempted murder of Lilburn Boggs, but he was never put on trial for the crime. He had been kept in jail for an attempted escape for a crime he was no longer charged with. The jury recommended a unique sentence, five minutes confinement in the county jail. When Porter Rockwell was released from Independence Jail five hours later, that five-minute sentence had cost him nearly ten months of his life. Outside the jail, Porter was met by his mother. She warned him that the same men who had tried to ambush him as he was moved to Clay County had now vowed that the destroying angel would never leave Missouri alive. that the destroying angel would never leave Missouri alive. Rockwell and his mother went to the home of a friend, who loaned Porter four dollars. Deciding that they should split up for the return to Nauvoo, Porter had only been gone from the house for a minute when he heard horses

approaching at a full gallop from behind. Hiding behind a tree, he watched as two riders sped past, one telling the other that they'd soon overtake him. Rockwell stayed off the roads, walking 25 miles through fields and underbrush without shoes until the soles of his feet were shredded and bloody. He struggled on the next day, past the place where he and other Mormons had fought at Crooked River and the site of the massacre at Hans Mill. Each step he took left a bloody footprint behind him, and eventually, he was unable to walk further. A passing wagon stopped and the driver agreed to carry Porter, who laid on his back, watching the sky above him as he moved toward home. watching the sky above him as he moved toward home.

He rode when he could and walked when he had to, one day covering 20 miles by horse and 25 on foot. His feet were bruised and bloody, and he was weak from nearly a year of confinement. But Porter's determination pushed him forward. On Christmas Day, 1843, more than 100 guests packed the home of Joseph Smith in Nauvoo. The table was full of food, and guests celebrated the birth of their savior and the victories of their prophet, who had been arrested three times and released three times while Porter had been in jail.

The bustle and cheer were suddenly interrupted by a scuffle at the door, where several guards attempted to remove a man whom they believed to be a drunken, dirty Missourian there to accost Smith. A moment later, Joseph Smith came to the door, dressed in his uniform as leader of the Nauvoo Legion. He looked at the dirty man being held by the guards, his long hair falling below his shoulders, and a bushy beard disguising his full smile. Smith wrote later, To my great surprise and joy untold, I discovered it was my long-tried, warm, but cruelly persecuted friend, Oren Porter Rockwell, just arrived from nearly a year's imprisonment without conviction

in Missouri. Rockwell was invited into Smith's home and handed a glass of wine. He told Smith and the others about his capture, his attempted escape, his trial, and his journey back home. When he finished his story, Smith embraced him and announced a spontaneous prophecy to the crowd. As long as Rockwell remained loyal and true to his faith and did not cut his hair, he could not be harmed by bullets or blades. In Nauvoo, Porter was now a celebrity, a Mormon Samson for the young church. Porter was a symbol of triumph over evil and oppression, and Joseph Smith was starting to see darkness creeping closer.

Smith needed a man like Porter Rockwell. Joseph confided in his friend that he felt his enemies were all around him in Nauvoo, and he was unsure who he could trust, even among the leaders of the church. Your enemies are my enemies, Joseph, Rockwell told his prophet as they shook hands. In that moment, Porter Rockwell agreed to become Smith's personal bodyguard. Smith struggled with lawlessness in Nauvoo, appointing 40 officers to serve as the city's police force. in Nauvoo, appointing 40 officers to serve as the city's police force. But he became increasingly convinced that the problems facing his church went well beyond the city's borders. The state of Missouri had separated the Mormons from their land and homes,

and the federal government had done nothing. Joseph had been arrested multiple times, and though he had gone free, there was no assurance that he wouldn't be harassed further. His friend, Porter Rockwell, had spent nearly a year in jail on a five-minute sentence. And, when Joseph Smith had personally asked President Martin Van Buren for help, the president had replied, Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you. Van Buren was running for re-election in 1841, and his opponent, Henry Clay, was no better as far as Smith was concerned. If Smith wanted the president and the federal government to address the issues that mattered to him, he was going to have to take a direct approach. Van Buren lost his

re-election bid, and William Henry Harrison became the ninth president of the United States. He died after just one month in office, and his vice president, John Tyler, took over. In January of 1844, Joseph Smith announced his candidacy for president of the United States, and Porter Rockwell became the bodyguard of a man running for his nation's highest office. While Smith crafted his platform for the campaign, unsettling events were unfolding in Nauvoo that threatened his safety. He was alerted about a conspiracy and a planned assassination. Smith instructed his agents to infiltrate the conspirators' meetings and report back.

The initial intel suggested that a man named Dr. Robert Foster intended to publicly accuse Smith of attempting to seduce his wife under the guise of plural marriage. Smith convinced Foster's wife to sign a statement refuting the accusations. Smith denounced the conspirators in a public meeting. A heated exchange between Foster and Smith culminated in Foster's excommunication along with others involved in the conspiracy. Days later, an argument broke out between a Mormon man named Augustine Spencer and Dr. Foster's brother. Joseph Smith, acting as mayor, ordered

the arrest of Spencer. When Spencer resisted arrest, Smith and Rockwell intervened directly. The situation escalated, and Foster's brother drew a pistol and aimed it at Joseph Smith. Rockwell leapt at Foster's brother and slammed a fist down on the man's arm. The revolver went flying, and Foster's brother screamed that he would have killed Smith. Foster himself said he would be favored by God for ridding the world of a tyrant like Smith. The matter was scheduled for trial, but was eventually dismissed by order of Joseph Smith. Soon, the Fosters bought a printing press and opened a newspaper. They called for the repeal of the Nauvoo City Charter that afforded Smith and his church

their power. The Fosters and their allies used the paper to publicly accuse Smith of adultery, of swearing false testimony in court, and of receiving stolen goods. testimony in court and of receiving stolen goods. On June 10, 1844, Smith called a session of the city council and passed a law that outlawed libel and punished the offense with a $500 penalty and six months in jail. Under the new law, Foster's newspaper was declared a public nuisance. An angry crowd of saints, with Joseph Smith at the lead, set off to the newspaper office. At Joseph's signal, Porter kicked the door off its hinges and the crowd destroyed the press.

They gathered what was left into a pile and set the whole thing on fire. The reaction to the destruction of the press was vehement and immediate. Citizens in neighboring towns were furious that the leader of what many saw as a sect of religious extremists was now disrupting a press that reported on accusations of adultery and polygamy against him. Worried that the situation was getting out of his control, him. Worried that the situation was getting out of his control, Smith wrote to the governor of Illinois, trying to explain why he had been forced to destroy the paper's press. He then allowed himself and some of the others involved to be arrested so they could be put on trial in front of a friendly judge. The trial was quick and Smith was declared innocent. The result did little to calm the angry voices.

Twenty miles away, in Carthage, Illinois, an angry mob prepared to march on Nauvoo. Joseph called the Nauvoo Legion to be on guard and placed the city under martial law. Wearing his general's uniform, Smith waved his sword in the air and told the Legion that his people should be protected from mob violence, even if it cost him his life. If Smith expected the governor to offer him shelter, he was disappointed. He received a message from the governor that asked him to travel to Carthage to prove the saints were governed by law. Smith suspected that if he traveled to Carthage, he would never leave.

And when he failed to arrive, an angry mob would descend on Nauvoo. So, Smith announced that he would leave his home and head for the Rocky Mountains. At midnight, Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram left Nauvoo with Porter Rockwell, who rode them across the Mississippi River to Iowa before returning to gather horses for their escape. When Porter returned to Nauvoo, he was surrounded by a group of worried saints, including Joseph Smith's wife Emma. They told him the governor had promised Joseph safe passage and a fair trial. They were worried that if Joseph didn't comply, state authorities would storm the town and destroy their homes. Rockwell took the message across the river to the Smith brothers.

Hiram thought they should return to town and leave their fate in God's hands. Joseph said he would go back with his brother, but if they did, they would be killed. No matter what people thought about Joseph Smith's prophecies, he was right about his last one. Joseph and Hiram returned to Nauvoo and then traveled to Carthage, where they were arrested and placed in jail to await trial. Someone managed to sneak a few weapons into jail, which Joseph hid in case of trouble. After the Smith brothers had finished their dinner on June 27, 1844, a mob of around 200 men stormed the jail.

Their faces were obscured with black paint to hide their identities, but in hindsight, it probably wouldn't have mattered. but in hindsight, it probably wouldn't have mattered. The jail was ostensibly guarded by a militia called the Carthage Greys, who either failed to defend the Smith brothers or actively encouraged the mob to overrun the jail. Gunfire exploded in the small space, and Hiram Smith was the first to fall. He was struck by a bullet that pierced the door of their jail cell and hit him in the face. Joseph, in a desperate attempt to defend himself, pulled out the small pepper box pistol that had been smuggled into the jail and fired it at the attackers.

As the assault intensified, Joseph was hit by multiple bullets, one striking him from the door and others from the window of the jail as he attempted to escape the onslaught. His last recorded words as he fell from the window were, A day later, Porter Rockwell rode to Carthage. He didn't know about the attack, but he was worried that he had not heard from his friend. After midnight, he encountered a rider who told him what had happened at the Carthage jail. Early in the morning on June 28, 1844, the calm silence of the morning in Nauvoo

was broken by the sound of a galloping horse. It was followed by the voice of its rider, Porter Rockwell, yelling, Joseph is killed! They've killed him. The saints demanded justice for the killings of their prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram. The people of Illinois demanded that the Mormons in their church be forced to leave the state. The governor of Illinois outlined his quandary. The anti-Mormons asked me to violate the Constitution, which I am sworn to support, by erecting myself into a military despot and exiling the Mormons. And the Mormons, in their newspapers, invite me to assume absolute power by taking a summary vengeance upon their enemies,

by shooting fifty or a hundred of them without judge or jury. Caught between a proverbial rock and a hard place, the governor simply did nothing. With their prophet and his brother dead, the LDS church was left without a leader. Sidney Rigdon was the sole remaining member of the first presidency, but he was away conducting Smith's campaign for president. He arrived back in Nauvoo in August and announced that he had received a vision, that the church needed a strong leader and that he should be that leader. This announcement was followed by the arrival of Brigham Young, the president of the church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles. Rigdon, who had been a close associate of Joseph Smith

and served as a counselor in the first presidency, claimed the right to lead as the, quote, guardian of the church. He promised to preserve the church until Smith's sons could take over. Meanwhile, Brigham Young, who had spearheaded the church's missionary work abroad, argued that the authority of the church should reside with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The pivotal moment in the struggle came during a special conference of the church in August 1844. Brigham Young, known for his decisive leadership and organizational skills, addressed the congregation.

He reportedly mirrored Joseph Smith in both voice and mannerism to such an extent that many in attendance felt as though Smith himself was speaking to them. The event significantly swayed the majority of Latter-day Saints in favor of Young's leadership model. Sidney Rigdon's claim was ultimately rejected by the church body, and he was excommunicated. He left Nauvoo and formed a splinter group. Brigham Young's new authority solidified the leadership role of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and set the stage for the next chapter in Latter-day Saints history.

Under Young's direction, the church began preparations for a monumental migration westward. They wanted a new refuge where they could practice their faith without persecution. Porter Rockwell was selected as the messenger between Nauvoo and the westward migration. Porter made five trips across Iowa between March and May of 1846 as the flock pushed westward toward Utah and the Great Salt Lake. On his final trip back to Nauvoo, Porter was arrested and accused of various lawless acts, including assassination attempts and counterfeiting. Church historians believe that the arrest was planned by Brigham Young to buy time for the remaining saints to leave Illinois while attention was locked on Rockwell. Through calculated legal strategies, Rockwell's situation was maneuvered to his advantage and he was eventually released. As he prepared to leave Nauvoo for the last time, Porter met Joseph Smith III, the son of his late friend. According to Smith, Rockwell wept as he embraced him and cried,

They've killed the only friend I ever had. Then Rockwell warned the younger man that it wasn't safe for them to be seen together. Porter Rockwell crossed the Mississippi River from Nauvoo one final time and headed west on the journey of a lifetime. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Porter Rockwell becomes a scout and a guide as the Saints make the long trip to the Great Salt Lake. There, he takes up the mantle of lawman, one he will hold for the rest of his life.

And he and the rest of the saints become embroiled in tense situations with local Native American tribes and then the U.S. Army. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. And they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships are just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Matthew Kearns.

Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out the website blackbarrelmedia.com for more details and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And all our episodes are on YouTube. Just search for Legends of the Old West Podcast. Thanks for listening.