Legends of the Old West - ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL Ep. 6 | “Sinner and Saint”

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

An investigation into the Mountain Meadows Massacre takes years, and in meantime, Porter Rockwell continues his roles as lawman and mail carrier. He builds a hotel and becomes a successful businessman, but he remains a figure of controversy. Acts of violence throughout Utah Territory become part of his lore, regardless of whether or not he was involved in them. By the time of his death, he has achieved legendary status in the history of the American West.   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

The June 11, 1878 edition of the Salt Lake Tribune read, read, The, kill, kill, kill. The article continued, He killed unsuspecting travelers, whose booty was coveted by his prophet master. He killed fellow saints who held secrets that menaced the safety of their fellow criminals in the priesthood. He killed apostates who dared to wag their tongues about the wrongs they had endured. And he killed mere sojourners in Zion

merely to keep his hand in. All, it is estimated he participated in at least a hundred murders for the church. A few days later, Oren Porter Rockwell was laid to rest at Salt Lake City Cemetery, where Joseph F. Smith, son of Hiram Smith and nephew of Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered the eulogy. Smith told the crowd, They say he was a murderer. If he was, he was the friend of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and he was faithful to them and to his covenants,

and he is gone to heaven, and apostates go to hell. Porter Rockwell was yesterday afternoon ushered into heaven, clothed with immortality and eternal life, and crowned with all glory which belongs to a departed saint. Smith acknowledged the many accusations that Porter Rockwell had been a murderer, a womanizer, a heavy drinker, and a man widely known for his artful use of profanity. He has his little faults, but Porter's life on earth, taken altogether, was one worthy of example and reflected honor upon the church. Through all his trials, he never once forgot his obligations to his brethren and his God.

That was probably a good summation. Like many high-profile figures of the Old West, far more allegations were levied against Porter Rockwell than were actually true. By a certain time in New Mexico, nearly every crime in the territory was associated with Billy the Kid. In Texas, legions of unsolved or suspicious murders were laid at the feet of John Wesley Harden. While Bill Hickok's body count rose to mythic proportions, sometimes through his own enjoyment of telling tall tales to reporters who didn't realize he was joking or exaggerating. In the life of Porter Rockwell, his legend, through confirmed activities and rumors of dastardly exploits, continued to grow after the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

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 6, Sinner and Saint. During the year of conflict that would come to be known as the Utah War, Porter Rockwell's involvement was emblematic of the wider Mormon militia's efforts against U.S. troops. Rockwell was the best scout in the area and was a veteran of the conflicts that had plagued the church throughout its history. While the Mountain Meadows tragedy

played out in southern Utah, Rockwell played a crucial role in operations in northern Utah. He and others disrupted supply lines and executed raids against the advancing U.S. Army column. This strategic approach by the militia under Brigham Young's leadership was aimed at defending their territory from federal intervention. Rockwell and Young understood that they couldn't match the Army's strength, but after a decade in the terrain of Utah, they could certainly frustrate the hell out of the troops. Over the course of that year, between mid-1857 and mid-1858, there was

plenty of destruction of property and several skirmishes, but no significant battles between military forces. Of the estimated 150 lives lost during the conflict, 120 were killed at Mountain Meadows and another six were killed in the ambush of the Aiken Party. killed at Mountain Meadows, and another six were killed in the ambush of the Aiken Party. On July 4, 1858, a year after Porter rode into Big Cottonwood Canyon with a warning for Brigham Young about the approach of U.S. Army troops, President James Buchanan declared amnesty for the Latter-day Saints, except those involved in the Mountain Meadows murders. The declaration signaled the end of the Utah War. The peace negotiation resulted in the transfer of Utah's governorship

from Brigham Young to a non-Mormon, Alfred Cumming, and allowed the peaceful entrance of the U.S. Army into Utah. But declarations and negotiations didn't quell the fear of the Saints. Terrified by the approaching troops, the Saints abandoned their homes in Salt Lake City. When the Army marched through, it found the city deserted. The soldiers marched 40 miles southwest before establishing Camp Floyd, one of the largest military installations in the United States at the time. The day after the army arrived, Brigham Young announced he would return to Salt Lake City. Porter Rockwell was among the thousands of saints who joined Young for the slow journey

back to normalcy. Porter, his two infant daughters, and his wife Marianne, who was well into her third pregnancy, soon moved into a new home. Settling near Lehigh, 30 miles south of Salt Lake, the Rockwells welcomed a son, John Orrin Rockwell, in October 1858. With hostilities ended, Rockwell's gaze turned toward the future and enterprise. 2,500 troops at Camp Floyd brought concerns but also opportunities. Rockwell had operated saloons and small hotels in California during the Gold Rush, and now he recalled those successes. Porter purchased 16 acres of land at Hot Springs, strategically positioned between Salt Lake City and Lehigh. On July 29, 1858,

he laid the foundation for the Hot Springs Brewery Hotel, and his foresight proved astute. With so many soldiers nearby, there was still tension in the air on both sides, the saints and the soldiers. Tension made people thirsty. To quench their thirst and dull their tensions, they went to Rockwell's Bar for ales, lagers, and whiskeys. The inn was also situated on popular roads, which made it the perfect rest stop for weary travelers. The hotel was a smashing success that secured his family's future and allowed him a semblance of peace he hadn't known since his youth. family's future and allowed him a semblance of peace he hadn't known since his youth.

But the tranquility was briefly threatened when U.S. Marshal P.K. Dotson showed up. Dotson was armed with warrants, including one for Rockwell for his alleged role in the murder of six members of the Aiken Party, the small group of travelers who were the first to witness the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Three weeks after John Aiken and his group wandered into Mountain Meadows and saw the ground strewn with dead bodies, he wrote a report that was published in a Los Angeles newspaper. Two months after that, Aiken and five members of his group were ambushed and killed. Suspicion for the murders fell on Porter Rockwell and Bill Hickman, the two men who operated the mail service that had been created by Brigham Young. Marshal Dotson was there to arrest Rockwell for the murders, but Dotson found the task impossible.

No one in the community would join a civilian posse to help him, and Governor Cumming refused to grant military assistance. So, Dotson informed the judge who signed the warrants that he was moving on to other things. Free from the specter of arrest, Rockwell's life took on a rhythm of domestic fulfillment. But in this period of relative peace, Rockwell's legend continued to grow. And not just as an enterprising businessman. The old nickname of Destroying Angel resurfaced. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you.

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blood atonement, a controversial Mormon doctrine that suggested certain grievous sins, like murder, could only be redeemed through the sinner's own bloodshed. Under this doctrine, Gein might have believed that offering his life would grant him peace and redemption. He was found dead in 1859 with a bullet hole in his forehead. Rumors quickly surfaced that Porter Rockwell, acting on Brigham Young's orders, had pulled the trigger. There was no proof, but there was plenty of speculation driven by the mysterious nature of Gein's death and Rockwell's fearsome reputation. In January of 1860, Rockwell was involved in an altercation with a federal teamster

named Martin Oates. Porter was sitting in his favorite rocking chair at his brewery hotel when he heard Oates yelling at the bartender, saying, I'll cut the heart out of any man who accuses me of stealing. Rockwell got out of his chair and noticed that Oates was holding a large Bowie knife. Oates shouted at Porter, you're a damned rustler, Mormon. You've stolen cattle from me. I don't know you, Rockwell answered calmly, and I have no fight with you. While the two men talked, the bartender left the room to grab a pair of pistols, and when

he returned, he found Rockwell and Oates fighting for the knife. The pair of pistols forced Oates to give up the knife, but the conflict was far from over. Later that evening, Rockwell left the hotel and departed for his home in Lehi. Somewhere along the way, he overtook Oates, who was waiting for him. Oates grabbed the reins of Porter's horse, and Porter ended up shooting and killing Martin Oates. Porter rode back to the hotel and told the bartender to bring some men to return with Oates' body. Porter turned himself into authorities and was quickly acquitted of Oates' death. That summer, two men were killed in Salt Lake City. The pair were known for their lawless activities, including a counterfeiting scheme in a building owned by Brigham Young. On the night of their deaths, they were drinking in a saloon and bragging about their plan to steal Army livestock.

Minutes after they left to return to their boarding house, shots rang out and they were found dead. An official inquest determined that the friends had quarreled and shot each other. But many believed the official cause of death to be a hoax, with the real killings committed by Porter Rockwell on the orders of Brigham Young. The rumor said that Young was upset that the well-publicized crimes had happened in his building, and thus, he had ordered the offenders killed. Again, there was no proof of the involvement of Rockwell or Young, but the accusations continued to follow a familiar pattern based on actions, real or imagined, of the past. And running parallel to the continued rumors of Rockwell as a paid killer,

there was Rockwell's life as the proprietor of a hotel. The same year as Martin Oates and the two counterfeiters were killed, Rockwell hosted a famous guest at the Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel. Richard Francis Burton stopped in Salt Lake City on his way across the country to California. Francis Burton stopped in Salt Lake City on his way across the country to California. Burton was a British explorer, linguist, scholar, and writer who was renowned for his daring expeditions. Burton expected to uncover salacious details about polygamy in the LDS church. What he didn't expect was to find himself engaged in a dinner conversation with the sometimes notorious and sometimes revered Porter Rockwell. Burton later described the meeting, which featured a bottle

of local whiskey. Rockwell was a man about 50, tall and strong, with ample leather leggings, overhanging huge spurs, and the saw handles of two revolvers peeping from his blouse. His forehead was already a little bald, and he wore his long, grisly locks after the ancient fashion of the U.S., plaited and gathered up at the nape of the neck. He had the manner of a jovial, reckless, devil-may-care English ruffian. He pulled out a dollar and sent to the neighboring distillery for a bottle of Valley Tan. I joined him in a square drink, which means spirits without water. The mode of drinking was peculiar. Porter raised his glass with a cocked little finger to his lips, with the twinkle of the eye, yelled wheat, that is to say good, and drained the tumbler to the bottom.

When Porter wasn't entertaining visiting explorers, he stayed busy with his work as a deputy marshal for Utah Territory. When a prosperous freighter named Frank Carrick had eight mules and an expensive stallion stolen from his camp, he sought Brigham Young's counsel in Salt Lake City. Young recommended the expertise of the man he affectionately called Old Port. Together, Porter Rockwell and Frank Carrick tracked the mules, spotting the animals and the thieves camped near a stream. Rockwell soon leveled a pair of snub-nosed colts at the thieves,

which ensured they surrendered without a fight. As a token of gratitude, Carrick rewarded Rockwell with $500 and a special delivery from California, a nickel-tooled saddle and a gallon of the best whiskey in Sacramento. Carrick was amused by Rockwell's reaction. I heard later, Carrick wrote, that he was vastly more interested in the whiskey than the saddle. On the final day of 1861, a posse led by Rockwell confronted the outlaw Lot Huntington and his accomplices. Following a series of thefts, Huntington and his gang of bandits became wanted men. Rockwell and his associates, informed of the suspect's location, laid an ambush at a mail station.

As Huntington attempted to flee on a stolen mare, Rockwell issued a final warning. Huntington raised his pistol, and Rockwell opened fire with his colt, and the outlaw died moments later. The other two outlaws surrendered, and Rockwell brought the men to stand trial. But shortly after he handed the pair over to police, gunfire rang out from where officers had taken the two captives. Porter ran to investigate. He found the prisoners dead, captives. Porter ran to investigate. He found the prisoners dead, with an officer claiming they had tried to escape. Accounts of the deaths of the prisoners stirred skepticism in the community,

notably from Porter's friend and fellow mail carrier Bill Hickman. Hickman dismissed the escape narrative due to the nature of the wounds on the prisoners. He noted that they were both powder-burned, meaning they were shot at close range, and one was shot in the face. He wondered how those things could be true if the prisoners had been running away to escape. As had been the case so many times before, there were many who blamed every violent death in Utah on the man whom some called Son of Thunder and others called Destroying Angel. But just like Rockwell's hotel business, his work as a mail carrier also thrived,

and placed him in dangerous and controversial settings. By the summer of 1862, six months after the suspicious deaths of the two bandit prisoners, Rockwell was handling five mail routes. The initial contract had been given to another man, but with increased threats from Shoshone war parties disrupting the Overland mail route, Porter was placed in charge. Brigham Young assured politicians in Washington that with Rockwell in place, Utah's militia could protect the mail line and deal with the Indian threats. The Shoshone, like the Ute and the Paiute tribes in the area, were being displaced by Mormon settlers. Though the official policy of Brigham Young and the church was to,

quote, feed instead of fight, the settlers' use of the land for farming and grazing their livestock pushed native tribes further and further onto land that couldn't produce the food that they needed to survive. As Shoshone raids intensified, tensions escalated. While the Civil War raged in the East, President Lincoln was worried that California would be cut off from the Union. He authorized Young to form a cavalry company to protect mail service, leading to the arrival of Colonel Patrick Edward Connor and the California Volunteers.

Despite initial successes, the Volunteers faced brutal conditions and fierce resistance. The next few months saw an increase in violence, the unjust hanging of a Shoshone youth who was accused of stealing horses, brutal attacks on settler companies near Fort Hall, the Utter Party Massacre, where 29 people on the Oregon Trail were killed or captured, and a confrontation in Providence Canyon in which many Shoshone were killed and their chief bear hunter was captured. Six months of escalating attacks culminated in a battle in January 1863. At dawn on January 29, 1863, Connor's men launched a surprise attack on the Shoshone, who were entrenched in a fortified position on the Bear River. Despite the element of surprise, the battle quickly turned

into a prolonged and bloody engagement. The artillery that was meant to support the troops was stuck in a snowbank, and temperatures hovered around 20 below zero. The Shoshone warriors mounted a fierce resistance, exploiting the natural defensiveness of their position within the ravine. The California volunteers struggled to cross the frozen river in the sub-zero winds that whipped along the water. By the time they regrouped and flanked the Shoshone, 14 soldiers were dead and another 49 were wounded. But the troopers had superior numbers, and they eventually overwhelmed the Shoshone. When the fighting stopped, more than 250 Shoshone men, women, and children were dead, and more than 150 were wounded or captured.

The California volunteers called it the Battle of Bear River. The Shoshone called it the Bear River Massacre. It was the most deadly massacre of Native Americans by military troops for 34 years, until nearly 300 Lakota were killed at Wounded Knee. With the battle over, Colonel Conner's attention turned to his troops, many of whom were showing signs of frostbite. Porter Rockwell, weary from tracking the Shoshone and from the fight, mounted his horse and raced to commandeer Mormon horses and sleighs to bring the wounded soldiers to safety. Connor credited the scout with saving his soldiers,

and the two men grew close. Some sources claim that Porter confided in his new friend that he did, in fact, try to assassinate Lilburn Boggs in Missouri. Supposedly, he told the colonel, I shot through the window, and I thought I had killed him, but I had only wounded him. I was damned sorry that I had not killed the son of a bitch. As the year progressed, more examples came to light of Rockwell's dual personas. In April 1863, Rockwell joined Connor to track an Indian raiding party. A Mormon man who saw Rockwell at the time said, Porter Rockwell seemed, at the time, to be slightly intoxicated.

I thought him almost silly with drink and had little respect for him. Sometime later, the man was granted an interview with Brigham Young and was surprised to find Porter Rockwell at the meeting. The man had a new take on Rockwell. He was well-dressed in a black broadcloth suit, wore neatly polished shoes, and a black silk hat. His language was free and grammatical. I concluded then that Rockwell lived a double life in the interest of his friends and God's cause on earth. I will ever remember him with esteem.

remember him with esteem. By June of 1863, Porter had moved his family back to Salt Lake City, where he met a man named Fitzhugh Ludlow, a writer who would eventually pen a book about his impressions of Utah and the LDS church called The Heart of the Continent. Ludlow wrote, Next to Brigham Young, Porter Rockwell was the most interesting man and problem that I encountered in Utah. If he had been converted to Methodism in his early times, instead of Mormonism, he might have been preaching and pummeling his enemies into the kingdom, instead of shooting them to kingdom come. No one ignorant of his career would take him on site for a man of bad disposition in any sense. But he was that most terrible instrument which can be handled by fanaticism, a powerful physical nature welded to a mind of very narrow perceptions, intense convictions,

and a changeless tenacity. Ludlow then perpetrated the myth that will surround Rockwell forever. Porter Rockwell has slain his 40 men. This is historical. His probable private victims amount to as many more. But Ludlow concluded with this statement, I found him one of the pleasantest murderers I ever met. I found him one of the pleasantest murderers I ever met. The dichotomy of Porter Rockwell's life continued to play out over the last years of his life. In August of 1866, Porter and his wife Marianne welcomed their sixth child, a boy they named Joseph. But there were complications, and Marianne's heart gave out a month later. Baby Joseph's death followed his mother's by two weeks. In the months that followed,

while he mourned the loss of his wife and child, Porter was whispered to be the perpetrator of a pair of gruesome murders. Dr. John King Robinson, a respected non-Mormon citizen and the first superintendent of the Gentile Sunday School in Utah, was killed near his home on October 22, 1866 amid a property dispute with Brigham Young. Two months later, the body of a black man, Thomas Colburn, was found with his throat cut and a note pinned to his chest that warned against miscegenation. Rumors circulated that Mr. Colburn was going to provide, quote, important evidence regarding homicides in the territory, including the murder of Dr. Robinson. Stories of Rockwell's involvement in both murders played into the narrative of Rockwell as a man who was willing to eliminate perceived enemies of the church. But the accounts, like many others

surrounding Rockwell, were mixtures of rumor, suspicion, and his violent reputation, rather than reports that were supported with concrete evidence of his involvement. The events of the next several years underscored Porter's complex role as both a law enforcer and a figure of controversy. On December 18, 1868, he helped capture 18-year-old Chauncey Millard, a notorious murderer. The next year, in 1869, he led a posse to pursue and eventually kill an outlaw named Albert Hawes, who was wanted for the murder of a U.S. Marshal. But then, a year later, when he was nearly 60 years old and still a heavy drinker, Porter had to post a $500 bond after he was involved in a bar fight.

The following year, in November of 1871, Rockwell was indicted for his alleged role in the Aiken Party murders back in 1857. But it would be another five years before the matter came to a head. During the interval, a trial was finally held regarding the Mountain Meadows Massacre. On September 20, 1876, one day before the Younger Brothers were caught in Minnesota after two weeks on the run following the Northfield Raid, a jury of Mormon men convicted John D. Lee of murder in the first degree. Lee was one of the commanders of the militia at Mountain Meadows, and all the blame for the killings had been heaped onto him. Six months later, Lee was executed and buried at Mountain Meadows.

By the time of the trial, Lee had been excommunicated from the church, and Brigham Young had declined to speak in his defense. Five months after Lee's execution, on August 29, 1877, Brigham Young, second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died in Salt Lake City. Porter Rockwell had outlived both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and exactly one month after Young's death, Rockwell was arrested for his involvement in the murders of John Aiken and his party. It had been 20 years since the murders, and 19 years since a U.S. marshal tried

to arrest Rockwell the first time. Porter spent a week in jail before his friends gathered $15,000 to pay his bail. A trial date was set for the following year, in October of 1878. On June 8, 1878, four months before his trial, Porter and his daughter Mary went to see the final performance of a play at the Salt Lake Theater. When the play was finished, he walked his daughter home and then headed to his favorite tavern, where he spent an hour enjoying a few drinks. Returning to his office at the Colorado stables after midnight, Porter fell asleep. A few hours later, he woke up and complained to a hostler that he felt cold and nauseous. He insisted that he had to go home and sat up on the edge of the bed. He had just pulled on his

boots when he collapsed back onto the bed and fell unconscious. A doctor hurried to the stables and attempted to revive him, but his efforts were in vain. Oren Porter Rockwell passed away at the age of 64, three weeks before his 65th birthday. When Rockwell's body was prepared for burial, the clothes he wore testified to his turbulent life. They were riddled with bullet holes and stitched from old knife attacks, but his daughter, who helped prepare her father for burial, noted that there wasn't a single mark of injury on Rockwell's body. At the time of his passing, Rockwell left behind a church and a world that had been irrevocably shaped by his actions. a church and a world that had been irrevocably shaped by his actions. His name, synonymous with the raw edge of frontier justice, also echoed through the halls of his church as a symbol of

unwavering commitment and protection. Rockwell was a paradox, a man who could be a servant of his church and its prophet, and also stand accused of heinous acts. When the curtain fell on Rockwell's storied life, the legacy he left behind remained as complex and contested as the man himself, a figure etched into the mythology of the Old West, who straddled the line between sinner and saint. Next time on Legends of the Old West, we finally return to the saga of the Texas Rangers. When we last heard from the Rangers, we focused on early legends John Coffey Hayes,

Ben McCullough, Samuel Colt, Bigfoot Wallace, Rip Ford, and Sol Ross. Some of those men have moved on, but others are still around, And the next generation must navigate the Civil War and continue the struggle against bandits and Comanches. That's next time 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.