New book, DVD focus on LDS and Old West icon Porter Rockwell

Provo Herald Extra ^ | June 13, 2010 | Cody Clark

[Colofornian]

Lehi resident John Rockwell has a last name that's either famous or infamous. It depends on who you ask. Rockwell is the great-great-grandson of Old West icon Orrin Porter Rockwell, who died at age 65 132 years ago this month. Porter Rockwell is known for being the lifelong friend and, as an adult, the personal bodyguard, of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith.

Or his detractors might tell you that he's known for being a dissolute, murderous, lawless gunslinger. Because Porter Rockwell never learned to read or write, his story was being told in other people's words even before he'd died. So although many of the details of his life have been documented, people are still arguing about who he really was, and what he really did.

Ask John Rockwell, 61 and a retired high school history teacher, what is the biggest, most enduring misconception people have about his legendary ancestor, and you'll get a ready answer. "How many people he killed," Rockwell said.

That figure is still growing, actually. Rockwell, who co-authored the new book "Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell" with Jerry Borrowman -- both men signed copies at a promotional event in Lehi on Wednesday -- said he remembers listening to a news report a few years ago about the dedication of a Porter Rockwell statue at a business park near Point of the Mountain. One of the people interviewed was the artist who had crafted the statue.

The artist, Rockwell said, told the interviewer that Porter had killed "more than 200 men in the name of the church." As Rockwell put it, even an 1878 editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune that characterized the heart-attack death of Porter Rockwell as having cheated the hangman of a "worthy candidate" attributed only half that many deaths to the man sometimes called Mormonism's destroying angel.

Borrowman said that the late Harold Schindler, author of the Porter Rockwell biography "Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder," put the number at a much less sensational 18. Even if you include unproven allegations, Rockwell said, the number only goes up to about 24.

"There aren't nearly as many dead bodies as people think there are," Borrowman said.

Rockwell said that the only time Porter Rockwell killed other men was in self-defense, in defense of others, or in the performance of his duties as a peace officer. "Porter was a deputy marshal for the Utah Territory from 1849 until his death," Rockwell said, a period of nearly 30 years.

A section in "Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell" titled "Porter and the Gunslingers" details three separate instances of Porter Rockwell's killing a man. On one occasion, a gunfighter from California ambushed Porter near Lehi, hoping to win a bet by killing him. On another occasion, a freight driver argued with Porter at a saloon Porter owned near Point of the Mountain, then hid on the road to Lehi and jumped him as he headed home. Porter got the best of both attackers.

The third account describes Porter Rockwell tracking an outlaw to a homestead near Camp Floyd. The man he'd been following surprised Porter by answering his knock at the door, fired several shots at Porter at close range and then fled. Unhurt, Porter hurried to his wagon, took out a rifle and shot the fleeing bandit.

An enduring legend

The authors hope that their book will settle some of the disputes about Porter Rockwell by presenting only accounts based on historical research. Rockwell has heard plenty of misinformation over the years, but it sometimes still surprises him. "I've always been amazed," he said, "at people's ability to hang on to what they've heard in the face of facts."

"Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell" was published in May, along with a companion DVD of the same title, by American Fork-based Covenant Communications. There's no shortage of books about Porter Rockwell already on the market, but the newest one was greeted with an enthusiastic response: Covenant publicist Kelly Smurthwaite said that more than 20,000 copies of the book and DVD were sold just in the first couple of days after publication.

Both Rockwell and Borrowman signed copies of the book on Wednesday at Porter's Place, a popular steak house in Lehi that serves, among other delicacies, a burger dubbed The Destroying Angel that has a one-pound patty.There's also anoutdoor statue of the city's most famous resident near the Lehi Legacy Center.

Rockwell said that he thinks the fascination is because the book's primary audience, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recognize Porter Rockwell as one of their own while being drawn to the apparent contradictions in his lifestyle at the same time.

"He evokes in members of the church a character that is not only one of faith and loyalty to the church," Rockwell said, "but who also does not fit within the stereotypical norm as a Mormon male." And there's also the allure of a bygone era. "He evokes the folk hero," Rockwell said. "As many have said to me, 'We can't be like him anymore.' He would not fit in today, either in the church or in modern society."

And, of course, Porter Rockwell acted out what was probably a strong, yet suppressed impulse among many early Latter-day Saints, dishing out some payback to early enemies of the church. "Mormons are taught to turn the other cheek," said Jacob Hoehne, producer and co-director, with Jared Cook and David Swanson, of the "Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell" DVD.

By contrast with most other examples held up to Latter-day Saints, Hoehne said, "He wasn't going to let people push him around." Most church members, on the other hand, Hoehne said, "don't really have the Indiana Jones action-adventure life."

The other source of fascination for most Latter-day Saints, Borrowman said, is the promise made to Porter Rockwell by Smith that no bullet or knife would harm him if, like the Biblical hero Samson, he would refrain from cutting his hair. "Whether that was literally true or not," Borrowman said, "Porter believed it was true. He would charge into situations that most people would back away from."

A lifelong defender of the faith

Most Latter-day Saints are familiar with the adult Porter Rockwell, who was unswervingly loyal to Joseph Smith the Mormon prophet, but the relationship between the two men actually went all the way back to their childhood years. Rockwell said that the several-years-older Smith was drawn to the boy Porter Rockwell because Porter walked with a limp.

Smith had a limp as well, the result of undergoing surgery at age 8 to remove infected bone (Porter Rockwell limped after breaking a leg at age 9). The Rockwell and Smith families had become acquainted after the Smiths moved to Palmyra, N.Y., in 1819, and there was a strong bond between them. "The entire Rockwell family was at the meeting on April 6, 1830, when the church was officially organized," Rockwell said.

Porter Rockwell, then age 16, was the ninth person to be baptized following the organization of the church. Hoehne said that Porter Rockwell's devotion to the church had started even before his baptism, when he earned money by chopping wood and picking berries, and gave some of it to Smith to assist in the printing of the Book of Mormon (published on March 26, 1830).

Rockwell was one of a very few confidantes of Smith who never had any sort of falling out with the early Mormon leader. He advanced gradually in the church's lay priesthood, becoming a deacon at age 25 and later a seventy (a position in the LDS priesthood that was discontinued in recent decades).

For Borrowman, learning those kinds of details about Porter Rockwell was one of the more rewarding aspects of working with Rockwell on "Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell." Before participating in the project, Borrowman said, he had always taken a dim view of Porter Rockwell.

"I had sort of a negative attitude," Borrowman said. "I had heard he was a cold-blooded murderer. I saw him as kind of an ominous character." Not anymore.

For Rockwell, the book is just the latest opportunity to stick up for the family name. "I've been giving firesides for nearly 30 years about Porter," Rockwell said. Now the stories he knows will still be around after the firesides have become someone else's responsibility.

Stories from the Life of Porter Rockwell"

BOOK

Authors: John Rockwell and Jerry Borrowman

Length: 166 pages

Date of publication: May 3, 2010

Publisher: Covenant Communications (American Fork)

DVD

Directors: Jared Cook, David Swanson, Jacob Hoehne

Featuring: Richard Purdy as Porter Rockwell

Length: 60 minutes

[Colofornian]

From the article: The artist...told the interviewer that Porter had killed "more than 200 men in the name of the church." As Rockwell put it, even an 1878 editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune that characterized the heart-attack death of Porter Rockwell as having cheated the hangman of a "worthy candidate" attributed only half that many deaths to the man sometimes called Mormonism's destroying angel.

From another article published in the Salt Lake magazine re: an establishment named after Rockwell: ...he earned a nickname as the “Destroying Angel” for an alleged attempt on the life of Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs...Four years before the attempt on Boggs’ life, Smith prophesied that “The exterminator [Boggs] should be exterminated, and the Destroying Angel will do it by the right hand of his power.” No one knows if Smith specifically ordered Rockwell to kill Boggs, or if Rockwell took it upon himself, nor even if he was indeed the gunman. He was, however, in Independence, Mo., at the time of the shooting and allegedly, years later in Utah, told U.S. General Patrick Connor, “I shot through the window and 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.” Rockwell was jailed for nine months, but a grand jury failed to indict him and he returned to Nauvoo, Ill., a hero. (Source: http://www.saltlakemagazine.com/Salt-Lake-Magazine/May-2010/Porter-rsquos-Persistence/)

One mentions a revenge assassination by Rockwell of a militia leader (revenge over the gun-battle deaths of the Smith brothers) [See http://books.google.com/books?id=YJUl0TzsKkIC&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=%22porter+rockwell%22+%22rockwell+murdered%22&source=bl&ots=HUXPgNJ5lL&sig=auvHJhQh5__6F3hV_Mv97OkyJ1k&hl=en&ei=v-AUTIugPJ3iM5i0hPUN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22porter%20rockwell%22%20%22rockwell%20murdered%22&f=false]

One person, after seeing a Utah office building go up with Rockwell's name, wrote a letter-to-the-editor of the Salt Lake Tribune and it was published June 14,1999. It said, in part: Porter Rockwell is also believed to have killed Dr. J. King Robinson, a surgeon who came into the Salt Lake valley in 1861 with General Conner's army. Robinson married a Mormon woman, Nellie Kay, and practiced medicine until Oct. 22, 1866, when he was called out of his house at night. Within blocks of his house he was clubbed and shot to death simply because he had filed a claim of ownership on what was later known as Wasatch Springs. Robinson is buried in the Fort Douglas cemetery. None of Porter Rockwell's murders were more unjustifiable than the killing of Kenneth and Alexander McRae, who were 18 and 21 years old. It was reported they had stolen a mule though no mule was missing or in their possession when Rockwell and a "deputy" blasted them with shotguns in Emigration Canyon on Aug. 30, 1861, and later dumped their bodies in the mother's yard. Again, I am appalled that a building could be named after this cowardly murderer.

So a cowardly murderer gets prominent Mormon play even today. From the article: "He evokes the folk hero," Rockwell said. "As many have said to me, 'We can't be like him anymore.' He would not fit in today, either in the church or in modern society."

Hmmmm...what a 'tough' question. Would a mass murderer "fit in" in today's culture?

Yeah, people are want to assign big differences, "19th century times were different..."

But they revise history in doing so. They portray 19th century people as lax on crime, when in fact, people were hung for stealing horses -- usually after trials, not before. IOW, certain crimes were often overdone, not given undertreatment. Even Rockwell was given justification for shooting supposed mule thieves -- though no proof was given they stole the mule!

Besides, even if people now try to assign a "wild west sense of 'times were different then'" mentality, they forget one little thing: Religious leaders were supposed to be men "of the cloth," not mass murderers. And this article mentions that Rockwell...

...was one of a very few confidantes of Smith who never had any sort of falling out with the early Mormon leader. He advanced gradually in the church's lay priesthood, becoming a deacon at age 25 and later a seventy (a position in the LDS priesthood that was discontinued in recent decades).

[Colofornian]

The co-author of this new book said in this article: "I had sort of a negative attitude," Borrowman said. "I had heard he was a cold-blooded murderer. I saw him as kind of an ominous character." Not anymore.

(That's what happens under the common Mormon approach to history. Why, if you don't like it, just revise it!)

[Utah Binger]

And I am certainly glad that finally a totally objective account of this wonderful and honorable icon is being published by an unapologetic relative of the killer.

[Colofornian]

And I am certainly glad that finally a totally objective account of this wonderful and honorable icon is being published by an unapologetic relative of the killer.

LOL

(Well, ya know, things "develop..."...)
...like...
...A restaurant gets named after your relative...
...At the restaurant -- and in other Mormon media, "folk hero" status develops...
...maybe the author was tired of having his reputation linked to a mass murderer...
...who was also known for his drinking...
...and so, he wanted to present the "halo" side of Rockwell...
...you know, the side where he could mention the few killings which were justified...
...the fact that he was a "seventy"...
...the fact, that "Hey, at least he didn't argue and have a falling out with Joseph Smith like every single other Mormon leader!"

[Zakeet]

The artist, Rockwell said, told the interviewer that Porter had killed "more than 200 men in the name of the church." As Rockwell put it, even an 1878 editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune that characterized the heart-attack death of Porter Rockwell as having cheated the hangman of a "worthy candidate" attributed only half that many deaths to the man sometimes called Mormonism's destroying angel.

The number of murder victims usually attributed to Port is 150. Notably, the number excludes the 36 soldiers who died at Fort Bridger during the winter of 1857-58 (mostly from scurvy) after a Mormon army led by Port destroyed their supplies, and it excludes any of the more than 400 Indians killed at the Bear River Massacre after Port let the U.S. Army to their campgrounds. Nor does the total include Port's near murder of Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs.

Port's death, usually attributed to natural causes coincidentally came about 10 days before the start of his scheduled trial for several counts of murder. Port was drinking heavily at the time (and tended to talk when drunk), and was seeking a plea bargain with the federal prosecutors. Many feel that either circumstance was more than enough to ensure he was used up, probably by poison.

[Colofornian]

Oh, and one more thing...

...things develop the other way, too. I mean, if you had a relative whose reputation had grown so that he was now being linked to 200 murders, when his victim count was "only" 100, wouldn't you try to clear his name of those "extra" developing 100 body count total, too?

[Colofornian]

The number of murder victims usually attributed to Port is 150. Notably, the number excludes the 36 soldiers who died at Fort Bridger during the winter of 1857-58 (mostly from scurvy) after a Mormon army led by Port destroyed their supplies, and it excludes any of the more than 400 Indians killed at the Bear River Massacre after Port let the U.S. Army to their campgrounds. Nor does the total include Port's near murder of Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs.

So, then, the Q is...what % of these were likely "justified" killings?

(Of course, even this word "justification" begs the question...as when you're dealing with Mormon historical revisionists, you need to carefully define that term...lest accused mule thieves -- minus the mules -- become "justifiable" gun targets...or, for that matter, revenge assassinations in Nauvoo and Independence...)

[Zakeet]

you need to carefully define that term...lest accused mule thieves -- minus the mules -- become "justifiable" gun targets...or, for that matter, revenge assassinations in Nauvoo and Independence...

It is my understanding that the Missouri killings (in Caldwell County north of Independence) during the First Mormon Civil War (Bancroft's term) and the Illinois killings in Nauvoo during the Second Mormon Civil War (again, Bancroft's term), better known as the Succession Crisis were but a small portion of Port's total.

Rockwell reached the pinnacle of his killing career in Utah, particularly during Brigham's 1853-54 cleansings, the four more Mormon Civil Wars (again, Bancroft's term), the Utah War of 1857, and the period of time between the forced installation of governor Alfred Cumming (and forced ouster of Brigham Young) in 1858 and five years or so before Port's death in 1878.

[lurk]

Fascinating person, Porter Rockwell. I read one of his bios. For his friends, he would travel around the world to do a favor. For his enemies, he would travel around the world to kill. Very capable and resilient.

A friend and I studied Greek once a month in his restaurant, Porter’s place.

[greyfoxx39]

Incidentally, we've had a couple of FReepers use old Porter's name for a handle...one is Porter Rockwell, and there was another variation posted just a short while back.

[greyfoxx39]

The number of murder victims usually attributed to Port is 150. Notably, the number excludes the 36 soldiers who died at Fort Bridger during the winter of 1857-58 (mostly from scurvy) after a Mormon army led by Port destroyed their supplies, and it excludes any of the more than 400 Indians killed at the Bear River Massacre after Port let the U.S. Army to their campgrounds. Nor does the total include Port's near murder of Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs.

Imagine! And to this day, we have mormons wailing and gnashing their teeth over persecution of mormons!

I guess Ol' Port wasn't in on Mountain Meadows?

[Colofornian]

Imagine! And to this day, we have mormons wailing and gnashing their teeth over persecution of mormons!

Exactly.

Gamecock posted this article on FR in July 2008: Violence in Early Mormonism - Was It All Unjust Persecution?

There's two especially highly relevant excerpts from that article:

#1:

[Author had just cited Lds apostle Bruce McConkie]: McConkie's dramatic rhetoric fails to take into account the fact that the Haun's Mill massacre took place just one week after the battle of Crooked River. [Former BYU History professor] Quinn writes: "A generally unacknowledged dimension of both the extermination order and the Haun's Mill massacre, however, is that they resulted from Mormon actions in the Battle of Crooked River. Knowingly or not, Mormons had attacked state troops, and this had a cascade effect… upon receiving news of the injuries and death of state troops at Crooked River, Governor Boggs immediately drafted his extermination order on 27 October 1838 because the Mormons 'have made war upon the people of this state.' Worse, the killing of one Missourian and mutilation of another while he was defenseless at Crooked River led to the mad-dog revenge by Missourians in the slaughter at Haun's Mill" (Origins of Power, p.100).

#2:

If violence against a certain faith were the only way to determine truth, then certainly the Mormons themselves would have to recognize that our Christian faith was just as viable as theirs. Can a Mormon, off the top of his head, recall when the last Mormon was killed just because he was a Mormon? Certainly we have heard of Mormons being tragically killed while serving missions, but these cases involve circumstances other than true martyrdom (robberies, car accidents, being mistaken for CIA agents, etc). On the other hand, it is not uncommon to hear of Christians around the world who are being killed because they refuse to denounce their belief that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. While martyrdom seems to be a thing of the past for the Mormons, it is a common occurrence among those who have placed their total trust in the Jesus of the Bible.” (Bill McKeever)

[SkyPilot]

A pity that Old Mountain Man isn't around here to sing the praises of his favorite Mormon mass murderer.

Old Mountain man - This account has been banned or suspended.

REALITY: Mass murderer who looked like he was possessed

LDS FICTION: Christ-like figure

[Tennessee Nana]

Those 3 unarmed men who escaped from the Mountain Meadows Massacre in which 140 UNARMED AND UBTHREATENING men, women, children and babes-in-arms were murdered by the mormons..

They were hunted down like animals and slaughtered to silence them and leave no witnesses...

Wasnt it Rockwell who did that ???

[Tennessee Nana]

John Gunnison and his group of army surveyors...

[Utah Binger]

Changed my tag line earlier today to describe lightweight local politicians.

[Elsie]

... members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recognize Porter Rockwell as one of their own while being drawn to the apparent contradictions in his lifestyle at the same time.

Golly!

Sounds like the Joseph Smith saga as well!

[Elsie]

(That's what happens under the common Mormon approach to history. Why, if you don't like it, just revise it!)

Or, as with the book MORMON Doctrine by Bruce McConkie, just quit PUBLISHING it...

[Elsie]

Who was that fellow bumped from FR after repeatedly sending us ANTI’s sly inuendoes about Porter?

[Elsie]

Yeah!

OMM was the guy!

He had his moments when he was fairly lucid.

Moments... He DID have a problem with Billy Graham and Baptists in general.