Destroying Angel

“Destroying Angel” was a name given to Porter Rockwell by admiring Mormons, turning his feared reputation as a defender of the Church into a figure of religious legend. It signaled a violent understanding of loyalty: Rockwell was said to spill the blood of those who had wronged the Church, giving them an opportunity to atone. The related epithet “Mormon Samson” likewise cast him as a formidable champion, not merely a bodyguard.

Reputation and Meaning

Rockwell’s reputation was growing in 1842, when he was almost certainly the would-be assassin of former Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs. Boggs survived the shooting, and neither Rockwell nor any other Saint was brought to justice for it. The attempted killing nevertheless made the epithet resonate: the Destroying Angel’s violence was understood by many as connected to the Church’s history of prophecy and conflict, rather than as an ordinary crime.

The book distinguishes an explicit order from a broader religious expectation. Joseph Smith may not have instructed Rockwell to shoot Boggs, but among the faithful it was commonly understood as a Saint’s sacred duty to help fulfill prophecy when an opportunity arose. After the prophet had foretold Boggs’s death, Rockwell needed no further instruction. The name thus suggests a role authorized by belief and reputation, even when no direct command is established.

Service to Joseph Smith

By June 1844, the epithet accompanied Rockwell in a more publicly visible role as Joseph Smith’s staunch bodyguard and enforcer. After Smith was killed at Carthage Jail, Rockwell rode toward Nauvoo at full gallop and carried the news through the waking city. His arrival connected the image of the feared avenger with that of the devoted protector, now announcing the death of the prophet he had served.

The contrast is central to the expression’s force. “Destroying Angel” makes violence sound sacred and purposeful, while Rockwell’s loyalty places that violence within a personal bond to Joseph Smith and a community under threat. The name records how admirers could turn a suspected attempt on an enemy’s life into a legendary service to the Church, without resolving whether Smith had ordered it.