Frank Worrell

Frank Worrell is portrayed as both a participant in the circumstances surrounding Joseph Smith’s death and a casualty of the reprisals that followed. A lieutenant in the Carthage Greys, he had been in charge of guarding the jail on the evening Joseph Smith was killed. The account later places him in a violent encounter with Porter Rockwell, amid escalating attacks on Mormon homes and farms in Hancock County.

Role in Joseph Smith’s Death

On the night Joseph Smith was killed, Worrell was responsible for the jail guard. He had also commanded militiamen who conspired to fire blank cartridges at the approaching mob and then step aside, leaving the attackers free to kill Joseph Smith. The account therefore connects Worrell not merely to the failed protection of the prisoner but to a deliberate effort to enable the attack.

Encounter with Porter Rockwell

On September 16, 1845, Porter Rockwell was traveling to help a Mormon family recover possessions from a burned home when he encountered Worrell. Worrell was on horseback, pursuing a local sheriff who had expressed sympathy for the Mormons. Rockwell shot him, and Worrell died. The episode brings Worrell’s earlier role in Joseph Smith’s killing into the later cycle of retaliation, as violence continued across the county.

Place in the Escalating Conflict

Worrell’s killing significantly worsened relations between Mormons and their adversaries. It occurred after anti-Mormon vigilantes had burned Mormon residences and farms, and was followed within days by the brutal killing of a young Gentile man suspected of burning Mormon homes. The narrative places Worrell’s death within this reciprocal violence, where earlier complicity and fresh acts of revenge helped push Hancock County toward the threat of civil war.