After the death of Joseph Smith by shooting in 1844, Porter Rockwell served as personal bodyguard to the new leader of the Mormon faith, Brigham Young.

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Controversy continued to follow Rockwell, with the gunslinger accused of a revenge killing shortly after being deputized. Porter shot and killed Frank Worrell, a local vagabond who also happened to be the militia member in charge of protecting Joseph Smith on the day of Smith's murder.

The most damning incident involving Rockwell concerns the death of two Californian settlers tasked with taking supplies to U.S. troops stationed in the Utah Territory during the Winter of 1857. Porter and several other men opened fire on the settlers, with John and William Aiken shot and killed in the ambush.

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Porter Rockwell would spend the rest of his life, nearly twenty years, awaiting trial and punishment for the Aiken murders. The Salt Lake Tribune cast the deaths of over a hundred men into the hands Porter Rockwell, but without a detailed accounting. James Coates, the author of In Mormon Circles, pegs the number a little lower, at fifty to one hundred.

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Life did not consist solely of violent shoot-outs for Rockwell. He owned and operated a hotel and brewery in Salt Lake Valley area. The building continues to carry Rockwell’s name and now serves as a restaurant.

Despite this violent life, Rockwell received a peaceful death, passing away due to natural causes in his mid-60s in his adopted hometown of Salt Lake City.

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Top image via Robert Bouse-Baker/Flickr. The original copy of the photograph of Porter Rockwell shown is now held in the Harold B. Library at Brigham Young University, and the image is within the PD. Image of Porter's Place is via Jotor/Flickr and is within CC. YouTube clip is from the 2010 documentary Stories From the Life of Porter Rockwell.