I am Ryan McKnight.

I'm Kara Santa Maria.

I am Christopher Smith.

Hi, I'm Andrew Torres.

This is Naked Mormonism.

The Serial Mormon History Podcast. Joseph Smith's childhood friend and a shadow enforcer, Oran pistol pack and Porter

Rockwell, was last known to be in Philadelphia when he dictated a letter to be sent to Joseph

Smith in December of 1842. Whether or not Joe replied to that letter is a fact lost to history, as no reply has ever been found or was ever recorded in his letter book.

1842 to 1843 was rough. It was a rough winter for Porter Rockwell. He'd taken lodging in a small apartment. He had worked for a man tending to horses,

but that was part-time labor that barely paid the bills with anything left over for, you know,

whiskey money, of course. However, Port had probably received word, as it was, you know, published

widely through national newspapers, that Joe had been released on his writ of habeas corpus

in January of 1843.

Port may have been so bold as to think that he could fare just as well, and he determined

that it was time to head back to the Kingdom on the Mississippi.

The details of this occurrence of what we're about to discuss, they're a bit clouded by uncertainty.

For this, I turn to Harold

Schindler's seminal biography of Porter Rockwell, titled Man of God, Son of Thunder. Now, just to let

you know, this book was published in 1966, which is a time when historians were able to,

let's just say, dramatize history and still have it be classified as history.

So needless to say, Hal made up some quotes and scenarios that the historical record simply can't verify

beyond just verifying that a certain person was at a certain place at a certain time.

...