ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL, Chapter 9 of Blood Atonement by
OGDEN KRAUT

ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL, Chapter 9 of B L O O D
A T O N E M E N T

by
OGDEN KRAUT

Page 121

But having been the vortex of controversy while he lived, it seems, somehow, only fitting that the same would be true after his passing Rockwell’s past has been distorted to incredible extremes by writers on two continents who transformed his name into a synonym for terror. (Harold Schindler, Preface to Orrin Porter Rockwell)

Orrin Porter Rockwell was a scout, pioneer, frontiersman, and a deputy marshal. His life and career became widely known by friend and foe throughout his colorful life. Only the wild west could contain such a man–a man desperately needed in that era of time. His was an adventurous life, and an antagonistic one, as every lawman well knows.

Lawless gunmen feared him; citizens were comforted by his presence. If he had not been a Mormon, he would have been considered not only as one of their best friends, but as one of the most famous western heroes in America.