In the June 11, 1877, issue of The Salt Lake Tribune, there were two reports of the death of Orrin Rockwell Porter. In the second, “Death of Porter Rockwell,” there is mention of the prophecy, attributed to Joseph Smith, that Rockwell would remain alive if he kept his hair uncut (cf. Joseph Smith's Prophetic Advice to Orrin Porter Rockwell):
AN EXTREMELY IGNORANT MAN
Porter Rockwell was an extremely ignorant, illiterate man, being
unable to write his own name, and was as superstitious as a savage. He was a
firm believer in ghosts, witches, evil spirits and spooks, as well as in the
revelations of Joe Smith and the divinity of the utterances of the Mormon high
priests and prophets. It was he who shot Governor Boggs in the early troubles
of the Mormon Church in Missouri, for which service to the cause Joe Smith
declared upon the Sampson of the Church, and promised him, in the name of the
Lord, that if he would never allow his hair and whiskers to be cut, the bullet
of his enemies should be turned aside, and wicked, designing men should never
prevail against him. Rockwell, therefore, always wore his hair long and a full
beard, both of which, however, were thin, as well as gray. He wore his hair in
two braids, tied up with two small ribbons across the back of his head or a
loop with his ears. (“Death of Porter
Rockwell,” The Salt Lake Tribune 15, no. 49 [June 11, 1877]: 2 [the
last clause if faint and partly uncertain])
