Orrin P Rockwell

August 31, 1861, a major tragedy hit the family.  A mule had been stolen, and Kenneth, 21, and Alexander, 18, were suspected of having stolen it.  A warrant was issued for their arrest and Porter Rockwell adn a deputy sherisff were sent to Emigration Canyon to arrest them.  Rockwell reported to the authorities that the two boys had tried to escape.  Rockwell and the deputy claimed that they had fired at them with their shotguns to stop them, and both of them had been killed.  The two bodies were loaded into a wagon and were taken to the McRae home in the 11th Ward and dumped on Mrs. McRae's lawn.  Eunice denounced Porter Rockwell as a "bloody-handed murderer" and told the men that if she had a gun she would kill them.  One of them jokingly offered her his gun, but the other stopped him, telling him that she was receiving only her just deserts, and that if he did his duty she would be lying beside them.  He mounted his horse and rode away