Attempted assassination of Lilburn Boggs

The attempted assassination of Lilburn Boggs was an attempted murder of former Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs on May 6, 1842 in his home in Independence, Missouri.

Lilburn Boggs was the sixth Governor of Missouri from 1836 to 1840.

In the aftermath of the 1838 Mormon War which saw armed conflict between Missouri State Guard and a Mormon militia, Governor Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44, known by Mormons as the "Extermination Order", branding Mormons "enemies [who] must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace".

On the rainy evening of May 6, 1842, Boggs was shot by an unknown party who fired at him through a window as he read a newspaper in his study. Boggs was hit by large buckshot in four places: two balls were lodged in his skull, another lodged in his neck, and a fourth entered his throat, whereupon Boggs swallowed it. Boggs was severely injured. Several doctors—Boggs' brother among them—pronounced Boggs as good as dead; at least one newspaper ran an obituary. To everyone's great surprise, Boggs not only survived, but gradually improved.

The crime was investigated by Sheriff J.H. Reynolds, who discovered a revolver at the scene, still loaded with buckshot. He surmised that the suspect had fired upon Boggs and lost his firearm in the dark rainy night when the weapon recoiled due to its unusually large shot. The gun had been stolen from a local shopkeeper, who identified "that hired man of Ward's" as the "most likely culprit".

News of the attack reached Nauvoo around May 14.

On May 21, the Quincy Whig reported that "There are several rumors in circulation ... one of which throws the crime upon the Mormons—from the fact, we suppose, that Mr. Boggs was governor at the time, and no small degree instrumental in driving them from the State. Smith ... prophesied a year or so ago, his death by violent means."

Some Mormons saw the assassination attempt positively: An anonymous contributor to The Wasp, a pro-Mormon newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois wrote on May 28 that "Boggs is undoubtedly killed according to report; but who did the noble deed remains to be found out."

The Sangamo Journal published by John C. Bennett, a recently excommunicated Mormon who, prior to the assassination, had served as mayor of Nauvoo, Major General of the Nauvoo Legion, and Chancellor of the University of Nauvoo.

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