1842 - Former Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs, was shot in the head as he sat alone in his home in Independence, Missouri, by an unknown assassin.  He lingers on the edge of death but finally recovers from the wound.  At first a man named Tomklins is charged, but is later released.  Because he was Governor and signed the extermination order that forced the Saints to leave Missouri in the middle of winter, and it is learned that Orrin Porter Rockwell had recently been in Missouri, suspicion turned towards the Mormons, particularly the Prophet Joseph Smith.  The Prophet was accused of ordering Rockwell to go to Missouri to shoot Boggs.  Joseph immediately made a statement of innocence, but Boggs and the enemies of the Church continued to press charges until Joseph was arrested on August 8, 1842 as an "accessory before the fact."  The actual act of shooting was charged to Orrin P. Rockwell.  They secured a writ of habeas corpus through the Nauvoo Municipal Court and therefore, were released to the custody of the Nauvoo city marshal and not taken to Missouri to face the false charges.