Willard Richards Escapes Carthage Jail Unharmed — Joseph Smith's Prophecy Fulfilled: Not One Hole in His Garment (June 27, 1844)

Willard Richards (1804–1854) was appointed as Joseph Smith's private secretary, general clerk, and recorder on December 13, 1841 — becoming one of the closest men to the Prophet in his final years. He was also ordained an Apostle in 1840 in England. He had converted just eight years earlier, having read the Book of Mormon and then traveled 700 miles to Ohio to meet Joseph Smith. He was baptized by Brigham Young on New Year's Eve, 1836.

Approximately one year before the martyrdom, Joseph Smith made a remarkable prophecy about Willard Richards. In the presence of witnesses, and according to the History of the Church, Joseph declared: "The time would come that the balls would fly around [Willard] like hail, and he should see his friends fall on the right and on the left, but that there should not be a hole in his garment."

On June 27, 1844, at Carthage Jail, the prophecy was fulfilled with stunning precision. A mob of approximately 200 men stormed the jail. Within the room were Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, and Willard Richards.

Hyrum Smith was shot in the face and died. Joseph Smith was shot multiple times and fell from the window to his death. John Taylor was shot five times — in the thigh, the wrist, the knee, and the hip, leaving him barely alive.

And Willard Richards — a very large man of over 300 pounds, and the largest physical target in the room — emerged from the attack with only a single ball that grazed the tip of his left ear. That was his only injury. In a shower of musket balls flying from the door and the windows, he was miraculously preserved. Not one hole in his garment.

Section 135 of the Doctrine and Covenants, written by Richards himself immediately after the martyrdom, records: "Richards' escape was miraculous; he being a very large man, and in the midst of a shower of balls, yet he stood unscathed, with the exception of a ball which grazed his ear."

Joseph's prophecy had been fulfilled to the letter. Richards then helped carry John Taylor to safety, covered him with a mattress in anticipation of a second attack, wrote the first historical account of the martyrdom, sent the message to Nauvoo ("Be still, be patient"), arranged for the bodies to be transported, and became the primary eyewitness historian of one of the most sacred events in Church history. That he was the sole survivor of the four men in that room — exactly as Joseph had foretold — was recognized immediately by the Saints as a fulfillment of divine prophecy.