The Heslet Brothers in Grant County, New Mexico

By: Roy B. Young

Mention the names “Ike and Billy” and most students of the old west will automatically think of the two Clanton brothers who were involved in the infamous “Gunfight at the OK Corral” on October 26, 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. But, there were two other similarly named men involved in the outlaw saga that developed in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico during that same period of time. They were known as the Heslet brothers 1, Isaac and William, and their story is perhaps equally interesting to that of the more famous Clantons.

Who were the Heslet brothers? Honest ranchmen?

Heslet Ranch

John Heslet and Elizabeth Andrews

Heslet ranch title deed details

About 1869, the John Heslet family joined with John’s brother Jacob Heslet and his family and immigrated to Shawnee County, Kansas where they settled first in the Tecumseh community and later in the Silver Lake community. Here, Isaac and William grew up and attended the public schools.7 John Heslet was active in community affairs and was one of the first directors of the Silver Lake Cemetery Association.8 The boy’s mother died on January 23, 1876 in Silver Lake. Shortly, their father married Mrs. Annie M. Ward.9 No further information on the early lives of the two young men in Kansas has been found.

A letter from the Heslet boys father, on file in the Arizona State Library10 indicates that the two brothers were in New Mexico by 1877 or early 1878. With their mother dead and their father having married a widow with other children, much speculation could arise as to how these circumstances may have precipitated the desire of Ike and Billy to go west.11

In 1880, William is shown on the federal census of Grant County, New Mexico as a 25 year old “Batchelor” miner.12 Isaac does not appear with his younger brother on this enumeration and his whereabouts are unknown. However, within a year the two would become well-known as southwestern Grant County ranchers and cowmen.

The brothers purchased and settled on some ranch land in the Animas Valley, south of the community of Eureka (later to be known as Hachita or Old Hachita), which was said to be in an especially fine valley for grazing cattle. Cochise County, Arizona justice of the peace and Tombstone city councilman Michael Gray13 badly wanted that land to complement his own ranching concern in Grant County. Rumors spread that Gray, through his cowboy associates, would do whatever was necessary to acquire that land.14 He had already acquired an adjoining 320 acre ranch that had previously been claimed by John Ringo and J. Ike Clanton.15 It is believed that this is the property upon which Newman Haynes Clanton, the patriarch of the Clanton family, was residing when he was killed by Mexicans in August of 1881.24

John Plesant Gray16, son of Mike Gray, described the area in these terms:

Going eastward from Tombstone you cross the Dragoon Mountains into the Sulphur Springs Valley, thence through the Chiricahua Mountains into the San Simon Valley of New Mexico and right there under the shadow of Animas Peak was a big green meadow of about a thousand acres which was at the time covered with red top clover and watered by numerous springs…

This was the The Ringo/Clanton land described in the Grant County location notice as being “five miles west of the Animas Mountains about 28 miles north of the Gaudupar Canon.” Ringo and Clanton never actually “owned” the land as it remained in the hands of the federal government until patented to the Gray family on March 16, 1884. The two cowboys held what was called a “squatter’s claim,” which was a quasi-legal claim to which the occupants had no actual deed or patent. A “preemption law” was then in force which gave preference to the persons “squatting” in some form of structure designed as a residence. To what extent Ringo and Clanton “resided” there is open to speculation. It is commonly believed that this land was used by them as a place to secure cattle acquired by nefarious means from across the border.

Grant County New Mexico Deed Book 6, pp. 193, 194. A “land notice” was filed on November 26, 1880.

Newspaper clipping

[Text of above notice:] Isaack Grimes Territory of New Mexico County of Grant
Notice:
Know all men by these presents that we the undersigned have this day located for grazing and farming purposes 320 three hundred and twenty acres of land lying in what is called Animas Valley located about five miles west of the Animas Mountains about 28 miles north of the Gaudapar Canon at the mouth of a cienega running into the [undecipherable word] valley from the west and shall be known as the Alfalfa Ranch or Cienega this the first day of November, AD 1880.
Witness
WJ Patrick Frank Johnson
Filed for record Nov 26th 1880 at 1 pm RV Newsham, Probate Clerk By EB good [?] Deputy
John Ringo J I Clanton

Another parcel of land that came into Gray’s hands was “sold” to them by Curly Bill Brocius.
John Plesant Gray related that event:

We paid Curly Bill, the rustler, three hundred dollars for his squatter claim on the land and also had a written contract or guarantee from Bill that he would uphold our rights against all claimants. It being unsurveyed land, possession of course was the only title possible but we paid this sum to Curly Bill for the sake of peaceful possession of land in a country where law officers seldom, if ever, ventured, and self-preservation was really the only law to follow.18

The “ownership” situation of the land claimed by the Heslet brothers would have fallen under the same rules. Today, no documentary evidence of the Heslet brothers having filed a location notice is extant in Grant County records. While no record of the precise location of their ranch can be found, it would have been in the immediate vicinity of the Ringo/Clanton and Gray ranches. Nonetheless, the letter from John Heslet indicates that a sale of the land to Mike Gray was pending in the amount of $4,000. Additionally, an article in the Topeka (Kansas) Capitol indicated the sale of the boys stock and an imminent trip home to Kansas.19

The genesis of the Heslet brother’s introduction into brief notoriety and outlaw-lawman history goes back to the March 1881 attempted holdup of the Kinnear Stage near Drew’s Station in newly formed Cochise County, Arizona. Among the suspected highway robbers were William “Billy” Leonard,20 Harry “The Kid” Head,21 James “Jim” Crane,22 and Luther King,23 with the highly rumored complicity of John Henry “Doc” Holliday.

Some of the suspects were believed to claim a ranch in southern Animas Valley. It was to that area that three of them headed in an effort to avoid a Virgil Earp – Bob Paul led posse24 that had tracked the men from Cochise County to Cloverdale in the southern-most part of the New Mexico boot heel.25 Another posse, led by Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, set out to locate the outlaw’s hideout.26 At night the two posses would sometimes meet, but during the day each pursued its own purpose.

In the interim Bob Paul, working as a special officer of Wells, Fargo & Company, had issued a reward notice to “discreet and reliable persons only” detailing the attempted holdup of the Kinnear stage and the killing of driver Budd Philpot and passenger Peter Roerig. It headlined a reward in the amount of $3,600 for the arrest of “the murderers.” As a reward of this size could26 hardly be kept secret, word of it soon reached the hinterlands, including southwestern New Mexico, where the presence of Leonard, Head, and Crane had become known.

Returning to the memoirs of John Plesant Gray, we learn that the three suspects who had moved into Grant County were Billy Leonard, Harry Head, and Jim Crane. Gray wrote:

I think it was the next morning when I was out early with wagon and team to pick up a load of dry wood for camp use. About two miles west of the ranch, I met three horsemen. As soon as they came in sight I knew they must be the three hunted stage robbers who had tried to hold up the Tombstone stage a few months before – Billy Leonard, Harry Head, and Jim Crane. They were well armed, but their clothing was almost in tatters and they looked wild, wooly, and hungry.27

After giving them a good dinner, Gray related to them why his family was in the Animas Valley and told them of a problem they were having with a man named Jones who wanted their property. Jones had written the family a threatening letter.28 This led to a promise by Crane that they would take care of the matter. Gray thought the three men knew the actual identity of the writer and based on their friendship with Curly Bill, they would see that Bill’s agreement with Mike Gray was upheld.27

A few days later, John Gray was on a visit to Richard and Nellie Powers at the nearby Double Dobes ranch29 when he found it literally “alive with men.” Jim Crane stepped out from the house “in the midst of this small army” and told Gray that he would have no more problems with Jones as “he had fixed him good and plenty.”30

Gray relates in another story that Frank Leslie came to their Animas Valley ranch on a mission to arrest Jim Crane. This appears to be a different occasion than Leslie’s participation in the Behan posse that was looking for the outlaw’s hideout.31 After their return to Tombstone, Leslie had been appointed as a deputy sheriff of Cochise County and among his first assignments, Sheriff John Behan sent him on “a trip of several weeks duration to the country eastward of us.”32 Gray relates that during Leslie’s sojourn, Crane joined them for a peaceful lunch during which Leslie changed his mind about capturing Crane and left the ranch saying to Gray, “Tell Jim if they want him, someone else will have to serve the warrant.”33

Now, into the scene come the Heslet brothers. Whether intent on getting the reward (perhaps thinking it would be a tidy sum with which to purchase additional cattle or expand their ranch holdings) or defending themselves from a rumored murder plot, subsequent events would send five men “head long into eternity.”

Other than the John Heslet letter, most of what transpired has come down to us via newspaper accounts. The first such account appeared in the form of an anonymous letter from Owl City, New Mexico published in the Tombstone Epitaph on June 18, 1881 and again in the Arizona Weekly Star on June 23, 1881 (all spelling and punctuation as in original articles):

Sent to Meet His God. How Bill Leonard Climbed the Golden Stair Open Picture of a Desperate Affray.
THE NARRATIVE Well about the shooting scrape. This place is their [the cowboys] headquarters. Ike Haslett and his brother Bill have a ranch in Animas Valley, the best one in it, and old man Gray, of Tombstone fame, has one on each side of it that he bought from Curly Bill and his gang, and he wanted the one belonging to the Haslett boys, so some of the cowboys were going to run the H. boys out of the country or kill them. On Friday last [June 10], Bill Leonard and three more Cowboys, or “rustlers,” as they call them, came to camp, to a store about a quarter of a mile from the mine, that is owned by Parker;34 Joyce’s partner in the Oriental, and a man known as Baldwin.35 Well the rustlers went in there and got drunk, and told they were coming up to the mine to kill the Haslett boys, so some fellow came up and told Ike, which put him on his guard.
Revolvers and Rifles for Dinner Yesterday I went down to the store, getting there about noon, so I went in and ate my dinner:
Leonard and the others were at the table with their six-shooters along side their plates and their rifles lying in their laps [“and a fellow outside guarding,” per Epitaph]. I tell you it looked tough. Well, Bill [Leonard] said he was going to shoot the Haslett boys on sight, and we looked for them last night but they did not come, so Ike thought the best thing he could do was to catch them himself, so this morning at daybreak he went to the store and laid in wait for them.

The Fight Back of the store is a corral, and Ike and his brother got in there. The fence is three feet high [“about three and a-half feet high,” per Epitaph]. Bill Leonard and the one they call Harry the “kid” had come down the road past the corral, so when they got to within thirty [“fifty,” per Epitaph] yards Ike and his brother Bill jumped up and opened fire on them. The “kid” was on foot and Leonard was on horseback. Ike let drive and got Leonard just below the heart, when he dropped to one side of his horse, Bill thought he would get away so he plugged the horse and he fell. The “kid” pulled his gun, when Ike pulled on him and told him to stop, but he was going to pull when Bill Haslett gave it to him in the abdomen, and he started to run when both Bill and Ike commenced to pop it to him. [“They put six balls in him,” per Epitaph]. When they picked Leonard up he breathed his last breath, “kid” is still alive, but they think he will die soon. Bill Leonard said last night that he wished28 someone would shoot him in the heart and put him out of his misery, as he had two big holes in his belly that he got when he tried to rob the stage at Tombstone. They were put out of sight at sundown this evening.36

Whether the Heslet brothers were being proactive in defending their own lives or intent on collecting the reward on Leonard and Head cannot be completely determined. But, their time was growing short and before any potential reward could be claimed they would be dead themselves.

The Arizona Gazette on July 18, 1881 carried the following notice of the death of Billy Leonard:

Sheriff Paul yesterday received intelligence from Deming that Billy Leonard, the notorious cowboy, was killed in a fight at Eureka, New Mexico, a short time since. Mr. Paul says his information is entirely reliable, and he regards the statement as correct. Leonard it will be remembered was one of the party that jumped the Tombstone stage some time since and killed Budd Philpot the driver, and a passenger named Roerig. If Billy has really been killed, his death will be a relief to any community where he might otherwise have taken residence, as he was a very “hard citizen.” – Journal.37

Another anonymous letter carried in the Tombstone Epitaph on June 22, 1881 gave the following account of the murder of Ike and Billy Heslet:

END OF THE COWBOY TRAGEDY A Circumstantial Account of the Murder of the Hasletts. HOW IT OCCURRED

It was evening and the boys were playing cards for pastime in West McFadden’s saloon, when about fifteen or twenty men came down on them by surprise, and they did not have a chance to protect themselves…. I counted eight [shots], but they say there were more… never saw such a dreadful sight. The place was running in blood. Bill Haslett was shot six times in the bowels, and Ike twice through his body and his left hand all shot to pieces. [A] boy, Joe [Sigman Biertzhoff] was shot six times through the stomach and once through the ankle. The Haslett’s left a will leaving everything to their father and sister in Kansas.38

Nellie Powers, wife of Richard Powers, of the Double Dobes ranch was present when a group of cow boys rushed West McFadden’s saloon in Eureka. She said, in part:

I counted eight, but they say there were more. My husband started to run, but I caught hold of him and held him back until I heard them mount their horses and ride away like the wind. I ran and put out the light, and then we started down…. When my husband got to the saloon he said he never saw such a dreadful sight. The place was just running with blood. Bill Haslett was shot six times in his bowels, and Ike was shot through his head and his left hand was shot to pieces. The boy Joe was shot six times through his stomach and once through his ankle. He suffered the worst of any of them. They were all conscious to the last. The Haslett boys made out a will leaving everything to their father and sister in Kansas. The German boy’s people live in California – he had nothing, not even enough to pay his debts in camp, but the company gave them all as good a funeral as could be had in this country. It was a sorrowful sight to see those three coffins followed by all the men moving slowly through the camp.39

Wire reports of the incidents spanned the western newspapers. In Utah, the Ogden Standard Examiner reported to its readers:

A dispatch received this morning, from Tombstone, Arizona, says: Particulars have come in of the killing of the Hazlitt brothers, who killed Leonard and Harry Head, the stage robbers, last week, and a German, at Eureka, N.M., by the cowboys, last week. They were surprised by a party of twenty cowboys while playing cards in a saloon at Eureka. As they has [sic] no chance to defend themseves [sic], Bill Hazlitt was shot six times through the bowels, Ike twice through the stomach, and the German six times through his body. As soon as the firing ceased, the murderers mounted and rode away. There is no trace who they were.40

The Arizona Weekly Star, on June 23, 1881 commented: 29

The killing of Bill Leonard and ‘Harry the Kid’ at Eureka, N.M. by the Haslett brothers, a full account of which appeared in the STAR of Sunday morning, has been summarily avenged. It appears that a cowboy named Crane organized and got a band of congenial spirits in the work of vengeance. They followed the Haslett boys for some twenty-five miles from Eureka before they overtook them, and as soon as they came up with them the fight to the death commenced. The Haslett boys were game and made a brave fight killing two and wounding three of the Crane party but being overpowered, were finally killed.41

However, the Tombstone Nugget, the day earlier carried a slightly different story of the incident:

The boys [Heslet] were playing cards for pastime in West McFadden’s saloon, when about fifteen or twenty men came down on them by surprise, and they did not have a chance to protect themselves.

Gray’s memoirs gave the following version of the death of the Heslet boys in which a vengeful Jim Crane exacts revenge:

Jim Crane soon heard of the killing [of Leonard and Head]. He got together a bunch of rustlers, and leaving them hiding close by, rode into Hachita alone. He found the Hesletts in the saloon getting pretty drunk. Jim played friendly and the three were soon seated at a game of cards. Suddenly rising from his chair opposite the two brothers, Crane shot them both before they could make a move, and thus avenged his comrades, Leonard and Head.”42

The Epitaph followed up with this account on June 21st in which the Heslets were killed, not in a saloon, or in the open 25 miles away, but in their own home:

More Murders in San Simon
As we go to press the report is current, said to be reliable, that friends of Leonard and Harry the “Kid” have killed both the Haslett boys. They were attacked and slaughtered at their own home. The circumstances of the first killing appeared in the Epitaph on Saturday morning last. These events all transpired on the Sam Simon, that seat of the cowboy troubles. It is asserted that the Hasletts killed Leonard and Harry Head (that being the “Kid’s” real name) for the sake of the reward offered for the capture of Leonard for his participation in the Contention [sic] stage robbery. Two or three of the cowboys are reported wounded in the fight. At this rate the gang will soon be exterminated much to the joy of all law-abiding citizens.

Jim Crane (who would soon receive his just desserts) and a contingent of cowboy associates were the real culprits in the murder of the Heslet brothers and the boy, Joe. However, Wyatt Earp gave a somewhat garbled account of events in his biography by Stuart Lake, in which he identifies Ringo and Brocius as the killers of the Heslets in a fourth location –
their store. Lake wrote:

Wyatt urged [Joe] Hill to keep after Leonard and Head, and after another talk with Ike Clanton and Frank McLowery [sic], Hill started for the New Mexico hideout. Joe Hill found Bill Leonard and Harry Head, but in their coffins; he reached Huachita [sic] New Mexico, a few hours after the two bandits were killed by Ike and Bill Haslett, brothers who ran a small store which the outlaws attempted to rob. Wyatt sent Morgan to Huachita to verify Hill’s story.

Morgan learned that Leonard lived for some hours after the Hasletts shot him, and that his groin showed a festering flesh wound which Leonard admitted had been inflicted by Bob Paul’s shotgun in the attack on the Benson stage. Leonard’s dying statement identified Luther King, Jim Crane, and Harry Head as his only associates in the holdup. Crane, he declared, had fired the shot which killed Bud Philpot. Who had killed Roerig, he could not say, as Crane, Head, and he had stood in the road and shot at the back of the stage. Morgan had barely returned to Tombstone when Curly Bill and John Ringo rode up to the Haslett store, shot and killed the Hasletts without warning, in revenge for the deaths of Head and Leonard.43 30

Ringo was probably not in the area at the time of the killing of the Heslet brothers as he was known to be in Texas by May 2nd, returning to Arizona from Missouri during July 1881. Brocius was likely still in Galeyville recovering from his near death shooting through the jaw. Neither man was directly involved in these murders.44 Why would Wyatt Earp insinuate their names into this murder scene? Perhaps, through his biography, to further indemnify his own alleged killings of the two outlaws? What might have passed then, without serious questioning, will not pass among today’s more critical researchers. The brief mention that Head, Crane and King were Leonard’s “only associates” in the attempted Benson stage holdup appears to be one more attempt to eliminate Doc Holliday from collusion.45 It is interesting that Wyatt Earp did not trust Joe Hill’s report enough to simply check his story through a telegram to the Grant County sheriff or another southwestern New Mexico law enforcement official. As well, Earp ignored the widespread newspaper accounts of their deaths. Why did he feel it necessary to send his brother over that rough and rugged country to verify the deaths of Leonard and Head? Was he afraid of what they might have revealed to others in New Mexico about the participants in the holdup, as Ike Clanton intimated in his testimony in the Spicer hearing?46

An even more garbled story47 was recorded by Forrestine Cooper Hooker in her brief account of Wyatt Earp, An Arizona Vendetta:

Two brothers names Haslett [“Hessler” in her original manuscript] had established a small store in Skeleton Canyon, located in the Whetstone range. A little mining camp had opened up there, and Leonard and Head dropped in at intervals. Difficulty arose between Leonard and Head and the Hasletts, and threats made by the outlaws reached the brothers. The Hasletts started out and found the rustlers at Iron Springs, and in the fight that ensued both Leonard and Head were killed….But a week after the killing of the two rustlers, Curly Bill and John Ringo crept up to the Haslett place and fired through the window, killing both brothers, and then escaped in the darkness.48

It is interesting to note that Ike Clanton was in Grant County at the time these events were unfolding. Virgil Earp, in his testimony in document 94 of the so-called OK Corral Inquest stated:

He [Ike Clanton] said that Leonard had a fine ranch over in the Cloverdale County. He said, ‘As soon as I heard of him robbing the stage, I rounded up my cattle on the San Pedro here,49 and run them over and jumped his ranch.’ And he said, ‘Shortly after you boys gave up the chase who should come riding up but Leonard, Head and Crane.’ And he said, ‘By God, they have been stopping around there ever since, and it looks as though they are going to stay.’ He said, ‘They have already told me that I would either have to buy the ranch or get off of it. I told them that I supposed after what they had done, they would not dare to stay in the country and I supposed you would rather your friends would get your ranch than anybody else.’ He said, ‘But if they were going to stay in the country he would either get off or buy the ranch. Now you can see why I want these men either captured or killed, and I would rather have them killed.’

This may well have been part and parcel of a convoluted attempt by Wyatt Earp to enlist the aid of Ike Clanton, the McLaury brothers, and Joe Hill in rounding up Leonard, Head, and Crane and, in a “better dead” than “alive” scenario, put the outlaws away where they could not cast any further aspersions on Doc Holliday (or the Earps)50 as being involved in the foiled robbery of the Benson stage. Ostensibly, Wyatt would use their capture as a vehicle to get elected as Cochise County sheriff in 1882. What a ruse! The elections were a year and a half away, and by then who would care about the attempted Benson stage robbery? Of course, whatever the truth behind Wyatt’s plan, it all came to naught when the stage-robbing trio came to their tragic ends.31

Back in Kansas, when word of the brothers having been killed reached the Heslet family their father was ready to make an immediate trip to New Mexico to learn the particulars of his son’s deaths. The Topeka Capitol carried this mention:

Mr. Hazlett had received a letter from the boys a short time since saying that they had sold their stock and were coming home, and the next news that came was a telegram yesterday informing him of their death.51

It is unknown whether or not he actually made the trip, but a couple of months later a perplexed John Heslet wrote, through his attorney in Topeka, to the Governor of the Territory of Arizona under date of August 15, 1881:

D. Sir Mr. John Heslet of Silver Lake Shawnee County Kansas, (who requests me to write you this letter) is informed that you in behalf of the Territory of Arizona offer a reward for the capture of William Leonard and Harry Head also for Jas. Crain [sic] who on March 15th last robbed the stage between Tombstone & Benson. Mr. Heslet is an old resident of this county and had two sons William A & Isaac R Heslet who left here about 4 years ago and settled in New Mexico,, the two boys purchased a Ranch near Eureka I believe and settled on it. In the spring of this year they made arrangements to sell their Ranch to one Gray for $4000, and the money was to have been paid them on the second week in June last, but instead of paying the money over Mr Heslet is informed that Gray hired Leonard & Head to kill his two sons & that they proceeded to the Heslet Ranch for that purpose, but were met by the Heslet boys & both Leonard & Head shot & mortally wounded. Leonard dying at once & Head about one week after. An inquest was held on the bodies & they were both identified. The band of outlaws of whom Leonard and Head were a part after this occurrence, determined to avenge the death of their comrades and on June 16, 1881 at ten at night the two sons of Mr Heslet were killed on their Ranch. Mr. Heslet feels that if a reward is offered for the capture of these men he is entitled to it. Will you please at your early convenience write either Mr Heslet or myself, stating if a reward is offered for the capture of these parties, the amount of same, and what proof you require.
Very respectfully Yours, Henry J. Page52

A handwritten note on the bottom of the letter was added by the acting secretary of the territory:

Ansd. Giving copy of Proclamation explaining that the reward was for capture and conviction not for the killing of the parties he named.53

Mr. Heslet had received a telegram informing him of his sons’ deaths, but how and from whom he received the additional information revealed in his letter is unknown. It does confirm the pending sale of the Heslet ranch to Mike Gray, and Gray’s possible collusion in the eventual murder of the boys. What Mr. Heslet did not realize, or this letter does not mention, was that Wells, Fargo & Company had put up the $3,600.00 reward his sons may have been seeking. According to a June 7, 1881 wire from L. F. Rowell, Wells, Fargo & Company divisional superintendent in San Francisco, to Marshall Williams, Wells, Fargo agent in Tombstone, the reward was payable “dead or alive.”

It would have been interesting to be privy to the discussions and plan-making that was involved in the various scenarios of this story. What was the true motivation behind the Heslet brothers plan to kill Leonard and Head? Were they prepared to set a trap for Jim Crane? Was Crane exacting revenge on the Heslets for the murder of his friends? Or, was he a hired killer working on behalf of Michael Gray? As with most stories of this era and area, there are so many complicated involvements, that final conclusions must await further evidence.32

Endnotes:
1 Most contemporary accounts of the incidents recorded in this article, as well as most modern writers, refer to the brothers using the surname “Hazlitt;” the spelling “Heslet” is correct as is shown in a letter from attorney Henry Page to the Governor of the Territory of Arizona included in this article as well as various census and genealogical records. John Plesant Gray, in his memoirs, comes closest to the spelling, using “Heslett.” See reference to the Gray memoirs in note below.

2 Author, Lynn Bailey calls the Heslet brothers, “miners and stockmen of… dubious reputation;” see: Tombstone Arizona: Too Tough To Die, (Tucson: Westernlore Press, 2004) p. 132; author, Timothy W. Fattig refers to them as “outlaws;” see: Wyatt Earp, The Biography, (Honolulu: Talei Publishers, 2002) p. 296; while author William Shillingberg in his book, Tombstone, A.T., A History of Early Mining, Milling, and Mayhem (Spokane: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1999), p. 211, characterizes them as “one-time Cowboys trying to reform.”

3 An extensive search of marriage records has produced no date or location. John was still single on the 1850 federal census of Clermont County Ohio (p. 64, household 510, living in hotel). No birth or death records have been located for John; Elizabeth is buried in the Silver Lake, Kansas cemetery which records her birth as March 19, 1829 and death as January 23, 1876.

4 Information from 1860 federal census of Clinton County Ohio (p. 68, household 424). John was a well-to-do farmer with a real estate value of $5,500.00. The space to show the birthplace of William was left blank; the 1870 federal census shows him as having been born in Illinois, while the 1880 federal census of Grant County New Mexico lists his birthplace as Delaware. Often the information shown on a census record was not supplied by the enumerated persons themselves, but by just anyone the census taker might locate in the area, on the same road, or in the same hotel, who might offer information.

5 Joseph Heslet was active in community affairs in both Silver Lake and Topeka, Kansas where he later settled.

6 Per later federal census and genealogical records (via Ancestry.com).

7 Schooling information from 1870 federal census.

8 John and Annie Heslet sold the land for the Silver Lake Cemetery on June 19, 1880 (Shawnee County Register of Deeds, book 63, page 602).

9 John Heslet married Mrs. Annie M. Ward on July 22, 1879 (Shawnee County Marriage Record Book 2, page 654).

10 Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, History and Archives Division, Record group 6, Secretary of the Territory, August 15, 1881.

11 Anna M. Ward Heslet was born October 8, 1829 and died January 10, 1883 per gravestone in Silver Lake Cemetery.

12 1880 federal census Grant County, New Mexico (p. 362, household 7)

13 Michael “Mike” Gray was born in Tennessee in 1827. He had been a Texas Ranger and later an acting sheriff of Yuba County, California. He was active in mining in the region of Sonora, Mexico where his son Dixie Lee Gray was born. In 1879, he located and filed on the 320 acre townsite which became Tombstone, Arizona. He was one of the five original owners of the Tombstone Townsite Company; was a partner in the real estate firm of Clark, Gray & Company. He owned another ranch that included old Camp Rucker and stocked it with a herd he purchased from John Chisum. Gray was said by many to have been a silent leader of “Cow Boys.” See author’s Cochise County Cowboy War (Apache, Oklahoma: Young & Sons Enterprises, 1999) p. 55.

14 Author Karen Holliday Tanner writes that, “…Mike Gray… had strong connections with the lawless cowboy faction…. With Gray controlling the three adjoining ranches, the cow boys would have plenty of room to hide either themselves or their ‘hot stock.’” See: Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), pp. 153, 154.

15 The Ringo/Clanton claim is in Grant County Deed Book 6, pp. 193, 194. A “land notice” was filed on November 26, 1880. Gray in his “memoirs” and George Hilliard in his book, A Hundred Years of Horse Tracks: The Story of the Gray Ranch (Silver City, New Mexico: High-Lonesome Press, 1996) pp. 11,

16, refer to the Ringo/Clanton property as a “squatter’s claim.”

17 John Plesant Gray wrote his memoirs entitled “When All Roads Led to Tombstone” in 1940; the original manuscript is owned by the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson. It has been transcribed, edited, annotated and published under the same title by two authors, W. Lane Rogers, (Boise, Idaho: Tamarack Books, 1998) and Neil Carmony, Tombstone’s Violent Years, 1880-1882, As Remembered by John Plesant Gray, (Tucson: Trail to Yesterday Books, 1999). Page numbers in this article refer to the Rogers version. John Plesant was born on February 29, 1860 in Sacramento, California. He was an 1880 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. This writer agrees with author Don Chaput who has written, “As a raconteur, Gray is considerably more reliable than Charles Mauk or Billy King, so we can assume most of the above report is correct.” See: Don Chaput, “Buckskin” Frank Leslie, (Tucson: Westernlore Press, 1999) p. 44. For further information on the Gray family, see author’s CCCW, p. 55. 17 Hilliard, loc.cit. p. 10; Rogers, p. 47.

18 Rogers, p. 48.

19 See: Ed Bartholomew, Wyatt Earp, 1879 to 1882, The Man and the Myth (Toyahvale, Texas: Frontier Book Co., 1963) p. 165.

20 For further information on Leonard, see author’s CCCW, p. 79.

21 For further information on Head, see author’s CCCW, p. 61.

22 For further information on Crane, see author’s CCCW, p. 31. 23 For further information on King, see author’s CCCW, p. 75.

23 WOLA Journal

24 Other members of this posse included Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, and Bat Masterson.

25 Luther King had been captured and taken to Tombstone where he subsequently escaped. See: The Evening Gossip, Tombstone, Arizona, March 29, 1881, p. 3, column 1.

26 Among the posse members were Deputy William Breakenridge and former government scout Frank Leslie.

27 Rogers, p. 48.

28 John Gray intimates that Jones was actually one of the Heslet brothers; see: Rogers, p. 51.

29 The Double Dobes was also known as the “Flying Cloud;” see: Rogers, p. 51.

30 Rogers, p. 50.

31 For an account of Leslie’s involvement in the Behan-Breakenridge posse, see: William Breakenridge, Helldorado, Bringing the Law to the Mesquite, (Glorietta, New Mexico: Rio Grande Press, 1970) pp. 122, 123.

32 Tombstone Daily Nugget, July 3, 1881. See also: Chaput, ibid, p. 43, 44.

33 Rogers, p. 36.

34 William Crownover Parker, Jr. See: author’s CCCW, p. 99.

35 Possibly Charles Baldwin, another Tombstone saloon owner. See: author’s CCCW, p. 8.

36 The Epitaph article appeared in the San Francisco Examiner June 22, 1881, per Casey Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp, the Life Behind the Legend ( New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997) pp. 84, 85.

37 Article located by Troy Kelley and reproduced in his book, From Tombstone to Their Tombstones, Volume I, The Palmy Days 1879-1900 (Phoenix: Troy Kelley, 2002) p. 16. The “Miner” is the Arizona Miner of Prescott, the territorial capitol.

38 The “will” was apparently never filed as a legal document; nothing is on file in either Grant County or Hidalgo County (of which Eureka – now Hachita – is a part).

39 Tombstone Epitaph, June 22, 1881. The author scoured the area in 2004 for the possibility of marked graves; nothing was located. On the possibility that the father had the bodies shipped back to Kansas, the author checked all available cemetery records of Shawnee County and found that there are no marked graves for Isaac or William Heslet.

40 Ogden Standard Examiner, June 22, 1881.

41 No information has been located on the identities of the two members of the Crane contingent who were allegedly killed.

42 Rogers, p. 50.

43 Stuart N. Lake, Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal, (New York: Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1994), pp. 275, 276.

44 Ringo was arrested in Austin, Texas on May 2, 1881 by Ben Thompson, per Austin Daily Statesman, May 3, 1881. See: Steve Gatto, Curly Bill, Tombstone’s Most Famous Outlaw, (Lansing, Michigan: Protar House, 2003) pp. 80, 155. Ringo biographer Jack Burrows believes that Ringo was “likely involved in the killing of the Haslett brothers in June, in retaliation for their killing of outlaws Bill Leonard and Harry Head….” See: Jack Burrows, John Ringo, the Gunfighter Who Never Was, (Tucson: University of Arizona, 1987) pp. 145, 199.

45 Wyatt Earp continually tried to keep Doc Holliday from “Harm’s Way,” and often defended his innocence in the Benson stage holdup. For example, see: Document 94, Testimony of Wyatt S. Earp, Alford E. Turner, editor, The O.K. Corral Inquest, (College Station, Texas: The Early West, 1981), p. 167.

46 Turner, p. 107.

47 It would be impossible to recount all of the garbled accounts of the killings of Leonard, Head, and the Heslets. The Earp/Lake and Earp/Hooker versions are but two. A recent work by R. Michael Wilson, Encyclopedia of Stagecoach Robbery in Arizona (Las Vegas, Nevada: Stagecoach Books, 2003) pp. 36-38, may have the most absurd account when he says that “Curly Bill Brocius… gathered a small army of gang members which may have included Frank Stillwell [sic], Pony Deal, Pete Spence, Jim Crane and at least five other men, to assist in killing the storekeeper-brothers.”

48 Forrestine Cooper Hooker, An Arizona Vendetta, The Truth About Wyatt Earp (Riverside, California: Earl Chafin, 1998) p. 30. One would think that Hooker surely was the “garbler” of this account; it is hard to imagine that Wyatt Earp would have told such a mishmash of a story.

49 Ike’s ranch, at that time, was fourteen miles south of Tombstone and four miles from Charleston, on the San Pedro River.

50 Numerous Earp/Tombstone writers have tried to place the Earps into the stage robbing business. While the evidence is circums tantial, it is this writer’s opinion that it should not be completely discounted.

51 Via, Paula Mitchell Marks, And Die in the West, (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1989), p. 153.

52 Henry J. Page, who later became a respected attorney in Topeka, is listed in the 1879 Radages Topeka City Directory, page 144, as a clerk in the United States Circuit Court. 53 Letter, loc.cit, Secretary of the Territory, record group 6, August 1881.

Kit Joy

Although the Twenty-sixth Legislative Assembly had adopted a measure that authorized the building of the New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary on March 14, 1884, the Territory still lacked a prison when it took custody of Joy on January 7, 1885.5 Officials had broken ground on the ten-acre prison site the previous July, and the first prisoners sentenced to the penitentiary had arrived on November 2, fully seven months before its completion.6 Joy joined the others in a temporary facility on the prison grounds.

The Record Book of Convicts listed Joy’s age as twenty-three. In fact, he was twenty-four.7 The convicted murderer stood 5 feet 10 1/2 inches in height and weighed 140 pounds with blue eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. He indicated that Burnet County, Texas, was his place of birth, although the 1860 U.S. Census for Texas enumerated his family in Brown County.8 Single and a ranchman by occupation, he named his mother as his nearest relative.9 Self-supporting since the age of fifteen, Joy was temperate, used tobacco, and could read and write.

In prison, Kit learned the tailor’s trade and held the “boss tailor” position by 1888.10 The next year, on April 6, Governor Ross commuted Joy’s sentence from life to twenty years.11 Less than two weeks later, L. Bradford Prince replaced Ross. 3. On September 8, Joy wrote the new governor in quest of a pardon. Prince took no action.12 In late 1891, supporters instigated another effort to secure a pardon for Joy. E. C. Wade, who had prosecuted Joy, quashed the effort when, in a letter to Prince, he insisted that this was not a case for executive clemency. Joy “…belongs to the “Dime Novel’ order of young desperadoes…wanting in all moral sense, and would,” the prosecutor continued, “be, but for the loss of his leg, a most dangerous man.”13

Four more years passed before Colonel E. H. Bergman, the prison superintendent, certified on March 11, 1896, that Joy had completed his sentence with good time. That same day, Acting Governor Lorian Miller
14 pardoned Joy and restored his citizenship.

Joy’s release did not go unnoticed. Donald Kedzie, the sardonic editor of Lordsburg’s Western Liberal wrote:

“It is reported that [Joy] is dying of consumption. It is just as well to let a cold-blooded murderer like Joy die in a penitentiary as outside, and it is a better plan to have the sheriff strangle them before they are sent to the penitentiary than to run the risk of their contracting an incurable disease while confined in that territorial institution.”15

News accounts that Kit Joy was dying from tuberculosis proved unfounded. He rejoined his mother, who remained at Kingston, but finding work was difficult for a man lacking a leg.16 At the onset of the new century, Kit and Mary headed for Arizona.17 They settled within the confines of Fort Huachuca, in Cochise County, where, in an apparent effort to shun at least some notoriety, Kit abandoned his nickname in favor of his given name of Christopher (“Chris”) and opened a tailor shop.18

Mary Ann Epley Joy died at Fort Huachuca on April 9, 1911, and was buried in the fort’s cemetery.19 Chris Joy continued to operate his shop and witnessed the February 16, 1913, arrival of the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad’s branch line off the Benson-Douglas route that ran west from

Bundles of Joy
Christopher Carson “Kit” Joy was not the only bearer of that festive surname to go bad. He had a first cousin who could throw a wide loop. The son of Kit’s uncle and aunt, James Alexander and Elizabeth Hart Joy, John C. Joy was born in Collin County, Texas, about 1854.28 Surviving records are unclear as to exactly when he reached New Mexico, but indicate that it was before mid-April 1881.29

During the October 1883 term of the Lincoln County District Court, a grand jury indicted Joy, along with Thomas J. Bell and William Parker. The indictment charged that on December 10, 1882, the trio had rustled 170 steers (of an aggregate value of $3,400) from Lincoln County rancher James Scott. Deputy Charles Bull finally arrested Joy at Hillsboro (Sierra County) on November 23, 1884. The next day, Joy and T. M. Boyd posted his $1500 bail, and the court released Joy to await the May 1885 term.30

A Lincoln County jury convicted Joy on May 21, 1885; the court sentenced him to five years imprisonment and $45.58 costs.31 The next day Joy filed a motion for new trial and appealed to New Mexico Supreme Court, arguing that the verdict was contrary to the law and the evidence and citing various judicial errors. His appeal had no merit. On July 5, 1885, he joined his cousin Kit on the site of the New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary, then nearing completion.

The new inmate (no. 60) stood 5 feet 9 3/4 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds, listed his occupation as a butcher, and named his brother, Oliver (a resident of Lake Valley), as his nearest relative.32 One of his cohorts, Tom Bell, was later captured, convicted, and received a six months and one hundred dollar fine. Bell arrived at the New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary on June 3, 1886 (inmate no. 140) and was released on November 2.33 Authorities never captured the third indicted rustler, William Parker.
Governor Edmund Ross pardoned John C. Joy on November 16, 1888.34 His family subsequently lost track of him.35

Lewis Springs.20 On October 25, the government established a post office at Buena, a small settlement that had sprung up along the new spur. Chris Joy soon moved his shop from Fort Huachuca to Buena, where he remained for some time.21

The mobilization of U.S. forces following the March 9, 1916, raid by Pancho Villa’s men on Columbus, New Mexico, greatly increased the traffic along the Lewis Springs-Fort Huachuca spur. Likely, it also brought an increased demand for Joy’s tailoring services. Business would have declined after the end of World War I, and the Buena post office closed on October 31, 1919. Sometime after 1920, Joy moved to nearby Garden Canyon (later called Fry, and later still incorporated into Sierra Vista). Writing in 1928, Tucson author and policeman Lorenzo Dow Walters (Tombstone’s Yesterday) claimed that Joy continued to live in Cochise County and, handicapped by old age as well as the loss of his leg, had found it “…practically impossible to earn a comfortable living.” In desperation, the onetime train robber “…went into the liquor business over in the Huachuca Mountains and soon ran afoul of the federal officers who arrested him with the goods right on him.”22 Although Walters is rarely reliable, he got this one right. On May 10, 1926, Conn Elliot, a Federal prohibition agent, arrested Joy and his partner, Warren Mimms, in Garden Canyon. In his complaint, Elliot charged the two with multiple violations of the National Prohibition Enforcement Act:

On May 22, the two appeared in Tucson before U.S. District Court Judge William H. Sawtelle. Joy and Mimms pled guilty and returned on May 29 for sentencing.23 According to Walters, Joy asked the court for clemency. “Judge, God worked six days and rested on the seventh. I worked that still just six days,” he continued, “and was arrested on the seventh day and I guess that I am in now for a good long rest.”24
On the first count, Judge Sawtelle sentenced each to a one-dollar fine. On the second count, he again handed down a one-dollar fine. On the third count, that of manufacturing moonshine, he sentenced the two to six months imprisonment in the county jail.25

Perhaps Walters’s unusual level of accuracy in reporting Joy’s case was, at least in part, resultant from his own entanglements with federal revenue agents. Neither one-legged or desperate, on or about November 11, 1926, patrolman Walters attempted to import seventy-two quarts of wine and twenty-four quarts of tequila from Mexico. Having imported the illegal alcohol, he then sought to sell and/or transport same. Arrested at Nogales, he was taken to Tucson for trial on November 14. Three days later, Walters posted $250 bail. Indicted in Tucson on January 27, 1927, he was arraigned and pled guilty on March 7. The next day, he was sentenced to six months in the Pima County jail. The sentence was suspended and Walters was placed on one-year probation.26

Released from jail November 1926, Joy returned to Garden canyon. Ten years later, in the spring of 1936, he entered the Cochise County hospital at Douglas suffering from influenza and pneumonia. Christopher Carson “Kit” Joy died on April 14, less than two weeks after his seventy- sixth birthday.27 Hubbard Mortuary in Bisbee handled the remains. The next day, the old outlaw was laid to rest in Bisbee-Lowell Evergreen Cemetery almost forty years after his release from the New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary. The passing of Kit Joy went unheralded.

Count 1—they were in unlawful possession of four gallons of corn whiskey and ten gallons of wine.
Count 2—they were in unlawful possession of a thirty-gallon still and two hundred gallons of corn mash.
Count 3—that on or about May 7, they engaged in the unlawful manufacture of intoxicating liquor.
5

ENDNOTES:

1 Los Angeles Daily Times, November 25, 1883; Arizona Gazette (Phoenix), November 26, 1883; Chicago Tribune, November 26, 1883; San Francisco Chronicle, November 26, 1883; Albuquerque Morning Journal, November 27, 1883; Southwest Sentinel (Silver City, N. Mex.), November 28, 1883; Silver City Enterprise (N. Mex.), November 30. 1883.
2 Silver City Enterprise, March 14, and 21, 1884. 3 Ibid., March 28, 1884. 4 Southwest Sentinel (Silver City, N. Mex.), November 20, 1884. See also Silver City Enterprise (N. Mex.), November 28, 1884; Grant County District Court, Territory of New Mexico v. Kit Joy, case nos. 1530 (murder), 1531 (murder), 1534 (robbery), and 1535 (robbery), Grant County District Court Docket Book (July 1883-December 1884), pp. 224-27; Grant County District Court Journal (December 1883- August 1885), pp. 196-97, 206, 216, 281, and 283- 84.
5 Territory of New Mexico, Report of the Special Standing Committee of the Council on Penitentiary. February 23. 1887, p. 5, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe, cited hereafter as NMSRCA; New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary Record Book of Convicts, November 2, 1884–April 4, 1904, NMSRCA.
6 Robert J. Torrez, “Territorial New Mexico’s First New Public Building: The Old Penitentiary.” True West 45 (September 1998): 37. The prison board formally accepted the completed prison on August 17. The warden transferred all forty-six prisoners from their temporary quarters on August 20, and the next day Governor Edmund G. Ross proclaimed the penitentiary open (Santa Fe Daily New Mexican (N. Mex.), August 18, 1885; Governor Edmund G. Ross Journal, August 21, 1885, pp. 274-75, NMSRCA).
7 New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary Record Book of Convicts, November 2, 1884–April 4, 1904, NMSRCA. On June 18, 1885, he was enumerated in the territorial census (1885 New Mexico Territory Census, City of Santa Fe, enum. dist. 28, sheet no. 34 (Records of the Secretary of the Territory, TANM roll 42, NMSRCA):
Joy, Kit, age 24 [he had turned 25 two months previous], white, single, born Texas, father born Arkansas [actually Missouri], mother born Arkansas.
8 Mrs. Ann Bowman, “Modified Register for George W. Joy,” printout provided to the authors. 9 David L. Joy (born Missouri ca. 1838—died Arizona 1888) had married Mary Ann Epley (born Arkansas
WOLA Journal
1842—died Arizona 1911) at Burnet County, Texas, on October 30, 1859. The couple temporarily settled in Brown County where Christopher Carson “Kit” Joy, the first of their three children, was born on April 2, 1860 (Mrs. Ann Bowman, “Modified Register for George W. Joy”; C. C. Joy, Arizona Death Certificate, April 14, 1936, Cochise County, state file no. 31, registered no. 82).
10 Silver City Enterprise (N. Mex.), April 20, 1888. 11 Governor Edmund G. Ross, “Records of Convicts, Territory of New Mexico, p. 35, TANM roll 102, NMSRCA. 12 Governor L. Bradford Prince Penal Papers, TANM roll 123, NMSRCA. 13 Ibid. 14 Governor William T. Thornton Penal Papers, TANM roll 126, NMSRCA. 15 Western Liberal (Lordsburg, N. Mex.), April 3, 1896. 16 The 1900 U.S. census enumerated Mary Joy at Kingston Village, Sierra County, New Mexico, T-625, roll 1002, enum. dist. 131. p. 3:
Joy, Mary, head of household, born Mar 1845, age 55, widow, born Arkansas, father born North Carolina, mother born Virginia, mother of 3 children, 1 living.
6
The whereabouts of Kit at the time of the enumeration remain undiscovered; the time sequence suggests that he was scouting for their new residence in Arizona Territory. In 1891, Kit’s brother Richard (born Texas in 1870) had been killed in a mine explosion at Kingston. The fate of his sister Alice (born Texas in 1873) is currently unknown.
17 At the time of his death in 1936, Joy had resided in Arizona for thirty-five years (C. C. Joy, Arizona Death Certificate, April 14, 1936). 18 The 1910 census enumerated Christopher Joy and his mother at Huachuca, Cochise County, Arizona, T- 624, roll 38, p. 15B. The enumeration reveals that they were living within the boundaries of the fort.
Joy, Christopher, head of household, male, white, 44 [actually 50], single, tailor, owns own shop, born Pennsylvania [actually Texas], father born Missouri, mother born Pennsylvania [actually Arkansas]
Joy, Mary, mother, female, white, 69, [actually 65] gave birth to 3 children, 1 living, born Pennsylvania [actually Arkansas, parents born
Pennsylvania [actually North Carolina and Virginia]
WOLA Journal
19 Tombstone, Fort Huachuca Cemetery: “Joy Mary (Mrs) April 9, 1911” 20 David F. Myrick, Railroads of Arizona, vol. 1, The Southern Roads (San Diego: Howell-North Books, 1975), p. 231. That same year the 10th Cavalry “Buffalo Soldiers” arrived at the fort. 21 On June 30, 1920, the 1920 U.S. census enumerated Chris Joy at Buena precinct, Cochise Co., T-625, roll 46, enum. dist. 14, p. 7A:
Joy, Chris, head, of household, tailor, male, white, 70 [actually 60] single, can read and write, born USA, parents born USA
22 Lorenzo D. Walters, Tombstone’s Yesterday: True Chronicles of Early Arizona, 1877-1887 (1928, Reprint, Glorieta, N. Mex.: Rio Grande Press, 1968), pp. 254-55.
23 U.S. v. C. C. Joy and Warren Mimms, criminal case no. 3121(manufacturing and distributing of alcohol); Arizona, District Court, Tucson Division; Record Group 21, NARA, Laguna Niguel, Calif.
24 Walters, Tombstone’s Yesterday, p. 255. 25 U.S. v. C. C. Joy and Warren Mimms, criminal case no. 3121. 26 U.S. v. L. D. Walters, criminal case no. 3291 (smuggling wine and tequila from Mexico in violation of the 1922 tariff act); Arizona, District Court, Tucson Division; Records of the District Courts of the United States; Record Group 21; National Archives and Records Center, Pacific Southwest Region, Laguna Niguel, California (cited hereafter as Record Group 21, NARA, Laguna Niguel, Calif. 27 A hospital nurse wrongly informed Hubbard Mortuary that Joy was a native of Pottsville, Pennsylvania (Arizona State Board of Health Death Certificate). Why he and his mother adopted Pennsylvania origins as early as 1910 has no explanation other than an effort to avoid notoriety. 28 James Alexander Joy was born about 1827 and died on August 1, 1870. Elizabeth Hart Joy was born in February 1831 and died March 13, 1913. They married on April 22, 1849. Both are buried in Joy Cemetery, Fairland, Burnet County, Texas. Their son John C. sometimes appears as George C. Joy (Mrs. Ann Bowman [San Antonio] “Modified Register for George W. Joy”; Collin County, Texas Marriage Records). 29 Bowman, “Modified Register for George W. Joy.” 30 Lincoln County, Third Judicial District, Territory of New Mexico v. John C. Joy, Thomas J. Bell, and William Parker (grand larceny of cattle), case file no. 538, NMSRCA. 31 Lincoln County, Third Judicial District, Civil and Criminal Journal D 1884-1888, pp. 173-74, NMSRCA.
32 New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary Record Book of Convicts, November 2, 1884–April 4, 1904, NMSRCA. 33 Ibid. The Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, native was married to Annie Bell of Fort Grant, Arizona. See also the Santa Fe Daily New Mexican, June 4, 1886.
34 Ann Bowman, San Antonio, Tex., letter to authors, September 17, 2004; Governor Edmund G. Ross, “Records of Convicts, Territory of New Mexico,” p. 56, TANM roll 102, NMSRCA; Silver City Enterprise, December 14, 1888.
35 Ann Bowman, San Antonio, Tex., letter to authors, September 17, 2004.
WOLA’s 2006 “Shootout” July 16-19 Sierra Vista, Arizona
7

DAILY EPITAPH
November 22, 1881 FIFTEENTH DAY H. F. Sills1

Sworn for the defense: My home is in Las Vegas, New Mexico.2 By occupation I am a locomotive engineer.3 I saw four or five men standing in front of the O. K. Corral on October 26th, about two o’clock in the afternoon, talking of some trouble they had had with Virgil Earp, and they made threats at the time that on meeting him they would kill him on sight.4 Some one of the party spoke up at the time and said: “That they would kill the whole party of Earps when they met them.”5 I then walked up the street and made inquiry as to who Virgil Earp and the Earps were. A man on the street pointed out Virgil Earp to me and told me he was the city marshal. I went over and called him one side, and told him of the threats that I had overheard this party make. One of the men that made the threats had a bandage around his head at the time, and the day of the funeral he was pointed out to me as Isaac Clanton.6

Wyatt Earp

I recognized him as one of the party I had seen at the O. K. Corral.7 A few minutes after I had spoken to the marshal. I saw him and8 a party start down Fourth street. I followed them down as far as the post office. Then I got sight of the party that I had overheard making those threats. I thought there would be trouble and I crossed the street. I saw the marshal9 go up and speak to this other party. I was not close enough to hear their conversation, but saw them pull out their revolvers immediately. The marshal had a cane in his right hand at the time. He throwed10 up his hand and spoke. I did not hear the words though. By that time Billy Clanton and Wyatt Earp had fired their guns off. The marshal then changed his cane from one hand to the other and pulled his revolver out. He seemed to be hurt11 at the time, and fell down. He got up immediately and went to shooting. The shooting became general, and I stepped back in the hallway.12 I afterward saw Billy Clanton, when he was dead, and recognized him as the one who had fired at the same time with13 Wyatt Earp.

Sixteenth Day

I came to Tombstone October 25, on the stage or bullion wagon of Wells, Fargo & Co. Another passenger, the driver, and myself. I don’t know as I would recognize them14 if I would see them on the street now. For the first few days I was in town, I stopped at a lodging house, below the stage barn, on Allen street, until I was taken sick.15 I don’t know the name of the party who keeps the lodging house. I staid (sic) there about ten nights. I then went to the hospital. I remained there ever since. Am stopping there now. I walked from the hospital here. I don’t know who the man was who I inquired of as to who the Earps were; it was just a man I met as I came up the street; I don’t think that I should recognize that man if I should see him now, because there were a great many men on the street at the time. When I told Virgil Earp of the threats I had heard,16 I told17 him it was a party of armed men I had seen standing on the street, because I did not know them at the time. The party consisted of four men. I can’t say that they were all armed because they were not so standing that I could see their arms.18 I saw that some were armed. They had pistols plainly in sight.19 I was within four or five steps of the party when I heard the threats.20 Men were walking up and down the street,21 and were standing fifteen or twenty steps back in the corral. One of the men I saw with arms was a youngish looking man; looked nineteen or twenty years old. I don’t remember his clothes; didn’t pay much attention. I don’t know the color of his hair; he was22 red complexioned in the face. I don’t know whether he shaved23 or not. I don’t remember what kind of a hat he had. Another man had a moustache looked to be about thirty years old.24 I think his hair was dark.25 I’m not certain whether his face was shaved except his moustache, but I think it was. I paid no attention to his clothes. The first one described was the taller of the two, to the best of my knowledge. There were not two with bandages about their heads to the best of my knowledge, at least I only saw one. I didn’t notice the color of the bandage.26 The man with the bandage was of a complexion I cannot say, because he was standing with his back toward me. I did not see his face at that time. I first saw his face the day of the funeral. I can positively say that the man I saw at the funeral was the man I saw with a bandage around his head, in front of the O. K. Corral, by his conversation, by his talk, his voice.27 I recognize him also by his appearance, by what I saw of him that day,28 and by hearing him talk, with the other party in front of the O. K. Corral, and with other parties at the funeral.

29
TOMBSTONE EPITAPH November 24, 1881 SIXTEENTH DAY Testimony for the Defense H. F. Sills30
Crown examination resumed:

Am 3531 years old; was born in Kingston, Canada; lived there until I was 20 years old; from there I went to Belleville32, Canada; lived there about three years; from there I went to Omaha, Nebraska; lived in Omaha; served my time in the Union Pacific shops, and was on the line of the Union Pacific33 road several years, in the neighborhood of eight or nine years. I was an apprentice in the machine shop, locomotive fireman on the road, and locomotive engineer. During the time I served my apprenticeship Mr. Congden was general mechanic,34 and Mr. McConnell was foreman. I was in the shops three years. Some of the time while there, about a year and a half, I boarded at the Pacific House, and about a year and a half my mother kept house for me. I think Jordan kept the Pacific House when I boarded there. I was fireman about six years on the road.35 I fired engine No. 23 and run engine No. 75. Engines were attached to freight trains.36 I ran between Grand Island and Omaha; I ran between Cheyenne and Laramie and between Laramie and Rawlins37. Cannot tell the names of all the conductors.38 One was named Frank Fuller; another named Kelly.39 I was about two and a half years on engine No. 75. The name of A. A. Bean is familiar to me; I think there was a man by that name either over or under Mr. Clark; as superintendent or division superintendent. I knew of General Kimball, the general superintendent.40 I did not know him personally.41 When I left that road I went to Las Vegas, New Mexico. I have been in Las Vegas since last March. I left the Union Pacific road last January. I did not engage in any business from then until March.42 Have been running a locomotive at Las Vegas since I have been there on the A. T. & S. F. R. R. from Las Vegas to Wallace, on a freight train.43 A conductor named Jones ran one train, another named Billy Agnew.44 I am still in the employ of the A. T. & S. F. R. R. I left there the 19th of last month. I went to Tucson, I had no business there;45 from there I came here; I had no business here. I am going back to resume employment on the A. T. & S. F. R. R. between now and the 10th of next month. My wages on the road were four cents a mile. The division is 100 miles long. Engineers are paid by the mile.46 I came here on October 25th on W. F. & Co.’s express wagon. There was another passenger beside the driver. I did not ask the driver his name. He was probably a middle-age man. He had whiskers on his face. I did not notice his eye.47 I don’t remember exactly the color of the horses; I think there was one white horse and one bobtail horse.48 I think the white horse was between Benson and Charleston. I would not know the man I traveled with from Benson; he sat in front of me. I am positive that I came here on that bullion wagon, on the 25th of October last.49 I am as positive of that as any other fact that I testified to. I stayed in Benson half an hour. I don’t think I would know the driver of the stage again if I were to see him.50 I had no conversation with the lady who kept the lodging house where I stayed nine or ten days in Tombstone about the difficulties concerning which I have testified to. On the night of the 25th of October I stopped at this lodging house I speak of. When I went up to Virgil Earp the first time I did not see anything in his hand. The place I saw him was on the corner of Fourth and Allen streets; on the further side51 of Fourth street this side of Allen street. I should judge it was about half an hour before the difficulty. I think there were four men at the corral. I saw no horses with them. I stayed three or four minutes.52

Did you see any other persons as near the parties as yourself?

There were men walking up and down the street by them. I did not know the parties then. When did you next see the parties? I saw them on Fremont street, between Third and Fourth streets, near the corner of Third, standing in a vacant lot.

How many did you see there?

There were five men in the party when I first saw them on Fremont street, and one of them walked off.

Doc Holliday

I saw the Earps and Doc Holliday when they went down Fremont Street. A. I was walking right along behind them; I went as far as the post office53 and crossed the street over to the court house.

54 Was that as near as you were during the actual difficulty?

A. It was.

Where are you working now, and for whom?

A. At the present time I am on a lay-off from the Atchison and Topeka railroad, and stopping at the hospital at the recommendation of Dr. Goodfellow.55

When and to whom did you first tell about the difficulty?

A. The first I spoke to was Jim Earp.56

Did you tell anyone at the hospital anything about the fight?

A. I did not.57

When did you first know that you were wanted as a witness in this case?

Friday or Saturday last.58 There was no one standing near to me at the court house.59 I was standing near the building.60

Where did the Earps and Holliday start from?

A. From the corner of Fourth and Allen streets.

Did you see or hear other parties at the time they started?

A. I did not.

When they started did you see a shotgun in any of their hands?

A. I saw the marshal picked up a shotgun from beside the building and handed it to Holliday; Holliday put it under his coat and handed the marshal his cane and then started down Fourth street towards Fremont and down Fremont towards Third street.61

During this time you were working in the machine shop and running on U. P. or A. T. & S. F. R. R had you a nickname? If so, what was it?

A. I did; they called me “Curly.”62

Where do you lay off and where do you stop at in New Mexico?

A. I lay off at Las Vegas and stop at my own house.

1 In the Nugget, the testimony is summarized with subheading Cross-Examination of S. H. Sills and he is also referred to as H. F. Sill. In Turner he is referred to as H. F. Sills. Modern writers have referred to him as H. F. Sills, but there is room for uncertainty as to the accuracy of his initials and last name as they have come down to the present . See Barra, Marks, Tefertiller.

2 Efforts to find an address for Sills in Las Vegas, NM have thus far proved fruitless. As a railway worker, he may have lived in railway barracks, or simply rented a place for which there is no record. He does not appear to have been present in Las Vegas for any census. Researchers Bob Palmquist and Jeff Morey have found one piece of corroborating evidence however, for Sills’ testimony. The LAS VEGAS (N.M.T.) OPTIC, dated Feb. 9, 1882, reported: “Engineer Sill, who formerly drove a locomotive on the Las Vegas division, is in California.” To date this is the only post-Tombstone mention uncovered anywhere for Sills.

3 The first two sentences are given differently in the Turner version of the testimony. Rather than Sills speaking his identification, Sills’ identity is reported in the third person.

4 In Turner, the statement and those that follow are given as responses to specific questions, whereas in the Epitaph version, his testimony appears to be in the form of a monologue. This causes several of the sentences to be rendered very differently in Turner.

5 It was this lack of knowledge of the identity of the individuals in a highly divided town that made Sills’ testimony so compelling. He appeared to lack any preconceived notions as to who was in the right in any dispute, and this apparent lack of bias was very important to Judge Spicer.
It also explains why the Prosecution tried so hard to break his testimony, and why subsequent writers and historians who don’t believe the Earp side of the story have had such doubts about whether Sills was actually who he claimed to be..

6 The phrase “that made the threats” is missing from Turner. Virgil Earp had buffaloed Ike Clanton earlier in the day.

7 The phrase “…I had seen at the O. K. Corral.” is not in Turner.

8 The words “him and…” are not present in Turner.

9 The words “and party” follow marshal in Turner.

10 This and other uses of the word “throwed” are changed to threw in Turner, perhaps indicating a troubling tendency for editing by Hayhurst or Turner.

11 Turner has “hit” instead of “hurt.”

12 Turner’s version adds the phrase “…along the side of the court house.” at the end of the sentence.

13 Instead of the word “with” the Turner version uses the word “at,” perhaps a significant difference.

14 In Turner, the phrase “I don’t know as I could recognize them…” is rendered as “I could not recognize them…”

15 Immediately preceding this sentence, Turner has Sills responding to the question: Where have you been since? with the response: “In Tombstone.” Both Sills’ illness and the hospital at which he stayed are unknown. Given speculation about his disappearance from recorded history following his stay in Tombstone, his disease may have been terminal.

16 These words at the beginning of this sentence are missing from Turner: “When I told Virgil Earp of the threats I had heard,…”

17 Turner adds the word “merely before the word “told.”

18 A problem for those analysts of the gunfight who believe Sills testified deliberately to favor the Earps, perhaps because he was a plant, is the question of why he did not use this question to indicate that Tom McLaury was armed. Although in his decision, Judge Spicer indicated the question of Tom’s being armed was not germane to the issue of whether charges of murder should be brought against the lawmen, such a position was unpredictable at this point in the hearing.

19 Turner renders this sentence as, “Of two, the pistols were in plain sight.”

20 Turner’s version eliminates the words “…when I heard the threats.” from the sentence.

21 Turner has this phrase as, “There were men standing back in the corral, …”

22 Turner has “seemed to [be]” for “was…”

23 Turner has “clean shaved…”

24 The words “had a moustache” are not in this sentence in Turner.

25 The words “I think…” are not in Turner.

26 Turner’s version adds the words, “…I only saw it hanging under his hat.”

27 Turner also adds the phrase, “by his appearance…”

28 The phrase, “by what I saw of him that day…” is not found in Turner. Several of the sentences at the end of this portion of Sills’ testimony are in a slightly different order in Turner.

29 Here Turner adds: [COURT ADJOURNED TO MEET AT 9:00 O’CLOCK A. M. NOVEMBER 23, 1881]

30 Turner introduces this section of cross-examination with: [WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 188, COURT CONVENED AT 9:00 A. M.] [CROSS-EXAMINATION OF H. F. Sills resumed]

31 Turner has Sills stating his age as 36. The Nugget agrees with the Epitaph as to his age being 35 years.

32 Turner has this location as Canille, a non-existent place. In fact, Belleville, Ontario is less than a one hour’s drive from Kingston today. The Nugget agrees with the Epitaph and has Sills stating Belleville.

33 The Nugget omits the name “Union Pacific.”

34 The Nugget has Congden as “general master mechanic.”

35 The Nugget reports that before this statement, Sills was asked if he had any room mates at that house, and if so, who were they? The question was objected to as irrelevant and too remote. The objection was sustained. This is to be regretted by modern researchers, who might have pursued any such name.

36 Turner renders these two sentences very differently, conflating them as follows: “I ran, as fireman, and as engineer, about six trains.” The Nugget reports this response was to the question as to whether the engines were attached to freight or passenger trains.

37 Turner has Rawlins as Rolling Springs, but in fact as “Rawlins.” The Nugget also had it as Rolling Springs. There was no Rolling Springs in Wyoming. There was a Rock Springs on the Union line but that wasn’t the town Sills mentioned and which someone translated into Rolling Springs. Why Rawlins? Cheyenne, Laramie, and Rawlins were all county seat towns with courthouses, creating heavy traffic for the trains. All three of the towns were important to the Post Office Department as they were known as classified post offices (rare in Wyoming Territory), meaning salaries were paid by the government and weren’t based on the business generated. All three post offices dispensed money orders and Rawlins was a “brass lock registry exchange office,” meaning it was an important point in the transfer of
valuable articles. A final point is that Rawlins was a railroad division town. Thanks to researcher Wayne Collier for this information.

38 The Nugget renders this response in language more likely to be spoken. Sills replies to the question as to who the conductors were on the train as, “It would be hard for me to tell.” There is indication from the Nugget that a Defense objection to this question was not sustained.

39 Turner has the words “I think” after Kelly.

40 The Nugget has these sentence in response to a question as whether he knew on that road, A. A. Bean and Gen. Kimball.

41 Clearly the Prosecution is trying to catch Sills in a contradiction, or in errors that would indicate he is not who he says he is. One can imagine the Prosecution lawyers checking his testimony by telegraph almost as soon as its given. Since it was never publically discredited, one can assume it was correct, else surely the Prosecution would have trumpeted anything in it that was untrue.

42 This sentence is not in either Turner or the Nugget.

43 This sentence does not appear in the Epitaph summary.

44 This sentence, with the names Jones and Agnew, are missing from the Epitaph report.

45 Conspiracy theorists wonder why he went to Tucson if he had no business there. The suspicion is that he went there to begin to work for Wells Fargo and spy on the cowboys. This would explain to such theorists his careful observations on the day of the gunfight, and his clearly pro-Earp testimony, testimony in conflict with other Prosecution witnesses.

46 This sentence is missing from the Epitaph report.

47 This sentence is missing from the Epitaph. One wonders who the Prosecution was thinking of, by asking if Sills noticed anything about his eye.

48 See photograph in Sills article. Unless there was an identical team of horses, almost too coincidental to be credible, a reasonable conclusion is that this is the team of horses that brought Sills into Tombstone.

49 Turner has it as the 26th.

50 The Turner version has this sentence as, “I stayed in Benson about half an hour, I do not think I would know the driver again, who drove the wagon I came in on, although I have seen him here on the street and spoke to him.” This seems somewhat of a contradictory answer.

51 The Nugget has this as “corner” of Fourth Street.

52 Turner and the Nugget both have Sills testifying “probably” three or four minutes.

53 Turner has Sills testifying that he “…went down behind them as far as the post office.”

54 Turner has Sills testifying that he “I then crossed the street in front of what I believe is the courthouse.

55 Turner has Sills testifying that “I am not working at all.” The sentence referring to Tombstone’s noted Doc Goodfellow does not appear in either Turner or the Nugget. The Nugget has him testifying that he went to the hospital on the “6th or 7th of this month.” 56 James Earp, brother of Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp. James did not participate in the gunfight. Turner and the Nugget have Sills’ response as, “The first word I spoke of it to anybody was to Jim Earp I believe.” Paula Mitchell Marks in And Die in the West writes that although the prosecution could not expose a chink in Sills’ story or the unbiased stranger in town, his acknowledgement that “the first word” he spoke of his knowledge of the incident was to Jim Earp was “interesting.”

57 This interchange about Sills not telling anyone at the hospital about what happened is far less clear in Turner. 58 Turner and the Nugget have Sills testifying “Thursday or Friday.”

59 The Nugget ends this Sills sentence with the words “when the shooting began.”

60 In response to a question not recorded, Turner has Sills responding instead: “I did not see any person on the side of the street I was on when the shooting was going on. I was standing close to the building and then stepped back into the hall when the shooting became general.”

61 Instead of, “Holliday put it under his coat and handed the marshal his cane and then started down Fourth street towards Fremont and down Fremont towards Third street.”- Turner and the Nugget simply have Sills testifying, “Doc put it under his coat and the marshal took his cane.”

62 Turner and the Nugget have this nickname spelled as “Curley.”

Billy The Kid's Grave

Billy The Kid

In Potter’s account The Sheriff instructed several Mexican ranch hands to remove the dirt roof of an abandoned adobe building and pull out enough ceiling planks to make a coffin, as time was too short to have lumber shipped from Las Vegas. Late in the afternoon the corpse was loaded into old Vicente’s [Silva’s] wood-hauling wagon which proceeded to the government cemetery followed by every person in Fort Sumner, even the saloon keeper who rarely closed down his business. The Sanctified Texan, who believed in predestination, preached the funeral and said that Billy’s time had certainly come at last. They told me he made remarks about Billy “our beloved young citizen,” and read from the 14th chapter of Job – “A man that is born of woman is of few days and is full of trouble – he fleeth like a shadow and continueth not.” In closing he
said, “Billy cannot come back to us, but we can go to him and will see him again up yonder, Amen.”

The day after the funeral Pete Maxwell had his man pull a wooden picket from the parade-ground fence, saw off a foot or so, and nail it in a crossbar to the longer piece. Then he printed in crude letters “BILLY THE KID, JULY 14, 1881.” Later this marker was stolen by relic seekers and the second one, which replaced it, was also stolen … Back in 1930 when I began to write down my memories, I had a letter from John Roark, a stagecoach driver, who swore he saw the uprooted grave marker strapped to a feller’s luggage as he boarded a train back East.1
Strange though it seems, there are no other accounts of the event even though there must have been plenty of opportunities to get them – after all, Pete and Paula Maxwell, who would surely have been there, not to mention Deluvina Maxwell, Jesus Silva, Vicente Otero, Francisco Lovato and many other Fort Sumner residents could have described it in detail. And could there – just possibly – have been a photographer on the scene? One man certainly thought so, as older students of the Billy the Kid legend may recall.

In an article published in the December, 1960 issue of True West, artist Lea F. McCarty offered a photograph of four men which he claimed had been given to him by someone named “Tom Sullivan” an old man who ran the Billy the Kid Curio Shop at Fort Sumner. It had been taken, Sullivan told him, at the Kid’s funeral. McCarty took it to Ruidoso and asked Frank Coe’s grandson, a Mr. [Ralph?] Bonnell, if it was “the real thing.”

“Course it is. I’ve seen it many times,” Bonnell said. “Look at all of ’em holding their hats. Billy is in a cedar box out front of them and the picture was taken across the coffin. The man at the far right, for instance, is Miguel Otero, who was once Governor of New Mexico.” “And who is this fellow next to Otero on the right?” McCarty asked.
“That is Otero’s brother. You can see his hat is under his arm in respect for the Kid.” “And the fellow wearing overalls, second from the left – who is he?” Bonnell scratched his head. “That is Jesus Silva. The Kid was staying at Silva’s home the night he was cut down. He had come down from Frank Lobato’s sheep camp tired and hungry and wanted some beefsteak to eat. He was told by Silva to go over to Pete Maxwell’s house where they had just slaughtered a young heifer.”
And the man holding his hat up to his face? That, said Bonnell, was Hijinio Salazar, who was a great friend of the Kid’s and helped dig the grave as he wept shamelessly at the funeral.

2.

You’d think that perhaps McCarty might have taken a moment to wonder how Otero and his brother in Santa Fe, or Yginio Salazar, living even further away in Lincoln, could have got news of the Kid’s death at midnight on July 14 in time to get to the funeral by late afternoon of the following day, but clearly the thought never occurred to him.

If nothing else, the McCarty article shows us just how comprehensive a change there has been in researching such stories during the last half hundred years. We know now there was not, simply never could have been, a photograph of the Kid’s funeral, because if there had been one it would have surfaced long before Mr. McCarty embarked upon his quest. Quite apart from whether the mythical Mr. Sullivan (who was probably Ed Sweet) and Mr. Bonnell were simply pulling McCarty’s plonker, the “funeral” photograph was actually taken at the time the first marker was placed over the Kid’s grave in the early 1930s (see below).

So what is there by way of evidence to show the Kid was indeed buried where the marker says he was? Quite a lot, it transpires. The first “outsider” to examine the gravesite (that is to say, someone with no preconceptions and no ax to grind) seems to have been a “special correspondent” of the Las Vegas Daily Optic – all we know about him is his initials “I. N. P.” – who in January, 1882, visited what he called “The Bivouac of the Dead,” looking for the grave of Billy the Kid in the old military cemetery “to the southwest of the abandoned and decaying Fort Sumner.”

The cemetery itself, he reported, was surrounded by

“what was once a good adobe wall, but from decay and neglect is now merely an outline, surrounding an acre [sic] of ground.”
We enter on the north, walking over the remains of the once handsome gate. To the left, in the northeast corner, are the graves of four rustlers. Grant, killed by Billy the Kid; Ferris, who was killed by Barney Mason at the instance of the Kid, and O’Fallion and Bowdre … To the right of the entrance lies the grave of Billy the Kid, marked by a plain board, with the stenciled letters ‘Billy the Kid’ … The southwest part of the little burying ground is filled with graves of soldiers who were killed by Indians near the fort as the few legible headboards read ‘July 7, 1866.’
Over in the southwest [sic] corner lies the grave of Lucien B. Maxwell, once so famous in New Mexico.

3.

It all seems fairly straightforward: the Kid’s grave was to the right of the gate in the north wall, all the others in the northeastern corner. But visit the graveyard today and you find the graves of O’Folliard and Bowdre are adjacent to the Kid’s in the center of the plot and nowhere near “the northeast corner.” So who got it wrong: “I. N. P.” – who was there in 1882 – or Charlie Foor and the oldtimers in Fort Sumner who relocated the grave in the 1920s? You’d tend to think maybe the old timers. After all, as anyone who has read The Saga of Billy the Kid knows, by 1925 the site had reverted to wilderness and when Charlie Siringo mooted putting a marker over the grave a few years later, it was overgrown with mesquite. Even then, the actual location was ‘disputed’ as this item from the April 11, 1930 edition of The Fort Sumner Leader indicates:

MARKING GRAVE OF FAMOUS NEW MEXICO CHARACTER
An interesting step was taken by the DeBaca County Chamber of Commerce this week when that body gathered together here A. P. (Paco) Anaya, Vicente Ortega [Otero], and C. W. Charley Foor [and Jesus Silva] to make definite the disputed location [my italics] of the grave of New Mexico’s most romantic outlaw, Billy the Kid, in the little cemetery at Old Fort Sumner. These men located the grave in the old cemetery and a picture of them was taken, standing at the foot of the graves of the Kid, Charley Bowdry and Tom O’Phalion … a concrete curbing is in place around the three graves and a big concrete slab is to be placed over the grave of the Kid.

4.

So the first marker was not a marker at all but a concrete curbing with a flat slab on the actual grave. It wasn’t until a year or so later that the “Pals” marker which stands on the spot today was erected, as the same newspaper reported on October 31, 1931. .

MARKING BILLY’S GRAVE An order was made out this week for the grave stone marking the graves of Old Fort Sumner’s noted characters, Billy the Kid, Tom O’Phalion and Charley Bowdrie [doesn’t this kind of sloppiness make you sick?]. It is understood the stone is to have a suitable inscription, and covering all three graves, with pointers indicating each man’s resting place.

5.

Oddly enough, the newspaper doesn’t seem to have covered the actual installation of the gravestone, so we can only conclude that it was placed on the spot sometime between November, 1930 and October 1932, when the paper ran a further story complaining the monument was already being vandalized. This lack of coverage has left us with questions which have persisted until the present day: first, did they really put the marker in the right place? And second, were the graves of Charley Bowdre and Tom O’Folliard near that of the Kid, or in the northeast corner of the cemetery as “I. N. P.” claimed in 1882?

To answer those questions it is first necessary to establish some facts about the cemetery, and how it was laid out in the Kid’s time. To do that we have to go back to the U.S. Army records. These show that in October 1862, acting entirely upon his own authority (but ratified post-facto almost a year later by his superior, Gen. H. W. Halleck) General James H. Carleton ordered the establishment of Fort Sumner at Bosque Redondo on the banks of the Pecos River. Designed as a five-company post and named for Mexican and Civil War veteran General Edwin Vose Sumner, it was sited at the center of a projected forty-mile square, 1,024,000 acre reservation (read concentration camp) for Navajo and Mescalero Apache Indians, of whom, at the end of 1864, there were over 8000 living in 1276 “lodges” – crude living quarters – at or near the fort.

The Navajos, by far the larger part of the population, owned nearly 7000 sheep, 2757 goats, 143 mules and over 3000 horses, the presence of the latter doubtless one of the reasons that the village of Puerto de Luna, on the northern edge of the reservation, became and remained a horse-thieves’ heaven. Crammed into an area that had been shrunk by bureaucratic or military sleight of hand to 13,644 acres, the Navajos hated every moment of every day they were confined at Guelte as they called it; the soldiers whose duty it was to confine them probably loathed the place with equal passion. 6.
During the construction of the post by Army engineers, a plot was set aside for a military cemetery, at first unenclosed, and situated exactly one quarter mile due east of the flagpole. Between January 2, 1863, and February 1, 1868, the following twenty-two military burials were recorded at Fort Sumner. 7.
Name and rank
Pvt. Samuel Strunk Pvt. Marcus Cruiz Pvt Albertin Crutchfield Captain Robert Lusby
Regiment
1st NM Cav 1st NM Cav 1st Cal Cav AAG US Vols
Date of death
January 2, 1863 October 5, 1864 December 8, 1864 February 20, 1865
Cause.
Killed by Indians (not found) Intermittent fever Unknown Took poison by mistake
Pvt. Juan Chavez Hosp. Stwd Philip Walsh Captain Joseph Berney Pvt. William H. Daugherty Pvt. Juan Marcus Pvt. Patrick Toury Pvt. Patrick Johnson Cpl. Hugh Friel Cpl. William C. Edwards 2Lt. William J. Eckley Pvt. John Devine Pvt. James Cook Pvt. Edward White Pvt. William Kerr Pvt. John Lee Edward Johnson Pvt. Thomas Hedgecock Pvt. William H. Epple
1st NM Cav 1st NM Cav 1st NM Cav 1st Cal Cav 1st NM Cav 5th US Inf. 5th US Inf. 3rd US Cav 3rd US Cav 5th US Inf 3rd US Cav 3rd US Cav 3rd US Cav 3rd US Cav 3rd US Cav Civilian 37th US Inf 3rd US Cav
March 30, 1865 April 25, 1865 October 7, 1865 December 7, 1865 December 21, 1865 July 7, 1866
July 15, 1867 May 3, 1867 June 12, 1867 June 20, 1867 July 9, 1867 July 9, 1867 July 9, 1867 July 9, 1867 July 9, 1867 October 12, 1867 November 17, 1867 July 1, 1868
Pneumonia (not found) Delirium tremens (not found)
Congestive fever Pneumonia Apoplexy Accidentally shot by comrade Acute rheum
Shot by comrade near Puerto de Luna Cerebral congestion Killed by Navajos near Fort Sumner
“ “ “ “
Killed by Guard while resisting arrest

On April 20, 1866, just a few months before his mustering out after two years of service with the US Volunteers, Assistant Quartermaster Capt. Gus Artsman filed a report with the Quartermaster General’s office on the general condition of the cemetery from which it is clear that even then it was already in a rundown condition. Artsman made a number of recommendations for its improvement. To begin with, he wrote, the plot was open to the elements and suggested that it be enclosed by an adobe wall. “Headboards are at most of the graves,” he added, “[and I] will have them at the remainder soon.” 8. The office of Quartermaster General and Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs concurred. “The graves should be sodded,” it stipulated, “mounds erected and also headboards where necessary, and otherwise put in a good presentable condition. At this point, as well as at all others in the remote territories of the west where there are no towns, villages, or organized municipality the graves of citizens should receive the same care from government as those of soldiers.” 9.

Accordingly in 1867 the plot was enclosed by an adobe wall; readers of Walter Noble Burns’ Saga of Billy the Kid will recall that according to Charlie Foor there was also an arched gateway with a cross on top. 10. The entire cemetery at that time measured 156 feet [52 yards] east-to-west and 146 feet [48. 66 yards] north-to-south, which probably explains, although it was in fact slightly larger than that, why it later became known as ‘Hell’s Half-acre.’ On March 21 of that year Lt. Robert McDonald, 5th Infantry (whose display of “most distinguished gallantry at the battle of Wolf Mountain in Montana” the following year would earn him a Medal of Honor) reported that although because of the nature of the local grass it had not been possible for the graves to be sodded, the cemetery was “now enclosed by a wall built of Adobes five feet high and twenty-seven inches wide at the bottom, sloping to a point at the top. Trees have been planted throughout, the graves are in good condition, Head Boards placed at each and every grave.” 11.

The Lieutenant may have been telling headquarters what it wanted to hear rather than the truth; following the annual inspection of the cemetery a year later, Swiss-born Regimental Quartermaster Lt. Alexander Sutorius, Third Cavalry, reported on June 23, 1868 that he had had difficulty locating graves due to the absence of headboards and added “There are a few graves which I find impossible to have identified from the long period of interment.” 12. Among these appears to have been that of Capt. Joseph Berney, 1st NM Vol. Cavalry, who died October 7, 1865.

The Navajos were about to be delivered from their bondage. In 1867 Congress passed an Act creating the Indian Peace Commission. On May 28, 1868 General William Tecumseh Sherman and Samuel F. Tappan arrived at Fort Sumner with authority to negotiate a treaty with the Navajos. Sherman’s orders were to remove the Navajos to Fort Sill, but the Navajo leaders argued successfully to be allowed to return to their homes in the Four Corners region. The government acceded, promising $150,000 to provide the Navajos with transportation to their new reservation in northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona, and to furnish them with 15,000 sheep and goats and 500 cattle to rebuild their livestock industry. On June 15, some seven thousand Navajos began the long trek to their new homes under the protection of two companies of US Cavalry commanded by Maj. Charles Jarvis Whiting, Third Cavalry; shortly thereafter the military decommissioned the post and in 1869 the decision was taken to abandon it. 13.

In 1870, following the sale of his ‘Maxwell Land Grant’, and after some dickering with the Army, Lucien B. Maxwell purchased the old fort buildings and irrigation ditches (called “improvements” in the documentation) from the government for $5000 (after they had been offered at a public sale on June 13, 1870 where, to the dismay of the Secretary for War, the best bid was $900) and when
the deal was closed in October, moved his center of operations from Cimarron to Fort Sumner. 14. According to a survey made two years later “the buildings had deteriorated in value greatly during the time they were unoccupied.” The surveyor also reported that since the purchase Maxwell had spent about $10,000 on improvements, which included enlarging one of the former officers quarters buildings into a spacious twenty-room private home, a hundred feet long and nearly fifty wide, for himself and his family. For a further $5000 he purchased two buildings situated on the west side of the Avenue which had belonged to J. A. LaRue, former post trader. By 1872, the population of Fort Sumner was estimated at 250 souls, almost all of them working for, or dependent upon, Maxwell. 15.

Between 1870 and 1880 the cemetery was regularly used for civilian burials. Nearly all of these were in ground east of the central path where there were already a few graves, believed to have been those of workers and artisans who had died during the building of the original fort in 1863-65. An October 31, 1907 War Department memorandum to the Secretary of the Interior confirms “that the post cemetery was used as a private burying ground subsequent to the abandonment of the post and that from 60 to 80 civilian remains were buried there …” 16. As if perhaps to distance himself royally from his employees and neighbors, the grave of Lucien B. Maxwell, who died June 25, 1875, is not among them but in the southwest quadrant of the cemetery, as is that of his son Peter, who died July 21, 1898.

Among the graves on the eastern side, as “I. N. P.” told us (although Charlie Foor claimed otherwise) was “Texas Red” Joe Grant, who thought he could sucker Billy the Kid and instead got suckered himself. The killing took place at Fort Sumner on January 10, 1880. Here’s how eyewitness Frank Lloyd described it to J. Evetts Haley in 1935. 17.

Texas Red said when he come there that that was his business, to kill the Kid and they talked and went out and had shooting matches at a mark for the whiskey all day and come into the saloon to take a drink. Tex was pretty drunk and Billy was full. Tex throwed his hand on his gun and says ‘Billy, I can draw the first blood for the whiskey.’ Billy says ‘I’ll go you’ and broke his neck in three places. He shot him in the mouth, under the chin and in the neck before he hit the ground. He had his hand on his gun and never got it out of the scabbard. I saw it. I was standing right at the bar. That was Teet’s [Beaver Smith’s] saloon.

Another unmarked grave holds the body of John Farris (sometimes given as Faris or Faires) who was certainly killed by Barney Mason as “I. N. P.” reported, but that it was at the behest of Billy the Kid is highly unlikely. Born in Mississippi in 1845, Farris was the oldest son of Solomon and Laurinda Farris, and had served with the rank of lieutenant in Co. H. of Baylor’s Regiment of Texas Cavalry until the unit surrendered at Galveston in June, 1865. He and his five brothers were peripherally involved in the Mason County troubles, although so far as has been ascertained to the present time, they were not directly implicated in any killings. In his book “Riata and Spurs” Charles Siringo mentions starting out up the Bascom Trail for Kansas with a cowboy named John Ferris, who borrowed $25 from him and $50 from the livery man and hit the road “… direct for Fort Sumner, where he was shot and killed by Barney Mason.” The Santa Fe Daily New Mexican gave such details as were available on January 19, 1880.

In a shooting affray at Fort Sumner on the 29th ultimo [December 29, 1879] John Farris was shot and killed by Barney Mason. Farris shot three times at Mason without any provocation, when the latter went off, got a pistol and returning to the store where Farris was, shot him twice in the breast.”

Another version suggests Farris got into a card game with Mason and Pat Garrett and a quarrel ensued during which Mason shot Farris in the back. 18. Whichever story is true, Farris was just as dead, and it’s highly unlikely he got even so much as a picket-fence marker over his grave. As for Mason, it was said that following the capture and death of the Kid, he badmouthed Pat Garrett for failing to share the reward for killing the Kid and other bounties collected by Garrett to which Mason’s spying had contributed, whereupon Garrett evolved a plan to get rid of Mason. “Barney knows too much,” he told Skelton Glenn. Shortly thereafter Mason came across a fine yearling, apparently unbranded; unfortunately for him he overlooked a small H brand between the forelegs which was used by Garrett; as a result, Mason was indicted on two counts, stealing an ox and altering brands, and on May 1, 1887 was sent to the penitentiary. On November 16 of the same year after he was pardoned by Governor Ross, Barney left New Mexico and never came back. 19.

In 1906, it was decided to remove the remains of the “approximately” 22 enlisted men and officers buried in the Fort Sumner cemetery to the National Cemetery in Santa Fe as part of an ongoing process of reburial of bodies from former military posts (Forts Stanton, Marcy, Grant, Wingate, and Craig as well as Fort Sumner) that had begun a decade earlier and would continue until 1920. On December 2, 1905, the specifications for this operation were issued and bids to conduct it invited. The successful contractor was required to “put the remains of each [person] in a dressed pine box 26 in. x 10 in. x 10 in., and where any disagreeable odor can be noticed, to place in the box a sufficient quantity of sawdust saturated with carbolic acid to destroy such odor. The graves in the old cemetery are to be refilled by the contractor and the ground left smooth and all the rubbish carted away by him.” 20.

There were only three bidders for the job, all from Santa Fe: Jose D. Sena and Pedro A. Sandoval were highest at $800, C. F. Dudrow put in the low bid, $300, and was awarded the contract. The bodies, which according to the military records were “on the western side of the cemetery” were accordingly exhumed by his workers, placed in boxes as stipulated, and reburied at Santa Fe on March 8 in military graves 674-695. A citation from his April 20, 1906 report to the Assistant QMG, US Army, Denver, indicates how meticulously Dudrow worked. 21.

As stated … it was impossible to identify the remains of any particular person. I spent five or six days traveling through the country in search of old residents who might be able to identify some one or more of these soldiers, but after a lapse of forty years it could hardly be considered possible to get reliable information … I had an interview with a Dr. John Gayheart [Gerhardt] whom I traveled fifty miles to see [at Los Ojitos] who was a caterer for the officers mess during the time of the post but he could remember nothing regarding names or anything of that nature. He was, however, able to tell me the part of the cemetery used by the military. He also told me about the wooden monument over the remains of one of the Captains but could not recall the name [Lusby]. I also found other parties who gave me practically the same information. At one time, I was informed, all the graves of the soldiers were marked with wooden head boards and when I did this work some of them were still standing in the first and second rows but all lettering entirely obliterated and not even legible under a magnifying glass. [The body in grave] No. 8 … was a Corporal of Cavalry which was apparent when the grave was opened as the re-enlistment stripes on the sleeve were visible for probably a minute before the color and material crumbled away from exposure to the air.
The identification of the officers was made from the shoulder straps and clothing. The list furnished me giving the names of these twenty two officers and men contained but one Lieutenant consequently I am thoroughly convinced that there can be no mistake as to these remains being those of Wm. J. Eckley as the Second Lieutenant Shoulder straps would indicate, and the other two officers being Captains.
As shown by the drawing the graves of the three officers were close together. No. 18 was the one burried in a metallic casket and over whose grave was the large wooden monument. From the position of the grave, date of death, and black trowsers without stripe found in this grave, I am inclined to believe that this was the grave of Capt. Lusby … From information received from several parties I am satisfied that the interments were made from right to left, and in my opinion it would be quite likely that the first officer to be burried should be in the center of the rows in the part of the cemetery used for military burials.
The identification of the remains removed was as certain as could be expected after the long lapse of time as signified by the remaining head boards which were all of the same pattern … and the finding of something of a military nature in nearly all of the graves. In nearly every grave with the exception of the three officers I found parts of the old government woolen sock. The boxes in which the remains were shipped were numbered to correspond with the numbers as shown on the drawing enclosed.

Dudrow’s statement that some headboards were still standing also suggests that the famous September, 1904 flood, even though it is supposed to have inundated the cemetery to a depth of four feet, did not do as much damage as might have been expected and therefore probably did not, as some writers have suggested, wash graves and bones away down the Pecos. So, given that they were all still there in 1906, the big question is, could Dudrow have accidentally exhumed any of the nearby civilian remains – and most especially the Kid’s – and mixed them up with the military ones? Some people think so. According to a newspaper article by one Kelly Rae Hearn in the Taos, NM El Crepusculo of June 2, 1955,

“a Catholic priest, Father Burke … was present at Fort Sumner when the bodies were taken from the burial ground there to be transferred to the Santa Fe National Cemetery. After completion of the operations, the grave formerly occupied by the body of the Kid was empty …”

22.

The mysterious Father Burke, if he ever existed at all, was never interviewed anywhere else, so the claim that he saw the Kid’s grave empty remains unsupported, and since elsewhere in the same article it is stated that 43 bodies from Fort Sumner were reburied in Santa Fe rather than the documented 22, we can hardly call it reliable. On the other hand, the War Department memorandum cited above is very specific: “There being no funds to cover the cost of disinterment of these [other 60 or 80 civilian] remains and there being no authority to re-inter them in a national cemetery … no steps have been taken by the Department looking to their removal.” 23. In other words, since Dudrow had no reason to move them and would not have been paid a red cent had he done so, it’s more than probable he did not, and that every non-military body that was buried there is still there.

Further support for the proposition that this is so exists in the form of a carefully and accurately scaled map that Dudrow drew up at the time of the exhumation, showing not only the locations of the graves from which the bodies of the soldiers had been taken, but also other graves in the cemetery, most notably those of two “outlaws, friends of Billy the Kid” and that of the Kid himself. In the northwest corner of the cemetery are shown the graves of five children, three ‘unknown,’ one the ‘child of Maj. Keyes’ and the fifth a ‘child of Bobien family,’ probably Felipe (the name often mistakenly given as Henry) Beaubien, believed to have been between ten and twelve years old, who was killed by one of the Henry Hawkins “Mesa Hawks” gang during the 1902 robbery of a Fort Sumner store owned by Philip Holdman and Charlie Foor. 24.

Others believed to have been buried in the cemetery but not shown on the Dudrow map – and therefore probably on the eastern side with those he simply identifies as “civilian dead” – include Francisco Gallego, killed by cowboy Tom Moran; George Peacock, killed by C.W. White in 1884; and John B. Legg, another forgotten character from the early days of New Mexico history, a saloon-keeper, gambler and hardcase who had served as a deputy U. S. Marshal, participated in the pursuit of the Black Jack Ketchum gang, and in August, 1894, killed a small time badman named William McElhany, a.k.a. “Portales Bill”. On March 22, 1899 he was himself killed by James Blanton in quarrel over a poker game at Fort Sumner. Also in there somewhere is Charles Wesley Foor (1850-1940), the man who most of all was responsible for identifying the location of the Kid’s grave and for ensuring that a marker was placed on the spot. 25.

Which brings us to the other big question: was the Kid’s grave where the present marker says it is? Charlie Foor said it was “three feet west of [the] path and thirty-one steps from the gate.” (Question: did he mean the original gate in the middle of the north wall, or the present day gate in the northeast corner?). 26. On the Dudrow map, the Kid’s grave is about 35 feet in from the gate and maybe 10-12 feet west of the central path. So did he misidentify it, too? In August, 1999, using the Dudrow map as a guide, Gregory Scott Smith, Monument Manager at the Fort Sumner State Monument, made some careful comparative measurements. He immediately discovered that today, the cemetery is some 187 feet across; which means the north wall (where the old entrance was) is some feet further north than it was in 1882; his conclusion was that “each time they’ve rebuilt the wall (or fence) they’ve moved it back from the existing wall or fence a little.” As a result, the total growth in north-south dimension has been around thirty feet, maybe half of that on the south side.

“It seems reasonable to assume,” Scott Smith wrote, “that the modern wall was built to replace the fence marked — – — on Dudrow’s diagram in order to include all of the graves [that had in the intervening years been buried between the barbed wire fence and the original wall].”

He then made some measurements from the cage which surrounds the Kid’s marker to other locations. 27.
At that point the cemetery is 166 feet wide (east/west). It’s a little less than 60 feet from the northwest corner of the cage to the west wall. The cage is 11 feet long and it’s a little more than 95 feet from the northeast corner of the cage to the east wall … Dudrow’s diagram indicates that the grave would be 45 feet from the 1906 fence line and I measured the current placement as 49 feet from the existing north wall. Dudrow’s diagram predicts a distance of 99 feet from the foot of Billy’s grave to the east wall, and I measure a little more than 95 feet. To summarize, I think the modern placement (based on information provided by Billy’s pallbearers in 1931) agrees almost exactly with the placement indicated by Dudrow’s diagram.

All of which, when taken together with the details at the “bivouac of the dead” recorded by the Optic reporter in 1882, strongly suggests the stone marking the location of the Kid’s grave is as near the right place, give or take a couple of feet, as anyone could decently have hoped for. And despite a century of legends of exhumation by skelologists, of his bones being hung in a doctor’s waiting room or washed down the Pecos or taken up with the military bodies and reburied in Santa Fe, the odds are the Kid is still in it. Which is more than enough for the sentimentalist in all of us: for just a few yards away from his grave is the stone which marks the last resting place of pretty little Paula Maxwell Jaramillo, the girl he loved enough to die for.

Under the wide and starry sky Dig the grave and let me lie, Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me: ‘Here he lies where he longed to be Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill.’

—————————————————————————————————————————-
The author would like to thank Gregory Scott Smith, Monument Manager, Fort Sumner State Monument, for his invaluable assistance in the preparation of this article.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
NOTES
1. Burroughs, Jean M. On The Trail: The Life and Tales of “Lead Steer” Potter. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1980. 105-107, 137-139.
2. True West, (8) 2. December, 1960. 6-9, 62-64. 3. “The Bivouac of the Dead” A Visit to an Old Burying Ground at Fort Sumner by a Special
Correspondent of The Optic. Las Vegas Optic. January 16, 1882. 4. The Fort Sumner Leader, April 11, 1930. 5. The Fort Sumner Leader, October 31, 1931. 6. Keleher, William A. Turmoil in New Mexico. Santa Fe: The Rydal Press, 1952. 502. 7. Record of Interments, Cemeterial Files, Fort Sumner 1863-68. Office of the Quartermaster General.
RG92, NARA. 8. General Correspondence and Reports Relating to National and Post Cemeteries, 1865-1890. Box
64: Steilacoom to Vicksburg. Office of the Quartermaster General. RG 92, NARA. 9. Ibid.
10. Burns, Walter Noble. The Saga of Billy the Kid. New York and Garden City: Doubleday Page & Co., 1926. 294.
11. Consolidated Correspondence, Fort Sumner File, Box 1093. Office of the Quartermaster General. RG92, NARA.
12. General Correspondence and Reports, op cit. 13. Keleher, op cit. 466-467. He says there were four companies of US Cavalry. 14. General Correspondence and Reports, op cit. 15. Survey of Fort Sumner Military Reservation by Robert B. Willison, 1872. Courtesy Gregory Scott
Smith, Fort Sumner State Monument, NM. 16. R. S. Oliver to Hon. Sec. of the Interior, October 31, 1907. US Dept. of the Interior. Courtesy
Gregory Scott Smith. 17. Haley, J. Evetts. “Interview with Frank Lloyd.” Tularosa, NM. August 18, 1927. Haley History
Center, Midland, Texas. 18. McAlavy, Don. “The Mysterious Death of John Farris.” The Outlaw Gazette (11) 1. November, 1998.
22-23; Siringo, Charles. Riata and Spurs. Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1927. 119ff ; Santa Fe Daily New Mexican January 19, 1880; “Farris, John.” Biographical Files, Robert N. Mullin Collection, Haley History Center, Midland, Texas.
19. “Mason, Barney.” Biographical Files, Robert N. Mullin Collection op cit. 20. “Specifications for Disinterring and Removing Remains of Officers and Enlisted Men and Civilians
at Old Fort Sumner, New Mexico.” December 2, 1905. B. K. West, Lt. Col. Deputy Commissary
General, US Army. Denver, Colorado. Office of the Quartermaster General. RG 92, NARA. 21. C. F. Dudrow to Col. C. A. H. McCauley, AQM General, Denver April 20, 1906. Consolidated
Correspondence, Fort Sumner File. op cit.
22. Hearn, Kelly Rae. “Here Sleep the Dead Heroes.” El Crepusculo, Taos, NM. June 2, 1955. 4. 23. R. S. Oliver to Hon. Secretary of the Interior, October 31, 1907 op cit. 24. C. F. Dudrow to Col. C. A. H. McCauley op cit. 25. Research by Donald K. McAlavy, Clovis, NM.
26. Burns, Saga op cit. 297. 27. Gregory Scott Smith, personal communications August 5, 1999 and August 2, 2002.

If he is remembered at all, it is as a footnote to the story of infamous badman Curly Bill Brocius. At this writing, his origins have not been revealed, nor his physical description, thoughts, manner of speech, and personality. Published old-timer recollections do not mention him, and at the height of his career he received little notice from newspapers. But in his heyday, the years 1879-1880, Robert Martin brought terror and near-ruin to northern Chihuahua. A two-year chain of letters at the highest levels of the U.S. and Mexican governments firmly establish his reputation as a successful and dangerous rustler chieftain.

Bob Martin’s early criminal career along the border appears to have been unremarkable, except in one respect. He associated with, learned his trade from, and perhaps served as “mentor” to a veritable “Who’s Who” of southwest outlaws, including Jesse Evans, John Kinney, Curly Bill Brocius, Dutch Joe Hubert, Jim McDaniels, Pony Deal, and, briefly, young Henry Antrim. He stole horses, robbed stagecoaches, shot it out with posses, and earned a generally bad reputation not much different than a hundred other border bad men. His participation in several crimes and as one of “the Boys” (the gang led by Evans) during 1876-77 has been mentioned in various secondary works, but these take little, if any, note of his later notoriety along the border.

Martin may have taken part in the El Paso Salt War. Ethnic tensions in that Texas county rose to a fever pitch when Charles Howard claimed the legal right to charge fees for salt extracted from dry lakes near the Guadalupe Mountains. When, in December 1877, a hastily formed Texas Ranger unit was besieged in the town of San Elizario by hundreds of Mexicanos from both sides of the Rio Grande, El Paso Sheriff Charles Kerber put the call out to New Mexico for help. About 30 so-called “Silver City Volunteers” responded to the plea, among them some of the worst gunmen in southern New Mexico. Although officially under the orders of Kerber, some took their cue from rustling kingpin John Kinney. For several weeks in late December 1877 and early January 1878, the “Kinney men” committed murder and mayhem against Mexicans, tejanos and anglos alike. Released from service on January 10, many “Volunteers” returned to New Mexico, but Kinney and some others remained in the area. According to a statement later made by local Texas Rangers commander Lieutenant James A. Tays, Martin was “part of the Kenny band who have been living in El Paso Mexico [modern Ciudad Juarez]….”

El Paso Fiasco

By May 1878, Bob Martin was riding with Curly Bill Bresnaham. Under the surname Brocius, Curly Bill would later receive considerable attention as “Arizona’s most famous outlaw.” Billy Breakenridge describes Brocius as a great travel companion.4

On 21 May 1878, Martin and Bresnaham attempted to rob a party of soldiers. The officer in charge was 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin I. Butler of the 8th Cavalry, son of Benjamin F. Butler, the Massachusetts politician and Civil War general.5 At about 4:00 p.m. on the 21st, Lt. Butler and two troopers of the 9th U.S. Cavalry, Charles Johnston and George Shakespear (no “e”), were en route from El Paso to Mesilla, when, according to the Mesilla Valley Independent (May 25, 1878), they were

“overtaken and passed near White’s Ranche, eight miles north of El Paso, by two mounted men, one of whom is said to be the notorious Bob Martin. About two miles further on, at a bend in the road, these same men, masked, sprang from the bushes near the road side and ordered the driver to halt, simultaneously with the demand they both opened fire on the men in the ambulance. The driver was struck in the shoulder the ball passing out near his spine inflicting a serious wound, the other soldier Johnson [sic] of Co. “G.” 9th cavalry was hit three times one ball penetrating his right lung, another entered his stomach and a third lodged in his right thigh, inflicting at least one mortal wound. As the wounded men fell back in the ambulance; Lieut. Butler grasped a carbine from the hands of one of them and sprang to the ground, whereupon the cowardly assassins fled through the brush and made their escape. Corporal Mathews with four men of the Texas Rangers came up shortly afterwards and followed the trail of the murderers to the River and discovered that they had crossed into Mexico. The wounded men were taken back to El Paso Texas where they now lie in critical condition. The object of the attack was undoubtedly robbery, it being supposed that Lieut. Butler had a considerable sum of money about his person. Lieutenant Butler reached this place about noon to-day (Wednesday.) The ambulance is riddled with bullets and stained with the blood of the wounded men.”

According to Lieutenant Tays, Butler and his men were met by Ranger First Sergeant Asberry C. Ryall a few minutes after the attack. Ryall detailed one man to help the wounded, while he and four rangers chased the bandits into Mexico, where authorities arrested them. Tays viewed the crime as fresh evidence that “The Lincoln Co. outlaws are coming down pretty plentifull [sic].”6

Within days, Mexican authorities turned the highwaymen over to the U.S. Army, whose officers paid a $75 reward out of their own pockets. Arrested with “Dutch Martin and Curly Bill” was a third man, Joe Haytema. He apparently was innocent of the crime, but as either Martin or Bresnaham had ridden his horse and carried his arms, he was swept up in the dragnet. It was just as well, as Buckskin Joe was wanted on a separate charge stemming from his attempt to kill Kinney in the latter’s own saloon.7

The arrest of Martin made news from Silver City to Santa Fe. In the Independent, Albert Fountain declared,

“There are several indictments against Martin in the U.S. and Territorial Courts of this county for stage robbing, larceny, & and should he escape the punishment he so richly merits in Texas we ask to have him sent up here where we will at least give him a through ticket to the Missouri penitentiary to join Dutch Joe, his old confederate in crime.”

8

Bob and Curly Bill sat in a makeshift jail in Ysleta all summer while they awaited trial. Indictments were handed down on September 2. The charge stated that Martin and Bresnaham did, on May 21st, assault with intent to kill troopers Johnston and Shakespear. The prisoners faced incarceration of two-to-seven years. The trial took place on the 11th. The details have not been found in surviving case files or newspapers, but the witnesses called included Johnston and Buckskin Joe. Lieutenant Butler was not called. That officer had taken a leave of absence on May 23rd, two days following the attack, and on June 1 resigned his commission. By September, the man who had foiled the robbery was far from Texas. The jury returned guilty verdicts on September 12, and District Judge Allen Blacker sentenced the prisoners to five years in the State Penitentiary at Huntsville.9

Defendants’ lawyers filed an immediate appeal on several grounds, including a verdict “too vague, uncertain and indefinite to support a Judgement or sentence.” They also claimed that a
material witness for the defendants had been prevented from attending the court by threats. According to the affidavit of Paul W. Keating, one Joseph Jerold had desired to attend the trial “but was afraid to do so because he had been three times notified by the Jeffe politica [chief government officer] and other Mexican authorities of El Paso Mexico that if he … did attend said trial as such that he would have to leave the country because he Jerold was only taking the part of the said defendants because they are Americans.” According to Keating, Jerold said he saw Martin at the time of the robbery attempt in El Paso, Mexico and conversed with him and that said Martin was at that time carrying horse feed on his horse.”10

T. A. Fahey, District Attorney pro tem for El Paso County, filed a motion to correct any defect in the legality of the verdict handed down. This still left the chance of reversal on the grounds of Jerold’s inability to testify. Unimpressed with their own arguments, the defendants escaped jail on November 2, 1878.

Officially, Martin and Bresnaham had been the prisoners of Sheriff Kerber. Unwilling to put them in the old county jail in San Elizario, and lacking a jail in Ysleta, the new county seat, Kerber had turned his prisoners over to Tays’ Rangers. The two bandits, as well as Buckskin Joe, a convicted rapist named Sam Kirkley, Hipoliter Talers, and several other prisoners, were kept in a one-room structure with one door and no windows. Families were allowed to visit their incarcerated relatives, and the lax security enabled someone to sneak the proverbial hacksaw inside the proverbial pie. In the darkened room, the prisoners were able to cut their shackles and dig their way out under the wall.

The prisoners may have been helped by a Texas Ranger. Tays’ unit, the Detachment of Company “C,” was plagued by such “inside men” during this period. The likeliest possibility is Sam Northcutt, who deserted the unit just a few days after the prisoners’ escape. Northcutt turned—or returned—to rustling, and was killed by the Rangers in January 1879.11

Martin and the others were gone only ten minutes before their absence was noticed, but the tracks led directly to the safety of Mexico. Authorities there promised Tays they would attempt to apprehend the escapees, but nothing came of it. Again Bob Martin escaped justice.12 Within days, he returned to his life of crime. Within a few months, he came to the attention of Mexican and American diplomats. Within two years, he was the subject of urgent correspondence throughout the United States Government.

“Martin… keeps the inhabitants in the greatest state of alarm”

Martin escaped from custody on November 2. Before the month was out he reportedly stole 68 head of cattle in northern Chihuahua. The rustler was later identified as “John Martin.” The description of him as “a noted robber on the Texas and New Mexico frontier, who escaped two or three months ago from the prison in Franklin” makes it clear that Bob was the culprit. Martin was said to be living in Silver City and a known associate of a D.K. Wardwell, whose Azcarati Ranche presumably was first way station for the beeves.13

That Martin had quickly organized a gang that ranged far and wide is apparent from this anxious letter from E. F. Walz, the Warm Springs Indian Contractor, to Colonel Hatch’s District of New Mexico headquarters in Santa Fe:

“I have a heard [sic] of Cattle on the road from Sullivan’s Ranch in the State of Chihuahua en route to the San Carlos Agency to be delivered to the Indians. The herd consists of 800 to 400 beef steers. I am just informed that there are some hostile Indians on the route which goes by the Hatchet Mountains and San Simon Also I am informed that quite a band of thieves under Bob Martin the man who shot Lt. Butler have threatened and are preparing to stampede my herd. I request that an escort or scout be sent to meet said herd at the Hatchet Mountains and escort them to the point of crossing the Arizona line. The herd is under the charge of John H. Riley.”

14

Initially, Bob Martin was one of several Americans accused by the Mexicans of rustling their livestock and bringing it north of the border, but his name quickly became the most prominent in their dispatches. From Chihuahua came a report that on February 9, 1879,

“an expedition of fourteen men left Janos (a major town in the northwest of that state) on account of the authorities having received information of a drove of stolen cattle passing in the vicinity, that in fact eighteen beeves were found hidden in the mountains without any herder, from which, on account of brands and other signs it was known that they had been left there by some Americans engaged in taking cattle from the ranche of Azcarate to be incorporated and crossed at the first opportunity to the United States, that the presence of Martin in that section and the frequency with which robberies have been committed in New Mexico and Texas near the dividing line keeps the inhabitants in the greatest alarm….”

15

In response to the first complaints forwarded by Mexican Foreign Minister Ruelas, the United States Government agreed to investigate the matter. There it ended.16
Martin’s activities were wide-ranging. The Las Cruces newspaper Thirty-Four reported on September 3, 1879, “Bob Martin, the highwayman, is again lurking around between here and Silver City.” Lt. George Baylor, the new Texas Ranger commander in El Paso, reported in late 1880 that,

“The man Martin… has been living in Mexico ever since [his escape], moving from one town to another in the northern part of Chihuahua, in Concepcion, Janos, & thereabouts, and I think with a mixed band of white men + Mexicans has been attacking cattle & horses in Corralitos, Casas Inandas, & that section and running them into Arizona + New Mexico.”

17

The greatest devastation was visited upon the town of Janos and the colony of Ascension in northern Chihuahua. In May 1879, the Administration of Frontier Justice at Janos reported the presence of bandits under the leadership of “a fugitive from the Franklin jail, where he was registered under the name of Bob Robert Martin.” In August 1880, Juan M. Navarro, the Mexican Chargé d’Affaires in New York passed along to the U.S. Secretary of State the Governor of Chihuahua’s report of June 9, 1880, that Martin,

“a bandit by profession who for some time past has been marauding on both frontiers, has succeeded in forming a gang of Texans and Mexicans who at present have taken refuge in the Sierra del Hache in American territory from whence they separate to commit their depredations, stealing large numbers of cattle, which pass on that side of the frontier.”

18

Martin hit Ascension twice within a few days. In reporting this fact, the Municipal President of Ascension advised the Governor of Chihuahua that Martin’s deeds were “attested by a person who had set out from San Simon and who knows the brands and saw the animals in the possession of the American Robert Martin.”19

In reporting Martin’s crimes to Secretary of State Evans, Navarro added,

“I do not think it essential to include in this letter further information concerning the existence of the gang of thieves under Robert Martin since they have public notoriety on both frontiers and this information will suffice, according to my judgment, to make the Department see the necessity of bringing before the Authorities of that part of the frontier the persecution of a gang of outlaws who have caused so much trouble, succeeding up to this time in eluding the vigilance of the authorities of both Republics.”

20

Even as Navarro drafted his August communiqué to Evarts, rustler attacks on Janos and Ascension threatened the very existence of those communities. On July 30, 1880, the Municipal President of Janos learned that cattle and horses were being stolen from Aqua Fria, about six miles distant, and that the thieves were driving the animals in the direction north. Fourteen volunteers were immediately dispatched, with sixteen more following “for the purpose of protecting those who had started first.”21

The first party overtook the rustlers at San Luis, to the south of the Sarampion mountains. Some of the bandits galloped ahead with eighteen stolen horses while others remained to defend their interest in 85 head of rustled cattle. The bandits

“made a stubborn resistance, opening fire upon their pursuers, so that the latter were obliged to assume a defensive attitude; a fight ensued, in which one horse was wounded in the foreleg; it being impossible to remove this animal, he was left in the field. It was observed that one of the thieves was severely wounded, and eighty- five head of cattle were abandoned [by the rustlers], together with a mule, a saddle and bridle, and some other articles of small value which had been abandoned by the wounded man above mentioned.”

Despite the measure of success, the Janos Municipal President begged his superiors to send a military force for their protection. “[F]or if this is not done the situation of our people is an utterly defenseless one.”22
Thwarted in their attempt to safely carry off the stolen beeves, Martin’s band was soon at it again. In early August, an American agent of Senor Ramon R. Lujan, owner of the “estate Corralitos” (located some 25 miles south of Janos), arrived at Janos with fifteen men in pursuit of American thieves believed to be a short distance away.

“Several persons volunteered to accompany him, and joined his party; after having been out two days, they came upon two or three Americans who were well fortified in a sort of stockade which they had built; these at once opened fire upon the pursuing party, who returned it, the result being a lively fight, in which Sabas Talamante and a Negro, who accompanied the man from Corralitos, were wounded; two horses were also wounded and one remained stuck in a mudhole. The American in charge of the party then resolved to return, finding that he would be obliged to expose the lives of some of the men who were with him if he persisted in capturing the outlaws….”

23

On this same rustling foray, the bandits ran into resistance from the colonists of Ascension. “It appears that several citizens of that town, who were in pursuit of thieves from the United States who had been stealing horses, overtook them, when a fight ensued, in the course of which several men and horses were wounded.” According to Luis Terrazas, the Governor of Chihuahua, who forwarded these reports, “the party referred to belongs to the band under the leadership of the notorious criminal Robert E. Martin.”24

While rustling Mexican livestock was certainly proving hard work with uncertain success, the reports indicate that the settlers were nearing the breaking point in the summer of 1880. On August 30th, the distressed colonists of Ascension authorized lawyer Juan M. Zuloaga to petition Governor Terrazas for help. It was impossible, wrote Zuloaga,

“to remain indifferent to the to the scandalous deeds which are constantly perpetuated by Texan outlaws, who, with entire impunity, and in considerable numbers, commit unheard of and premeditated outrages not only against the colony, but also the neighboring villages, to such an extent that, if the unblushing boldness of these bad men is not speedily checked, …the consequence will unquestionably be the absolute demoralization of these unhappy districts, or, what is still more probable, the total ruin of all inhabitants; for they have already lost all their horses, and the greater part of their meat cattle, and it may very easily happen that, being discouraged by their terrible situation, they may be forced to abandon their homes.”

25

Zuloaga then broke the heartbreaking news that Martin had been in Mexican custody, but had again escaped justice. “If the outlaw Martin, who is the leader of these Texans, had not been unjustly acquitted, we should now be at peace; though Martin was arrested by order of the Government, he was protected by the District Judge, and we, whose blood is now being shed, are today suffering the fatal consequences of that protection.”26

Rustlers’ Paradise

In moving his base of operations to the remote area marked by New Mexico’s Hatchet Mountains to the east and the Chiricahua Mountains to the west, Martin had found the perfect setup for rustling. Several factors are fundamental to the success of any livestock rustling operation. All were present in the area where New Mexico and Arizona Territories and the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora came together.
The first factor is the availability of a valuable livestock in numbers sufficient to be worth the hardship and risk in stealing. The Mexican States of Chihuahua and Sonora were notable for their river valleys, excellent soil, and abundant, unfenced cattle, ripe for stealing.27 The second is a ready market for the stolen stock. The U.S. Army, Indian reservations, and growing miner populations in the southern tier of the American territories provided this.

Weak law enforcement was the third key to Martin’s success. In this regard, he had found a bandits’ paradise. Both the Mexican army and state militia were weak along the border during the years Martin operated here.28 Towns and large ranches could organize pursuit posses but could not halt the hemorrhage of livestock. The boundary itself was not just a complication to effective law enforcement. A half century of mistrust prevented any effective cooperation between the two nations, making that invisible line a barrier to pursuit. Mexican authorities could do little more than plead with their U.S. counterparts to take action.

North of the border, the rustlers were virtually home free. Unlike Texas, New Mexico and Arizona territories fielded no ranger companies to bring large gangs to justice. Even when stock was stolen from the U.S. Army or an Indian Reservation, neither the U.S. Marshal for Arizona nor New Mexico had the resources to cope with rustling on the scale taking place along the Mexican border. In fact, all U.S. Marshals operated without any authorized funding throughout 1879 and into 1880 due to Congress’ failure to appropriate.29 Sheriff Charles Shibell of Pima County could assign a deputy sheriff to Galeyville, but lacked sufficient funds to put posses forever in the field. The same was true in Grant County, New Mexico, where Sheriff Harvey Whitehill could do little more than put a man in Shakespeare.

The U.S. Army was the one force powerful enough to deal with border rustling. It was barred from going after criminals by the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Law, passed in 1878 in reaction to the army’s Reconstruction-era activities in the South.30 In September 1879, Colonel Edward Hatch, commander of the U.S. Army’s District of New Mexico, reported to General John Pope in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas:

“Referring to the Robbers who infest the frontiers, there are undoubtedly a great many of the worst characters. The military are powerless however to do anything with them when on U.S. Territory they are under the jurisdiction of the local laws of the states and Territories.”

31

Hatch’s comments were echoed by a junior officer commanding at Camp Rucker, located in the Chiricahua Mountains, just west of the New Mexico line. In August, 1880, Captain MacGowan reported, “[T]here is a band of horse thieves (40-50 strong) who make that pass their route with stolen stock….” He expressed confidence “that much of raiding that is charged to Indians is committed by this band; Custom House officer and Sheriff should be stationed there, as under existing laws the Mil. can do nothing.” MacGowan’s report was passed along by Brigadier General Willcox, Commanding General of the Department of Arizona, to the
Territory’s Acting Governor, John J. Gosper, who forwarded it on to U.S. Marshal Crawley Dake for filing.32

The fourth requirement was topography conducive to ongoing, large-scale criminal operations. The San Simon and Animas valleys, north-south highways marked by sufficient grass and water, were perfect getaway routes. The mountains flanking these valleys were honeycombed with canyons needed to hide stolen Mexican stock en route to new owners north of the international line. (The path also worked for rustled herds headed south.)

Geography served Martin’s purposes in other ways. This particular area of the border was remote from large towns like Silver City and Tucson with their civilized trappings, such as peace officers and newspapers. The nearest towns, Shakespeare, New Mexico and Galeyville, Arizona, served as rustler hangouts, and were small enough to welcome the rustlers’ cash, whatever the inconvenience of rowdy behavior and gunplay. Neither town was big enough to produce the rustlers’ natural adversary, a local newspaper with a crusading editor bent on cleaning up endemic crime. While the Grant County Herald and various Tucson papers reported what they could, the rustlers’ operations by and large remained below the radar. Not until John Clum started up his Epitaph in Tombstone did the San Simon and Animas Valley Cowboys receive the attention that Albert J. Fountain accorded the “the Boys” of Dona Ana and Lincoln counties in the Mesilla Valley Independent back in 1877.

All these factors, but especially the weakness of governmental authority in northern Mexico and the southwest United States, made it easy to construct a network of crime, corruption and dubious naïveté ranging from a stolen herd’s point of origin to its final destination. In addition to the “protection” of the occasional Mexican jurist, rustlers such as Martin could count on “foreigners and Mexicans in said villages, but principally in Ascension, who assist them in committing their robberies and in concealing the stolen animals.” From the valley of the Rio San Pedro or the Rio Casas Grande, thieves could drive their stolen property east and then north toward the border, located just 50 miles from Janos. Along the way, they took advantage of natural defensive terrain, as well as way stations like Wardwell’s Azcarati Ranche. Across the border, middlemen like “honest rancher” and rustler’s banker George Turner in the San Simon Valley found ranchers looking to build herds or contractors buying for the U.S. Government. One such beef contractor was Benjamin Shuster. Found to be in possession of 16 head of cattle stolen from Chihuahuan rancher Ramon Lujan, Shuster claimed that he bought the cattle from a San Simon rancher named Thompson, “without knowing that they were stolen.” Almost in the next breath, Shuster told Pima County Deputy Sheriff Howard C. Walker that Thompson was a cattle thief who sold the stolen beef “at exceedingly low prices” to contractors like himself from San Carlos to Silver City. With contractors allowing themselves to be “duped” by men they knew to be cattle thieves, it is no wonder that rustlers like Martin were able to stay in business.33

“I again invite your attention”

This then, was an enterprise seemingly everyone in the region knew about and no one did anything about. It did not hurt Martin that his base of operations was far from the concerns of politicians in Washington, Santa Fe, Prescott and Austin. Not only were outlaw gangs on the border relatively free from interference, but the area of Martin’s hideout was apparently not on anyone’s map. By concentrating his crimes in Mexico and basing his operations in the New Mexico boot heel, Martin was able, during the years 1879-80, to operate out of the U.S. Government’s sight.

The remoteness of Martin’s holdout in southwest New Mexico was illustrated by some unusual correspondence to and from Governor Oran Milo Roberts of Texas. On September 11, 1880, Secretary of State Evarts forwarded to Roberts the Mexican government’s complaint “that certain bandits headed by one Robert Martin have a haunt in the Sierra del Hacha, in American territory whence they enter Mexico and steal cattle there.” Evans reminded Roberts that, “The citizens of Texas have suffered so much from similar raids from Mexico [that Evans presumed] the authorities of that State will not tolerate or overlook similar raids from Texas on Mexico.” Evans then asked Roberts to use his authority to disperse Martin’s band or thwart his activities.34

Failing to get an answer, Evarts wrote to Roberts again on November 3, begging the governor to “exercise… the good offices of the State of Texas in suppressing these outlaws and bringing them to condign punishment, so far as they may be reached within its jurisdiction.” The secretary suggested that the bandits “could easily be broken up by the civil authorities.”35

With the receipt of this note, Governor Roberts sprang into action. He dispatched a letter through channels to Lt. Baylor in El Paso asking about Martin and his haunts in the “Sierra La Hacha.” In his reply dated November 20, Baylor advised Ranger commander Major John B. Jones, “There are no mountains named La Hacha in Texas between here + Presidio del Norte [southeast of El Paso] that I know of, except the Sierra del Capara is sometimes so called 25 or 30 miles south east of San Lucero in Mexico. But I was there with Gen’l Farasas in September last and there was no sign of any band of men being there. I am satisfied that this band of men are the same who stole cattle from Corralitas & were followed by men sent out by Major Geo. B. Zimpelman & 4 or 5 of them killed. I have written to the Sheriff of Pima Co. at Tucson Arizona about the matter and may hear something from him….”36 In short, Baylor did not know where the Hatchet Mountains were.

“The worst characters in the country”

Martin’s crimes did not go completely unnoticed on the American side. On December 2, 1880, the Silver City Mining Chronicle reported,

“There is a rendezvous of the worst characters in the country in the vicinity of the San Simon Valley. Murder, highway robbery and cattle stealing seems to be their profession, and it is about time they were hunted down and caged.”

The item added, for reasons explained later, that Bob Martin was ‘generally regarded as a bad character.”
While the following item from the Arizona Gazette of February 18, 1881 does not mention Martin by name, it accurately depicts the border crime wave and the climate of frustration and fear that he and his band fostered:

Cattle Thieves Scourging the Ranchers Across the Line Tucson, February 15.—Reliable information has been received from the San Pedro River
below the Sonora line that the San Simon cowboys are depredating fearfully upon the Mexican stock-raisers in Sonora. J[uan] M. Elias, whose lands extend some eighty miles along the line, is the greatest sufferer. The people are in arms. About 200 of these cattle thieves, mostly from Texas, are scattered along the border in bands from ten to twenty, and all cooperate. The Mexicans are arming themselves and say if the United States authorities will not interest themselves in punishing these invaders, they will not allow an American to cross the line along the locality of these ranches, as they are unable to distinguish between good and bad Americans. They claim the depredation of the Apaches were not half so destructive as the work of the cow boys. A prominent Mexican rancher arrived in this city to-day with a view of purchasing twenty
stands of arms to defend his property. He stated that if something was not done by the American Government to prevent these American marauders from invading their homes that serious complications must very soon arise. It appears that these cattle thieves are largely made up of the same bands who gave so much trouble on the Rio Grande [i.e., El Paso County, Texas and Dona Ana County, New Mexico] for years past. The cattle men of south-eastern Arizona are also loosing [sic] much stock from the same source….”

The terror instilled by the bandits’ activities were not soon forgotten, as this 1886 Silver City newspaper account makes clear:

“Along in ’79 and ’80 the rustler element had things pretty much their own way in the southwest. They were so numerous and had confederates in such high station that the honest cowman appeared powerless, for a time at least, to protect his own property. Men who were not molested by them were afraid to assist their neighbor, who had been robbed, lest they should be the next recipients of the rustler’s visit. The rustlers even went so far as to threaten assassination to those who opposed them or dared even to attempt to protect their own property.”

37

As 1880 drew to an end, Martin could look back on nearly two years of unfettered criminal activity. The evidence does not tell us how many crimes he committed, how many men he led, or in what manner he “led” them. But he was recognized as the leader of an outlaw band considered large by his contemporaries. How large? As with Jessie Evans’ “Boys,” the number probably varied. Don Elias’ estimate that border bandits operated in groups of 10-20 men may be conservative in Martin’s case. He certainly led enough men to be considered by Mexicans the greatest single American threat to law and order along their northwest border. Did he fall into this role because of recognized organizational skills? Was he the fastest with a gun or the edgiest sociopath? Was he simply there first to stake his claim? We only know that he was “generally regarded as a bad character,” bad enough to lead a feared band of criminals for two years.38

Who were the men who followed the outlaw Bob Martin or cooperated in his enterprise? One can only speculate, but candidates include Brocius, Pony Deal, and Sherman McMaster. All dropped out of sight during 1879, and the Hatchet Mountains were a good place to hide.39 We know much more about some of Martin’s associates than we do about Martin himself.

“and if the lurking place of said Martin be found”

Not until September 11, 1880, more than 18 months after the Mexican Government first complained of Martin, did the United States Government finally sit up and take notice. In response to the August 1880 communication from Juan Navarro, the Mexican charge d’affaires, Secretary of State Evarts wrote to Secretary of War Alexander Ramsay and Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz, (as well as Texas Governor Roberts) about the nature and severity of the problem.

Secretary Ramsay was asked “for such action… as the War Department can properly take.”40 Ramsay wrote through generals William Tecumsah Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and John Pope to Colonel Hatch, Commander of the District of New Mexico. Hatch reported only that

“bands of thieves infest the entire South West and plunder citizens in both countries. In all probability they would select the Hatchet Mountains, sometimes occupied in smuggling, at others in stealing. When not so occupied, they usually can be found in the lower towns on the Rio Grande and about Silver City.”

41

Hatch’s reply fell far short of the military action Mexico needed. Meanwhile, on November 24, the governor of Chihuahua telegraphed Mexico City, advising that the bandits

“led by the outlaw Robert E. Martin continues to commit robberies at Janos and Ascension, … and it is to be feared that, being exasperated at the loss of their property, [the settlers] may themselves undertake to pursue and punish the outlaws, in doing which they may be obliged to cross the boundary line, which may give rise to a conflict.”

With an international incident brewing, Mexico City instructed its Chargé d’Affaires in New York to plead with Secretary of State Evarts for “combined action for the capture of this band of thieves, who… have become the terror of those districts…. I do not doubt that the combined action of the forces of the two countries will put an end to the evils in question.”42

At this time, with Mexican temperatures near the boiling point, their complaints about Martin finally reached the desk of Arizona Territorial Governor John C. Fremont in Prescott. On January 4th, Fremont received a package from Secretary Schurz, requesting Fremont to “make inquiry in regard to this matter, and if the lurking place of said Martin be found within the Territory of Arizona, that you will adopt such measures as may be within your power looking to the breaking up of his band and the preservation and maintenance of peace along the frontier between the two countries.”43

Martin’s name and criminal activity were news to the Governor. He replied to that effect on January 16: “I have not yet obtained any information of sufficient importance to communicate to the Department, or to enable me to take any action….”44

Ten days later, Fremont could offer more:

“So far as I have been able to learn that number of men in the band known as Robert Martin’s is about one hundred and twenty. The operations of this band are carried out in Sonora and Chihuahua, and also within our own territories. If the Posse Comitatus Act is repealed we could we then obtain from General Willcox, commanding the Department, to break up or capture the band forthwith. I am informed that the object of Governor Wallace’s” visit to Washington is to endeavor to affect the repeal of this Act and further peace of the Territory. I trust he may be successful. The immediate affect would be to terminate all such raids and tranquilize the frontier.”

45

The source of Fremont’s figure of

“about one hundred and twenty” men in “the band known as Robert Martin’s” is unknown, but this number was in the mid-range of estimates of stock thieves infesting the region made by persons in a position to make informed guesses. Did Martin “command” 120 men? Certainly not, but he appears to have been considered first among them.

“Murder in the San Simon Valley”

So the Governor of Arizona was finally on board concerning the existence and extent of Bob Martin’s criminal activity along the territorial and international borders. By this time, however, Martin was no longer in business. The first word came in this report from W. J. Crosby, carried by the Arizona Daily Star on November 27, 1880:

“Horse and Cattle Thieves” SHAKESPEARE, N.M. NOV. 25, 1880
EDITOR STAR: - During the past month a number of horses and mules have been stolen at intervals from various sections of this country, the latest being eight head from Leiterdorf, and several head from San Simon, in Pima County; fourteen head were also stolen from the Stage Company at Mason’s ranch last week. A posse of Messrs. Turner, Marten [sic], Colt, Raymond, and a Mexican named Dominguez, started in pursuit on Monday last following the trail to near Dowing’s ranch, and after a hard fight, lasting from daylight yesterday until three o’clock in the afternoon, they succeeded in killing one of the thieves whose name is given as King, and seriously wounding another named Bill Smith. King was a cripple and leader of the gang, which were four in number. The posse captured 22 head of stock and returned with these. They will be well rewarded for the courageous action. They propose capturing the two remaining desperadoes and some 14 head of stock known to have been stolen by the same gang.
This may be a useful lesson to horse and cattle thieves throughout this section. Ropes and trees are very convenient in the neighborhood.”

Two days later, the Daily Star reported a new turn of events: Martin was dead, “Shot by Stock Thieves,” as the headline put it. According to a telegraph to the Star from Shakespeare dated November 24, Turner, Martin and their companions had indeed recovered 22 head of stock, but had not succeeded in killing any of the rustlers in the battle at Downing’s ranch, Animas mountains. Then, said the Star,

“Turner and Martin, when returning to San Simon from Shakespeare on Friday evening last, were ambushed at Granite Gap by King and his gang. Martin was killed instantly, being shot in the head. Three head of stock were shot down and killed in the affray. Turner escaped. A regular vendetta has been commenced in the San Simon valley and the end is not yet.”

Additional details regarding Martin’s death were provided on December 7 by the rival Tucson paper, the Arizona Daily Citizen, in an item entitled

“Outlawry”:
Cattle Stealing and Murder in the San Simon Valley – The Ranchers Organizing for Self-Protection” For some time past the settlers and ranchmen in the San Simon Valley in the southeastern
portion of the Territory, have been subjected to a regular course of theft, which resulted a short time ago in the murder of a man named Martin. On the night of the 22nd of November seven head of horses and mules, belonging to Turner and Lindeman, were run off by a gang of four outlaws, whose headquarters were in a portion of the valley where, with a good field glass, they were enabled to survey an extensive section of the country. A party of six settlers immediately armed themselves and started in pursuit of the thieves, and after following them into Cloverdale District, about 60 miles distant in New Mexico, succeeded in recapturing the stock, together with eight head that had previously been stolen from parties near Shakespeare. The stock was brought back to the ranch of Turner & Lindeman, which is on the road from the San Simon Station to the new California Mining District. Mr. Turner and a man named Bob Martin then left for Shakespeare with four of the stolen stock belonging to Mr. Fitzgerald of that place.
At the time of the recovery of the stock from the thieves a number of shots were exchanged, but so far as known, no one was wounded. The outlaws evidently dogged the party back to the ranch, and from their eyrie (?) in the hills observed the return of the stock. As Messrs. Turner and Martin returned from Shakespeare, they were ambushed in Stein Peak Pass by the outlaws, who were concealed in the rocks. At the first fire the horses of the two men were killed under them, and at the second round Martin was killed by a bullet through the head. Mr. Turner then fled from the road and concealed himself, and observing the horses of the outlaws at some little distance where they had been picketed, he commenced firing at them, hoping to dismount his assailants and thus stand a better chance of escaping from what he conceived to be his last ditch. He succeeded in killing one of the horses, when the fight got too hot for him and he again made off. The broken formation of the country aided his escape, and waiting till night, under cover of the friendly darkness he succeeded in reaching home, some ten miles distant. It was a close call, as there were several bullet holes through his clothes.
In the morning an armed party of settlers visited the pass with a wagon and brought Martin’s body to the ranch and buried it. Later the outlaws again visited the ranch above for the purpose of stealing stock, but were driven away. The settlers then organized a party, and succeeded in finding a retreat of the gang in the hills, but the occupants were away. The ranchers are now organizing to better protect themselves, and we may expect to hear of some neck-tie parties soon in the valley, if the discretion of the outlaws does not get the better of their valor.”

The bandits who trailed Turner and Martin to Stein Pass were identified by the Grant County Herald and Southwest as “Stiles, Leonard and King; [with] the fourth being a stranger.” Leonard and King may have been Billy Leonard and Luther King, two of the four cowboys who attempted to rob the Benson stage in March 1881, setting in motion events that led to the street fight in Tombstone near the O.K. Corral.

End of a “Bad Character”

One fact stands out from these Arizona reports. Death came to “a man named Martin,” and not to Martin “the highwayman,” “the thief Martin” or to “Martin, a bandit by profession.” There is no indication that he had been “lurking” about or “infesting” the region, and he is certainly not identified as the leader of a large band of stock thieves. This Bob Martin is clearly identified as allied with the ranchers in opposition to the outlaws. He is one of the good guys. Is this the same Bob Martin who preyed on Mexican ranches from Chihuahua to Sonora? Undoubtedly.

Evidence is found in a little-known New Mexico newspaper, the “Silver City Mining Chronicle”. On December 2, 1880, this paper reported that,

“The following telegram addressed to Sheriff Whitehill will give an insight into the condition of affairs in [the San Simon Valley].
Nov. 29, 80. Sheriff Whitehill: Myself and Bob Martin were waylaid on Friday by four horse thieves, and Martin killed. If possible send out four men to protect life and property. I will give $1,000 for the apprehension of these murderers. Geo. Turner

This little affair occurred somewhere between Shakespeare and San Simon. Bob Martin is well known in Southern New Mexico, and was generally regarded as a bad character. Deputy Sheriff [Dan] Tucker is now at the San Simon looking after these pests, and when the facts are collected we shall give the whole affair an airing.”

The reference to the deceased Bob Martin as a “bad character” is persuasive, but hardly conclusive. Additional circumstantial evidence points to the death of the outlaw Bob Martin in Stein Peak Pass. First, while cabinet level correspondence regarding Martin the outlaw continued for several months after the death of this “bad character.”—as late as April 1881, in fact—these letters were a continuation of the same thread that began with the Mexican complaints filed in the summer of 1880.46 I have been unable to locate any complaints of Martin operating inside Mexico after the date of his apparent death, and no reports north of the border. The outlaw leader who caused great tension along the international border simply disappears as an issue between the two governments. Although Mexican complaints regarding American bandits reached a peak in 1881, Martin himself was no longer mentioned.

Second, Martin’s companion in the fight at Stein Pass was George Turner, who was himself later killed while in the act of stealing Mexican cattle. Turner was one of those border rustlers who gained a veneer of respectability as a “rancher.” He made a living legally transferring cattle of dubious origin from south of the border to buyers north of the line happy enough with the cheap prices to ask few embarrassing questions, including the U.S. Army. It was Turner, says Breakenridge, who introduced the deputy sheriff to Martin’s old partner, Curly Bill Brocius. Breakenridge calls Turner the rustlers’ banker. While the exact nature of this relationship between Martin and Turner is unknown, it is apparent from their connection and from Martin’s continuing reputation “as a bad character” that Bob had not changed his line of work.47

The third piece of evidence pointing to the bandit Martin’s death is found in contemporary newspaper reports that clearly imply that the running battle was a squabble between men cut from the same cloth. The Arizona Daily Star reported on December 1 that “The combatants are largely composed of men who left Lincoln county some 12 or 14 months ago under warm pressure.” The Arizona Daily Citizen advised its readers on December 4 that the “dispute… over the ownership of some cattle” was a “war” among about “twenty of the Texas cowboys….”

One document points away from Martin’s violent death in November 1880. On December 19, Texas Ranger George Baylor reported to his superiors, “Bob Martin is the guest of a citizen of El Paso. I sent a man to aid Campbell round up the house but they did not get him. I am going with the American consul tomorrow and try and get him.” There is no further mention of Martin nor of any effort to round up the outlaw in Baylor’s correspondence with Austin.48 Baylor wrote his letter when the government’s interest in Martin was at its height. The lack of further correspondence seems to indicate that the sighting was an error.
The evidence strongly suggests that the outlaw Martin did die, and that his demise was the result of one set of rustlers stealing from another perhaps more “respectable” set. Internecine warfare over territory or spoils was a fact of life among the Cow-boys, as it is within any criminal population. Given the lack of honor among thieves, there was nothing unusual about Martin’s death at hands of Leonard, King and company.49

“At the mercy of cow-boys”

With the elimination of Martin, Curly Bill replaced his old jail-mate as the “most famous bad man” around. After Martin’s death, the Cowboys became more than bold in their crimes. They became arrogant. Traveling in packs, they committed murder in broad daylight, unafraid of witnesses.50 After Martin’s death, the level of conflict between the Cowboys and their adversaries escalated into bloody warfare. A series of skirmishes between rustlers and Mexican ranchers and smugglers in the summer of 1881 led the Mexican government to beef up its military presence along the border. Turner’s death was followed by that of Old Man Clanton and five other Americans ambushed and killed in Skeleton Canyon by a party thought to be Mexican soldiers. Their easy pickings denied, their paradise lost, the Cowboys turned their crimes north, bringing unwanted attention to themselves. Robbing from American ranchers and from Wells, Fargo & Co. put them in a spotlight that Martin had avoided, led them to clash with America’s most legendary lawman, and ultimately drew the attention of the President and the national press. All that was in the future.51

At the time of his death, Robert Martin had achieved the status of the most wanted American bandit in northern Mexico, a veritable bogeyman. The inevitable conclusion is that he was, by 1880, the most successful outlaw and the most successful leader of outlaws along this section of the border. No single rustler, not Old Man Clanton, not Brocius, not Ringo, completely inherited his mantle, as far as Mexican reports are concerned. Martin was not the whole problem in 1879- 80, but he was at the core of it.

His contemporaries understood what some writers have denied: the hydra-headed gang known as the Cowboys were organized crime. The colonists of Ascension and Sonoran rancher Don Jose Elias, both losing stock at an alarming rate to bands who worked in concert with one another, understood it well. So did the Earps, who, with their oaths and their lives on the line, swore to its existence and reach. And so did the Arizona Daily Citizen, which described the environment that Martin had done so much to create and foster:

THE COW-BOYS Depredations Committed by Organized Thieves Bad State of Affairs on the Border
[The] facts show a deplorable state of affairs near the border, where the ranchers are completely at the mercy of marauding parties of cow-boys, destitute of any protection from either the United States or Mexican Government. They are liable to lose all their stock at any time, and, in fact, they consider their present condition as far less safe than in former days, when Indians controlled that part of the country.
If this condition of matters continues long, many settlers will be compelled to abandon their homes and seek safety for their lives in the larger settlements.
Some steps ought certainly to be taken to rid the country of such elements of terror, else citizens may be forced to combine and offer a bounty for cowboy scalps as the people of New Mexico do for those of Indians.”

52

Acknowledgements: Museum Director Susan Berry of the Silver City Museum and Tom Bryant, identified key newspaper items on Martin. Mark Boardman, Peter Brand, Gary L. Roberts and Casey Tefertiller gave useful suggestions and support. My thanks to them all.
Paul Cool writes on the subject of southwest lawmen and outlaws. This is his third article for WOLA.
1 The earliest references to the U.S. Government’s interest in Bob Martin are in Robert D. Gregg, The Influence of Border Troubles on Relations Between the United States and Mexico 1876-1910 , Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Series LV, Number 3 (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1937); Larry D. Ball, The United States Marshals of New Mexico & Arizona Territories 1846-1912 (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1978; 2nd printing 1992), pp. 115-16.
2 In 1876 and 1877, Martin was a partner in highway robbery with “Dutch” Joe Hubert. Available accounts mention Martin’s participation in a stagecoach holdup at Cooke’s Canon, New Mexico Territory in May 1877, but court records also show that he was charged along with Hubert for a stickup at the same spot in January 1876. See Record Book A and Criminal Dockets, Cases 357, 359, 362 and 363, for Third Judicial District, New Mexico Territory, Record Group 21, National Archives and Records Service, Region 8, Denver, Colorado. Hubert’s trial and conviction were covered in the Mesilla Valley Independent on June 30, 1877. The story was picked up in the Silver City Herald on July 7, 1877. For a lengthy treatment of Hubert’s crimes and trial, see Howard Bryan, Robbers, Rogues and Ruffians (Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe, 1991), pp. 41-53. For discussions of “the Boys,” see Grady E. McCright and James H. Powell, Jessie Evans: Lincoln County Badman (Creative Publishing Co., College Station, Texas, 1983) and Frederick Nolan, The West of Billy the Kid (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1998).
3 James A. Tays to John B. Jones, May 31, 1878, Texas Ranger Correspondence, Adjutant General Records (AGR), Record Group 401, Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC), Austin. All correspondence to and from Major Jones is from RG 401, unless otherwise noted.
4 George Whitwell Parsons, A Tenderfoot in Tombstone: The Private Journal of George Whitwell Parsons: The Turbulent Years 1880-82 (Westernlore Press, Tucson, Arizona, 1996), p. 182; William M. Breakenridge, Hellodrado (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York, 1928), p. 132.
5 Lt. Butler’s career had just begun. After graduating in 1877, ranking 54 out of 76 in his class, Butler spent seven months awaiting orders. These arrived in January 1878, posting him to San Elizario in the wake of the Salt War. Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point (1879m vol III Supplement), p 506, listing # 2694.
6 Tays to Jones, May 31, 1878; The source for the Mesilla Valley Independent’s report that it was Corporal Herbert Oliver Matthews, and not Ryall, who had chased Martin and Curly Bill into Mexico was probably Matthews himself. The corporal had been a regular correspondent to the Independent during the Salt War. Tays was in a position to know the truth.
7 Grant County Herald, June 1, 1878; Mesilla Valley Independent, May 18, 1878. 8 Mesilla Valley Independent, June 1, 1878. The federal case against Martin in New Mexico was continued on June
29, 1878. 9 El Paso County Archives, State of Texas vs. Robert Martin et al, Case #300; Grant County Herald, September 14,
10
11
12
13
14
15 16 17 18
19 20 21
22 23 24 25
26 27
28 29
1878. Keating was a private in the Texas Ranger unit holding the bandits. Was he south of the border securing the
affidavit as an “officer of the court,” or was he seeking evidence that would assist friends? The author has engaged in a lively discussion with historian Steve Gatto over whether Joseph Jerold or Joe Heytama might have been “Buckskin Joe.” I believe the jury is still out, but Mr. Gatto has given me a reasonable doubt that Heytama is the right man, as I asserted in the printed version of this article.
The prisoners’ incarceration and escape is more fully explored by Peter Brand in “The Escape of Curly Bill Brocius,” in the WOLA Journal, Vol. IX, No. 2, Summer 2000, pp. 21-24. The story of Northcutt’s death is found in Paul Cool, “El Paso’s First Real Lawman: Texas Ranger Mark Ludwick,” NOLA Quarterly, Vol. XXV, Nos. 3, pp. 42-55, and No. 4, pp. 33-45.
By now, Martin was now wanted for robbery of the U.S. Mails (4 counts), attempted murder, and even with federal violations on trafficking in liquor and tobacco without a license. As early as 1877, $5000 was posted for his capture.
Note from Senor Rueles, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Mexico to Mr. John W. Foster, Minister of USA to Mexico, April 22, 1879, enclosure to Dispatch #941, Foster to Department of State, 4/30/79 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M666, Roll 209); Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General 1871- 1880 (hereinafter “AGO”), RG94, NARA, Washington, D.C. Bresnaham (or Brocius) is not mentioned in any of these communications.
Walz to Loud, January 22, 1879 (NA Microfilm M1088, Roll 36); Letters Received by Headquarters, District of New Mexico, September 1865-August 1890, RG 393, NARA
Rueles to Foster, April 22, 1879. Foster to Rueles, April 30, 1879, Enclosure 2 to Dispatch 941 Baylor to Jones, November 20, 1880, TSLAC. Juan N. Navarro to William M. Evarts, August 28, 1880, Enclosure to Letter from Evarts to Alexander Ramsey,
Secretary of War, NA Microfilm M666, Roll 211, AGO, RG 94, NARA Ibid. Ibid. Municipal President of Janos to Political Chief of Galeana, August 1, 1880, copied and enclosed in Note from
Navarro to Evarts, October 18, 1880 (NA Microfilm M54, Roll 18); Notes from the Mexican Legation in the United States to the Department of State 1821-1906, RG 59, NARA.
Ibid. Municipal President of Janos to Political Chief of Galeana, Chihuahua, August 11, 1880, ibid. Luis Torrazas, Governor of Chihuahua, to Department of Foreign Relations, August 18, ibid. Juan M. Zuloaga to Governor of Chihuahua, August 30, 1880; copied and enclosed in Note from Navarro to
Evarts, November 15, 1880 (NA Microfilm M54, Roll 18). Ibid. Miguel Tinker Salas, In the Shadow of the Eagles: Sonora and the Transformation of the Border during the
Porfiriato (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997), pp.49-52, 71-72. “In 1879,less than fifty [Mexican] soldiers patrolled a two-hundred-and-fifty-mile border.” The federal force in
Sonora was increased beginning in 1880. See Salas, In the Shadow of the Eagle, pp. 72, 116. Larry D. Ball, The United States Marshals of New Mexico & Arizona Territories 1846-1912 (Univ. of New
Mexico Press, Albuqueque, 1978; 2nd printing 1999) P. 97.
30 The Posse Comitatus Act (passed June 18, 1878) reads in part, “From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress; and no money appropriated by this act shall be used to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any troops in violation of this section. And any person willfully violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceeding two years or by both such fine and imprisonment. U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. 20:145, Chapter 263, Sec. 15.
31 Hatch to Pope, September 6, 1879, M666, Roll 210, AGO, RG 94, NARA. 32 MacGowan to A.G., Department of Arizona, August 25, 1880, Records of the Department of Arizona, Register of
Letters Received, LR 1880 #2745, RG 393, NARA 33 Deposition of Mariano Samaniego, January 11, 1880; enclosure to Note from Navarro to Evarts, September 22,
1880, regarding claim for damages against the United States filed by Ramon R. Lujan (NA Microfilm M54, Roll
18). Senor Lujan claimed the loss to American thieves of 1500 cattle valued at $27,000. 34 Evarts to Roberts, September 11, 1880, Records of Governor Oran Milo Roberts, Series 301-114, TSLAC. 35 Evarts to Roberts, November 3, 1880, Records of Gov. Roberts, TSLAC. 36 Baylor to Jones, November 20, 1880, AGR, TSLAC. Major Zimpelman might have been the American agent of
the “estate Corralitas “ mentioned in the earlier report from Janos. Zimpelman was in turns a Texas Ranger (Terry’s Rangers), Travis County Sheriff and Austin banker. It was Zimpelman’s purchase of the mineral rights to the Guadalupe Salt Lakes that triggered the El Paso Salt War of 1877. At some point in the 1880s, he was engaged in mining and surveying in Chihuahua. While it seems doubtful that an entrepreneur of his stature would have hired himself out as a rancher’s agent, the ex-Ranger and ex-Sheriff would have been an ideal man to pursue rustlers.
37 Silver City Enterprise, October 1, 1886. 38 This item appeared in the Arizona Daily Star on October 17, 1880: “Homicide at San Simon: Yesterday morning
as the train for Tucson was leaving San Simon, a number of Chinamen came on board without passes and offered no money but demanded passage. The conductor, Bob Martin, asked for fare and, upon being refused, commenced ejecting them, when they turned on him with clubs forcing him to use his revolver in self defense, and at the first fire he killed one of the Chinamen. Three is no arrest so far, and it is generally believed there is no necessity for any.” The shooter is described as a train conductor, not a passenger, but the coincidence of two gun-wielding, death-dealing Bob Martins in the San Simon area is intriguing.
39 Curly Bill Brocius has not surfaced in any reports for the period between his escape (November 1878) and the theft of some army mules from Camp Rucker in July 1880. It is probable that he was operating “below the radar” in the same remote turf as Martin. Charles Ray, alias Pony Deal (or Diehl) was a member of the same “fraternity house” as Martin (and Brocius) from the old days in Lincoln, Dona Ana or El Paso County. There are no reports of him throughout 1879. At some point in 1880 he was a bartender in Globe, Arizona, but he surfaced next in July 1880, as one of the Cow-boys wanted for the theft of those Camp Rucker mules. McMaster, the future Earp Vendetta rider was a Texas Ranger in the El Paso unit that incarcerated Brocius. The two men certainly knew each other, and Sherman first surfaces in the chronicles of Tombstone as an associate of Pony Deal.
40 Evarts to Ramsay, September 11, 1880, M666, Roll 211, AGO, RG94, NARA. 41 Pope to Adjutant General, United States Army, January 15, 1881, citing communication from Col. Hatch in
October 1880; M666, Roll 211, AGO, RG94, NARA. 42 Navarro to Evarts, December 27, 1880 (NA Microfilm M54, Roll 18). 43 Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior to Hon John C. Fremont, December 24th 1880 44 Fremont to Schurz, January 16, 1881 (M429, Roll 3) Interior Department Territorial papers: Arizona; RG 48,
NARA 45 Fremont to Schurz, January 26, 1881 (M429, Roll 3), RG 48, NARA 46 See Pope to Adjutant General, United States Army, January 15, 1881, citing communication from Col. Hatch in
October 1880; M666, Roll 211, AGO, RG94, NARA; Secretary of State Evarts to Secretary of War Ramsay, February 2, 1881; Mr. M Letter of April 13, 1881 M. de Zamacona, Ambassador of Mexico to the United States, to James G. Blaine, Secretary of State, April 13, 1881 (M429, Roll 3); Blaine to Sec. Interior Samuel J. Kirkwood, April 19, 1881 (M429, Roll 3).
47 Six months after Martin’s death, Turner and Galeyville butcher Alfred McAllister rode south of the border with two other men to obtain cattle for delivery to the U.S. Army. On the return route, near Fronteras, Sonora, Turner and his party were attacked and killed by Mexican citizens. According to Joseph Bowyer, a Galeyville mining
manager, “Upon the bodies of Turner and McAllister was found the money which they ostensibly took to purchase cattle; which amount, compared with what they were known to have started here with, proved that the cattle they were driving had not been paid for.” Bowyer was just one of several contemporary sources reporting that the death of Turner angered the “Cow-boys,” as the rustling element in the San Simon and Animas valleys was known by 1881. It was widely reported that the “Cow Boys” talked of raiding Fronteras in retaliation. In fact, Turner’s death was the first in a series of bloody border battles in the summer of 1881. See Bowyer to Gosper, September 17, 1881 (M689, Roll 21: Cowboy Depredations File); Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General 1881- 1889, RG94, NARA.
48 Baylor to Jones, December 19, 1880, AGR, TSLAC. A search of State Department, War Department, and Customs Service records also failed to reveal any subsequent federal records on the matter.
49 Only a few months after Martin was killed by Leonard and company, Leonard and Harry Head announced their intention to kill the Haslett brothers, whose Animas Valley ranch Leonard and Head wanted. The unlucky pair were themselves ambushed by the Hasletts. In retaliation, the Hasletts were killed by other Cow-boys. To gain Leonard’s ranch near Cloverdale (located in the Animas Valley just north of the Mexican line), Ike Clanton had been willing to betray Leonard, Head and Jim Crane for their part in the March 1881 Benson stage robbery.
50 An episode that took place at the same station eight months after Martin’s death provides an example. On June 17, 1881, a Cowboy shot and killed a Yuma Indian who had ridden up on the train to San Simon. In the altercation, the “Cow Boy shot and wounded [the Indian] first, then shot him through the heart [and] afterwards dragged him off.” The Indian did not die without a fight, as he “bit the cowboy’s finger nearly off.” The train’s conductor, W. L. Dickey, and brakesman, S.W. Merritt, witnessed the whole affair, but, with “17 or 18 Cow Boys present,” they and the few passengers were “afraid to do anything.” The murder was called “without provocation [and] a most cold- blooded affair.” See telegram from Major Arnold, Acting Assistant Adjutant General, Department of Arizona, to HQ, DA, June 30, 1881; Register of Letters Received 1881, Records of the Military Department of Arizona, Military Division of the Pacific, Record Group 393, NARA. This was the same station at which “conductor Bob Martin” killed the Chinese passenger.
51 See Casey Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997) and Allen Barra, Inventing Wyatt Earp (Carroll & Graf, New York, 1998) for discussions of the post-Martin “Cowboys.”
52 Arizona Daily Citizen, February 13, 1881.

The chain of events that led to Logan’s arrest began on July 3, 1901, when Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, and O. C. Hanks robbed Great Northern Train No. 3 near Wagner, Montana. The robbery net- ted them about $45,000 in new, unsigned, Bank of Montana bills. Needing to exchange the stolen money for less recognizable bills, the robbers split up and began traveling around the country. Logan traveled through Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana exchanging stolen bills for good money. In early December, his travels took him to Knoxville, Tennessee, where on the night of December 13, he got into a fight in a local saloon. When two policemen tried to arrest him, Logan shot both officers and escaped. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with felonious assault on the police officers.[1]

In addition to the state charges, Logan also faced possible federal charges for his part in the Montana train robbery. On December 19, he used money provided by friend and former ranching partner Jim Thornhill to hire Knoxville attorney Reuben L. Cates.[2] A few days later, he added Charles T. Cates Jr. and former Republican state senator John C. Houk to his legal team. Of the three, Houk was, by far, the most experienced trial lawyer. Neither Reuben Cates nor his cousin Charles practiced criminal law. However, their political influence more than made up for their lack of courtroom experience. As Knoxville city attorney and chairman of the election board, Reuben Cates had enormous influence over the elected office holders of Knox County. Charles Cates was a powerful political figure statewide, with close ties to Knox County Sheriff James Fox and Criminal Court Judge Joseph Sneed.

Fearing the federal authorities would try to bypass the state court and take control of Logan, his attorneys moved quickly to block efforts to return him to Montana. Using their political influence, they were able to stall Logan’s case in the state court. They delayed his first court appearance until February 11, 1902, and arranged for his case to be heard by Charles Cates’ political ally, Judge Joseph Sneed. When the federal authorities tried to serve warrants on Logan, Sneed made sure the case remained stalled by refusing to allow the warrants to be served and continuing Logan’s case until the next term of court.[3] Although Jim Thornhill had provided money for Logan’s defense, he remained in the background for the first few months. But on April 22, 1902, he wrote to Reuben Cates inquiring about Logan’s case.

How are you a getting long and what are chances of acquital and when does the trial come off and where and what kind of court will it be tried in. Write me all the news and have him to write and let me no if I can do any thing…

Jim Thornhill[4]
Thornhill’s relationship with Logan dated back to the early 1890s. Harvey and his older brother Henry (most often called Hank) came to Montana about 1884, and in 1886, they established a ranch on the headwaters of Rock Creek, south of the Little Rockies.[5] In early 1893, Hank became ill and left Montana; some sources say he contracted pneumonia and died at about that time. Soon after he left, Thornhill formed a partnership with Harvey and came to their ranch.

As he had anticipated, his second appearance before Judge Sneed resulted in another delay. The prosecution asked Sneed for permission to serve federal warrants on Logan. When the defense objected, Sneed again ruled in their favor and continued Logan’s case until the September term of court.[8] Logan remained beyond the reach of the federal court, but each delay came at a cost. As his primary benefactor, the burden of paying that cost rested on Jim Thornhill. Logan’s attorneys were constantly demanding money and by August 1902, their demands were beginning to annoy Thornhill. On August 15, he wrote directly to Logan explaining what had been done and pledging his continued support.

Landusky Mont 8/15/1902 Mr Charley Johnson[9] Dear Friend yours to hand contents noted. Will say (I) never received any letter asking for a thousand dollars… I received a letter from you a month or so a go saying you might want some more and wanted to no if I could do any thing for you… I wrote you in Ruben L. Cates letter that you knew just a bout what I had here and that it all went if necessary …but never heard any thing from you until last Friday night. The chances are that I made Ruben hot in my last letter and he diden show it to you if he received it… I was probly a little hard on the old man but I had been a way from home for some time and when I returned there was several letters there from your attorneys a speaking about their fees and the last one I opened was from Ruben to live.[6]

Harvey Logan fled the Little Rockies after killing Pike Landusky in December 1894, but he and Thornhill had remained close friends. On May 11, Logan wrote to Thornhill asking for financial help but cautioning his friend not to give more than he could afford.

May 11, 1902, Mr. James Thornhill Dear Sir in Reply to yours of 19…You Wanted to Know if you could Do any thing. You can Rite and let Me Know how you are Fixed for Ready Cash… if My case is put off this term of court i will want as Much as $1000 So you Rite and Let Me Know i dont ask you to cripple your Self for me — Nor dont want you to So i Will Close for this time…K-C

[7] Logan was in court again on June 3.
saying that (he) must have fees.

I was hot by that time and I wrote him to keep his shirt on as he was dealing with a man of principal and that you woulden promise him any thing but what you was shure he would get… it will take a week or ten days from now before I can start the 1000 down to you this time for it takes about that time to hear from the bank but you are as shure as you are…a living to get it… Jim T

[10]
While Logan waited for his trial date, Reuben and Charles Cates campaigned for political office. Their efforts paid off in the August election when Reuben Cates was elected attorney general for Knox County and Charles Cates was elected attorney general for the State of Tennessee. Sheriff Fox and Judge Sneed were also reelected in what, at first, looked like a big win for Logan.

But on September 5, Logan was hurriedly brought before Judge Sneed for an unscheduled hearing. Citing Reuben Cates’ conflict of interest as Knox County’s new attorney general, Sneed appointed Jerome Templeton as special prosecutor in the Logan case. Templeton immediately asked Sneed to turn Logan over to the federal authorities. In spite of an objection by the defense, Sneed reversed his previous rulings and allowed United States marshals to serve federal warrants on Logan charging him with forging, counterfeiting, and passing stolen bank notes. He continued Logan’s state case and ordered him held under the concurrent jurisdiction of the federal and state court.[11]

Logan felt that he had been betrayed. In an undated letter written in late 1903 or early 1904, he accused Charles Cates of selling out to the Great Northern Railroad Company.

Look at how the honerble Jos. Sneed handled the Johnson (Logan) case He refused to turn me over to the Fedral Court for 10 months Said i would hafto answer for state charges First- What was his idea for that… First, he knew if he turned me over Before the election manny a vote he would lose Second, for Hon. C. T. Cates Jr. so as he Cates could collect his fees from the G.N.R.R. Co. as all ought to know Jos. Sneed is anything C. T. Cates says— Cates uses Sneed as a tool…i payed Charles Cates J.R. and R. L Cates $1,000 Dollars to Defend Me in My Law suit and what did he Do Why he sold out and never came into the Court Room when I was on trial that isn’t all he Maid it a point to turn Me over to the federal athoreties.

[12]
Following the September hearing, Charles Cates withdrew from the Logan case. John Houk assumed the role of lead attorney, and E. F. Mynatt and L. C. Houk were hired to replace Cates. Reuben Cates continued to represent Logan, but a letter written by Logan in 1903 or 1904 shows that his remaining did not increase his stature in Logan’s eyes.

Mr editor they is one thing that i have never Been able to Decide in My own mind and that is this Which of the two is the Dirtyest Charles T. Cates JR the attorney general of Tenn or R. L. Cates the attorney general of Knox County- Charles T. Cates sold out to the G.N.R.R. Co. and quit me cold he quit trying to Rob Me all togeather— But Reuben stayed with Me—not with My Lawsuit But with my Pocket Book with the intention of Robbing Me and My Loyal Friends….

[13]
After more than eleven months of delays, Logan’s trial finally got underway in Judge C. D. Clark’s federal courtroom on November 17, 1902. On November 21, after hearing the testimony of thirty- four witnesses, the jury found Logan guilty on ten counts of forging, counter- feiting, and passing stolen bank notes. Judge Clark denied a defense motion for a new trial, and on November 29, he sentenced Logan to at least twenty years in the federal penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio. [14]

While Houk began an appeal to have the conviction overturned, Logan languished in his cell. For the first few months of his confinement, he had been kept on the second floor of the Knoxville jail with other prisoners. They shared a cellblock made up of two rows of cells connected by a wide, barred corridor. Prisoners were confined to their cells at night, but during the day, they were allowed the freedom of the corridor. But in April 1902, Logan staged a rebellion to protest conditions at the jail. Following his outburst, the other prisoners were removed from the second floor, and Logan was confined to a single cell. He often complained that the close confinement was damaging his health, and in late January 1903, Fox agreed to let him out of his cell. However, there was one condition, and it was one that Logan’s defiant nature and his dislike of Fox would not allow him to accept.[15] On January 30, he wrote to Houk explaining what had happened.

Jail 1-30-1903 Mr J. C. Houk Dear sir—The sheriff came in and asked for My Razzor and said he would turn Me out i told him he could not have it he said i could stay in My cell then— i told him all right that i would Before i would give him My Razzor i gave it to him once and i went 2 Months without shaving so you need not Bother any More about it But I wish you would try and fix it for Me to go to Nashville if you can…. Charles Johnson

[16]
Logan’s request to be transferred to the state prison in Nashville, Tennessee probably surprised Houk. The authorities had made several attempts to have Logan moved to a more secure facility. Each time, his attorneys had fought to keep him in Knoxville while his appeal was being heard. Apparently, Houk was able to convince him not to pursue a transfer because he was still in the Knoxville jail and still confined to his cell when he wrote to Houk again on May 13.

May 13 1903 Mr J. C. Houk i am still in sell and will be until some- thing is Brought to Bare on them which i am going to Bring will look after it after the 15— i am tired of this
Charles Johnson

[17]
It is not clear what action Logan planned to take, but Houk continued to pressure Sheriff Fox to give his client more freedom. He enlisted the help of several of Fox’s friends, including Charles Cates, and threatened to seek relief from the courts if Fox did not ease his restrictions. Finally, in late May, Fox gave in and allowed Logan the freedom of the cellblock.

The good news was soon overshadowed by disappointing news from the appeals court. On June 2, 1903, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati, Ohio, upheld Logan’s conviction.[18] Their decision left him thirty days to either file an appeal before the United States Supreme Court or begin serving his sentence.

While Houk tried to obtain money to continue the appeal, Logan made other plans. On the afternoon of June 27, he overpowered guard Frank Irwin and gained possession of two revolvers. Next, he lured jailer Tom Bell to the second floor and forced him to unlock the cellblock. He then forced another jail employee to saddle a mare that Sheriff Fox kept stabled at the jail and rode out of Knoxville.[19] A posse of United States marshals and Pinkerton detectives trailed him for more than two weeks before losing his trail in the rugged mountains of North Carolina.

On July 2, Houk wrote to Thornhill informing him of Logan’s escape and making another plea for money.

July 2, 1903 J.T. — Harvey escaped. I think it is over and done. I am sure it is unless you send money. Please hurry on the one hundred and fifty dollars written about two or three weeks ago. Harvey expect- ed it to come & if he ever sees you will say so. John C. Houk

Little is known about Harvey Logan’s movements after he escaped from the Knoxville jail. But on June 7, 1904, three men robbed a Denver & Rio Grande train near Parachute, Colorado.[20] Two days later, a posse caught up with the robbers and during a gunfight, one robber was severely wounded. Members of the posse heard him tell his companions that he could not go on and would end it there. Moments later he placed his pistol to his head and took his own life.[21]

The body of the dead robber was taken to Glenwood Springs where it was first identified as J. H. Ross. But when Ross turned up alive and well in Pueblo, Colorado, the body was put on display in hopes that someone would identify it. After nearly a week, the still unidentified robber was buried in the Glenwood Springs cemetery.[22]

Photos of the dead robber were taken at Glenwood Springs, and they eventually came to the attention of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They suspected that the man was Harvey Logan. On July 8, Pinkerton Assistant Superintendent Lowell Spence took the photos to Knoxville to try to confirm the identification. Sheriff Fox, Charles Cates, Reuben Cates, John Houk, and several others identified the man in the photo as Harvey Logan. [23]
On July 25, 1904, Houk sent one of the photos to Thornhill asking for his opinion and setting off another exchange of letters.

Dear Sir: Enclosed find picture of the man I believe to be Harvey Logan. What do you say? I can almost swear to his mouth and chin. It otherwise looks like him but mostly my judgment is based on the parts named…Let me hear from you. John C. Houk

[24]
Thornhill admitted that the man resembled Logan, but he did not believe that his friend would have taken his own life.[25]

Aug. 9, 1904
Dear sir
course of time that he did “pass over the divide.” I am curious to know what Logan did with the saddle he rode off and if you ever find out any thing about this matter or any other details of his escape please let me hear from you… If you have any good rea- son to believe Logan lives please let me know..Yours to hand contents noted don’t think that friend is dead although the picture favors him greatly. he woulden have shot himself as long as there was any body else to shoot and that possie was coming up from the rear and if he was able to shoot him self he could have shot one or more of them and had company over the divide…. And he knows that it will be a great pleasure to me to know that he (had) taken all of them with him… the more the better. I think that it was some body that was trying to imitate Tracy and our friend dont try to imitate any body… Jim Thornhill

[26]
Houk was still convinced that Logan was dead, but in his next letter, he turned to the subject of Logan’s escape.

Aug. 22, 1904. Dear Sir:
You letter received and in reply I will state that I think you are mistaken in thinking, that Logan still lives. I have no doubt in the world that he is dead…The people here do not want to believe that Logan is dead but I think you will be convinced. John C. Houk

[27]
Houk’ s curiosity about the saddle stemmed from the fact that the authorities had never been able to learn what Logan did with the saddle he used in his escape from the jail in Knoxville. On the morning following his escape, the sheriff’s mare was found near the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern Railroad Bridge in South Knoxville, but the saddle was missing. That led some to believe that Logan had obtained another horse. When no one reported a horse being stolen, the authorities offered a reward for the saddle hoping it would lead them to Logan. In spite of their efforts, the whereabouts of the saddle remained a mystery until Thornhill wrote to Houk again on August 20, 1905.

Landusky Mont 8/20/05 Hon John C. Houk Dear sir as a agreement between you and me— I will tell you what became of that saddle…It was throwed off of railroad bridge (A.K.&N.) in your town on lower
side and about the center of bridge… Jim Thornhill

[28]
If Thornhill had any reason to believe that Logan still lived, he did not share it with Houk in this letter. However, the fact that he knew what Logan did with the saddle shows that he had been in contact with Logan at some point after his escape. The question then is this: did the contact take place before or after June 7, 1904? The most intriguing possibility is that it took place after that date, and the man buried in the Glenwood Springs cemetery is not Harvey Logan. Perhaps other letters will be found in the future that will shed more light on this subject.

Endnotes
1. The Knoxville Sentinel, December 16, 1901. See also “Capturing A Train Robber,” Wayne Kindred, WOLA Journal, Fall/Winter 1996. 2. An August 15, 1902, letter from Jim Thornhill to Harvey Logan indicates that Thornhill provided this money. John C. Houk Papers, McClung Historical Collection, Knoxville, Tennessee.
3. The Knoxville Sentinel, February 11, 1902. 4. Jim Thornhill to Reuben L. Cates, April 22, 1902, McClung Historical Collection. 5. John B. Ritch, “Kid Curry, Bad Man,” The Great Falls Tribune , June 21, 1936.
6. Ibid. 7. Harvey Logan to Jim Thornhill, May 11, 1902, McClung Historical Collection. 8. The Knoxville Sentinel, June 3, 1902. 9. Logan used the alias Charles Johnson while he was in Knoxville. In the Houk and Thornhill letters, he is referred to as Johnson and Logan. 10. Jim Thornhill to Charles Johnson (Harvey Logan), August 15, 1902, McClung Historical Collection. 11. The Knoxville Journal & Tribune, September 6, 1902.
12. Logan wrote a series of letters to the editor of a Knoxville newspaper in late 1903 or early 1904. The letters were apparently never mailed, and they eventually came into the possession of the Montana Historical Society. Harvey Logan Papers, Small Collection 2063, Montana Historical Society Archives.
13. Harvey Logan Papers, Montana Historical Society Archives. 14. Case No. 1187, United States vs. Harvey Logan, Federal Records Center, East Point, GA. 15. During the final months of Logan’s incarcera- tion, the relationship between Logan and Fox was often stormy. According to newspaper reports, Logan often expressed a desire to kill Fox before he left Knoxville.
16. Charles Johnson (Harvey Logan) to John C. Houk, January 30, 1903, McClung Historical Collection. 17. Charles Johnson (Harvey Logan) to J. C. Houk, May 13, 1903, McClung Historical Collection.
18. Case No. 1187, United States vs. Harvey Logan, Federal Records Center. 19. The Knoxville Journal & Tribune, June 28, 1903. See also “Kid Curry—The Missing Months,” Wayne Kindred, WOLA Journal, Fall/Winter 1997. 20. The Rifle Citizen Telegraph, June 10, 1904, in Emma Walling, The Parachute Train Robbery, Snowmass, CO, 1966.
21. The Glenwood Post, June 11, 1904, in Walling. 22. The Glenwood Post , June 18, 1904, in Walling. 23. The Knoxville Journal & Tribune, July 9, 1904. On July 16, the Pinkertons had the body exhumed. Although it was badly decomposed, Lowell Spence, who was well acquainted with Harvey Logan, iden- tified the body as Logan. Denver and Rio Grand Detective R. Brunazzi and W. S. Canada of the Northern Pacific, who were also present, disagreed. See also “New Revelations About Harvey Logan Following The Parachute Train Robbery,” Daniel Buck, WOLA Journal, Spring 1997.
24. John C. Houk to Jim Thornhill, July 25, 1904, Montana Historical Society Archives. 25. Thornhill was referring to outlaw Harry Tracy who committed suicide under similar circumstances in 1902.
26. Jim Thornhill to John C. Houk, August 9,
1904, McClung Historical Collection. 27. John C. Houk to Jim Thornhill, August 22, 1904, Montana Historical Society Archives. 28. Jim Thornhill to John C. Houk, August 20, 1905, McClung Historical Collection.
About the Author Wayne Kindred has been researching Harvey Logan and the Wild Bunch since 1985. His articles have appeared in TrueWest, Old West, The WOLA Journal, and NOLA Quarterly. He makes his home in Rockwood, Tennessee.

Jesse James Gang

Ultimately, that interest resulted in Jesse James, the Last Rebel of the Civil War, published by Knopf. Several other books on the James Gang have come out in the last couple of years. Mark Boardman asked Stiles what makes his effort different from the others.

STILES: Most of them have been fairly narrowly focused on the events of their lives in trying to find out more facts and more details. Of course I wanted to do that also, I wanted to present an accurate picture of what they did. However, the purpose of my book was really to understand them. Obviously Jesse James is my special focus, and I wanted to explain Jesse James–why he became so famous, why he stands head and shoulders above so many other American criminals from that time, why he is so well known, and to show that he was, in fact, much more than a criminal. So the purpose of my book is, while I do my best to accurately reconstruct events, and to look at his life and get the details right, the larger purpose is to look at him in the context of his times and really explain him.

BOARDMAN: In fact, much of what your book is about is laying the case that Jesse James, as you said, was much more than just an outlaw, but in fact was a terrorist. Now that’s kind of a loaded term nowadays. Maybe you could tell us just exactly what you mean by that.

STILES: Well, a couple of warnings right off the bat. One is that, as I put in an end note to my prologue, I wrote the book before September 11, and it is in absolutely no way an attempt to connect Jesse James with the events that we have so recently witnessed. I’m not saying that he is like a modern day terrorist or like Osama Bin Laden. Some of the reviews I’ve gotten, though, have been very positive and have actually gone overboard in saying that I call him a 19th century Osama Bin Laden. But no, I mean he was definitely a criminal. But I say he was a forerunner of the modern terrorist, because he used violence and the notoriety and attention he got from his violence to help promote a political cause which fits into most accepted definitions of terrorism. He did not function like say Osama Bin Laden or the Red Brigades or something attacking symbolic targets, trying to inflict pain for its own sake in many cases. He was definitely trying to make some easy money; he was definitely a violent man who enjoyed robbing, enjoyed the excitement of the life he led. But what set him apart from so many other criminals of his time is that he used the fame, he used the notoriety he got from that to promote the cause of former Confederates.

BOARDMAN: Now I think we ought to be clear, he didn’t represent all of the former Confederates, but one particular aspect of that large group, right?

STILES: That’s right. My book comes as a surprise to people who have read a lot about Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang because I spent a great deal of time looking at his historical context. Out of basically 400 pages of narrative text, the first 100 pages Jesse James himself is not an actor in this book. He hasn’t been born yet, or he is a child. But what I do is look at how to really understand this larger role he played. I take a fresh look at what happened in Missouri, what his family was going through, what their society was like, and how the politics got to the point so that when the Civil War broke out people ended up turning against their own neighbors. After the war, Missouri was divided into three political groups basically; you had the former Confederates, you had conservative Unionists who became the Unionist wing of the Democratic Party, and you had Radical Unionists who became the Republican Party after the war. And even within the Confederates group, there were a lot of Confederates who did not condone Jesse James’ behavior or his attempts to depict himself as a hero to all Confederates. Once the former Confederates got the vote back in Clay County, Jesse James’ home county, each of the sheriffs who chased after him, once the Confederates were able to vote in the elections, were former Confederates. So it’s important to note that he wasn’t a hero to all Confederates. However when you look at who his supporters were, all of his supporters were Confederates, that was the base of his support.

BOARDMAN: We should mention that in terms of his grooming, if you will, for this position, he entered into the fight of the Civil War itself somewhat late in the battle, but he was still young and he rode with some of the toughest Confederate guerrillas around.

STILES: Yes, that’s right. And it’s interesting to note that the people he rode with were just self-organized groups of Confederates. Except for during General Price’s raid in 1864, and except during their winters when many of them would go to Texas, they did not respond to the Confederate chain of command. They would organize themselves, they followed the men who had the greatest leadership potential among them, and they were completely spontaneously organized groups. On the other hand, they saw themselves as Confederates and they gave themselves Confederate ranks, and they believed in the larger Confederate cause. But what that meant in Missouri is that it came down to a battle against their neighbors. The Union forces were local men who organized into militia forces, and the Confederate forces were local men who organized themselves into Confederate guerrilla organizations. So the war was incredibly vicious. Fletch Taylor, who was the first guerrilla commander Jesse rode with, declared his purpose in a letter to the Liberty Tribune in 1864, saying that he was going to stay in Clay County until the radicals all left that county. Now that’s a flatly political statement of his aims; he aimed to drive out the radical unionist civilians of Clay County. It’s really remarkable; you don’t see that sort of thing elsewhere in the Civil War. You didn’t see Lee invading Pennsylvania and saying I’m going to stay here until all the Republicans leave. But in Missouri, since people were fighting their neighbors, it was a war to remake the state politically at the grassroots.

BOARDMAN: One element of that was inflicting terror on one side or another. In fact I think you mentioned in the book how some of the men that Jesse rode with, maybe even Jesse himself, took scalps of their enemies.

STILES: I try to make clear that warfare was terribly savage on both sides. The Union forces would just shoot men on suspicion without trial, and they raided homes and treated civilians shabbily at best. Of course many of those civilians were their own neighbors. Jesse James himself famously was beaten by a militia when they raided his farmhouse in 1863, and his stepfather was hung, as is well known. However, the Confederate guerrillas seemed to have gone farther than anyone else. Fletch Taylor’s group, and especially bloody Bill Anderson’s group which Jesse rode with–and wrote about proudly of himself as being one of Anderson’s best men–they dismembered enemy dead, they took scalps, they tied the scalps to their saddles and to their bridles and they took great pride in the horror and terror they inflicted on the Unionists.

BOARDMAN: Certainly much more savage than anything I think this country’s ever seen otherwise.

STILES: Well, not necessarily. One thing that I note in the book is that the United States, if you go back to the Colonial period, it’s seen some really horrific atrocities. If you look at the year that Jesse James was riding with the Confederate guerrillas, 1864, you have a number of events very close in time to his guerrilla career. You have the Sand Creek massacre in which southern Cheyenne women and children were killed and their bodies were mutilated by Colorado cavalrymen. You have the Sioux uprising in Minnesota in which both the Dakota warriors and also the US troops who responded against them committed horrible atrocities, killing noncombatants. During Reconstruction you have all kinds of atrocities committed against the freed slaves. There’s also the New York City Draft Riots in which white crowds attacked black civilians in New York City in 1863. But all of these atrocities are racial incidents. What is surprising in Missouri is that these atrocities are between people who are not only of the same race but of basically the same religion, basically the same ethnic background. You have slaveholders on both sides, you have people of the same birthplace who lived in the same communities, and yet you have these atrocities taking place between people who are as closely identified as you can get. And it really shows how savage the war had gotten. It’s very easy for historians to say, writers to say, “Well they just became savage fiends.” But I think that the sociological and psychological element of them becoming such hardened killers–and such brutal killers–comes out of the fact that this was a very deeply felt war, and that people started fighting because they really believed in something. They’d become so polarized that they couldn’t tolerate people who had the opposite view. It was a very ideological war, a very political war.

BOARDMAN: And for some, especially on the Confederate side, the war didn’t end at Appomattox; in fact, that was sort of a new beginning for a different kind of warfare. I think you pointed that out in the book in particular with Jesse and Frank and some of their cohorts.

STILES: That’s right. And that’s where we can start to draw the distinction between Jesse James from people such as Billy the Kid. Missouri was a Western state, it was not a frontier state. It hadn’t been for years before his birth. You look at Billy the Kid, you look at the Lincoln County War, and you have this sparsely settled territory with political wire-pullers and you have the sort of conditions that are authentic frontier conditions. And that created Billy the Kid and other gunmen like him. Look at Jesse James’ life and you see that the context that he really belongs to is not the frontier but it’s this vast context of violence across the South. In much of the South the Civil War ended, but the struggle continued–but it was a struggle over what sort of society the South would have after Emancipation, what sort of political structure would exist, and you had a lot of violence directed against Unionists, against freed slaves. You had a lot of tremendous political violence that gave rise to the Ku Klux Klan and other groups. Missouri was a border state, so the violence after the Civil War was through its own peculiar version of it, just like the Civil War itself, was its own peculiar version of the Civil War. You had a state unlike, say, Mississippi where you had a state with less than 10% of the population that was black and the two-thirds to three-quarters of the white population were Unionists. So instead of it being this simply drawn racial struggle, you have a political battle–and people like Jesse James, these Confederate guerrillas that started their careers of outlawry after the war in a very political context. The first daylight peacetime armed bank robbery in American history was of the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty in 1866. I looked at who the officers and owners of the bank were, and I compared them with men who had been appointed by the radical governor under the Ouster Ordinance, which required the governor to appoint new officials at every level of government. They were the local leading radical Republicans, the men who were the county officials in Clay County, men who were the organizers of the Republican Party, as the Radical Party became. Those are the men who owned the Clay County Savings Association, and the robbery took place less than two weeks after the first Republican rally in Clay County’s history, there in the town of Liberty, led by these same men. And that robbery began a year of violence in which people were writing to the military and writing to federal officials saying, “We’re on the verge of a second Civil War here.” Former Confederate guerrillas were directly confronting the state officials, directly confronting the voter registration officials, they were attacking local Radical Republicans–and being attacked in turn. That’s the context that explains how banditry rose in Missouri, this non-frontier state.

BOARDMAN: So it’s not, I guess what the legend tells us about folks like Jesse James, that he was striking out in maybe a class warfare against the people with wealth and power and control, but in fact it was more of an attack on political targets, whether they be institutions or the people themselves.

STILES: That’s right. And throughout his career he engaged in a lot of banditry for it’s own sake. But when you look at Jesse and Frank James, and when you look at the Youngers, who were they? They were men who were raised in slave-owning families. They were the wealthiest portion of their community. They were not poor dirt farmers who resented these rich and powerful outsiders. They were the insiders. They were from the families that had been the most prosperous, the most commercial farmers in their communities. Somebody who wants to just read about the robberies may be a little confused by this, but I spent a great deal of time explaining Jesse James’ family and the fact that they were commercial hemp and tobacco farmers, that they were very wealthy, that they had a larger than average number of slaves for their county. That explains how they fit into society because it shows that Jesse James was not striking back against his foes out of some kind of resentment over economics. It’s just not true. He, if anything, he was from a family that had always been a part of the ruling group, the most prominent, most respected group in his community, and so what they were doing is they were engaging in banditry, sometimes attacking their foes directly, sometimes simply refusing to give up their arms, refusing to follow the rules. But 1866 was this very political year. There’s been very little evidence that Jesse James and Frank James took direct part in any robberies before 1868 with the Russellville Raid in Kentucky. However, I found reason to believe that they probably were active before 1868. The end of 1866, however, the group they were with occupied the town of Lexington on election day, which led to this confrontation with the state militia, and it also led to the death of Archie Clement, who had been the leader of the survivors of Bloody Bill Anderson’s group. And that then also followed the well-organized counterattack organized by Thomas Fletcher, the radical governor of Missouri. The gang started to fall apart, and their political roles started to fall apart also, and it became more just general banditry. It is only when Jesse James himself emerges as the leading bandit that the gang starts to take on a political role again, and his alliance with John Newman Edwards gives him a forum to write about politics and to attack his enemies in print.

BOARDMAN: And that brings up perhaps the two most towering figures that seem to influence not only Jesse the person, but Jesse the legend and myth. One of those is the former Confederate officer that you mentioned, John Newman Edwards, who became a journalist, and the other was his mother.

STILES: Yes, that’s right.

BOARDMAN: Can you tell us a little about each of them?

STILES: Well, Jesse’s mother is really, with the exception of Frank, is really kind of the main figure, apart from Jesse James, in my book. Her personality just stunned everybody who met her. She was so outspoken, so domineering. She was physically large. She was described as 6 feet tall by many observers. So no matter what her actual height was, she was an intimidating figure. And at a time when femininity was highly valued, when the vision of women being very meek and demure was what was prized in American society, she was completely unlike that. She had a ferocious tongue. She was described by the Union provost marshal during the Civil War in a report on the secessionists of Clay County as one of the worst women in this state. And George Caleb Bingham, the Adjutant General of the state, describes her as a woman of masculine will and intelligence. So she really influenced and intimidated a lot of people. But she wasn’t just simply a “harpy” who was lashing out at everyone. She was very firm in her political beliefs. She was determinedly a Southerner and a Confederate from the very beginning of the Civil War. I found a newspaper report, an interview with her in 1876 during the climatic election that led to the downfall of reconstruction, and the reporter asked her about her opinions on politics. Of course women couldn’t vote at the time, and she went through and she gave very distinct opinions about the candidates at each level of office, about Philden who was running for the presidency on the Democratic ticket, on the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor. This was a woman who really thought about politics, and had very firm, fierce Confederate opinions. So she was obviously a very strong influence on Jesse, who was very political himself. And she also supported her boys continually. During the Civil War, the same Union provost marshal said that he had heard her declare that she was proud of her boys during their worst guerrilla atrocities, and that she prayed to God that He would protect them in their work. Later on she would repeatedly approach reporters and newspapers editors and give interviews in which she would declare how proud she was of her boys, and then also gave fraudulent alibis to explain that they couldn’t possibly be guilty of what they were accused of. So she was a ferocious figure, and it’s very interesting that Jesse James, when he finally married, married a women who was his first cousin and named after his own mother. That, of course, could be just coincidental. But it’s a rather curious fact, which whether it was intentional or not, seems to reflect how important his mother was in his life.

BOARDMAN: The other person that we mentioned was John Newman Edwards, who at the end of the Civil War didn’t give up immediately, but when he did come back to Missouri, he became an influential journalist and supporter of Jesse and Frank.

STILES: That’s right. And as I note in the book, often the way that people write about John Newman Edwards, they describe him as the man who created Jesse James’ mythical image through his newspapers. He started off as a new paper editor specifically by founding the Kansas City Times. Later he became an editor of the St. Louis Dispatch, ancestor of the Post Dispatch, and of the St. Louis Times later on. Now I note, however, that the relationship between Jesse and Edwards appears to have been partnership, not puppetry, that Jesse James wasn’t simply a guy who was out there doing his stuff and that Edwards wrote about him and created his public image. There are Jesse’s letters to the press, which initially appeared only in Edwards’ newspapers. But later on Jesse started writing letters which, you never know with 100% certainty that they are his, but that they’re very likely to be his, to newspapers to Nashville. He would later write letters saying things about people who were personal friends of Edwards showing that Jesse himself was, as his brother-in-law declared after his death, was a compulsive letter writer, and somebody who constantly wanted attention, and at the same time someone who was very political. So Jesse wasn’t just his puppet. On the other hand, Jesse James, his political strategy, his publicity strategy was really created, it appears, by John Newman Edwards. Here’s a man who came back from exile in Mexico where he went rather than surrendering after the Union victory, and saw a state where Confederates were barred from politics, a state where the vast majority of people were Unionists–and he set about trying to create a Confederate identity for the state. Even before Confederates could vote, he used the newspaper to talk about the righteousness of the cause, to glorifying Missouri’s Southerness. He would talk about how Missourians, real Missourians in their heart of hearts, were Confederates. And it’s interesting, one of those coincidences in history, that Jesse James appears to have befriended John Newman Edwards at the very moment when Confederates were allowed to vote again. And all of a sudden there was a political role for Jesse to play in mobilizing the Confederate vote. So there followed this remarkable series of coordinated letters from Jesse with editorials by Edwards, that catapulted Jesse James, in particular, out of all the outlaws. into the center of Missouri politics. And without Jesse, John Newman Edwards probably would not have become the leading newspaper editor he was in Missouri. And without Edwards, Jesse James would not have become this very specifically political hero to former Confederates. It was a really remarkable partnership that developed.

BOARDMAN: Sort of a symbiotic relationship, I guess.

STILES: Yeah, very much so.

BOARDMAN: Well as the 1870’s went by and we got to the middle part of that decade, you say in the book that Jesse and John Newman Edwards basically accomplished what they set out to do. How do you mean that?

STILES: Well, you know, one thing I note is that Jesse was far from the sole cause of this, what happened in Missouri. But his success was in part due to, when you look at the strategy, we start off by looking at their strategy. I use the psychological term “cognitive dissonance,” when you believe in two contradictory things at the same time. Edwards and Jesse James promoted this image of Jesse as a martyr to the radical Republicans who had ruled Missouri after the Civil War, and who they claimed wouldn’t leave him alone, persecuted him and tried to hunt him down and kill him or capture him, and that he was innocent of all of these crimes he was accused of. So they saw him as this martyr to radical vindictiveness. At the same time, Edwards put the discussion of Jesse in the context of praising whoever it was who carried out these robberies and talking about how former bushwhackers were the bravest men and they refused to give up their self-respect or their guns, and that they defied society and they defied this corrupt radical regime that had been put in power by the Union victory. And so the people who supported Jesse, who were mostly former Confederates, simultaneously believed that he was innocent and a victim and a martyr, and they also believed that he was guilty and they were proud of him for it. Sort of a strange dual belief that they had about him. And it also fed into this image held by the conservative Unionists, the Unionist Democrats. They also resented what was going on in the country. They believed in the Union, but they had wanted to keep the old slave-owning society. They did not believe in the goals of the radical Republicans who wanted to bring freed slaves into some kind of equality. The radicals weren’t modern day egalitarians, although they wanted to give freedmen the vote, they wanted to bring them into society in some way and remove the restrictions on them. Tthe Unionist Democrats didn’t want that. They wanted the Union as it was. And so this image that they created of Jesse James reflected their own discontent with the radical Republicans–in Congress especially. What happened was that when the Pinkertons got involved and they invaded western Missouri, as the Confederates saw it, and especially when they launched a raid on the Samuel home, Jesse James’ mother’s home, that led to the death of his half-brother and his mother’s arm being amputated, it sort of vindicated all these things that Jesse James had been saying about himself and that John Edwards had been saying about him, that these Yankees were invading Missouri, and that fit into this larger reaction against Reconstruction, against the attempt to impose civil rights on unwilling Confederates in the South. Once the South was defeated, the enemy stopped being so much former Confederates as it became sort of Radical Republican vision of society. And Jesse James’ own story and his propaganda fit into that, so it was kind of a combination of forces that helped make Missouri a more Confederate state than it had been during the Civil War itself.

BOARDMAN: And by 1876 the Radical Rrepublicans were basically out and the Democrats were back in.

STILES: That’s right. In 1876 there was this climactic election. It’s almost impossible for us to imagine now what the atmosphere was like. This is a society with, no movies, no television. Politics was not only something people believed in, it was their social lives. People went to political rallies and they spent all day listening to four-hour speeches, and that was fun. So people were very political. And you had this great revolution: four million people had gone from slavery to freedom, and there was this racial conflict and this political conflict, and the whole shape of what America was going to be like was, it was literally a revolution. And 1876 was the final election, kind of a final referendum on what was going to happen in the South, and whether Congress would be able to force the white South to accept the black South as political equals, or whether they would let the white South do what it wanted to in the South. And this affected people all across the country. The former Confederates really rose to primacy in Missouri. Jesse James himself had moved to Nashville, and he was thinking of himself as a Southerner. He had been writing letters to the newspapers in Nashville saying that he had fought for the South, to defend it from Northern tyranny.. He was really thinking of himself in more than just a Missouri context. And so 1876 was a climactic year. People were going to rallies, and there were these vicious political speeches going on. One speaker for the Republicans was pointing out that every man who shot at a Union soldier was a Democrat. It was that kind of bitterness. And that was the year the gang went to Northfield. Now I think they went to Northfield to make money. They wanted to carry out a robbery and get some cash. But they specifically selected Northfield because one of the leading Radical Republicans from the South, a man who had just been kicked out of Mississippi where he had been the Reconstruction governor, Adelbert Ames, had moved to Northfield just a couple of months before. He hadn’t been there for very long, and he wasn’t famous locally. But that’s where the bandits went in the midst of this very political atmosphere, to rob one of the most determined spokesmen for black civil rights and for Reconstruction of the South. They thought if they were going to rob somebody, that’s who they would rob. And I found a statement which most writers, I can’t claim all because I’m not sure that it’s all, most writers have overlooked. In the Minneapolis Tribune, immediately after the capture of the Youngers, Bob Younger said, “We went to Northfield because we heard that ex-governor Ames of Mississippi had money there and one of the boys had a spite against him. And so that’s the bank we picked to rob”. Cole Younger in 1897, in his first written account of the robbery, denied that they had tried to rob a bank in Mankato and had been frightened away. He said that they talked about banks all over the place, but they had decided ahead of time to rob Northfield because of Ames and also his father-in-law–he was connected, of course, to Benjamin Butler, who was a former Union general and a leading Radical Republican in Congress. But interestingly, it was Ames only who was mentioned by Bob Younger in 1876.

BOARDMAN: It’s interesting then that 1876 is a watershed year for Jesse James because from a political standpoint, it’s probably the most successful year of his life. But from the standpoint of his gang, which gets shot to pieces in Northfield with only Frank and Jesse getting away relatively unscathed, it’s one of his greatest defeats.

STILES: That’s correct. And it’s one of those things that gives the story, and I can’t claim credit for it, but it gives my book such narrative force, a dramatic force. For example in 1870, when Jesse James’ name became well known in Missouri because of the Gallitan Robbery and the murder of John W. Sheets, it’s a coincidence that former Confederates are allowed to vote that year. But it serves Jesse’s purpose, and he takes on this political role. 1876 is this great climactic year in American history. It’s almost as important as 1865, with Appomattox and the defeat of the South. And it’s also the climax of his career, the James-Younger Gang’s career when they’re defeated at Northfield. It’s one of those remarkable coincidences that gives the story this dramatic force. But it also helps explain why, when Jesse came back three years later and started the second gang, why it was such a short-lived career, why he couldn’t keep it together and keep it going. Tthere was no longer a political role for him to play afterward. Some readers don’t really care about the politics and may wonder why it matters. I think it’s very important because if you want to understand Jesse, you have to understand the politics that he thought about and wrote about and tried to play a part in. But it also explains why the state of Missouri was able to finally bring him down after less than three years of the second act in his bandit career. He didn’t have a public role to play anymore. The politics that he had written about and that shaped the public image of him were over; former Confederates had won. The Democrats had triumphed in Missouri and they had sent two former Confederates to the US Senate. The state constitution had been rewritten by former Confederates. The situation had completely changed and Jesse outlived his usefulness.

BOARDMAN: We can add in the fact that after Northfield, when he lost so many compatriots that he had known for years dating back to the Civil War, after that it seemed like he was forced to take in people who had not had that really tough, vicious, violent background. He had to bring in novices and train them in the way of doing things, and that wasn’t really successful.

STILES: Yes, I think that’s right. And it’s interesting that the Governor Crittenden of Missouri noted, I think it was in his memoirs, that he wanted to offer a large reward for the outlaws because since money was their object in the first place, an even larger offer of money would divide them against each other. Well, that wouldn’t have been true, that wouldn’t have worked during the main period of Jesse James’ and the James-Younger Gang’s existence. Here were these guys who were held together by this loyalty that had been forged during the Civil War, by their sense of being Confederates pitted against the Radical Unionists. The second group was just young men who were sort of attracted to the gangster glamour that Jesse had, who were just attracted by the money and the excitement. And what happened? They started to disintegrate. They started to turn against each other. Jesse himself seemed to have felt this. He became increasingly paranoid. He wanted to kill Jim Cummins. He actually did end up killing one of his gang members, Ed Miller, the brother of Clell Miller. The gang turned against each other and the whole thing fell apart. And again I think it’s because with this greater distance from the Civil War, with no sense of their having a cause, the fact that they were young men who didn’t have that bond of loyalty that the former Confederate guerrillas had, there was nothing keeping them together except money. So it’s not surprising that the gang fell apart as it did.

BOARDMAN: And when big money was offered for the head of Jesse James, a couple of the relatively new recruits, Bob and Charlie Ford, who didn’t have that longstanding traditional respect and comradeship with the gang, thought, “Well, this is the easier way to get some money.”

STILES: Yeah, exactly. Frank James later said that he never really trusted Bob Ford, that Jesse never really trusted Bob Ford–and for good reason because Bob claimed that from the very beginning he planned to bring Jesse down for the reward.

BOARDMAN: And they earned that on April 3, 1882 when Jesse was standing up on a stool and was dusting off the top of a picture, and Bob shot him behind the ear.

STILES: That’s correct. And one of the little minor controversies is, what was Jesse doing with his guns off? The Ford brothers gave a lot of interviews that day and the next day. In one of the accounts they said that it was an unusually hot day for April, and that Jesse and Charlie had gone out to curry the horses that morning. Jesse had commented that it was hot and took off his coat, and said, “Well, when I go back outside again, somebody might see my pistols on me, I might get some attention.” So he unbuckled his belt and took his revolvers off. And that’s what they had been waiting for. I think it was Bob Ford who said that they wouldn’t take a chance on Jesse James as long as he had his weapons on him. And the moment he had them off, that’s when they shot him.

BOARDMAN: And that’s when the legend of Jesse James really started going forward. The story was covered in newspapers across the world, as a matter of fact.

STILES: That’s right.

BOARDMAN: And John Newman Edwards, who was fading in terms of his influence, wrote some articles in a last attempt to build up Jesse as being the poor martyr who had died for his cause and had died for his people.

STILES: That’s right. Now he really had a remarkable career. It’s just astonishing that he was alive and free and carrying out these high-profile robberies as long as he did. And so naturally that attracts our attention now. When I wrote my book, I reconstructed the events. I paid a lot of attention to the famous robberies. I give the version that I think makes the most sense and then I explain my reasoning in my end notes and sources. I realize that people can disagree with me on specific events because I’m doing my best to reconstruct them. I’m not going to make the reader fight his way through all of the evidence in the narrative. I paid due attention to the exciting events that get our attention. But as much as his life is so dramatic and exciting, why is it that Jesse James out of all of the James-Younger Gang who stands out? Why is it Jesse James of all the criminals of that time who stands out? The reason is that Jesse James, of all the outlaws, was the one who demanded this this political role, who sought out attention. He was a continual self-promoter. And he continually wrote about politics and his own martyrdom, and he made this alliance with John Newman Edwards. Edwards wrote about all the outlaws, but he far and away gave primacy to Jesse James. So when it comes to the actual robberies, Jesse was clearing a leading figure, but I never say that he was THE leader. However, when it comes to everything that made him famous and made the James-Younger Gang famous, Jesse is clearly the one who stands out. He is the one who wanted attention, who talked about politics. He’s the one who drew the public eye, and that’s why my book is about Jesse specifically. However, at the end of his life he did become just a criminal. Jesse James outlived the things that made him a public figure in the first place. So by the time he was brought down, he had paved the way for his own non-political mythical status with his second bandit career. There’s no politics surrounding the second act in his bandit life. He was just a bandit. That’s all there was to it. And that colors the way we remember him now. We remember Jesse James as the guy who was shot by the coward Robert Ford. We don’t remember him as the man who attacked Radical Republicans in his letters to the press, who talked about how he was a man who fought for the South and defended it from Northern tyranny. Jesse James himself inadvertently is responsible for the way we remember him in the sort of mythic non-political way. But he’s responsible because he just couldn’t take it anymore, he just couldn’t live peacefully, he had to return to a bandit life. His personality in the end won out, and propelled him sort of inexorably toward his doom.

BOARDMAN: Outside of your book and perhaps a handful of others, a lot of what has been handed down either in print, on the screen big and small, for the last 120 years, has been basically Jesse, the social bandit, who again was trying to fight the powers of corruption and big money, and who ostensibly gave some of the proceeds to the poor, his helpless friends and neighbors. To that extent, did Jesse and John Newman Edwards succeed in creating an image that was not factual but did fit their plans?

STILES: Well, yes I think so. Jesse and John Newman Edwards were clearly aware of the fact that there was indeed agrarian resentment of the railroads, and that there was this sort of farmers’ movement, the Grangers in particular, who were starting to arrive during the 1870’s. In the mid-1870’s the Grangers just took off in Missouri and other states in that region. During a couple of their robberies, especially the first train robbery in Iowa in 1873, the bandits actually declared to the passengers that they were Grangers. So they used that, but they tried to turn even that toward politics. But there’s two sides of this. One is trying to play a role in the politics, trying to influence people in how they think of themselves, thought of themselves as Southerners, how they thought about the political situation. But one of the methods they used was to promote Jesse, himself, as this heroic, charming, beleaguered fellow–and Jesse was very good at playing to a crowd. He was very good during his train robberies especially, whenever he had a literally captive audience. He would declaim to them, he would speak to them, he would make jokes and make little acts of kindness. He was a very charming fellow and he used that very effectively. That side of it has survived. One of the things I do in my book, which I haven’t seen done elsewhere, is I’ve methodically examined, for example, the train robberies and who they were robbing. A lot of historians have called Jesse James a social bandit because, well we know that railroads were unpopular and he was robbing railroads. One of the things I do in my book is I methodically exam who he was really robbing. The railroad corporations didn’t lose any money in train robberies. The bandits specifically robbed express companies, completely separate institutions that contracted with railroad companies to ship their cash in the baggage cars on trains. The railroads would post a ritual reward, but they really took very little interest in catching Jesse James. The express companies were the ones who were very agitated about the bandits, and they’re the ones who initially funded the Pinkerton hunt for Jesse. One of the things I did was go through the industry journals, “The Railway Age” and “The Railway Gazette” and found that the railroad industry magazines and publications paid no attention to train robberies. Then I looked at the express company magazines and journals, “Our Expressman” and “The Expressman’s Monthly,” and whenever there was a train robbery virtually the entire issue would be devoted to it. There would be accounts by the expressmen who were robbed, there were would be tips for how messengers should handle a robbery, exhortations to express messengers to resist. So the express companies were the ones who were being robbed–and the farmers didn’t care about express companies. You didn’t ship goods by Federal Express and you didn’t ship grain by express company in 1874. So one of the things I do in my book is really sort out a lot of this mythology that’s infected even historical writing by university professors. They just haven’t figured this out before. Once you look at Jesse’s train robberies, you see that it wasn’t an agrarian protest. He wasn’t standing up for the farmer. These were just high profile robberies that made Jesse James famous, and made people pay attention to him.

BOARDMAN: Did you first get interested in Jesse when you were growing up in Minnesota?

STILES: Yeah. I was always aware of Jesse James when I was growing up there. I grew up north of Minneapolis, about 90 miles in Benton County. My father had an old postcard–he still has it–showing Bill Chadwell, usually identified as William Stiles, the photo of him dead with a bullet hole in his chest. My father would always say that he was a relative, even though there’s no evidence that he’s related at all. I later went to Carlton College in Northfield, and by that time they had the reenactment every year. But I really began to become much more aware of him and his larger role as I started to work on a series of anthologies on American history. I had a chapter in my Civil War anthology with excerpts from John McCorkel’s memoirs on the Missouri Bushwhackers, and I had started to research the James’ story. When I finished my anthology series, I wanted to get at this story of the Civil War and Reconstruction. I realized that Jesse James had really been underestimated by various historians, that he was seen as sort of a trivial figure because he’s in the movies and he’s seen more as a mythical figure than as a real figure in history. I began to suspect that he’d been a much more political fellow and much more significant fellow than people realized. At the same time it was a great way of looking at everything that America went through during that period. Here was the greatest conflict in American history, and the greatest political issues in American history, and it comes down to the lives of individuals. In Missouri people had to choose what side they stood on. It wasn’t a matter of being from the North or being from the South. It wasn’t a matter of which state you were born in or where you lived. It was a border state where people had to make a conscious choice. Afterwards, there was no outside force imposing Reconstruction in Missouri. Everything that happened there was homegrown. People again had to make personal choices about the great issues of the day. So the life of Jesse James is a fantastic dramatic story, and I wanted to be able to do a better job of telling that story than anyone had done before. At the same time, I was fascinated by the way that everything that his life was about was all the larger issues in American history, all the things that go to the heart of what America is about, coming down to the lives of individual people. The Civil War not as a battle of armies, but of individual neighbors standing against each other, the issues that ensued out of the Civil War coming down to individuals taking sides against each other and having to make choices about what they believed in. And so the two fit together really well. I was able to write a book of history that has this larger context. It’s a story of this man and his family and what they went through. It’s even a bigger story than the Jesse James buffs and the people who love that story to begin with even realized.

BOARDMAN: So are you thinking about taking that same approach looking at an individual and how they fit within a context of that nature in any future enterprises?

STILES: Yeah, right now I’m working on a book that, it’s another biography, and it kind of looks at the same period from the other end of the spectrum. Rather than doing another outlaw book or criminal book, I’m looking at Cornelius Vanderbilt, the great, the first great railroad baron and before that, he was the great steamship tycoon. And again looking at the same period, you know, he lived his life much longer than Jesse James, but you know, looking at what America went through during this period and at the same time taking a very dramatic life that’s been underwritten about. There hasn’t been a lot of work by historians on Cornelius Vanderbilt, interestingly. And again somebody who ignored the law when it suited him, another powerful, strong figure who sort of made up his own rules as he went along, and sort of forced the rest of the country to respond to him. I’m going to the complete opposite of the spectrum, the other end of the country, the other end of, you know, the whole economic system, obviously the other end of the railroads! The owner rather than the robber. And looking at, again, telling a good story and also getting at what America went through in the 19th century and how it changed through the life of one man.

TJ Stiles is the author of “Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War”. He spoke with Mark Boardman.

On Tuesday night, July 11, 1899, William Ellsworth “Elzy” Lay (alias William H. “Mac” McGinnis), Will Carver (alias G. W. Franks), Sam Ketchum, and possibly Bruce “Red” Weaver (alias Wheeler) successfully held up the Colorado and Southern’s train Number One at Twin Mountains near Folsom, New Mexico. The enriched robbers fled west. Weaver left the group near Springer to make his way to Alma, while Lay, Carver, and Ketchum continued further west to Turkey Creek Canyon, near Cimarron.

On July 13, U.S. Marshal Creighton Foraker of New Mexico sought and received Department of Justice authority to raise of posse of five men for twenty days at $5.00 per day plus expenses. Foraker enlisted a posse comprised of Field Deputy Wilson “Memph” Elliott, Huerfano County (Colorado) Sheriff Edward J. Farr, Special Agent William H. Reno of the Colorado and Southern, teamster James Morgan, locals Perfecto Cordoba and Santiago Serna, Springer cowboy Henry M. Love, and recently arrived Easterner F. H. Smith. Three days later, the posse followed the outlaws into the canyon where three posse members caught bullets during the resultant shoot-out. Farr was killed. Love was mortally wounded and died on the morning of July 21. Smith, shot through the calf, survived the experience. Although the three robbers escaped the canyon under the cover of darkness and rain, they fared little better. Ketchum caught a bullet in his left arm directly below the shoulder resulting in his death on July 24. Lay suffered wounds in his left shoulder and back.
The resilient Lay, after several days of hiding near Elizabethtown, soon returned to the trail. Twelve days after the Turkey Creek Canyon shoot-out, he, Carver, and Arizona cowboy Tom Capehart showed up over five hundred miles away in Tom Green County, Texas, where they turned west and put in another couple of hundred miles in the saddle. By August 15, they had reached the Eddy County, New Mexico ranch of Virgil Hogue Lusk, twenty-eight miles northeast of Carlsbad.

Later that night, Sheriff M. Cicero Stewart learned of the presence of two apparent outlaws at the Lusk ranch. Accompanied by Deputies John D. Cantrell and Rufe Thomas, Stewart traveled to the ranch where they concealed themselves in an earthen tank. Shortly after daylight, Lay rode in and hitched his horse to a wagon standing between the tank and a tent. He accepted Lusk’s invitation to enter the tent for breakfast.
Hearing the approaching officers, Lay pulled his six-shooter. He sent two rounds into Thomas and one into Lusk’s wrist before a bullet from the sheriff’s gun grazed his head, leaving him stunned. Capehart had ridden for provisions and missed the action. Carver, whom the local press identified as Franks, viewed the fracas from the top of a hill, about half a mile away. Realizing that he could be of no assistance to McGinnis, Carver waved to Stewart and rode away.

In reporting the arrest, the local press described the wounded Lay as six feet tall and weighing 175 pounds with a sandy complexion and a short sandy beard. (His later prison record noted that he weighed 164 pounds, and he may have actually weighed only 145 pounds at the time of his arrest.) Lay gave his name as John Thompson, but refused to answer all other questions.

Marshal Foraker, Special Agent Reno, D. E. Farr of Walsenburg, Colorado (brother of the late Ed Farr), and Cimarron, New Mexico merchant James K. Hunt descended on the Carlsbad jail on August 22. Hunt readily identified prisoner John Thompson as William H. McGinnis, train robber. Lay, who had been using the name McGinnis since his arrival in New Mexico in the fall of 1898, continued to use the name for the remainder of his life.

Just a day after Hunt identified McGinnis, on August 23, 1899, the lawmen and Hunt accompanied the shackled McGinnis on a train to Santa Fe. Stewart, Reno, and Farr continued on to Trinidad, Colorado, to attempt an identification of another man captured the same day as McGinnis following a single-handed attempt to hold up another Colorado & Southern train at Folsom. They were about to encounter Tom Ketchum.

On September 21, authorities took McGinnis from Santa Fe to Raton to stand trial. Two days earlier, Territorial Grand Jury for the District Court of the Fourth Judicial District indicted him on the charge of premeditated murder of Edward Farr by the. His trial began on October 2, and after three days of empanelling jurors and four days of testimony, the jury took three hours to reject a verdict of guilty on the charge of first degree murder, but to return a verdict of guilty on the charge of second degree murder. On Tuesday, October 10, Judge William J. Mills sentenced McGinnis “to imprisonment for the full term of his natural life….”

McGinnis was held within the confines of the New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary at Santa Fe while the Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico heard his appeal (filed January 3, 1900). On May 3, 1900, the court affirmed the judgment of the District court, and the following day McGinnis was officially “received” at the New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary as prisoner #1348.

Penitentiary Record:
#1348, McGinnis William H.; received: 5/04/1900; sentence commenced: October 10, 1899; term: life; crime: murder; county: Colfax; pled not guilty and provided no reason for crime..
Description–race: American; age: 33; height: 5 ft. 9 1/2 in.; weight: 164; light brown eyes, light hair, light complexion. One upper front tooth broken. Bullet wound through upper left shoulder; bullet wounds in back; small scar on left of head. Born: Coles County, Illinois; occupation: laborer; marital status: single; no children [sic]; religion: none, parents were Methodists; does not know if parents are living. Temperate, uses tobacco. Can read and write, did not attend school beyond 8th grade. Self supportive since age of 21. Closest relative or friend: E. A. Cunningham, Mogollon, New Mexico.

On December 15, 1905, “lifer” William H. McGinnis walked out of the penitentiary a free man. Many tales have been written in an attempt explain McGinnis’s release. Some maintain that he was pardoned: he was not. In one tale, former outlaw Matt Warner claimed to have told “Warden Morgan [sic] a cock-and-bull story” of a rich asphaltum discovery, the location of which was known only to McGinnis. The governor and the warden then decided to pardon McGinnis in exchange for ownership of the mine. More recently, author Kerry Ross Boren substituted gold for asphaltum.

These are the actual recorded circumstances. Otero’s tenure as New Mexico’s territorial governor began on June 2, 1897 and concluded on January 22, 1906. During those eight and one-half years, 925 prisoners entered the New Mexico Territorial Prison at Santa Fe. Early in his administration, Otero established the policy of issuing a pardon or commutation of sentence “to the most deserving convict,” as determined by the Board of Penitentiary Commissioners, on New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. In practice, the governor proved somewhat more generous, granting ninety-three pardons and sixty-five commutations, including five commutations where he also later granted pardons. In all cases, Otero required that “letters or petitions requesting the same were approved by the trial judge, the district attorney, and some of the jurors.”

Superintendent Holm Bursum applauded McGinniss’s role during two riots. Otero maintained that during a prison riot, convicts grabbed the young brother-in-law of Bursum, and, using him as a shield, surrounded the cell house keepers. Implored by Mrs. Bursum, McGinnis grabbed Penitentiary Clerk Billy Martin’s horse and rode into Santa Fe to notify the territorial militia. Their arrival quelled the riot.

The other riot occurred on April 17, 1901, when convicts George Stevenson (#1402), William Simmons (#1318), and Frank Carper (#1403) attempted to escape. Armed with a contraband .38 cal. Smith & Wesson revolver, the trio made a dash out of the cell house and into the main hall and a gathering of unarmed guards. Captain of the Guard Felipe Armijo raced to the tower for a weapon. Stevenson wounded Armijo when he returned with a shotgun. Stevenson also wounded Guard Pedro Sandoval before being shot and killed by Superintendent Bursum’s Winchester. Armijo shot and mortally wounded Simmons. Carper surrendered.

According to Superintendent Bursum, “During this trouble McGinnis was night engineer at the power plant and remained thoroughly loyal to the penitentiary authorities and was helpful in preventing a more serious situation.” Bursum likewise confirmed Otero’s account of the circumstances of the second riot.

In keeping with his custom, on July 4, 1905, Otero commuted McGinnis’s life sentence to ten years. Once he received a fixed term, McGinnis was entitled to good time from the date of his October 10, 1899, sentencing. Under New Mexico Territorial law, good time lowered an inmate’s sentence by one month the first year, two additional months at the conclusion of the second year, three more months after the third year, and so on through the first five years. Each additional year of good time reduced the time by six months. A ten-year sentence with good time allowed would be fulfilled in seventy-five months (six years, three months), thereby fixing McGinnis’s release date as January 10, 1906. However, he had also worked on the scenic road project between Santa Fe and Las Vegas, which further reduced his sentence and entitled him to a December 15, 1905 release, not a January 10, 1906 release as indicated by Otero and cited by many subsequent writers.

McGinnis served a total of six years and two months. Between the opening of the New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary in 1884 and New Mexico statehood in 1912, ninety prisoners were received at Santa Fe under sentence of life. Excluding those who escaped, died, were transferred to the insane asylum, or remained confined following the granting of statehood (a total of 27), the average time served under a sentence of life was seven years and nine months. The longest incarceration for a lifer was seventeen years and six months. Although good conduct occasioned the commutation of McGinnis’s sentence, it likely reduced his tenure by only a year and one-half.

Following his release, McGinnis returned to Alma and took lodging at the general store of Lewis and Walter Jones. McGinnis was a “Goddamn nice lookin’ fella, he wasn’t a big man and he wasn’t a little man. He wasn’t a blond, he was more a little dark complected and had kind of dark brown hair.” Lewis Jones also recalled, “Hell, McGinnis stayed right there with us for six months, you know, and he told us every damn thing.” Neighbor Ben Avery characterized McGinnis as a “nice fellow to talk to and a nice fella to meet.”

Herman A. Hoover, McGinnis’s contemporary, is the source for this tale concerning the outlaw’s buried treasure. McGinnis remarked to the Jones brothers that he was going out to recover a cache of money “buried under the root of a juniper tree on the Mexican border,” and he would return in two weeks. Almost two weeks to the day later, he returned with $58,000 “wrapped in a slicker on the back of his saddle.” Hoover, who knew McGinnis in Alma, opined that the money was not from the Folsom robbery as the alert express agent had thwarted the robbers; instead, he hypothesized that the loot was part of the proceeds from the November 6, 1897, Grants robbery. Hoover, however, operated from two false premises: 1) McGinnis had not participated in the Grants robbery, and 2) the Folsom robbery had been successful. Reports suggested that the Folsom proceeds exceeded $50,000; Governor Otero fixed the amount at $70,000. Colonel William French of the WS ranch wrote that the “considerable swag” from the Folsom robbery originally had been hidden in Colfax County, and Butch Cassidy and Bruce “Red” Weaver later transported it to Socorro County where they buried it. Presumably, then, McGinnis had recovered the Folsom booty.

McGinnis stored the money in a utility room behind the small bar that adjoined the Jones’s store. Hoover added, “Among the money was about $1,100 in silver. When they needed ‘change’ in the store, one of them would hand Mac some currency and he would bring them a like amount in silver. Eventually the silver was exhausted.” Hoover’s yarn has a dubious ring to it. Allowing that the Folsom robbery produced more than $50,000, it is questionable whether Cassidy, Weaver, and later McGinnis, would have burdened themselves with some ninety odd pounds of silver coins.

Colonel French said McGinnis, whom he labeled “a paladin amongst cow-punchers,” remained at Alma for two years, while Hoover indicated that Mac’s stay numbered eighteen months. Subsequent events establish the validity of Hoover’s recollection and the error of French’s. Fugitive George Musgrave arrived in Alma in late February 1907 from Dalhart, Texas. The extent of prior planning, if any, by McGinnis and Musgrave is unknown, but shortly after Musgrave appeared, he, McGinnis, and a man using the name Jack Dempsey bid good-bye to New Mexico and headed up the outlaw trail.
After traveling north along the banks of Utah’s Green River, they reached Vernal, where McGinnis looked up his ex-wife Maude and his daughter Marvel. When he learned that Maude had married Oran Curry, the three men continued northeast through Brown’s Park to the remote community of Baggs, Wyoming. The three arrived before September 9, 1907, evidenced by Dempsey’s theft of a horse from Jake W. Hildenbrand of Carbon County.

There is no evidence that McGinnis returned to the owl hoot trail. He remarried, had two more children, ranched, studied geology, prospected, tended bar, worked for the Imperial Valley Irrigation District, and drank too much. Elzy Lay, alias William H. McGinnis, passed away in Los Angeles on November 10, 1934.

ENDNOTES:
1 Creighton Foraker, Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Attorney General, Washington, D.C. July 13, 1899. File 13.065; Records of Department of Justice Officials; Confidential Correspondence, 1896-1898; Record Group 60 (RG 60); National Archives at College Park, MD, hereafter Department of Justice.
2 Foraker to Attorney General, July 19, and August 28, 1899, Department of Justice. 3 B. D. Titsworth, “Hole-in-the-Wall Gang,” True West (December 1956), pp. 4- 10. Titsworth was the son of Huerfano County (Colorado) Deputy Sheriff George W. Titsworth. 4 Carlsbad Argus, August 18, 1899. 5 Ibid., August 25, 1899. 6 Territory of New Mexico v. William H. McGinnis, Cause No, 2419; Santa Fe Daily New Mexican, September 22, 1899. The trial of McGinnis is well detailed by Jeff Burton in his “Suddenly in a Secluded and Rugged Place…,” (The English Westerners’ Society, 1972, pp. 46-81), and need not be reiterated here. 7 Territory of New Mexico v. William H. McGinnis, Cause No, 2419. 8 Territory of New Mexico v. William H. McGinnis, Appellant, No. 873. 9 Territory of New Mexico, Penitentiary Record Book of Convicts, November 2, 1884–April 4, 1904, p. 90, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. 10 Matt Warner, as told to Murray E. King, The Last of the Bandit Riders (New York: Bonanza Books, 1940), pp. 325-28. 11 Kerry Ross Boren and Lisa Lee Boren, The Gold of Carre-Shinob, (Springville, UT: Bonneville Books, 1998), p. 103. 12 Miguel Otero, My Nine Years as Governor (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1940), p. 102. 13 Territory of New Mexico, Penitentiary Record Books of Convicts, November 2, 1884–April 4, 1904; April 5, 1904- February 13, 1915. 14 Miguel Otero, My Nine Years as Governor, p. 102. 15 Bursum’s superintendency overlapped McGinnis’s entire stay at the penitentiary. He took over the New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary on May 1, 1899–it had 160 inmates. When he resigned on April 12, 1906, it had 260-270 inmates (Holm Bursum, “Bursum Papers, 1873-1936.” MSS 92 BC, Box 1, The Center for Southwestern Research, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. The cousin of hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and the former sheriff of Socorro County, “Olaf” Bursum (1867-1953) was later elected to the United States Senate to replace Albert Fall upon the latter’s appointment to Harding’s cabinet. 16 Miguel Otero, My Nine Years as Governor, p. 131. 17 Santa Fe New Mexican, April 17, 1901. 18 Holm Bursum to Charles Kelly, quoted in Charles Kelly, The Outlaw Trail (New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1959), pp. 258-59. 19 Ibid. 20 Miguel Otero, My Nine Years as Governor, pp. 102 and 131; Penitentiary Record Book of Convicts, November 2, 1884–April 4, 1904. 21 Territory of New Mexico, New Mexico Territorial Penitentiary, Admission Records (Record of Convicts), New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. 22 H. A. Hoover, Tales from the Bloated Goat; Early Days in Mogollon, (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1958 [reprinted Silver City, New Mexico: High Lonesome Books, 1995])p. 52. 23 Interview, Lewis Jones and John Allred, ca. 1955, Louis Bradley Blachly, “Transcripts of Oral Interviews.” MSS 123 BC, Pioneers Foundation Oral History Collection, The Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, hereafter BT. Lewis and Walter Jones had moved their general store from Reserve in 1904 (Interview, Lewis Jones, June 31, 1952, BT). 24 Interview, Ben Avery, no date, BT. 25 H. A. Hoover, Tales from the Bloated Goat; Early Days in Mogollon, p. 52. 26 Ibid., p. 53. 27 Miguel Antonio Otero, My Nine Years as Governor: 1897-1906, pp. 114-15.
Copyright 2001. 10
28 William French, Some Recollections of a Western Ranchman, (New York: Argosy- Antiquarian Ltd., 1965), pp. 261, 276-278. 29 H.A. Hoover, Tales from the Bloated Goat, p. 53. 30 French, Some Recollections of a Western Ranchman, pp. 262 and 283; H. A. Hoover, “The Gentle Train Robber,” p. 45.
31 Interview, Jones and Allred. BT. Lay periodically wrote Jones and Elton Cunningham from Wyoming (interview, Elton Cunningham, January 2, 1955, BT). 32 Speech delivered by Harvey Murdock (grandson of Elzy Lay) at the Ninth Annual Convention of the Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association, Buffalo, Wyoming, July 22, 1999. 33 Dempsey was jailed in Rawlins on February 1, 1908, but a jury acquitted him on March 12. Unreformed, Dempsey continued his larcenous ways (Carbon County, WY, District Court, District Number Three, State of Wyoming v. Jack Dempsey, case no. 645, WSA; Rawlins Republican, March 14, 1908; Carbon County Journal, March 14, 1908).

by Ben T. Traywick

Many who knew him well said his name was really William Brocius Graham and that he was a wanted man from Texas. Curly Bill always claimed that his name was William Brocius and that he came from the Animas Valley in New Mexico.

Curly Bill

When the war ended in 1865, veterans began returning home, but not Brocius. By the year 1868, he had still not returned. There had been no word of him, or from him. Believing him dead, his wife married a war veteran, Charles Comer in 1868. A child, named Jennie, was born to them in 1869.

Late that same year, Brocius showed up back in Crawfordsville. He was extremely upset to find his wife married to another man, and already the mother of the other man’s child. Brocius explained to his wife that he had been discharged in the deep South and had no other option but to work on farms along the way to raise enough funds to get home.
Apparently, no one in the family believed this explanation. At the end of the war, many soldiers were given a small amount of money, discharged, and then had to make their own way back to their families. But, in four years’ time, “Brocius could have crawled home.” The family believed that most likely he had been getting “rehabilitated” by living with some “southern belle.” Soon, Brocius left Crawfordsville in anger. His family never saw him again. But they were to hear about him when he turned up in Arizona Territory in a town called Tombstone.

Family legend has it that Curly Bill was “the world’s worst pistol shot.” But, he was reportedly very adept with the quick draw, twirling the gun, and a lot of other fancy tricks. Glenn Mears says that the family had been told that members of the outlaw gang were reluctant to go on raids with Brocius if he carried a handgun~~they feared he might shoot them!

Brocius has been described as heavy set, dark skinned, with black eyes and curly black hair. Crafty as a lobo wolf, he was strong, agile, and unrestricted by any conscience whatsoever.
By the time Curly Bill arrived in Tombstone, it was a wild and woolly boomtown. Allen Street had already become “whiskey row” and was a constant riot of noise and bedlam, filled with hundreds of new-comers. Six-guns roared up and down “whiskey row” on the night of October 27, 1880. The Clanton gang had “treed” the town. Firing their weapons recklessly in any and all directions, the gunmen who led the violence were Curly Bill, Tom and Frank McLaury, Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank Patterson, and Pony Deal.

Fred White, 32 years old, had been elected Tombstone’s first marshal on January 6, 1880. The wild shooting spree had been going on for two days and nights. Marshal White, a fine lawman, knew that he had to make an example of one of the troublemakers, and then disarm the bunch of them. He encountered Curly Bill on the lot where the Birdcage Theatre now stands. When White ordered Brocius to surrender his weapon, he presented the weapon to the lawman, barrel first. White grasped the barrel and a tongue of flame stabbed through he night followed by the dull roar of a .45. White fell, shot through the abdomen, writhing in agony.

Curly Bill had just pulled the trigger on the first shot in the Earp-Cowboy war. Echoes of that shot had not diminished before then-Deputy Sheriff Wyatt Earp laid a gun barrel over curly Bill’s head, knocking him cold. Wyatt then placed Bill under arrest. Brocius never forgave Wyatt Earp for that brutal and humiliating pistol whipping.

Marshal White lingered for a few days then died. Before his death he disclosed that the shooting had been an accident, that the pistol had discharged when he had tried to take it from it’s owner. Bill Brocius went before Judge Neugass in Tucson and testified that the gun had fired when White jerked it from his hand. As Marshal White made a similar statement just before his death, Curly Bill was acquitted. But, there is more to this episode. White probably died thinking he had been killed in an accident. Consider this: The Cowboys were busily shooting up the town, yet isn’t it strange that Brocius was standing in a vacant lot with a pistol that was loaded with six live rounds ~~ not even the customary empty shell for the hammer to rest on. If he was not shooting up the town with his erstwhile friends, what was he doing?

Virgil Earp was appointed by the mayor and city council (2) to fill out the remainder of Fred White’s term. Virgil already carried the commission of a deputy U.S. Marshal, bestowed upon him by Territorial Marshal Crawley P. Dake on November 27, 1879. (3)

Curly Bill and his outlaw cronies had two favorite hangouts ~~ Galeyville on the eastern slopes of the Chiricahua Mountains, and Charleston on the San Pedro River. Charleston, a mill town, had about 800 residents and the only law was “Justice Jim” Burnett. This worthy normally ran his office strictly for personal profit and seldom concerned himself with the Cowboys.

One Sunday, Reverend John Addison came down from Tombstone to hold services in Charleston. Ike Clanton, Curly Bill, and a few others of their ilk decided they were in dire need of some religion and showed up at the service. The moment those gun~slung desperadoes appeared most of the congregation decided that they had urgent business elsewhere. Bravely, the sky~pilot continued his sermon, omitting no detail of the awesome punishment reserved in Hell for thieves and murderers. At the end, Curly Bill brandished his weapon and demanded a hymn.(4) The serenade was well appreciated by the gunmen and they kept him singing for over an hour. Then, those same badmen filled the collection plate to overflowing with money and solemnly and quietly departed. Reverend Addison never returned to Charleston again.

The next morning, Curly Bill sat “sleeping the sleep of the innocent” in an easy chair on the porch of Tarbell’s Eagle Hotel, when a double barrel shotgun poked him in the ear. That impressive weapon was wielded by none other than “Justice Jim” , the total law enforcement agency of Charleston at the time. The worthy justice cocked both barrels of his shotgun and loudly declared his court in session. Finding the defendant guilty of unlawfully interrupting religious services, he levied a fine of $50.00 on the spot and forced the astounded outlaw to pay up. Brocius used to tell the story about the time a “court of law” tried him and gave him what he deserved. Then he would laugh uproariously.

Galeyville, the other outlaw hangout, had begun as a silver camp up in Turkey Creek Canyon. The silver did not last. It became a ghost town by the end of 1882, inhabited, for the most part, by outlaws.

San Simon, a tiny railroad stop, lay some 20 miles north of Galeyville. It’s total population numbered 35 souls including men, women, and children, and 10 railroad section hands that were Chinese. Robert H. ‘Bob’ Paul, running against Charlie Shibell for the office of Pima County Sheriff, made it a red hot election. The outlaws in Cochise County did not want Bob Paul as Sheriff, as he had made things very uncomfortable for them while a shotgun guard for Wells Fargo. Even worse, he was a close friend of Wyatt Earp. On election day they brought in Ike Clanton and some of his cronies into San Simon to run the election. John Ringo was the election judge. Curly Bill took over the ballot box. They gathered all of the men, women, children, and the Chinese, and forced them to vote for Shibell. Feeling that was not adequate, Brocius named all the dogs, burros, and poultry in town, then cast their vote.

With about 10 legally registered voters, the San Simon precinct turned out an amazing 104 votes, 103 of them for Shibell. The election commissioners threw the whole precinct out, but it still took the courts to eventually decide the election in Bob Paul’s favor.
Robert H. “Bob” Paul, an Earp ally, was nearly defrauded out of the 1880 election for sheriff of Pima County, when Curly Bill, John Ringo and others “stuffed the ballott box.”

Curly Bill learned from an informant below the border that a pack mule train of silver smugglers would be starting up from Mexico in July, 1881. The vaqueros would be moving through Skeleton Canyon, winding through the wild and desolate Peloncillo Mountains. They would come through San Luis Pass into the Animas range, across the Animas valley to San Simon, to the San Pedro, and over into the Santa Cruz Valley. In Tucson the smugglers would exchange their ‘dobe dollars for contraband merchandise to take back to Mexico. “Skeleton Canyon” was so called because of the many men and animals who had been killed there, and their bones left to bleach in the sun.

Smugglers led a line of small Andalusian mules through the canyon, never thinking that death lay in wait. Without warning, hidden rifles spouted flame and death from the rocks. The Mexicans had no chance. Heavily loaded though they were, the tiny mules stampeded. The killers raced after them and shot them down. Nine dead Mexicans were left lying at the so-called “Devil’s Kitchen” area of Skeleton Canyon. The ambushers gathered at Cave Creek and divided $4,000 in Mexican silver. Most of it was spent on women and whiskey in a saloons of Galeyville and Charleston. John Ringo and Joe Hill won the rest playing poker. The Mexican government lodged a formal protest to the United States concerning the nine dead Mexican citizens and the theft of goods and money, but no action was taken. John Ringo said he was present at the ambush along with the Clantons; “Old Man”, Ike and Billy; Frank and Tom McLaury, Jim Hughes; Rattlesnake Bill; Joe Hill; Charlie Snow; Jake Guage; and Charlie Thomas.

When on the afternoon of March 22, 1882, Wyatt Earp and his posse rode away from South Pass, leaving Florentino Cruz riddled with lead, he had a definite objective in mind.

Wyatt Earp

Wyatt, Doc Holliday, “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson, “Texas Jack” Vermillion, and Sherman McMasters, were riding along the edge of a deep wash near Iron Springs. Wyatt was slightly in the lead. Suddenly, nine men rose up from the wash, guns spitting lead. Curly Bill was the front man, brandishing a shotgun. With the exception of Vermillion, whose horse was down, Wyatt’s posse fell back under fire. Wyatt slid from his horse unlimbering his double-barreled shotgun. Scarcely had his feet touched the ground when he let loose, point blank, at Curly Bill. Both charges struck the rustler square in the chest, literally blowing him apart and hurling him against the opposing bank of the wash. Throwing aside the empty shotgun, Wyatt drew his rifle from his saddle, and using his plunging horse as a shield, continued to fight with the now leaderless outlaws. They had retreated, taking cover in the brush above the wash. Wyatt sprayed the brush with rifle fire.(5) Since all the gunfire was directed at him, Wyatt began a careful withdrawal before the murderous onslaught.(6) Wyatt retreated out of gun range and rejoined his companions. Vermillion expose himself needlessly, trying to retrieve the saddle from his dead horse. None of the Earp party had been hit, but Vermilion’s horse had been killed in the first volley. Doc Holliday had gone back to pick him up. Wyatt had several bullet holes through his hat, coat, trouser legs, saddlehorn, and his boot-heel, but suffered not a scratch himself.

The whole countryside was divided on the question of whether Curly Bill was dead or not. Wyatt and those with him maintained that he had killed the outlaw. The Cowboys insisted that he had not. The body was never seen. However, the story leaked out that the Cowboys had buried it on a nearby ranch and carefully concealed the grave.

The Tombstone Epitaph, managed by John Clum, was a staunch supporter of the Earps, and, as to be expected, accepted the Earp party’s version of the killing of Curly Bill Brocius. The Tombstone Nugget, run by Behan’s under-Sheriff, Harry woods, naturally sided with the Cowboy version that Curly Bill was not dead. The Nugget offered a $1,000.00 reward for anyone who could produce Curly Bill’s dead body. The Epitaph countered by offering $2,000.00 to any acceptable charity, “in the name of anyone”, who could produce the outlaw alive.(7) Many legendary tales abound concerning the disappearance of Curly Bill Brocius; that he rode down into Mexico, married a Mexican woman and raised a hacienda full of kids; that he rode up to Wyoming to start again; that he went back to Texas; and numerous others.

It is not logical that Curly bill would vacate Arizona just when things were seemingly going his way. The Earps and Doc Holliday were riding out, leaving him in complete control with no enemies. There is no way he would not take one last swipe at Wyatt Earp and the Epitaph by making them pay the $2000.00 reward by showing up alive and well– if he were!

Probably the most accurate telling of Curly Bill’s fate can be obtained from letters written on the late 1920’s by Fred J. Dodge, undercover man for Wells Fargo. Some exerpts read:(8)
“You will recollect that J.B. Ayers kept the saloon in Charleston that was headquarters for all the outlaw and rustler element. This man, Ayers, for personal reasons that would take too long to tell, supplied me with reliable information. Thru him I got in touch with several others. Johnny Barnes, who you will recollect was in the fight at Iron Springs, gave me much information, not only of that, but of many other things before he was killed. Afterwards, all that they said with reference to Curly Bill was corroborated by Ike Clanton himself. It was my report to Mr. Valentine with reference to Curley (sic) Bill that brought John Thacker out there.”

“Referring to your letter of Sept. 14 you ask for information about the death of Curley Bill. By reason of my connection with Wells Fargo and Co. and also because of my association with Wyatt Earp and others of his party, I had full information concerning the fight at Iron Springs in which Wyatt Earp and party were ambushed by Curley Bill and party.(9)”
“Immediately after this fight I interested myself in ascertaining the true facts about the death of Curley Bill. J.B. Ayers, a saloonkeeper of Charleston where the outlaws and rustlers headquartered, told me that the men who were in the fight told him that Wyatt Earp killed Curley Bill and that they took the body away that night and that they buried him on Patterson’s ranch on the Babocomari. Johnny Barnes, who was in the fight and was badly wounded(10), and was one of the Curley Bill party, told me that they opened up on the Earp party just as Wyatt Earp swung off his horse to the ground and they thought they had hit Wyatt, but it was the horn of his saddle that was struck. That Wyatt Earp throwed down on Curley Bill right across his horse and killed him. That the Earp party made it so fast and hot that all of the Curley Bill party that could, got away. I made this report direct to John J. Valentine, President of Wells Fargo and Co. and in substance it was the same as above. Mr. Valentine sent Thacker out there, and he, as you know, made a full investigation. Some time after this Ike Clanton himself told me that Wyatt Earp killed Curley Bill.)”(11)
“When John Thacker got to Tombstone, I got in his way so that he would come to me, and I personally gave him the names of the men to go to. They all talked to him, but Ike Clanton would have nothing to do with him, but he got all the information that he required and was thougherly (sic) and completely satisfyed (sic) beyond a doubt that Wyatt had killed Curley Bill and that Bill was buried on the Patterson ranch.”(12)

The night that Virgil was shot in Tombstone, Johnny Barnes and Pony Deal were there; and Johnny Barnes was the man who fired the shot that tore up Virg’s arm. I don’t know who Wyatt attributed that shot to, but Johnny Barnes was the man. As I said, Johnny never recovered from his wounds, and finally died from them in Charleston where he was being cared for by Ayers.(13)
Regardless of any such information, facts or otherwise, after the gun battle at Iron Springs, Curly Bill went on no more cattle raids, hijacked no more smugglers, and, was seen in his favorite hangouts no more. He vanished completely and was never seen again!

It is like Doc Holliday (14) and Wyatt Earp told it: Wyatt snuffed out Curly Bill’s life with a twin blast from a double barrel shotgun. And he threw in Johnny Barnes for good measure.
Footnotes:
1. Letter in Traywick Collection from Glenn Mears. Information is from his great aunt Lizzie Brocius Chesterton. 2. Minutes Book N. 1 Common Council Village of Tombstone, October 28, 1880, page 9-10.
3. Copy of Virgil Earp’s commission in the Traywick collection. 4. Parsons’ Journal by George W. Parsons May 13, 1881. 5. Real West Magazine June, 1984 ed., Curly Bill Has Been Killed At Last by Glenn G. Boyer.
6. Tombstone Epitaph March 25, 1882 ed., Tombstone Epitaph March 26, 1882 ed., Tombstone Epitaph March 27, 1882 ed. 7. Tombstone Epitaph April 4, 1882 ed. 8. Fred J. Dodge letter to Wyatt S. Earp dated September 8, 1928.
9. Most likely this party included Curly Bill, Johnny Barnes, Pony Deal, Hank Swilling, Ike Clanton, John Ringo, Zwing Hunt, Billy Grounds, and Jim Hughes. 10. Johnny Barnes, hiding in the brush, was hit by gunfire when Wyatt Earp sprayed the area with his rifle.
11. Fred J. Dodge letter to Stuart N. Lake dated October 8, 1928. 12. Fred J. Dodge letter to Stuart N. Lake dated September 15, 1929. 13. Fred J. Dodge letter to Stuart N. Lake dated September 30, 1929. 14. Denver Republican May 26, 1882 ed.

We are told in the Biblical book of Matthew (10:26) “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.” The truth of that wisdom will be shown in this narrative. I believe that the information contained in the investigative report by Captain Fred Fornoff of the New Mexico Mounted Police contained the real reason why Pat Garrett was murdered nearly nine decades ago. Some of the data shared here was not made public before my presentation to the 1996 WOLA Convention.(1) Join me now on the journey to seek new light on the murder of Pat Garrett.

Fred Fornoff and Pat Garrett were not friends. Their names however are linked for all time. The El Paso Times caught the essence of Garrett’s life saying,

“Pat Garrett was the victim of a reputation he did not seek and for which he was not responsible, simply because he was placed in the category of dangerous men.”(2)

The Alabama-born (3) Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett had been a Texas ranger captain, buffalo hunter, rancher, customs collector, and sheriff of both Lincoln and Dona Aria counties in New Mexico. Pat Garret always seemed to have money problems due to his gambling and it was this weakness that caused his death.

Frederick Fornoff was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in February, 1859. He came west to work as a miner, brick maker and day laborer He served as one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in the Spanish American War, but Fornoff earned his reputation as a manhunter while city marshal of Albuquerque, deputy U.S. marshal, secret service agent and special investigator for the Justice Department. It was, however, as captain of the New Mexico Mounted Police that Fred Fornoff earned his place of honor in southwestern history. He died in November 1935 at the Veteran’s Hospital in Sheridan, Wyoming and is buried in the National Cemetery at Santa Fe, New Mexico.(4)

Pat Garrett, while serving as sheriff of Lincoln County, had killed an escaped murderer named Henry McCarty. The New York born outlaw was commonly called The Kid or Billy the Kid. In later years Captain Fornoff was vocal in his contempt for the romantic legends that had developed around the young outlaw. Fornoff was often heard to say,

“Billy the Kid was a viper and a danger to society. Ole Pat done right when he killed him.”(5)

It was Leap Year Day. Mid-morning Saturday February 29, 1908, was the appointed time for 57-year-old Pat Garrett to meet his fate at a mesquite-covered desert crossroads called Alameda Arroyo on the desolate Mail Road a few miles east of Las Cruces, county seat of Dona Ana County, New Mexico. A chunk of lead slammed into the back of Pat Garrett’s head pushing some of his graying brown hair into his skull. The aging bounty hunter was knocked forward, hit the ground and rolled over on his back as a second piece of hot lead bored into the front of his body.

Later that morning a local cowboy named Jessie Wayne Brazel walked calmly into the Dona Ana County sheriff’s office.

Pat Garrett's Killer (centre)

A short time later a sheriff’s posse (6) found Pat Garrett lying on his back with his bloody head facing toward the site where Wayne Brazel said he had sat on his horse. Wayne Brazel claimed that Garrett was about to shoot him with his shotgun when he, in self- defense, was forced to shoot the former lawman in the back.

Garrett’s body had been left where it fell. Pat’s fly was unbuttoned and his lower pant’s leg was still damp from urine spray. A wet puddle of sand was at his feet. The old lawman’s left hand was ungloved, while his shooting hand contained a glove.
Pat Garrett’s shotgun was found at the death site. It was located on the ground about three feet from Pat’s body. The undisturbed nature of the sand around the weapon, however, would seem to indicate that the shotgun had been placed where it was found and that Garrett had not thrown it down in a death jerk reaction.
The most damaging fact concerning Garrett’s shotgun was it’s physical condition. Lopez, at the murder scene, found Garrett’s shotgun was cased in it’s scabbard and unloaded. Pat had a few birdshot cartridges in his jacket pocket.

W.C. Field was the owner of Los Alamos Farms in Dona Ma County. He advertised his farm as “growers and shipper of alfalfas, cantaloupes, and all kinds of fruits.”(7) Field was also a Las Cruces doctor and was the person who examined Pat Garrett’s wounds at the murder scene and later performed the autopsy. Dr Field claimed that Pat’s head wound came from a bullet that entered just below the hat line and exited on a straight plain with the right eyebrow. This is the type of head wound a man standing and looking at the ground could receive from a person shooting from a level above the man’s head. A person on horseback or located on a slight incline could have delivered this type of shot. Pat’s undamaged hat was still on his head.

Pat Garrett’s second entry wound came from the opposite direction than that of the head shot. The projectile entered the stomach and pushed upward to lodge behind Garrett’s shoulder A .45 caliber slug was removed from Garrett’s body. Dr Field determined that the second bullet had been fired by a person – Captain Fred Fornoff New Mexico Mounted Police, who made the report referred to here, standing at ground level. Had this second shot been fired by a man on horseback or from a person on an incline the bullet would have caused a steep angle wound in the stomach and not the shallow path as found by Dr. Field’s examination. (8)

On Sunday, March 1, 1908 Territorial 4 Governor George Curry, Attorney General James Madison Hervey and Mounted Police Captain Fred Fornoff made the trip from Santa Fe to Las Cruces for Pat Garrett’s funeral. The governor was one of Garrett’s pallbearers.
On Monday, Garrett was buried in the Odd Fellow’s Cemetery at Las Cruces. (9) It seemed like everyone in southern New Mexico had wanted to get a look at Pat Garrett’s body resting in its oversized casket. To accommodate the large crowd of curious, and the few true mourners, Garrett’s body was publicly displayed at Strong’s Undertaking Parlor.
Pat Garrett was an atheist or Free Thinker so there was no religious ceremony at the grave site. (10) Tom Powers, Garrett’s controversial gambler friend and owner of El Paso’s Coney Island Saloon, used the agnostic Robert Ingersoll’s words as part of the old manhunter’s grave-side commemoration. Another friend read a eulogy that William Jennings Bryan had written for a friend and then Pat Garrett was left alone for his long sleep.

Captain Fornoff investigated the Garrett murder site. Later, upon the governor’s orders, Fornoff conducted an undercover fact-finding mission into Pat’s death. Late in the summer of 1908 Captain Fornoff presented a written narrative of his investigation to Governor Curry. The governor gave the report to Attorney General James Hervey for his review. This account has become known as “The Fornoff Report.”
The Fornoff Report was composed and typed by Page B. Otero from the notes supplied to him by Captain Fornoff. Page Otero (11) served as the Mounted Police office clerk from 1908 to 1910.
The first attempt to make Captain Fornoff’s investigation report public was undertaken by the El Paso Herald. New Mexico’s attorney general refused the request by explaining that Fornoff’s findings would be used at Wayne Brawl’s trial and until then the data must remain confidential.

Brazel was given a preliminary hearing before Justice of the Peace Manuel Lopez on Tuesday March 3, 1908. Brawl entered a not guilty plea on grounds of self-defense to the charge of murdering Garrett. He was bound over to the next session of the Dona Ana County grand jury.
On Monday, April 13, 1908, the Dona Ana County Grand Jury heard the evidence of murder against Wayne Brazel. Carl Adamson and Dn W.C. Field were called to testify. The grand jury handed down a “true bill” against Wayne Brazel.

The accused murderer, was then scheduled to be tried during the October 1908 term of the district court. A $10,000 bond was set for Brawl’s appearance before the district court. The bond was posted by a guarantee of local rancher W.W. Cox and six of his friends. The Brawl trial was later postponed until the spring of 1909.

The Third District Court of New Mexico was held at Las Cruces. Territorial Judge Frank W. Parker presided over this court. Judge Parker had also presided over the trial that freed the four men Sheriff Pat Garrett accused of killing Col. Albert Fountain and his young son. Parker was a friend of defense attorney A.B. Fall and openly disliked Pat Garrett.
Judge Parker convened Brazel’s trial, the Territory of New Mexico v Wayne Brawl, at 9:00 am on Monday April 19, 1909.(12) The prosecution case was presented with such appalling indifference and incompetence that District Attorney Mark B. Thompson could have stayed at home and he would have presented a better case. Thompson was a political ally and friend of defence lawyer A.B. Fall.
Unlike the preliminary hearing, the prosecution did not call Carl Adamson to testify. He was the only publicly known witness, besides Wayne Brawl, to Garrett’s murder. Adamson would have been easy to locate. He had been arrested by federal officers and had been charged with smuggling Chinese laborers into the United States from Mexico. On December 14, 1908 Adamson was convicted at his trial in Alaniogordo and sentenced to a year and a half in the territorial prison.

Prosecutor Thompson did not present any court room evidence showing that Garrett had been shot in the back of the head or that Pat had a glove on his shooting hand or that Garrett’s shotgun was packed in it’s carrying case and was unloaded.

Captain Fornoff was not asked to testify concerning his in-depth investigation nor did Thompson make use of any data contained in the Fornoff Report.
Albert Bacon Fall served as Wayne Brawl’s chief defense attorney.(13) The defense presentation was short and to the point. The jury began their deliberations at 5:45 in the afternoon. Within 25 minutes Wayne Brawl was a free man.
The defense had called only three witnesses. In an odd twist of fate one of Brazel’s character references was Territorial Mounted Policeman John A. Beal.(14)
Powerful Dona Ana County rancher William W. Cox had sat with Brazel during his preliminary hearing and the trial as a public show of his support. Following Brawl’s acquittal, Cox hosted a barbecue, at his San Augustine Ranch, to honor Pat Garrett’s killer.(15)

The trial of Wayne Brazel ended all legal efforts to locate the killer or killers of Pat Garrett. The confessed murderer had been freed by a jury in a court of law.
Territorial Attorney General James M. Hervey left the territorial service shortly after the Brawl trial. He returned to his private law practice in Roswell. Hervey took with him his personal papers and some of his confidential public papers. The Fornoff Report was part of these files. In 1909 New Mexico had no law requiring that public records remain in the custody of the territory.

In the 1960s, I began my quest to compile a record of the New Mexico Mounted Police. During this search I became acquainted with Fred Lambert of Cimarron, the last living member of the territorial police and we developed a friendship that lasted until Lambert’sdeath in 1971. Lambert became my mentor during those early years of research and he also became the godfather and name sake for my eldest son.(16)
The author-Lambert conversations, many of which were taped, amounted to hundreds of hours as we relived the saga of a youth coming of age in turn- of-the-century New Mexico. Then on Saturday April 13, 1968 this discussion began focussing on Fornoff’s probe into the murder of Pat Garrett. Fred Lambert expressed reluctance to discuss the killing.
I told Lambert that I had discovered that James Hervey had died in 1953 and that his Roswell law partner, Charles Brice, had kept Hervey’s records until his own death in 1963. I said I also understood that Charles Brice’s farnily had taken both the Hervey and the Brice law office papers to the Roswell City Dump and burned them. I told Lambert that I believed that these records had included the only complete copy of the Fornoff Report.

Over a year after the Lambert conversation I read an article by western historian Robert Mullin detailing his long search to locate a copy of the Fornoff Report.(17) He confirmed what I had told Lambert about the Fornoff Report having been destroyed.
Lambert told me he had seen Captain Fornoff’s field notes and Page Otero’s draft of the report. When I asked what the notes contained Lambert replied,

“Let it be. The families of those men are respectable now. Let those closets stay closed. Cap (Fornoff) could’ve been wrong.”

I pressured Lambert as to whether he really felt that Captain Fornoff’s judgement of the facts as he knew them was wrong. Lambert flatly said, “No.”

What follows now are the facts that Fred Lambert told me -

For a few days in October 1911, Lambert was stationed at the ranger’s headquarters in Santa Fe. His assignment was to maintain the Mounted Police office during Captain Fornoff’s absence on court duty.(18) Fred Lambert took this opportunity to review the open case files of the territorial police. Lambert told me that the Garrett murder data was stored in a maroon expandable folder tied with a red ribbon. In 1911 there were three of these large expandable folders, along with other regular size files, stored in the Mounted Police office. One of these large folders contained the official records of the 1910 Mounted Police shootout in the gold camp at Mogollon. The second oversized folder dealt with the Fountain murder case. The Garrett folder, according to Lambert, contained various newspaper clippings about the murder and Brawl’s trial. It also had a few miscellaneous letters, a hand drawn location map, investigation notes, and a typed draft copy of the formal report.

Captain Fornoff’s field notes were basically of two types. The first set, hand written on foolscap-sized paper, dealt with the murder site investigation and comments made by the people Fornoff had interviewed in the Las Cruces area. The second batch were a few sheets of stationery from the El Paso County sheriff’s office. These papers contained comments gathered by Fornoff from individuals he had interrogated while unofficially visiting in the Pass City. Lambert especially remembered the Texas sheriff’s department letterhead because of the big bold style of the design. Fornoff had asked Mounted Policeman John Beal, who was stationed at Deming, to send his impressions of the case. Beal knew both Brawl and Garrett. Beal’s remarks, scrawled in pencil, were contained on lined notebook paper.

Lambert told me he looked over Fornoff’s field notes and read the draft report, but truthfully found the eight-year-old case uninteresting because the main suspect had been found not quilty at his trial and the other matters were federal crimes and not something the Mounted Police investigated.(19) Lambert said he was most concerned with the background facts in the file on the Mogollon troubles of the year before because the old mining town was still a troubled area in 1911.

A year later, during the final days of 1912, Lambert and Fornoff discussed the Garrett murder. The subject came up during Lambert’s visit to the Mounted Police office. New Mexico’s first state legislature was scheduled to hold a second session early in 1913. Another heated debate was expected on the continued need for a state police force.
Early in 1909, prior to Wayne Brawl’s trial, the lawmakers had almost abolished the Mounted Police for “economic reasons”. That attempt falled, but the force had been reduced to half its original strength. Southern power brokers had even tried to block Fornoff’s annual appointment as Mounted Police captain. This effort also failed, but only because the captain was so popular. (20)
Captain Fornoff told Lambert he felt that the next time the State Legislature met, in 1913, that the southern political bosses had the needed votes and that they would finally achieve their goal to disband the Mounted Police. Lambert asked why Fornoff felt that these men wanted the rangers destroyed any more now then they had back in 1909. The answer surprised Fred Lambert.

“They know I know about the Garrett plot and the big money interest behind the Fountain killings. As long as the police exist they’re in danger No police and there’s less danger of any new evidence seeing day light. I’ve always said give it time. Well… Our time’s ’bout over.”

The Mounted Police captain outlined, for Lambert, a plan and a motive that could have resulted in Pat Garrett’s death. The original idea seems to have been to ruin Garrett financially, take his property and then to force him to leave the area. It was this intrigue that finally led to violence and cold blooded murder.
Captain Fornoff had maintained his relationship with high level federal officers from his years as a deputy U.S. marshal and Secret Service agent. (21) These federal officers told Fornoff that Chinese Inspection officers were actively building a case against a small group of men who were conducting a smuggling operation. (22) The ring was based in El Paso and the smuggled “cargo” was illegal Chinese laborers for the mines and farms in southern Colorado. These smugglers had powerful political friends in El Paso and New Mexico. The federal officers suspected, among others, Mannie Clements, Print Rhode and Carl Adamson. They had the evidence against Adamson and hoped to make a deal with Carl if he would help convict the others. The lead on Carl Adamson and the other cartel members had been furnished the federal officers by a Las Cruces doctor.

Doctor W.C. Field treated the federal prisoners housed in the county jail at Las Cruces. (23) Field had treated one of the Chinese prisoners and this man told Field about the smugglers. Field told U.S. Marshal Creighton Foraker who passed the news along to other federal agents. At this point Fornoff started his investigation. The smugglers could easily move across the US-Mexico boarder into New Mexico. Once in the territory they needed a safe hiding place to hold their growing business in human cargo until they could move the workers farther north and Bear Canyon was the ideal location. It was on the route north, had water and it was remote yet accessible. The “fly in the ointment” was that the land was owned by Pat Garrett and he had no plans to sell. (24)

Legally-speaking I am not sure Pat Garrett could have sold the Bear Canyon property. In 1902 he had mortgaged his ranch and property to Las Cruces businessman Martin Lohmann (25) for $3,567.50. This note was renewed two years later but was finally sold because of nonpayment. The man who bought the discounted note for $2,000 was Garrett’s neighbor, W.W. Cox. Cox also renewed the note (26) and then tried to help Garrett make the ranch operation profitable hoping that Garrett would honor the pledge to pay his long over due bill. Cox may not have wished to publicly appear as a financial ogre by evicting the Garrett family for nonpayment of Pat’s debts, but Cox did want his money.
Both the Albuquerque Bank of Commerce and the Dona Ana County Commissioner’s Court had taken Garrett for past due debts and in both cases the popular, if not legal, opinion had been on the old lawman’s side. (27) Cox learned a public relations lesson from these two cases and did not openly challenge Garrett for his long outstanding debt. Old timers understood the western code that if an honest debt was not honored in life then the due could be collected in blood, confiscation of property or both.

Fornoff believed the mastermind behind the plot to get Garrett was Pat’s neighbor, W.W. Cox, along with his brothers-in-law, A.P “Print” Rhode, and Oliver Lee. (28) Pat had at one time tried to cdnnect one or all of them to the ambush murders of Albert Fountain, a criminal prosecutor, and his young son. Garrett often expressed his opinion that wealthy stock-rustling ranchers had ordered the prosecutor’s death because Fountain had been aggressive in pursuit of cattle and horse rustlers in southeastern New Mexico.

It was quietly talked about locally that Cox, Rhodes and Lee had built their wealth upon a foundation as former livestock rustlers. Now they may have found that easy money could be made by smuggling illegal workers into the United States via Texas.

On October 7, 1899, Sheriff Pat Garrett and a deputy had killed a wanted man at Cox’s San Augustine Ranch. Mrs. Cox was at the ranch and witnessed the killing. Print Rhode may have believed this violent encounter had needlessly endangered the life of his sister and held Pat Garrett responsible for what he felt was a careless act. One wonders if this dislike or hate would have remained strong enough over a decade to result in murder.
Lambert remembered that Fornoff’s notes revealed that informants told the ranger chief about Cox. Western writer, Jim Miller, reported that Cox wanted to buy some southern New Mexico range land on which to run a herd of Mexican cattle. In fact Cox wanted a hideout to serve as cover for his Chinese-smuggling operation.
Many of these writers stated that W.W. Cox supplied the money to get rid of Pat Garrett and that this money was funnelled through Albert Bacon Fall. Fall was Cox’s personal attorney and was a powerful political boss in his own right.
It also was claimed that Fall passed the Cox money to Emanuel “Mannie” Clements, El Paso’s underworld strong man and former city policeman, with instructions to find a standby trigger-man to kill Garrett. It was stated that Clements made such a deal with his brother-in-law, “Deacon Jim” Miller. Jim Miller was widely known as a gunman-for-hire.

Fornoff believed that Miller was part of a plot to get Garrett’s Bear Canyon ranch land but he did not believe that Jim plotted to kill the old lawman. Fornoff also understood that the land grab plot called for one of Cox’s range hands, Wayne Brazel, to make a deal with Garrett to lease the Bear Canyon ranch land. It was believed that the cash-poor Garrett would accept the offer. The five- year lease was, however, made between Brawl and Pat’s son Dudley Poe Garrett.

Pat agreed to the deal and assumed that Brazel would graze a small herd of cattle on the leased land. Brawl and his new business partner, Print Rhode, soon moved a large herd of goats to Garrett’s land. Pat almost had a heart attack when he heard about the goats. He was a cattleman and had no love for sheep or goats. Just as the plotters had planned, Garrett became deterrinhed to remove the goats from his Bear Canyon lands.
Garrett ordered Brawl to get the goats off his land. Wayne said no to Pat’s demand. But he offered to break the lease if Garrett could find a person to buy the goats. The plotters now sent their pretend buyer to Garrett. The would-be goat buyer was a minor criminal named Carl Adanison. This man was “Deacon Jim” Miller’s cousin-in-law by marriage.
Adamson and Miller inspected the goat herd and agreed on the purchase. The deal was set until Brawl, not a part of the plot, claimed the two men had under-counted the goats, and demanded more money. Garrett asked Adamson if he would agree to buy the additional goats. Adamson said Miller was in El Paso and he would send word to have Miller meet them in Las Cruces to talk over the new offer. (29)
On Friday February 28, 1908, Adamson spent the night with Garrett and his family. They sent a message to Brawl to meet them the next day on the road to Las Cruces. Together the threesome would journey to the City of Crosses to confer with Jim Miller.

Garrett and Adamson left Pat’s ranch in a buggy. When they arrived near the Organ crossroad the two men saw Brawl talking with another man. The unknown horseman rode away before Garrett’s buggy could reach the meeting site. Fornoff believed that the mystery rider was Brawl’s partner Print Rhode.
In the preliminary hearing both Adamson and Brawl claimed Garrett accused Wayne of lying about the number of goats in Bear Canyon. Brawl said he again claimed he had simply miscounted. They said the argument became more heated until Adamson asked Garrett to stop the buggy. Carl said he needed to relieve himself. Garrett and Brawl continued to argue.
Adamson claimed he went to the front of Garrett’s buggy near the horse. This move would have placed Adainson in a position to stop the horse from bolting when a gun shot was fired. At this point Garrett also got out of the buggy. Near the back of the buggy Pat Garrett began to relieve himself. A few seconds later he was dead.

In 1961, eight years after his death and in accordance with his wishes, James Hervey’s account of the Garrett assassination was published. (30) In this narrative Jim Hervey recounts how he, Captain Fornoff and Carl Adamson visited the Garrett death scene.
The former attorney general described how they found a Winchester cartridge casing in a side arroyo about 50 feet from the death scene. A person concealed at this site was not visible to a person in the little arroyo where Garrett died. Even the sound of a gunshot would have been muffled by the sand drifts.
Horse tracks and other signs indicated that this site could have served as an ambush nest for the killer. A cigarette butt was also found near the horse tracks. (31)
Governor Curry understood the importance of Fornoff’s discoveries. In his autobiography, published eleven years after his death, Curry wrote,

“His (Fornoff) report to me differed materially from that of the local sheriff and medical examiner, and confirmed my impression from some of the information I had obtained, that Brazil (sic), who had volunteered a confession to the crime, was the victim of a conspiracy rather than the killer…” (32)

Evidence would seem to indicate that Garrett was shot by two different weapons and from two different directions. According to Brazel’s testimony he was mounted during the time Garrett was shot. Neither Brazel nor Adamson had a rifle with them at the time
Wayne surrendered and confessed to the Garrett killing. Brazel surrendered his Colt .45 and said that the pistol was the murder weapon.
Brazel, who was loyal to W.W. Cox, may not have known he was the dupe in the Garrett plot. In fact, he may not have known anything about the backup murder plan. It is easy to believe that Brazel may have felt his only job was to help force the hated Pat Garrett into an unwanted liquidation of his ranch. Iris doubtful that Brazel knew about or was a partner in an Chinese labor smuggling operation.
Captain Fornoff was not sure what had triggered the need to kill Garrett, but he assumed that Brazel had no knowledge of any plot to kill Garrett. If that fact was true, and Brazel did not himself shoot Garrett, then the cowhand must have been a very surprised person when Pat was shot while he was urinating. Surprised as he may have been Brazel still might have placed the second shot into Garrett’s body in support of his partner, Print Rhode, who may have fired the first shot. Secondly Fornoff expressed the idea that if Garrett’s shooting had been a true surprise to Brazel, then it was more likely that Adamson fired the second shot.
A code of public silence seemed to fall over the Garrett murder The alleged conspiracy to rid Dona Ana County of Pat Garrett and take his land had been hatched among family and friends and supported by business partners. The conspirators motives were a simple defense of their political power, enhancement of their personal wealth, and perhaps a blood payment for a bad debt and a personal hurt.

J.R. Galusha, a veteran New Mexico peace officer (33), is quoted as saying that Brazel told him,

“I didn’t kill Pat Garrett. I just took the rap for Jim Miller” (34)

Charley Siringo, the famous frontier detective and Fornoff friend, claimed the captain told him,

“Jim Miller fired the bullet that killed Pat Garrett “(35)

Jack Carter, a man who claimed to have known Brazel when he was a young man, wrote a magazine article about Wayne. (36) One of the sources used by Carter was Wayne’s brother Rothmer. Carter claimed that Wayne Brazel said he really had killed Garrett.
The horse Wayne rode on the murder day belonged to his brother It was a non-gun-shy roping horse named Oso after the OSO brand she wore. A horse with this type of training would have been useful during an exchange of gun fire. Other stories have claimed Wayne’s horse was a gun-shy mount called Loco.

James M. Hervey wrote in his Garrett story, “Fornoff made the trip to El Paso and came back and said he had made a real discovery but he did not know whether he would ever be able to prove it.” It would seem that the so-called “Cox murder plot” was in fact not a murder plot at all but a conspiracy to acquire land to hid illegal aliens. It was not a blueprint for Pat Garrett’s murder.

Shortly after Lambert told me about the Mounted Police case file on the Garrett murder I searched for the records. I located the Territorial Mounted Police records in the special collections at the University of New Mexico. (37) The Garrett murder case file was not part of the records then held by the university. I did, however, locate an incomplete file on the Fountain investigation and the file on the Mogollon trouble. They were contained in folders like the ones Lambert had described to me. (38)
Fred Fornoff, Jr told me in March 1991 that he knew nothing about his father’s investigation of the Garrett murder He also said that most of his father’s private and public papers had been destroyed in a house fire. Among the lost items was a large collection of family photographs. One can only wonder what else might have been lost to history.
I must confess that in 1968, during my conversations with Fred Lambert, not all the import of what Fred told me about the Garrett plot fully registered. I was 25 years old, newly-married and beginning my careen I was still learning how the world of economic intrigue and political influence operated. A quarter of a century has passed and now I better understand the plot, the murder and the coverup. It had nothing to do with personal honor or anything but the love of power and money.

Fate dealt many twists to the lives of the people involved in the final days of Pat Garrett’s life. Oliver Lee served as a member of the 1919 State House of Representatives. I find it interesting that he voted in favor of the bill to re-establish a full company of the hated Mounted Police. Lee also served as president of the New Mexico State Cattle Growers Association. He died a wealthy and respected rancher in December 1941. Today the Oliver Lee Ranch is a New Mexico state park named in his honor.
Jim Gililland, another Fountain murder suspect, was a personal friend of George Curry. In 1910 Curry appointed Jim a special Territorial Mounted Policeman. Jim never talked about the Garrett or Fountain murders. Gililland died August 8, 1946.
Territorial Attorney General James Hervey’s father had been a friend of Pat Garrett. Hervey was a boyhood friend of western author Emerson Hough. Hough had gathered information for his book “The Story of the Outlaw” from Pat Garrett. The old lawman earned about $200 for his help with Emerson’s book. Hough advised Pat’s son not to seek revenge for his father’s death or these men would kill him like they killed his father.
Governor Curry was a long-time friend of Pat Garrett. He had campaigned for Pat to be sheriff of Lincoln County and a few days before Garrett’s death George loaned Pat $50. During A.B. Fall’s federal conspiracy trial, resulting from Fall’s misdealings while serving as secretary of the interior, Curry testified as a character witness for his former attorney general. Curry lost his federal job as a result of his testimony in support of Fall so New Mexico created a job for him as state historian. George Curry died a poor man. His last days were spent at Albuquerque’s VA Hospital were he died in November 1947. Curry is buried in the National Cemetery in Santa Fe.

Pat Garrett had known the Brazel family during his Lincoln County days. Pat liked and trusted Jessie Wayne Brazel and his father The Garrett ranch, in Dona Ana County, was a short distance from the Gold Camp School. Olive Boyd was a teacher in this one room building and in 1910 she became Mrs. Wayne Brazel.
The web became more twisted. Herbert B. Holt was one of Wayne Brazel’s defense attorneys. Holt had been Pat Garrett’s personal lawyer. Holt was also a political ally of A. B. Fall.
Underworld strongman Emanuel “Mannie” Clements was assassinated in the crowded wine room of Tom Power’s Coney Island Saloon, in El Paso, on December 29, 1908. No one admitted seeing who fired the fatal shot and El Paso newspapers hinted that the death was payback for the recent murder of two Chinese immigration agents. Clements was just a few weeks from his 60th birthday. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. (39) Power was Pat’s close friend.

Ironically, Wayne Brazel was acquitted of murder on the same day, April 19, 1909, that “Deacon Jim” Miller was lynched by a mob at Ada, Oklahoma. The Arkansas born killer-businessman had been a Texas Ranger and deputy U.S. marshal. He was 43 years old at his death. Jim is buried with his wife and mother-in-law in Fort Worth’s Oakwood Cemetery.

Adamson married and worked a sheep ranch. His venture went bust following World War I. He died of a fever on November 11,1919. He is buried in South Park Cemetery in Roswell. Pat Garrett’s son, Jarvis, always believed that Adamson had been the trigger-man in his father’s murder. Adamson’s rancher grandson, Joe Skeen, became a New Mexico congressman.

William Web Cox sued Brazel for recovery of the $574.80 he had fronted the cowboy for the goat heard on the Bear Canyon Ranch, (40) Cox got the goats and the lease on Pat Garrett’s land. (41)
Cox developed his livestock empire and was a powerful political boss before his death on December 23, 1923. Ironically, Cox is buried in the same cemetery as Pat Garrett.

Albert Bacon Fall (42) became a member of President Warren Harding’s cabinet. He was disgraced in a national political scandal and federal prison was his reward. Fall died, in poverty, and a broken man, on November 30, 1944. Along with his wife and daughter he is buried in El Paso’s Evergreen Cemetery.

Brazel homesteaded a small ranch west of Lordsburg and settled down until his wife died in 1911. Three years later Brazel disappeared and walked into oblivion. Not even his lawman brother, and later his son, could locate him.
No clear judgment can be made concerning Wayne Brazel. A court of law proclaimed him innocent of murder in the death of Pat Garrett. The verdict, however, did not remove the suspicion of Brazel’s part in a larger conspiracy against the old lawman.
If Brazel did kill Pat Garrett he must have done it out of a deep fear of or a strong hatred for the old lawman. It would take a stong emotion or lack of emotion to shoot a man in the back and then months later be able to convincingly lie to ajury about how this back shooting was done in self-defence. (43)

Lambert told me that when Fornoff finished his narrative about his Garrett murder investigation he leaned back in his chair and lit a cigar. Fornoff took a long draw, blew the smoke at the ceiling light, and said,

“Ya know Kid, the joke would be if Brazel really done it. It’d ruin a damn nice plot.” The ranger chief took another long draw then added, “If its true, it would explain a hellava lot.”

“Cap looked at me to see my reaction (to his comments);’ said Lambert. “Said I had the same damn look (Attorney General) Hervey had when he had told him that (feeling about Brazel).” (44)
Fornoff’s feelings proved right concerning the fate of the Mounted Police. The 1913 session of the New Mexico State Legislature voted not to continue funding the state rangers.
Between 1914 and 1917, Lambert was New Mexico’s only Mounted Policeman and was paid from the governor’s special office funds.(45) In 1918, a full company of Mounted Police was authorized for service during the final months of World War I. In 1919 the state lawmakers funded a new ranger force that served as state police until the corps was abolished in February 1921. The present-day New Mexico State Police were formed in 1935.
Fred Lambert died February 3, 1971. At 84 he was honored as the dean of New Mexico peace officers. On the day he died Lambert wore a special deputy sheriff’s badge pinned on his shirt and a New Mexico State Police commission in his pocket. We buried him with full honors near his family in Cimarron’s Mountain View Cemetery.

HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS
1. The author presented the Fornoff Report as a slide presentation Saturday afternoon, 20 July 1996, at the Sixth Annual WOLA Convention held at the Holiday Inn in Craig, Colorado. The substance of this article is a chapter in the author’s unpublished history of the New Mexico Mounted Police.
2. “The Real Pat Garrett:’ The El Paso Times, 02 March 1908.
3. Garrett was born OS June 1850 in Chambers County, Alabama, but spent his childhood in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. Leon Metz’s Pat Garrett, The Story of a Western Lawman (The University of Oklahoma Press, 1974) is an excellent biography of the man.
4. The author, with the support of the Fred Fornoff farnily, is presently working on a full length biography of Captain Fornoff.
5. Fred Lambert notes, author’s Mounted Police collection.
6. One of the posse members was former New Mexico Mounted Policeman Robert M. Burch. Bob had been a territorial ranger stationed at Las Cruces during 1906-1907.
7. Dr. W.C Field letterhead, 1908, U. S. Marshal Papers, Special Collections, Zimmerman Library, University of New Mexico.
8. The Brazel trial records have disappeared, but contemporary newspaper reports and Dr. Field’s New Mexico Sentinel (23 April 1939) interview were used to reconstruct the murder wounds.
9. In 1957 Pat Garrett and other members of his family were reburied in the new Masonic Cemetery in Las Cruces. The site is marked with a large family stone and smaller individual markers.
10. Garrett’s First marriage was performed before a justice of the peace. However his second marriage took place in the Roman Catholic Church in Anton Chico.
11. Page B. Otero had been the first game warden for New Mexico Territory and was the older brother to former Territorial Governor Miguel A. Otero. Page had a fine singing voice and had the ability to play the guitar, banjo, and the mandolin.
12. The official inquest and trial transcripts have disappeared from the Dona Ana County courthouse. The basic court record is contained in Criminal Docket Book C, Case No. 4112, District Court Records, Dona Ana County, New Mexico. The court docket does not record the court testimony, however local newspapers did report the questioning at the trial.
13. Attorneys Herbert B. Holt, William A. Sutherland, and Edward C. Wade were the active part of the Fall defense team.
14. John Beal was the territorial ranger stationed at Deming from 1907 till New Mexico became a state, then he became second in command of the state rangers during 1912- 1913.
15. My friend Leon Metz makes a case for a cordial relationship between Cox and Garrett. His research has uncovered a time when Pat sent Cox some watermelon for his
children and in August 1906 Cox arranged to help Pat hid some cattle from the tax collector.
16. Fred Lambert was one of Captain Fornoff’s most trusted officers. The captain often referred to Lambert as “the boy” or “Kid” in denoting his youth. The terms were used as a sign of his personal affection. In 1913 Fornoff gave Lambert his Winchester 73 rifle as a parting gift when the rangers went out of service. Lambert gave the author Fornoff’s rifle in 1970.
17. Robert Mullin, “The Key to the Mystery of Pat Garrett,” Los Angeles Westerners Corral Branding Iron, #29, June 1969.
18. In 1911 the Mounted Police had no office clerk so the seven man ranger force would take turns doing office duty if Captain Fornoff had to be out of town.
19. Fred Lambert told the author that in his day a Chinese smuggler ranked lower then a wife beater and was not near as honorable as a chicken thief. Lambert never said so but his mannerisms during our talks indicated to me that he did not think much of Pat Garrett.
20. The year before the reappointment controversy Governor George Curry had written Fred Fornoff concerning his “very efficient and satisfactory service as Captain of the Mounted Police…. Thank you on behalf of the people of the Territory for your very excellent work in the mounted police department.” Letter: Curry to Fornoff, 25 March 1908, copy in author’s Mounted Police collection.
21. Fred Fornoff used these same connections to get Fred Lambert a special agent’s appointment with the U.S. Indian Service following Lambert’s service with the Mounted Police.
22. An Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad conductor named Charles Maynard was arrested and later convicted, at Las Cruces, of conspiarcy to smuggle Chinese into the United States. Maynard’s train route ran north out of El Paso.
23. Letter: W.C. Field to U.S. Marshal Creighton M. Foraker, 19 July 1907, U.S. Marshal Papers, Box 1, Folder 52, Special Collections, Zimmerman Library, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M.
24. Leon Metz and the author have discussed the Chinese smuggling idea and agree that, if true, this motive could change the believability of a small conspiracy to “steal” Pat Garrett’s Bear Canyon ranch. However, we both agree that a large or small plot to murder Pat Garrett is a sperate issue.
25. Garrett named one of his sons Oscar Lohmann Garrett (1904-1951).
26. Chattel Mortages, Record Book 3, pages 228-229; Renewal of Chattel Mortgages, Record Book 1, pages 139, 156 and 170, Dona Ana County, New Mexico.
27. Garrett still owed the bank $1,000 from a note he had signed in July 1890. Case No.6557, Bernalillo County, New Mexico; Garrett owed DonaAna County six years back taxes. Rio Grande Republican (Las Cruces), August and September 1906.
28. W.W. Cox had married Margaret Rhode and Oliver Lee had married Winnie Rhode. Oliver Lee had once served as a Dona Ana County deputy sheriff and as a deputy U.S. marshal.
29. It is hard to believe that a man like Garrett did not know the type of men he was dealing with in this goat business. Money and goats must have blinded Pat’s good judgement.
30. James Madison Hervey, “The Assassination of Pat Garrett,” True West, March-April, 1961.
31. In July, 1991 Leon Metz led a NOLA field trip to the Garrett murder scene. That extended hike, in a New Mexico rain storm, earned him the honored nickname “Metz Mile” from my wife. One of the ideas we discussed that afternoon was the possible locations of any hidden ambush sites. In his book (Pat Garrett, The Story Of A Western Lawman, p 300) Metz takes issue with the whole killing from ambush idea.
32. H.B. Hening (Ed), George Curry, 1861-1947: An Autobiography, Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1958.
33. Jandon R. Galusha had a long career as a New Mexico peace officer. He served as a Santa Fe railroad detective, deputy U.S. marshal, marshal of Albuquerque, and as a special Mounted Police.
34. Howard Bryan, “Off The Beaten Path,” Albuquerque Tribune, 01 March 1968.
35. Charles A. Siringo, A Lone Star Cowboy, Santa Fe, N.M.: private printing, 1919, p 165. This statement may be the basis for later writers to claim that Captain Fornoff believed Jim Miller killed Garrett. I don’t believe Siringo’s quotation because it is not what Captain Fornoff told Fred Lambert. Siringo and Fornoff had been friends and Charlie does mentions Fred in his 1912 autobiography, A Cowboy Detective, but Siringo was known to embellish a story to enhance his own reputation.
36. Jack Carter, “Some Facts About Wayne Brazel, from (an) old-timer who knew him,” Frontier Times, June-July 1972, pp 10-13,40.
37. All territorial records held in the Special Collections of the University of New Mexico library were transferred to the State of New Mexico Records Center and Archives in 1971. The NMRCA had been established in 1960 as a result of the Public Records Act of 1959.
38. In 1974 the Mounted Police records were microfilmed as part of the 189 roll collection of territorial records. The police files are contained on rolls 91, 92 and 93. The Mogollon trouble file and the Fountain murder case file are part of Roll 93.
39. Many writers, including my friend James A. Browning in his excellent book Violence Was No Stranger; A Guide to the Grave Sites of Famous Westerners (Barbed Wire Press, 1993), have mistakenly claimed that Mannie Clements rest in an unmarked grave in El Paso’s Concordia Cemetery. His site is well marked in Evergreen Cemetery.
40. Cox had loaned the $574.80 on 29 June 1907 backed by a one year note on the goats. On 15 May 1909 Cox lent Brazel an additional $300 for his legal fees at his murder trial. Both notes were due in 90 days with 10 percent interest. In 1913 Cox was forced to sue Brazel for $1,506 plus court costs to recover his two over due debts (Dona Ana County Civil Docket, Book 5, Case No.3387). Finally Cox dropped the case because Brazel could not be located.
41. El Paso Herald, Ol Dec 1908. The paper said that Mrs. Garrett sold the ranch to Cox. The truth is that Cox repossessed Garrett’s property for the past due mortgage.
42 A.B. Fall had played a large role in Pat Garrett’s appointment as sheriff of Dona Ana County in 1896. The El Paso Daily Herald, 07 June 1899.
43. Leon Metz believes that Wayne Brazel did murder Pat Garrett. “There were no conspiracies, no large amounts of money changing hands, no top guns taking up positions in the sandhills. It was simply a case of hate and fear erupting into murder along a lonely New Mexico back road” (Garrett, p 303)
44. The author sent Leon Metz a draft copy of this article and in his reply Metz wrote, “I suspect the work you have done on THE FORNOFF REPORT will be the last word on Garrett’s death. All the evidence now seems to be in except possibly for a video of the shooting, or perhaps an affidavit from God.” (04 Feb 1997) I don’t believe this is the last word on the death of Pat Garrett, but I do hope it does shed new light on the subject.
45. New Mexico’s governors had appointed 704 men as special non- salaried Mounted Police during these four years. Most of the men were named not as police officers, but were used as patrolmen along the Mexican border during the First World Wan The state’s National Guard had been called into federal service and New Mexico was left without military protection.

If you’re interested in the life and times of Pat Garrett, have a look at FriendsOfPatGarrett for some pics of the man, his ranch and his memorial on the spot where he was shot to death.