Rural vs. town interests Many of the
ranchers and
Cowboys who lived in the Cochise County countryside were resentful of the growing power of the business owners and townspeople who increasingly influenced local politics and law in the county. A cowboy in that time and region was generally regarded as an outlaw. Legitimate cowmen were referred to as cattle herders or ranchers. The ranchers largely maintained control of the country around Tombstone, due in large part to the sympathetic support of
Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, who favored the Cowboys and rural ranchers and who grew to intensely dislike the Earps. Behan tended to ignore the Earps' complaints about horse thieving and cattle rustling by the McLaury and Clanton families. The townspeople and business owners welcomed the Cowboys, who had money to spend in the numerous bordellos, gambling halls, and drinking establishments. When lawlessness got out of hand, they enacted ordinances to control the disruptive revelry and shootings. As officers of the law, the Earp brothers held authority at times on the federal, county and local level. They were resented by the Cowboys for their tactics as when Wyatt Earp
buffaloed Curly Bill when he accidentally shot Marshal
Fred White. The Earps were also known to bend the law in their favor when it affected their gambling and saloon interests, which earned them further enmity with the Cowboy faction. Under the surface were other tensions aggravating the simmering distrust. Most of the leading cattlemen and Cowboys were
Confederate sympathizers and
Democrats from Southern states, especially Missouri and Texas. The mine and
business owners, miners, townspeople and city lawmen including the Earps were largely
Republicans from the
Northern states. There was also the fundamental conflict over resources and land, of traditional, Southern-style "
small government"
agrarianism of the rural Cowboys with Northern-style
industrial capitalism.
Lawmen vs. outlaws During the rapid growth of
Cochise County in the 1880s at the peak of the
silver mining boom, outlaws derisively called "
Cowboys" frequently robbed
stagecoaches and brazenly
stole cattle in broad daylight, scaring off the legitimate cowboys watching the herds. Saiz and Cruz may have been the same person. In 1879, the Mexican federal government refused to allow Dake to extradite two of the suspects.
Smuggling and cattle rustling From early in the history of Pima County, bandits used the border between the United States and Mexico to raid across in one direction and use the other as sanctuary. In December, 1878, and again the next year, Mexican authorities complained about American outlaw Cowboys who stole Mexican beef and resold it in Arizona. The
Arizona Citizen reported that both U.S. and Mexican bandits were stealing horses from the Santa Cruz Valley and selling the livestock in
Sonora, Mexico. Arizona Territorial Governor Fremont investigated the Mexican government's allegations and accused them in turn of allowing outlaws to use Sonora as a base of operations for raiding into Arizona. The Clanton and McLaury clans were among those allegedly involved in the clandestine
cross-border livestock
smuggling from Sonora into Arizona. The illegal cattle operations kept beef prices lower and provided cheap
stock that helped small
ranchers get by. Many early Tombstone residents looked the other way when it was "only
Mexicans" being robbed. The Clanton family led by
Newman Haynes Clanton had a ranch about southeast of Tombstone that was a way station for stolen Mexican beef. He was assisted by his sons
Ike,
Billy, and
Phin Clanton.
Frank and
Tom McLaury had a ranch outside of Tombstone that they used to buy and re-sell stolen Mexican cattle. On July 25, 1880, Captain Joseph H. Hurst requested the assistance of
Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp, who brought Wyatt and Morgan Earp, as well as
Wells Fargo agent Marshall Williams, to track the thieves of six
U.S. Army mules stolen from
Camp Rucker. This was a
federal matter because the animals were U.S. property. They found the animals on the McLaury's Ranch on the Babacomari River and the
branding iron used to change the "US" brand to "D8".
Pleasant Valley War At the start of the
Pleasant Valley War, a notorious feud that took place in Arizona's
Tonto Basin from 1882 to 1892, the smuggler Neil McLeod left
Globe, Arizona for Cochise County. Many Cochise County cattle dealers were losing cattle and horses to thieves that T. W. Ayles described as an "organized band" whose "connections seem to extend to and over the Mexican border." In the middle of 1881, the
Mexican military dropped taxes on alcohol and tobacco and began vigorously pursuing the Cowboys. In response, the
rustlers increased their stock thefts on the U.S. side of the border. McLeod used boxing matches and wrestling as a cover for his less scrupulous activities of rustling and selling contraband near the Mexican border. Prizefighting had become quite sophisticated in Tombstone and in October 1883 McLeod beat the then champion Young in four rounds and was awarded a $400 prize.
First Skeleton Canyon Massacre Skeleton Canyon is located in the
Peloncillo Mountains, which straddles the modern Arizona and New Mexico state border. This canyon connects the
Animas Valley of New Mexico with the
San Simon Valley of Arizona. The first Skeleton Canyon massacres was an attack on
Mexican Rurales by rustlers in July 1879. They attacked a rancho in northern
Sonora, killing several of the inhabitants. After the attack on the rancho, the survivors reported the attacks to Commandant Francisco Neri and he sent a detachment of Rurales out, among them Captain
Alfredo Carrillo. The Rurales illegally crossed the border into Arizona and as the Rurales entered in the canyon, shots were fired. Three of the Rurales survived the initial onslaught. Then the Cowboys executed the Rurales leader. The Mexican Government protested the killings to President
Chester Arthur despite the fact that the Mexican policemen had crossed into a foreign country where they had no jurisdiction. Although the assailants were never positively identified, it was speculated that
Old Man Clanton,
Ike Clanton,
Billy Clanton,
"Curly Bill" Brocius,
Johnny Ringo, and
Florentino Cruz were the murderers.
Governor Fremont asks for militia Territorial Governor
John C. Frémont, who had been the first Republican presidential candidate in 1856, was largely an absentee appointee. But in February 1881 he suggested to the territorial legislature that they fund a state
militia to ride against the outlaws and stop the rustling. The legislators hooted down his plan.
Second Skeleton Canyon Massacre In July 1881, "Curly Bill" Brocius received word that several Mexican smugglers carrying silver were heading to the United States through Skeleton Canyon.
Johnny Ringo reported that Curly Bill and several other men including
Old Man Clanton,
Ike Clanton,
Billy Clanton,
Frank McLaury,
Tom McLaury,
Billy Grounds, and
Zwing Hunt hid in the rocks high above the trail. As the smugglers rode through the canyon the murderers opened fire, killing six of the nineteen. The rest were killed as they tried to get away.
Guadalupe Canyon Massacre In August 1881, Mexican
Commandant Felipe Neri dispatched troops to the border. Some researchers theorize that Mexican
Rurales led by Captain
Alfredo Carrillo, who had survived the
Skeleton Canyon Massacre in 1879, led the ambush of the Cowboys. They found
"Old Man" Clanton and six others bedded down for the night in Guadalupe Canyon with a herd of cattle. The Mexicans waited until dawn and killed five of the Cowboys. The dead included Old Man Clanton; Charley Snow, a ranch hand who thought he had heard a bear and was the first killed;
Jim Crain, who was wanted for the stagecoach robbery near
Tombstone during which
Bud Philpott had been murdered; Dick Gray, son of Col. Mike Gray; and Billy Lang, a cattle rancher. Clanton, Crain, and Gray were either still in their bedrolls or in the act of getting dressed when killed. Lang was the only one who had a chance to fight back. Harry Ernshaw, a milk farmer, was grazed by a bullet on the nose;
Billy Byers feigned death until the soldiers left.
Tombstone marshal killed On October 28, 1880, Tombstone town marshal
Fred White was trying to break up a group of late revelers shooting at the moon on Allen Street in Tombstone. He attempted to confiscate the pistol of
Curly Bill Brocius and was shot in the abdomen. Wyatt Earp
buffaloed Brocius, knocking him unconscious, and arrested him. Wyatt told his biographer many years later that he thought Brocius was still armed at the time and had not noticed that Brocius' pistol was already on the ground. The pistol contained only one expended cartridge and five live rounds. Brocius waived a preliminary hearing so he and his case could be transferred to
Tucson District Court. White died two days after his shooting, changing Brocius' charge to murder. On December 27, 1880, Wyatt testified that he thought the shooting was accidental. It was also demonstrated that Brocius' pistol could be fired from
half-cock. Fred White also left a statement before he died that the shooting was not intentional. The judge released Brocius, but Brocius retained bitterness towards Earp for the rough treatment he got when arrested. == Elections and ballot-stuffing ==