I
can't imagine what the hell Pete Spence - aka Elliot Larkin Ferguson
- was thinking when he and that smug violent little (5.4") lunatic Frank Stillwell (above) held up the south bound Bisbee Stage on Thursday, 8 September, 1881.
The Sandy Bob line carried no strong boxes so this less than dynamic
duo were reduced to robbing the passengers, miners and gamblers who
had little cash southbound, going into the little mining town 25 miles south of
Tombstone. And probably every one of the 200 residents squeezed into
the narrow "Puerta de los Mulos" knew Pete and Frank
personally, since the pair jointly owned a livery stable in Bisbee.
Stillwell was just 24, but he had already gunned down an Hispanic
waiter who brought him tea instead of coffee.
But
Spence had been a Texas Ranger. Not for long, since he was also a
little crazy, but he should have been too smart for this hold up.
Some
thought this lunatic larceny had something to do with Robert Crouch,
a 50 year old California coach driver who had entered a cut-throat
competition with the established Arizona Mail and Stage Company.
Because the new entrepreneur had red hair and a freckled face, they
called him and his business the "Sandy Bob" line. And it was a
hard business in the best of times. Paying passengers and freight
barely met operating costs. The Arizona Mail could also count on a
$15.00 a month fee for carrying Wells Fargo insured strong boxes 3
times a week between Charleston and the rail head at Benson. But the
real profits were in carrying the United States Mail. Seeking to
promote growth, the USPS paid $50 a month for daily delivery between
Tombstone and Charleston, and $78.00 for three times a week delivery
between Tombstone and Bisbee.
But
when Arizona Mail and Stage balked at delivering to the tiny San
Pedro River community of Hereford, 7 miles due west of Bisbee, "Sandy
Bob" snapped it up. He was even willing to wait to be reimbursed
by Arizona Mail, which continued to collect from the USPS. So maybe
there was a nefarious plot to generate bad publicity for the upstart
Sandy Bob line, and they hired Frank and Pete as their agents. But
that seems unlikely because the future of all stagecoach lines in
Arizona had been determined in March around a conference table in far
off Boston, Massachusetts.
On
one side of that table sat William Barstow Strong, President of the
Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad conglomerate. On the other
sat the President of the Southern Pacific Railroad et al., Mr.
Charles Crocker. At this meeting the SP agreed to lease their
tracks between Lodi, New Mexico and Benson, Arizona for use by ATSF
trains. And ATSF agreed to share profits from a new line they would
build south from Benson, through the mill town of Fairbank, Arizona,
to the border at Nogalas Mexico, where it would connect with their
Sonoran line, reaching the Pacific via the port of Guaymas. The
minute that agreement had been reached, the most profitable stage
coach lines in Arizona were living on borrowed time. So why go to all
the trouble to annoy a competitor when everybody's business was going
to shrink over the next six months to a year?
Like
the Guadalupe
Canyon Massacre, the beginning of the Benson to Guaymas rail line was
another
indication that the age of outlaws was coming to an end. Two months
earlier, about midnight on Thursday, 14 July 1881, the career of
freelance and infamous hot head Henry McCarthy, aka William Bonney,
aka Billy the Kid (above), came to an abrupt end in rural Lincoln County, New
Mexico when he was shot dead slipping into his girlfriend's bedroom.
And the day before the Bisbee Stage Mutt and Jeff robbery, a
successful 15 year criminal career, which included at least 9 bank
robberies, 8 train and 4 stage coach holdups also came to an end. On
a tight turn 2 miles west of Glendale, Missouri the James gang
pulled off their last armed train robbery. The division of the
paltry $6,000 take, caused some discouragement among the members.
And
6 months later, in St. Joseph Missouri, Mr. Thomas Howard, aka Jesse
James himself, would be assassinated by one of his own gang. These
were indicators.
In
a decade the Federal government would recognize what was happening
that summer of 1881. The Census Bureau would announce in 1890 there
was no longer anywhere in America with less than 2 persons per square
mile, nor significant numbers migrating west. The frontier had ceased
to exist. And according to historian Fredrick Jackson Turner (above), "The
Significance of the Frontier..." in America was that it had made
Americans exceptional - more violent, more inventive, less
restricted by traditions.
The same census also determined that over
the previous 40 years the population of native Americans had been
reduced by almost half - 401,000 to 248,000 - proof that Americans
were not like other nations who butchered and starved minorities,
such as the Ainu in Japan, the Armenians in Turkey, the Hindus in
Pakistan, the Muslims in India, and the Romani, the Cathars and the
Irish in Europe. Except of course we did. But
all that was big picture stuff.
The
little picture was that Pete Spence and Frank Stillwell needed a couple of hundred dollars for the up coming weekend. And
Frank was so disliked that one Tombstone resident predicted that when
he died Frank would be the "chief
attraction" in hell. So
on that dark night of 8 September, 1881, these two chuckle heads
wearing masks blocked the road and forced the passangers to hand over
any "sugar" they had on them. All noticed the smaller of
the thieves repeatedly used that word - "sugar" - to refer
to money. It was a favorite phrase of Frank Stillwell, a man whose
inquest jury laughed when the coroner described his body as the most
shot up corpse he'd ever seen. And Cochise County Marshal Johnny
Behan knew the instant he received the telegram announcing the Sandy
Bob hold up, that Frank Stillwell had to be the chief suspect. He
was, after all, one of Johnny's own deputies..
And
this might be the proper moment to ask why the crooks never thought
to cut the telegraph lines which criss-crossed southern Arizona. The
Apache did, every chance they got. But "white" criminals
never seemed to think of delaying law enforcement by just clambering
up the nearest pole and snipping the thin wire. And it was not just
the fools Stillwell and Spence. In March the would-be robbers of the
Benson stage had also left the telegraph wires intact, allowing for
immediate pursuit. But I digress.
Part
of Deputy Marshal Frank Stillwell's job was collecting county taxes,
but Behan noticed the money from Bisbee always seemed to be late and
always seemed to be short, which meant so was Johnny's 10% cut. So
Behan, not usually known for his dedication, wasted no time in
dispatching to Bisbee ,a 28 year old mining engineer, fast draw
shooter and part time deputy, David Nagal along with 35 year old Deputy William Milton
"Billy" Breakenridge (above). Billy was also a Federal
Deputy Marshal, and a cool man with a gun. And knowing that Frank
Stillwell was the suspect, he and Dave were joined by deputized
Federal Marshals Wyatt and Morgan Earp, and Wells Fargo detective,
Marshal Williams.
The
Tombstone lawmen interviewed the passengers of the held up stage, and
learned about the thief who asked for "sugar". And in
checking the crime scene they identified a distinctive boot heel mark
in the sand. Checking with a Bisbee cobbler, they were told that
Frank Stillwell had new heels put on his boots that very morning. A
search of the shoemaker's trash produced the source of the
distinctive heel prints, and all 5 lawmen proceeded directly to the
livery stables where they found Frank and Pete, still recovering from
their night time crime spree. The master criminals were arrested
and transported directly back to Tombstone. Which is where things
started to get confused.
Charged
with highway robbery and theft, both men were arraigned in front of a
Justice of the Peace on Tuesday 13 September. Bail was set at a hefty $7,000
each. And then, to the Earps surprise, Frank's bail was guaranteed by
his old boss, Charles Hamilton "Ham" Light. Light had
managed teamsters in Prescott, and Frank Stillwell had been his
enforcer. Then about 1880, "Ham" moved to Tombstone. He
owned a corral there, and rented out apartments on the northwest
corner of 3rd and Fremont, in his Aztec house. It got is name because
it also contained the offices of his Arizona Trading Company. In
other words, Charles "Ham" Light was far more than he
appeared to be.
Light's
willingness to put up $7,000 in property to guarantee Frank
Stillwell's appearance in court, would seem to indicate a couple of
things. Either "Ham" trusted that Frank would show up or he
feared what Frank would tell the lawmen if he was supported by Light. There
was also the possibility that like Luther King before him, once out
of jail, Frank Stillwell would shortly be dead. That possibilty was
reinforced when Johnny Behan chose this time to fire Frank for "accounting
irregularities". But
the rapidity with which both bails were supplied - Ike Clanton
guaranteed Pete Spence's $7,000 bond - hinted that if "Ham"
Light and Ike Clanton were not the money men behind the Cochise
County Cowboy's rustling ring, they were both closely connected to
those who were.
Whatever
the reason for the quick bond, the Earps (above) were not willing to allow
these two miscreants out of their clutches. Almost immediately Pete
and Frank were re-arrested, and transferred to Tuscon for trial in
Federal court, beyond the immediate reach of the Cow Boy forces in
Tombstone. To make matters worse, the Republican Tombstone Epitath
now insisted the pair were being charged with the robbery
of the Tombstone to Contention stage coach.
Knowing Pete Spence (above) and Frank Stillwell were innocent of that charge, the McLaury brothers and the Clanton
family were convinced the Earps were now framing their opponents, as
the Cow Boys had done to Doc Holliday. As Wyatt Earp later
testified, "since the arrest of Spence and Stilwell, veiled
threats were being made that the friends of the accused will 'get the
Earps.'" In fact the pair had been charged with interfering
with the United States Mail, which justified the Federal charge.
It
didn't matter. By the end of September 1881, with Pete (above) and Frank in jail, the Cow Boys could feel walls, real and imagined,
closing in on them. They were willing to believe in a conspiracy
against them, because they had conspired against others. And in
response to the rising tensions, the Earps moved their families into
adjoining rooms at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Both sides were hunkering
down into armed camps.
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