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07-JUN-2005

Arizona D.P.S.

Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS)

In the Beginning

Arizona's reputation as the West's last refuge for
hard-bitten desperados was a major reason its admittance
to statehood was delayed so long. The proximity to the
Mexican border, bad roads, poor communication, and rugged
terrain made pursuit and capture of outlaws almost impossible.
To make matters worse, rural residents were sometimes hesitant
to assist peace officers because many of their neighbors were
outlaws, and they didn't want to incur vengeance.

The hard men who rode the Arizona Territory were products
of a lawless, and violent post-Civil War era characterized
by range wars, feuds. Apache fighting, and the lust for gold
and silver. Today they and their deeds have slipped from
reality into the realm of romance. Trail dust has settled
and the false-front saloons are gone, but their stories
linger on and are deeply ingrained in our culture.

The types of men hired to keep the peace were as varied
as the rest of the wide gamut of frontier society. Jeff
Milton was the son of a Florida governor; Wyatt Earp was
a restless entrepreneur whose skill with a six-shooter
and nerves of steel made him a formidable adversary;
Jim Roberts earned his reputation as a fearless gunfighter.
Entire libraries may be stocked with the dime novels,
paperbacks and western adventure stories involving Arizona
outlaws and the men who devoted their lives to putting
those outlaws behind bars or on the gallows. It seems
certain that Arizona's lurid reputation as a haven for
the lawless element delayed the achieving of statehood.

During the Pleasant Valley War; Burt Mossman was a rawhide
tough ranch boss before he was appointed first captain of the
Arizona Rangers; and Carl Hayden was a Stanford graduate with
political hopes. All had one thing in common: they had little
fear of God and none of the ole Devil. Milton is best known
for his part in breaking up the Fairbank train robbery in
February, 1900. Bravo Juan Yoas, Three-finger Jack Dunlap,
and three cronies decided to rob the Wells Fargo express car
while the train was stopped at Fairbank. However, the outlaws
didn't figure on Jeff Milton riding shotgun in the express car.
They opened fire as the train pulled in, and a bullet struck
the lawman as he stood in the open door of the car. Bleeding
from a wound in his arm, Milton opened up with a 10-gauge
sawed-off scattergun. Three-finger took a full, fatal blast
while Bravo Juan took evasive action and caught a load of
buckshot in the seat of the pants.

They didn't get the strongbox and were eventually captured.
Milton survived and died with his boots off in Tucson in 1947.
Earp made his reputation during the so-called "Gunfight at the
OK Corral," or Cochise County War, in the early 1880s. Wyatt
and his brothers Morgan and Virgil, along with their pal Doc
Holliday, represented a law and order group known as the Citizens
Safety Committee. They were organized to rid the county of a
lawless element of politicos, along with some cattle rustlers
known as "the cowboys." Earp's career as a lawman is controversial
because the opposing faction had a large number of supporters
who despised him and his organization. But one thing should be
remembered: all the Earps were shot from behind, while their
victims were plugged in front. That says a lot about who were
the good guys and who were bad.

Partisans on both sides of the Pleasant Valley War, pitting
cattlemen against sheep men, agreed that the best man with a
gun in that feud was Jim Roberts.

He might never have taken sides, but some of the Grahams stole
his Collection prize horse. He rode with the Tewksburys during
the most violent days of the war before becoming a lawman in
Yavapai County. Roberts had his last gunfight in 1928 in Clarkdale
when two desperados held up a bank. They tried to make their getaway
in a car, but Roberts stood his ground and put a bullet through the
driver of the speeding auto. Old Jim was nearly seventy at the time.
When the Arizona Rangers we reorganized in 1901, Burt Mossman agreed
to a one-year enlistment as captain. Modeled after the famed Texas
Rangers, Mossman's rugged men rode the Arizona Territory, breaking
up the last of the large outlaw gangs.

Captain Mossman's last hurrah as an Arizona Ranger was the
daring capture of the notorious Augustine Chacon, a dark,
handsome outlaw who boasted of killing fifteen Americans and
thirty-seven Mexicans during his career. He'd been captured
and sentenced to hang at Solomonville, but, just before the
sentence was carried out, he escaped and hightailed it to Sonora.
Mossman persuaded Burt Alvord and Billy Stiles, two ex-lawmen
turned outlaws, to arrange a meeting with Chacon in exchange
for leniency. Posing as a rustler on the lam, Mossman got close
enough to the cagey Chacon to get the drop on him. He brought
back his man, and this time the hanging took place on schedule.

Knowing the Mexican government would be furious when the
details of the capture below the border became known, Mossman
resigned from the Rangers and headed east until the heat was off.

In a desperate effort to bring law and order to Arizona
Territory, the Arizona Rangers were formed in 1901 under
Captain Burt Mossman. One of the prime targets of the Arizona
outlaws was the stagecoach, which usually carried money or
valuables and was an easy target. This one, a Modoc coach,
ran from Tucson to Tombstone.

One of southern Arizona's most respected Arizona Rangers
was Bisbee's Johnnie Brooks. The theory flourished in Arizona
Territory that public hangings helped to deter potential
criminals from their foul deeds. This execution of a young
murderer in 1889 was the first hanging in Globe. The crowd
must have found the victim's anguished expression haunting
their memories for decades to come.

Finally, there's the tale of Maricopa County Sheriff Carl Hayden,
best known for serving in the U. S. Congress longer than any other
person in history (fifty-seven years). Few people remember Hayden's
role in the capture of two train robbers in the desert south of
Maricopa in 1910. It was at Maricopa that he borrowed a Stoddard-Dayton
automobile from its owner, J. F. McCarthy, who was drafted into
service as the chauffeur. The powerful car raced across the trackless
desert and caught up with the Woodson brothers, known as the "beardless
boy bandits," after their horses played out. Hayden ordered the
robbers to surrender, but one refused to drop his pistol. So Hayden
walked fearlessly toward the young man who, after a long moment,
put up his hands. Only then did Hayden pocket his unloaded revolver.
It's the first recorded incident of a posse pursuing outlaws in an
automobile. Yep, the twentieth century had at last reached Arizona.

Please visit the Department of Public Safety
http://www.azdps.gov/default.asp

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