John Heath






Birth: Mar. 30, 1851
New Hope
Bowie County
Texas, USA

Death: Feb. 22, 1884
Tombstone
Cochise County
Arizona, USA

Heath helped plan with 5 others the robbery of the payroll of The Copper Queen mine from the Goldwater & Castaneda Stores in Bisbee AZ on the cold dark night of Dec. 9th 1883. After the robbery they started firing into the streets were 3 men and one woman was killed, (It was later called The Bisbee Massacre) they then rode off into the night.

A Posse went after them but it was found out that a local Saloon keeper named John Heath was an accomplince to the crime as he tried to send the posse on a false trail. All 5 plus Heath were captured and sent to the county jail in Tombstone AZ for trial. The 5 murders were sentenced to death but John who only helped plan the robbery but didn't take part in it or the shootings got a long prison term.

The following morning a crowd (Lynch mob) from Bisbee AZ took over the jail and hanged John from a near by telagraph pole. A local Doctor Named Dr. George E. Goodfellow put down as the cause of death as "Emphysema" of the lungs. (Lack of Oxygen.) Self induced or otherwise. He was then buried in the Boothill Cemetery.