It is important to be precise when sending a message to detain someone arriving on the stage. Otherwise a married man might be mistakenly held for eloping with a young girl.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Sunday, august 13, 1916:
Fates Play Cruel Joke On Silverbell Mexican
Charged With Eloping With Girl When He Was Only Fellow-Passenger
A misunderstood telephone message, the subsequent severance of telephone communication between Tucson and Silverbell Friday afternoon, and the imps of Old Nick himself, combined to play a cruel prank on a respected Mexican citizen of Silverbell. At the sheriff’s office the name of the man was “deleted” from the records, lest the affair become public and cause the man, who is married, embarrassment and possible domestic trouble.
About 5 o’clock a telephone message was received at the sheriff’s office from Deputy Sheriff Bell at Silverbell, asking that an officer intercept the Silverbell stage and remove and hold in custody a young Mexican girl and, as the receiver of the message understood him to say, a man who accompanied her.
An officer was sent to take the couple into custody. They proved to be Eloisa Ayala, a young Mexican girl, perhaps 16 years of age, and a middle-aged Mexican man, who was the butt of the imps’ joke. After they had been taken to the sheriff’s office, an effort was made to get into communication with the deputy at Silverbell and ascertain what charge there was against them, but the telephone line to Silverbell had been put out of commission, and Officer Rube Hopkins was sent in an automobile to learn the circumstances of the case.
When he returned the man was released with profuse apologies, for it was established that he was simply a passenger on the same stage chosen by the girl as a means of making her escape from home. The girl was turned over to Probation Officer Hopley.
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In Cochise County, a constable was ambushed as he attempted to apprehend two burglars. Following a gun battle, the officer dragged himself two miles for help.
COCHISE CONSTABLE, WOUNDED, UNHORSED, SLAYS 2 MEXICANS
Plucky Officer Drags Self Mile to Report Ambush By Burglar Suspects—Posse Finds John Bright’s Aim Was Deadly
(SPECIAL TO THE STAR)
COURTLAND, Ariz., Aug. 12.—After his horse had been short from under him by two Mexicans, suspected of having perpetrated a burglary, and he himself had been shot through the hip, Constable John Bright, of Cortland, Cochise county, drawing his gun as he lay prone on the ground beside the body of his horse, killed the two Mexicans this morning at about 10 o’clock two miles from Cortland. Bright will recover. The bodies of the two Mexicans were brought to Cortland.
After emptying his revolver at the Mexicans, who had ambushed him, Bright, not knowing that he had killed his assailants, crawled a distance of two miles on his hands, drawing his wounded leg by sheer force of will, and reported to a ranch house the fact that he had been ambushed by the suspected burglars. A posse of cowboys was quickly formed and went in pursuit of the Mexicans, but they found that John Bright’s aim had been better than he thought, for the bodies of the two men were found near the scene of the ambush.
Bright took up the trail of the suspects early this morning, after the discovery of the burglary, and when about two miles from Cortland they waylaid him, the first volley from their revolvers cutting down the officer’s horse and the second inflicting a painful wound in the right hip of Bright. Lying on the ground, Bright drew his gun and emptied it at the Mexicans, with summary effect, as was later discovered.
Speaking of being precise — as in the first story here — a coroner's jury could have used some lessons on precision in language. The jury's verdict was a bit strange.
Coroner’s Jury Gives Freak Murder Verdict
Find Frederick Morris Died From Wound in His Slayer’s Hand
One of the most strangely worded verdicts ever returned by coroner’s jury in Pima county, was returned yesterday afternoon by a jury of Coroner Comstock’s jurisdiction. The verdict can not be used by the state in the preliminary hearing of a man who is charged with the murder of the subject of the inquisition if the state desired to so do, for it says in effect that the murdered man came to his death from a wound in the hand of the man charged with murdering him.
The inquest was in the matter of the death of Frederick Morris, Santa Rita chef, who was killed by his brother-in-law, William Pearce, several weeks ago, and the jury is believed to have intended to declare that Morris came to his death from a pistol bullet wound, or “gunshot wound” as it is commonly said, inflicted by William Pearce, but what the verdict actually said was that Morris came to his death from “a gunshot (pistol) bullet wound in the hands of one William Pearce.”
The inquest was concluded yesterday after having been taken up and postponed several times. Pearce will be given a preliminary hearing this week, probably Wednesday. The charge of murder has been placed against him. He is defended by Attorney T. K. Richey. It is reported that the alleged finding of an open razor by Morris’ body will be a feature of the defense, though Attorney Richey declined to say what the defense would be.
Does this mean that if the alleged murderer can prove he never had a wound in his hand that he will be acquitted?
