Stories like this remind us that even as Arizona was preparing to be named the 48th state of the United States, it was still, in many ways, the wild west.
Some lawmen went bad, others became heroes for capturing, or even surviving the outlaws.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Feb. 6, 1912:
The visit of George Bravin, city marshal of Tombstone, recalls some of the famous deeds of outlawry in southern Arizona, says the Republican, he having been connected with many of them on the side of the law, during his 20 years' service as peace officer.
Bravin was a deputy sheriff of Cochise County in charge of the Tombstone jail on April 7, 1900 when the notorious Billy Stiles shot him and emptied the bastile of all the prisonsers inclined to leave through a jail delivery.
It is the finality of the so-called Stiles-Alvord gang that is recalled by Bravin's visit, for all have left the country, most of them are dead, and the rest, so far as is known, are now engaged in peaceful pursuits. There have been so many stories of the fate of this one and that one that there is news interest in checking up on all of them and wiping the slate.
The Stiles-Alvord gang was the most notorious of any that has operated in Arizona in comparatively recent years. Though the various members of it committed numerous depredations of a less serious character, their chief claim to history is based on the events connected with two train robberies, one at Cochise station on the Southern Pacific railroad in 1899, and the other at Fairbank not long afterward. A feature of the case is that nearly all of the members of the gang at one time or another served as officers of the law, constables, deputy constables, deputy sheriffs, etc. Not all the same men participated in both hold-ups but some of them did and all were affiliated with the same outlaw class.
Matt Burts, Louis Owen and Bob Owen are now supposed to be living in New Mexico, and so far as definitely known are the only men of the old crowd who are alive and in the United States. The Owen brothers served six years sentences, less good time, and left the country. It is not recalled how Burts got out of his difficulties but it is sufficient to know that he did. Brave Juan, a half-breed Mexican whose real name was Tom Yost, was a member of the gang and in the Tombstone jail at the time of the delivery. He went to Mexico and never has been heard of since.
It is believed the train robbery at Cochise station was planned by Matt Burts and Billy Stiles, who were constables or deputy constables at the time. Alvord and William Downing being stool pigeons and other accomplices no doubt participating.
In the Fairbank robbery, a few miles south of Benson, the participants were Bob Brown, Louis Brown, Bob Owen, Bravo Juan, Louis and Three-fingered Jack Dunlap.
Some years later, after he had got out of his train robbery complications, William Downing got into more trouble and was killed at Willcox by Billy Speed, a member of the Arizona Rangers. Downing had formerly lived in Texas and it is said his right name was Billy Jackson and that he had been a member of the Sam Bass gang of outlaws in that state. It was George Bravin who arrested him at the Cochise robbery.
Alvord, who finally got out of the country, went to South America, and it is said on good authority died there. Stiles, who headed the Tombstone jail delivery, was for years reported as here and there, all the way from South America to China, but is known that for a long time he operated along the border line of Mexico or at least he was frequently reported to have been seen by men who knew him. Finally, in 1907 or 1908, a man going under the name of William Larkin and serving as deputy sheriff of Humbolt county Nevada, was shot from ambush and killed by a cattle rustler and though it was not known at the time, it was later demonstrated to the satisfaction of his friends that it was none other than William Larkin Stiles of Arizona fame. His slayer, a man named Barr, but known as C.C. Colins, sentenced in Colorado to serve 16 years for another crime, confessed his guilt in the Nevada incident. Thus are Alvord, Stiles, Burts and Downing disposed of.
Of those engaged in the Fairbank hold-up, the two Owens have been mentioned as in New Mexico, it is believed. Bob Brown was last heard from in Texas. Juan Bravo was last heard of in Mexico three years ago and Three-Fingered Jack Dunlap was left on the field of battle after the smoke had cleared away. His medicine was administered by Express Messenger Jeff Milton, who lost an arm in the fight and who is now immigration inspector in southern Arizona.
Willis Woods, who was taken to the pen Thursday by Bravin, is supposed to be the last of the clan in these parts. What connection he had with the Alvord-Stiles gang was not learned more than that he was numbered among them.
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The Morgue Lady wonders if being a lawman was not lucrative enough for these men that they turned to a life of crime. Or perhaps they didn't get the hero worship they wanted, so they decided to become notorious instead.
Coming soon: More about the death of William Larkin Stiles.
