The Wildest of the Wild West - The Las Vegas Plaza Gunfight

Murder at Brunckow's Cabin
"The fifth murder victim, Ed Schieffelin was a strange character, described by one writer as "tall and gangly, wearing a mix-match of buckskin and flannel, and with wild matted hair and beard, such that he appeared almost more a wild animal than a man". An Indian scout as well as a prospector, he was originally from Pennsylvania and had spent some twelve or thirteen years looking for gold and silver thought the southwest. In 1876, Ed worked on an assessment crew at the Brunckow Mine when another guard on the crew was killed by the local Apache. In March and early April, of 1877, he was employed as an Indian scout by the 6th Cavalry at the newly established Camp Huachuca. In April, he left and once again began prospecting around Goose Flat. The soldiers at Camp Huachuca told Ed the only stone he'd find would be his tombstone. And on April 17, 1877 they were proven right. Ed's body was found by soldiers from Camp Huachuca, apparently killed by the local Apache. (1)"


Excerpt from Chapter 7 "Bloodiest Cabin in Arizona - the Murders at Brunckow's Cabin" (2), Ghostly Tales of Arizona and New Mexico, Antonio Garcia, Lone Pine Press, 1987

(1) This is, of course the POD. OTL, Ed Schieffelin found the Tombstone and Graveyard mines, leading to a silver rush the founding of the town of Tombstone. Here, neither occurs (at least not within the time frame of the story).

(2) The Brunckow Cabin, built by mining engineer and prospector Fredrick Brunckow, is actually known as the bloodiest cabin in Arizona. It was the site of (depending on the source) 21 or 22 murders between 1860 and 1890. The first three were Brunckow and two Anglo miners, murdered for unknown reasons by Mexican laborers working the mine. The fourth was a man named Lenox, who worked on the assessment crew.
 
This is real good.

I wonder how the lack of Tombstone and Graveyard mines will affect the West.
Would that mean no founding of Chochise Country ? How would no Tombstone effect Chief Chochise's war ? Also, Arizona was still a wild Territory, with Cowboy gangs and Rustling on both sides of the border. It was even an bilateral issue between Mexico and the US. Chester Arthur was even issued to send the cavalry against the cowboys.
 
Would that mean no founding of Chochise Country ? How would no Tombstone effect Chief Chochise's war? Also, Arizona was still a wild Territory, with Cowboy gangs and Rustling on both sides of the border. It was even an bilateral issue between Mexico and the US. Chester Arthur was even issued to send the cavalry against the cowboys.

Maybe not, Cochise died in 1874, a few years before Tombstone was founded, and a few more after Cochise County. Still think the area would be named after him, but not official.

Now the cavalry coming after the ATL Cochise County Cowboys would be something to see. If the cavalry messed up, even at first, it would look real bad on the military, and the myth of Cowboys would be more in 'Fighting the Government and your rights to be free'. Or something like that.
 
Would that mean no founding of Chochise Country ? How would no Tombstone effect Chief Chochise's war ? Also, Arizona was still a wild Territory, with Cowboy gangs and Rustling on both sides of the border. It was even an bilateral issue between Mexico and the US. Chester Arthur was even issued to send the cavalry against the cowboys.

This is Geronimo's time. And without Tombstone, Cochise County probably won't exist. And there's a nifty little Geronimo butterfly I may persue as part of a wider TL once I get this done. :)
 
A Fateful Meeting
"It was in October of 1877 that Doc and I were first to cross paths. I had been on the trail of Dave Rudabaugh, a train robber whose filthy habits led to his being known as "Dirty Dave". After weeks of searching, I had tracked the filthy outlaw down to the vicinity of Fort Griffin, Texas.

Fort Griffin was between the West Fork of the Trinity River and Clear Fork of the Brazos, and the small town that grew up nearby, called the Flat, was known at the time as "Babylon on the Brazos”. The Flat was one of the wildest towns in Texas, full of ruffians of all manner.

As luck would have it, my old friend John Shanssey ran the largest saloon in town. Upon arriving, I stopped in there to gather what useful information I could. John informed me that Rudabaugh had left town a few days before. However, he had an associate, a card sharp by the name of Doc, who might could tell me of his whereabouts. He further informed me Doc wasn't around but he ought to be in that evening.

I returned to the saloon later that day, and discovered that Doc was down a ways, playing cards at the Bee Hive Saloon. I stepped over to the place and found the man who was to become one of my fastest and most loyal companions playing Faro with a charming belle by the name of Deno. (1)

Doc had a reputation as a bad man, and one who disliked lawmen such as myself. I do not know what it was, but for some reason he took a shine to me that night. He was able to inform me that Dirty Dave was headed towards Nebraska, possibly in the company of a man named Bass. (2) Little did I know what this information was to lead to."


My Friend John "Doc" Holiday, Wyatt Earp, 1912 (3)

(1) OTL, Lottie Deno had left Fort Griffin for New Mexico in May. Here, for reasons that will become clear later, she hasn't.

(2) Yes, his name is Sam. How Sam Bass and Dirty Dave Rudabaugh came to hook up will also be explained later.

(3) Yep, I went and borrowed that title. :) It's far too good to pass up for this TL.
 
"It was in October of 1877 that Doc and I were first to cross paths. I had been on the trail of Dave Rudabaugh, a train robber whose filthy habits led to his being known as "Dirty Dave". After weeks of searching, I had tracked the filthy outlaw down to the vicinity of Fort Griffin, Texas.

Fort Griffin was between the West Fork of the Trinity River and Clear Fork of the Brazos, and the small town that grew up nearby, called the Flat, was known at the time as "Babylon on the Brazos”. The Flat was one of the wildest towns in Texas, full of ruffians of all manner.

As luck would have it, my old friend John Shanssey ran the largest saloon in town. Upon arriving, I stopped in there to gather what useful information I could. John informed me that Rudabaugh had left town a few days before. However, he had an associate, a card sharp by the name of Doc, who might could tell me of his whereabouts. He further informed me Doc wasn't around but he ought to be in that evening.

I returned to the saloon later that day, and discovered that Doc was down a ways, playing cards at the Bee Hive Saloon. I stepped over to the place and found the man who was to become one of my fastest and most loyal companions playing Faro with a charming belle by the name of Deno. (1)

Doc had a reputation as a bad man, and one who disliked lawmen such as myself. I do not know what it was, but for some reason he took a shine to me that night. He was able to inform me that Dirty Dave was headed towards Nebraska, possibly in the company of a man named Bass. (2) Little did I know what this information was to lead to."


My Friend John "Doc" Holiday, Wyatt Earp, 1912 (3)

(1) OTL, Lottie Deno had left Fort Griffin for New Mexico in May. Here, for reasons that will become clear later, she hasn't.

(2) Yes, his name is Sam. How Sam Bass and Dirty Dave Rudabaugh came to hook up will also be explained later.

(3) Yep, I went and borrowed that title. :) It's far too good to pass up for this TL.
Will Dave Rudabaugh and John Henry Holiday team up with Johnny Ringo, the Clanton and McLaurey families, Curly Bill Broscius, Frank Stilwell etc ? Maybe veterans of the Lincoln County war decide move to Arizona, too.
 
Maybe not, Cochise died in 1874, a few years before Tombstone was founded, and a few more after Cochise County. Still think the area would be named after him, but not official.

Now the cavalry coming after the ATL Cochise County Cowboys would be something to see. If the cavalry messed up, even at first, it would look real bad on the military, and the myth of Cowboys would be more in 'Fighting the Government and your rights to be free'. Or something like that.
Interesting is, that the "Cowboys" were known for being pro-Southerner, Democrat-leaning , Ex-Confederate veterans had been among them. The townsfolk of Tombstome consited largely of new people from the North , who had been Union-Rebulican leaning and even pleaded , that another Civil War would be necessary to pacify the South for once.
 
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Will Dave Rudabaugh and John Henry Holiday team up with Johnny Ringo, the Clanton and McLaurey families, Curly Bill Broscius, Frank Stilwell etc ? Maybe veterans of the Lincoln County war decide move to Arizona, too.
Wrong state... ;)

Where we're going, we won't need Clantons...
 
Interesting is, that the "Cowboys" were known for being pro-Southerner, Democrat-leaning , Ex-Confederate veterans had been among them. The townsfolk of Tombstome consited largely of new people from the North , who had been Union-Rebulican leaning and even pleaded , that another Civil War would be necessary to pacify the South for once.
Yep.

Should get the next chapter up later today.
 
A Stagecoach Robbery Gone Bad
After getting into trouble once again in Denton, Sam made his way to San Antonio, where he met Joel Collins. Joel and Sam spent several months running a horse racing scam, until Joel became tired of it. He persuaded Sam to try a cattle drive. His brother Joe extended some credit, and together with the money from the sale of the race horse Jennie, and the two bought a number of cattle, hired a few men, and headed to Kansas. In Dodge City, they couldn't get a satisfactory price, and so continued on to Ogallala, where they were told of the gold to be found in Deadwood. After selling the cattle, they headed for the Dakota Territory. In Deadwood, Sam and Joel tried their hands at mining first, without much success. This was followed by gambling, but the card sharps of Deadwood Finally they tried hauling freight. After the last venture failed, Sam and Joel were left with little money. (1)

Around this time, they made the acquaintance of Jack Davis, a gambler who had a history of robbing stagecoaches. (2) Davis had concocted a plan to rob the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage that ran gold shipments from the mines around Deadwood to the train at Cheyenne. On twelve different occasions in the early spring and summer of 1877, Sam, Collins, and their companions put Davis's plan into action, but were plagued with bad luck. Their attempts turned up small amounts of cash, some pocket watches, and the like, but they never managed to actually get a gold shipment. On March 25, one of bandits shot and killed driver Johnny Slaughter, who was the son of popular Judge James Slaughter, marshal of Cheyenne. However, the worst disaster was the twelfth last robbery. (3)

After the numerous lackluster hauls, Davis received information as to when the actual treasure stage would be making it's trip and devised a grand plan. In the early hours of June 7th, 1877, the bandits waited in ambush near the Canyon Springs relay station, 37 miles outside Deadwood. Davis's information was to turn out not only incorrect, was in reality part of a ruse. Local lawmen began to suspect Bass and Collins were involved in the stage robberies. The stage carried no gold,but was instead full of armed and ready men. In the ensuing gunfight, Davis was killed, along with Tom Nixon, Jim Berry, and Bill Heffridge, while Bass and Collins escaped, headed back to Texas. (4)

"Sam Bass - Texas Outlaw", Robert Zachary, Journal of Western History, May 2001

(1) This is pretty much straight up how Sam Bass and Joel Collins ended up in Deadwood.
(2) This is a minor inconsistency in the "source material". In reality, Davis had been involved only one robbery in Nevada.
(3) This is mostly accurate, but OTL, the gang made thirteen robberies before moving on to train robbery.
(4) The disastrous robbery is of course a fiction. OTL, Nixon, Berry, and Heffridge were the other members of Bass's Black Hills Bandits gang, and would go on to perpetrate the Union Pacific Big Springs train robbery. Collins, Berry, and Heffridge were killed shortly after said robbery, Nixon is thought to have escaped back home to Canada. Note that this is not the same Marshall Tom Nixon who feuded with Mysterious Dave Mather,who may show up later... ;)

And last note: Yes, these events take place between the first and second parts.
 
Doc Meets a Beautiful Lady
Lottie Deno was born April 24, 1844 to an upper crust family in Warsaw, Kentucky. Her father, an enthusiastic gambler as well as a wealthy tobacco farmer, traveled frequently on business. Along with her slave nanny/maid Mary, Lottie began to accompany him. It was on these trips that the foundations of her later troubles were lain. Her father, believing that she would need more than the charm of a Southern belle, taught her all the gambling tricks he knew. And it was in New Orleans that she met Johnny Golden, the jockey who would start her on the straying path.

The pleasant trips came to an end with the start of the Civil War. Lottie’s' father, ever the Southerner at heart, enlisted and was killed in his first battle. Lottie's mother took ill soon after, and with the war on their doorstep, the family decided that she would be safer married and away from the war, and so shipped her and Mary to Detroit, hopefully to find a suitable husband. Who she found instead was Johnny Golden, the jockey from New Orleans, now a professional gambler.


As a result of the war and subsequent lack of field hands, the family plantation was not doing well, and the funds her family had sent her to Detroit with hadn't lasted long in the social season. Not wanting to be a further burden and with no serious suitors calling, Lottie capitalized on her talents at gambling and accepted an invitation to a Detroit gambling club. It wasn't long before Lottie, Mary, and Johnny had taken to gambling on Mississippi river boats. Lottie was able to send enough money home to save the family from ruin and to pay for her younger sister's schooling.

By the end of the war, Johnny and Lottie had a falling out and Lottie ended up in New Orleans. It was during this time that Lottie's mother passed and Lottie soon became directly responsible for her sister. Shortly after the end of the war, having grown bored of New Orleans, Lottie moved to San Antonio, sending for her sister.

A refined and beautiful lady gambler like Lottie was a rarity in most places, but especially so the cow town of San Antonio. Lottie was soon in great demand as a dealer and house gambler, and men were clamoring for the chance to bet against the elegant southern belle. She started at the Cosmopolitan Club, but was soon hired away by Frank Thurmond, owner of the University Club. Frank hired her not only because of her skill, but because he had become enamored of Lottie. And shortly after being hired, Lottie became romantically involved with Frank. For a change, Lottie's life was rather smooth for the next several years.

However, as always, trouble did intrude. First, her previous lover Johnny showed up in San Antonio claiming to be Lottie's husband. Lottie denied this, and Johnny ended up leaving after having killed a man. And shortly after, Frank was involved in an altercation with a local gambler and ended up killing him. The man's family put a price on Frank's head, and he ran.

Lottie soon left with Mary to find Frank. After a fair bit of traveling, she found him in the rough and tumble town of Fort Griffin, operating the Bee Hive Saloon under the assumed name of Mike Fogerty. And, it was while working at the Bee Hive that she received the name Lottie Deno. After winning a tidy sum from him, a cowboy exclaimed that she "ought to call herself 'Lottsa Dinero". It was also at the gambling tables at the Bee Hive that she met the man she would eventually marry - John Henry "Doc" Holiday.

Doc had met Lottie in Forth Griffin in 1875, but was only there for a short time where he had bee indicted for illegal gambling. He returned in the Spring of 1877, where the beautiful and elegant lady gambler caught his eye. (1)

Shortly after Doc's arrival, Johnny Golden also showed up, again claiming to be Lottie's husband. And this time, he took no denials. He confronted Frank Thurmond, and in the ensuing fight, killed him. However, Johnny was also mortally wounded, and died a few days later. Frank, AKA Mike Fogerty, left the saloon to Lottie. (2)

"The Lonesome Death of Lottie Deno", Albert Jones, True West Magazine, Summer, 1987

(1) This is the first departure in this "chapter". OTL, he left Denver in June of 1877 visiting his aunt in Kansas, and then getting into trouble in Dallas and Breckenridge, Texas, before arriving at Fort Griffin in the fall.
(2) Thus, Lottie didn't leave with Frank in May. OTL, Johnny did show up around this time, but was killed by another man.
 
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