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The Kinney Gang was led by
John Kinney.
It was large and very loosely-structured. The Clanton Gang, the Lincoln
Outlaws, the Murphy/Dolan faction, and the Cowboys are some of the outfits
intertwined within Kinney’s group. These groups were made up of many of the
men that were involved in the Lincoln County War. The Lincoln County War was a
cattle/territorial war or merchant war, depending on what side you believe. The
war started when
John
Tunstall was murdered by
Lawrence Murphy men. Tunstall's cattle
regulators, including
Billy the Kid, were deputized to bring the Murphy men to
justice...which they did by going on a murderous rampage.
One of Kinney’s men was William Brocius
Graham (or Bresnaham) a.k.a. “Curly
Bill” Brocious. As mentioned on the
main history page, he was captured by El Paso Police Officer Thomas Mode during
his Texas Ranger tenure. Unfortunately for Curly Bill, he later escaped and made his way to Tombstone (Arizona). He ultimately met his demise at
the hands of Marshal
Virgil Earp's brother, Assistant Marshal
Wyatt Earp.
Here is another interesting side-note to further impress the ill-gained
reputations of some of the era’s law officers. Virgil Earp took the job
of Tombstone City Marshal (he was already a Deputy US Marshal) because
he was fed up with Lincoln County Sheriff John Behan’s lack of
enforcement and protection of the “Cowboys”. It was Virgil’s attempts to control
the lawless Cowboys that resulted in the shoot-out at O.K. Corral. While in
Tombstone and while leader of the Cowboys, Curly Bill sometimes served as
“muscle” for Sheriff
Behan when he collected taxes.
He was specifically employed because when presented with a taxpayer that
did not immediately obey, Curly Bill would shoot them dead...this
“employment” being while he was an escaped felon! After the Earps
attempted to enforce the "no guns in town" law which resulted in the infamous
shoot-out at O.K. Corral, it was Sheriff Behan who posted this "wanted for
questioning" poster for
the Earp brothers and
Doc Holliday. |
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