My dad grew up in Bisbee and Nogales in the 1920s. In his memoirs he recounted an incident when Mexican revolutionaries shot up the town of Nogales and his family was evacuated from their railroad-owned house. When they returned he found a bullet hole in a bedframe. He said a unit of black soldiers from Ft.Huachuca was stationed in the town to protect it from further raids and that he and his friends were impressed with the machine gun they had set up. Somewhere on the internet I saw a photo of this. There was a battle there also in 1918 but my dad was born in 1921 so it must have been a different incident.
@@CactusAtlas There is much more to my dad's life. He grew up in Mexico as his dad was a railroad worker and his mom was half-Yaqui and thus considered Spanish his native language. His memoirs are astonishing to me. After he graduated Nogales High School he went to California and worked as a mail clerk at the Biltmore Hotel where he met celebrities like Judy Garland. When the war broke out he joined the Army and became a B-24 navigator and flew 30 missions into Germany during 1943. His bomb group alone had over 500 men KIA. He also met Jimmy Stewart who was XO of the neighboring bomb group. After the war he served in the CIA in Germany tracking down Nazis attempting to flee to South America through Spain. Also in the 1950s we lived in Spain where he encountered one Juan Sanchez, who was actually Leon DeGrelle, the Belgian Nazi party boss who had been sentenced to death by the Belgian government but was under the protection of Spain's fascist dictator Franco. He reported this to his superiors and was told to treat DeGrelle as though he were Juan Sanchez, He never said 2 words about all this to me and I found it out from other sources. He continued in the Air Force and his last direct supervisor on active duty was Gen. Curtis LeMay. After he retired he got a PhD in Economics and became head of the logistics branch at the Air Force Institute of Technology, which had been started by Robert McNamara during WWII. My point in relating all this is that they make movies about guys like my dad but looking at him you would never know (he was built like Don Knotts) and he never mentioned it. That was his generation.
@@CactusAtlas Here's another interesting topic for you to consider. My grandfather's cousin ran a newspaper, mining, and general store operation in White Oaks, New Mexico during the late 1800s. He and his brother are profiled in the book "Gold-Mining Boomtown: People of White Oaks, Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory" by Roberta Haldane, who asked me to review her chapter on them. I have a long letter dated 1906 from a Kentucky pastor of the same family name who apparently visited White Oaks. He goes into detail about his own family and mentions his cousin John T. Thompson, who he said was a colonel in the US Army and had written an entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica about small arms. This was none other than Gen John Thompson who later invented the Thompson Submachine Gun. I have been to White Oaks a couple times and it is well worth a visit and profile on your channel. The other chapters in Roberta's book are also fascinating. Billy the Kid frequented White Oaks for its saloons and brothels, and he and his compatriots murdered a well-liked member of the community which enraged the town who sent a posse after them.
2 of the killers went to Clifton and were arrested after one of them gave his girlfriend a watch he had stolen in the robbery/murder. She gave it to the sheriff who checked it out against the list of stolen items telegraphed throughput the territory. The killers were converted to Christianity by Nellie Cashman who ran a boarding house in Tombstone for local miners. The killers begged Nellie to use her influence with Tombstone miners to have them protect the killers graves from Bisbee miners who were planning to dig up and mutilate the killers bodies.
Yup. David Grasse's book on the event is a great resource for information about it. Too bad we didn't have the ability to include all of the information in our video.
Thanks so much! The story was originally going to be a short blip in our earlier Bisbee video but while editing I was like "Oh no. There is too much story to this." 😂
In the late 1980’s I came across the “One Book” bookstore Had an enjoyable afternoon talking to Mr. Swan dressed in bib overalls and a straw hat Author of the book
Indeed there was a judge - Judge Pinney. And if I recall correctly, there were transcripts but some were lost. A lot of what remains are copies that made it into newspapers around the country. We would have loved to have added more about the court cases themselves but it would have made for far too long of a video. If you're curious, David Grassé's book on the subject. The author went to great lengths to research the events and the detail in the book is amazing.
@@CactusAtlas my late wife and my grand mother were both Court Reporters. My grand mother was a Court Reporter in the 30s. In Chicago. She used to tell us stories about the "Roaring Twenties". My late wife loved her job so much, she wrote papers on the History of it.
Pretty much Yes to everything. While some records may get damaged in fires, etc. we're not talking the Stone Age. All of this stuff is buried in archives. There are historians who research voluminous European archives over a thousand years old. We not only have a lot of Roman records but an amazing amount of relatively trivial archives evwn from Sumerian and Old Kingdom Egyptian times more than 4,000 years ago. Paycheck stubs, land transfer certificates, tax records, trial transcripts, diplomatic letters, marriage contracts, etc. and more. We keep turning up new stuff. There's lots sitting in storage just waiting translation and publication. I remember in college reading a letter by the Emperor Nero's tutor, the eminent writer Seneca, from about 60 AD bitching about having to drive to his country home in a rainstorm and not having a hot meal when he got home.
A lot of old towns suffered from great fires so not a lot of old buildings remain. Heck, even finding old photos of the first generation originals can be difficult in some of the towns we have visited. Thanks for visiting and watching our video! 😄
They're very practical for sunny, hot, and dusty places. Also really handy for preventing sunburns when you're filming all day on a very tight schedule and sunblock has worn away hours ago. 😅
@@CactusAtlas That may be true but he just wore it around his neck! For protection the Arabs etc wear it on top of their heads and hang over the shoulders.
..."pregnant lady was shot, which was a nono...still is..."🤣👍 It ok though when women themselves do it🤔🤷♂️. Lovely place though, I visited it while on my travel in the US. Have a softspot for Arizon and Utah
Yeah, I wasn't sure how to edit around that bit of Glenn's so I just rolled with it. 😂 Thanks for watching. We have a major soft spot for this area as well. 😊
It's a shemagh - a scarf - commonly worn as a way to protect the face and neck from sun and sand. And we are not actors so no period clothing was worn nor intended.
No problem! 😄 It comes in very handy out here where it's super sunny and sunburns are common (especially when filming all day and good use of sunblock).
Tombstone does a great job with tourism and has a lot of history but Bisbee is the hidden secret of the county tucked back in the Mule Mountains. While you can visit a couple of very well-preserved old western streets in Tombstone, The whole entire city of Bisbee (30+ miles) is historic. Events such as the Bisbee Massacre, the Bisbee Deportation, the Bisbee Riot, and the first foreign aerial bomber in American history fill its past and more. Furthermore, the mining camp in Bisbee was started by a drunk prospector whose father was killed by Apaches, who was bought from the Apaches by prospectors, who lost the Copper Queen mine in a drunken bet, and ended up with his image in the middle of the Arizona State Seal. Bisbee is quite the place.
I live just 20 miles from Tombstone. I have not seen the gallows! Always wanted to. Very interesting history I had no clue of. 🥰👍 I love Bisbee. Such a sad event though. Very well done sir! 😃
Thanks! We had a lot of fun researching and putting this one together. If you get a chance to check out the courthouse (and haven't before), it really is worth the time. There's a lot of old photos and items we didn't have time to include in any videos that are well worth seeing. 😄
Having lived in the area (Sierra Vista, AZ) I love to visit both Bisbee and Tombstone. I have stayed in their hotels and Bed and Breakfasts just for the experience. Wonderful shopping in Bisnee these days too if you want strange and different things to collect. Yes, ghosts are also a part of that. You feel like you are in another time....
We would love to experience more of Bisbee (especially all the historic hotels and B&Bs). So little time though! 😅 Thanks for watching and the kind comment!
This is the first time I have seen one of your videos and it is a subject near and dear to my heart, the Old West!!! You did a great job, covering many aspects of the incident and switching back and forth between towns for accuracy!!! Excellent story, which I am had never heard before, which was surprising!!! Wonderful job!!!! Attaboy!!
People certainly had different ideas about justice back then! I can't imagine witnessing such a thing but I suppose times were different in some ways. Now we just hop on social media and vilify people. 😂
Very well done. Big fan of Tombstone history. Visited Tombstone a few times and once to Bisbee. You are right, there is a lot more to the history than the famous OK Coral. The court house is a fascinating place for sure. When I went to Bisbee I focused on the tour of the copper mine. I was unaware of this crime spree until seeing your video. Although I remember Heath's marker at Boot Hill, I just never realized the bigger part of the story. Thanks for doing this video. Great work. I walked everywhere around Tombstone, even spent a week there one time, found the home of Virgil Earp, but at the time Wyatt's house was not, for some reason, documented and pointed out, nor do I remember seeing the sculpture that is there now. One of the most amazing things you pointed out was the stump of the telegraph pole where they hung Heath. I do not remember seeing that or the little historical panel? You did a great job, I know this represents hours of work. Greatly appreciated. If I might ask, where did you get the music track? It was perfect for the video.
That you so much! Your experiences sound so much like ours. Numerous times we had been to Tombstone and passed by so many markers where we didn't really take note of the bigger story - Boot Hill Cemetery, the courthouse, etc. Our first visit to Bisbee was the same (including the Copper Queen Mine - GREAT place!). Somewhere along the way the Bisbee Massacre came on our radar and found David Grassé's book about the event. It's SUPER well researched and honestly, we could never do it justice. So many details we just didn't have time in this video to include. But going back knowing some of these things really brought life into smaller corners we once missed. As for the music, probably came from Epidemic Sound. I use a lot of music when editing various videos and you'll have to forgive me if I don't remember the name of it but I'm 99% sure it came from there as that's the resource we've been using as of late. 😄
Well done ! You need to come to hillsville va. Do a story on the 1912 Carroll county massacre the Allen clan shot up the courthouse 5 people died . And check the museum at Harmon's in Woodlawn VA. A lot of news paper article s from 1912 you can even visit sidna Allen house at fancy gap in rt. 52
A bit far away from the Southwest and where we live but sounds fascinating. Might have to read up on it just for pure interest! 😄 Thanks for the suggestion. 👍
Thank you for this guided tour of the Bisbee hold-up and resultant justice from the 1880's. I had not heard of this historical event before. The lynching of Heath reminds us that the police exist not to protect us from the criminals, but to keep the townsfolk from getting their hands on the criminals.
I was starting to respond thinking about how different things must have been and felt back then but honestly, looking around these days... not that different to some degree. Makes one wonder what current days will look and seem like in another 150 years.
I grew up in Lincoln County NM, not far from Lincoln where the famous Billy the Kid roamed. I was lucky to hear old stories from people who were so much older and knew more of the players involved. They have re enactment yearly.
That is something I often times ponder. I am of a generation who is not forever cut off from the old timers of those times, and what I would do to be able to talk to those that lived in back then and saw things first hand.
Outstanding video! I believe that John Heath's lynch mob was mostly made up of men who came of from Bisbee, rather than Tombstone townsfolk. A quick side story. An entrepreneur, looking to make a buck, built a grandstand outside the yard behind the courthouse. He was going to charge to allow men to climb the grandstand and watch the legal hanging of the five men. Nellie Cashman, known as the Angel of Tombstone, was so outraged by this that she gathered some men to tear down the grandstand prior to the execution.
The book we used for research mentioned that a number of miners in town were waiting for the bell to ring to signal the start of work and when it didn't ring they walked down Toughnut towards the courthouse where some commotion was going on. So while they probably didn't initially know about the intent to spring Heath from prison, it's likely they were witness. But yes! You are correct on the other two points. It is said that a lot of people also just stood on the roofs of surrounding buildings rather than pay to watch from the stand that had been erected. 😅 Sadly if we had included these details the video would have been ridiculously long. So many details that really flesh out the story from the pocketwatch they stole to all the witness testimonies.
Excellent video, this is new information to me. You know what? The inside of the court room reminded me of a Clint Eastwood movie. I’m not sure which one. Was it Joe Kid or Fist Full Of Dollars? Some picture along those lines from that era. You did a really good job.
I’ve been there many times actually I was just thinking of going back this week, to be honest once you’ve seen it a few times it starts to get old. It’s just a little town and it’s not much to do there after you’ve done it all but hey, once a year is fine.
Haha! Oh that pesky algorithm. Always making us wonder what exactly it knows and is doing. 😂 Glad you got to visit Boot Hill though. It's curious walking around the headstones and trying to imagine who the people were and what lives they lived.
12:42 [Ain't no body in them ''graves''] Actually, the real Boot Hill is buried under the northbound highway adjacent to the ''cemetery.'' Outlaws didn't deserve reburial in the eyes of the town fathers. They just got paved over. Later, in the 1950s, with all the popular TV shows, and much public interest from tourists, a ''Boot Hill'' was reconstructed on a plot of ground east of the road. All the gunfighters of legend got grave markers, many with a witty saying on their epitaph. There is still a cemetery for the ''Nice Folks'' on a hill south west of the tourist Boot Hill, that's unchanged and still used by local families...
This is so cool!!! I just got back from Bisbee AZ. My brother bought me a ticket from Vancouver Canada to Tucson Arizona so I could spend a week with him at his house in Bisbee Arizona. He spent the entire visit telling me and showing me the history of Bisbee AZ. Coolest town I've ever visited in the USA. Loved all the graffiti.
Man I love the look of those old wooden floors, I assume most are original, to think of all the footsteps and boots that crossed and walked on them is fascinating just like walls, if they only could talk?
Not to be nitpicking most historians consider the time of the wild west as beginning in the time after the Civil War spurred on by migration by many southerners who didn't want to live in the reconstructed south and people mining precious metals then European immigrants around the turn of the last century with the government and the railroads giving them land up until a few years into the 20th century. Both points are arbitrary. Some say the west was won, or civilization and the rule of law finally caught up to it, after 1910.
Loved the video! HUGE history buff, and had seen Heath's marker a few times in the many videos done in boot hill. Always seen the Bisbee massacre on it but knew nothing about it! Fascinating! Thank you so much for the history!
You're so welcome! That's actually how we started out too, seeing Heath's market and wondering what it was all about. Luckily there are a few really great books out there that cover the event. Thanks for watching and the comment. 😊
I've never been to Bisbee, but I've walked the streets of Tombstone dressed in period clothing, wearing a hand made gun belt and holster I put together from a pattern obtained from the internet. I carried a Cimmaron Arms 1873 SAA replica. The first time I went to Tombstone, I could carry just about anywhere, but you did turn your piece over to the bartender if you wanted a beer. On following trips, the laws had changed. I had to check my gear in with a "keeper" if I wanted to enter any establishment.
Given recent court decisions I suspect you'll be able to open and conceal carry with a permit again pretty soon. I temember when I was in high school in the early 1970's I was in Lake Isabella, a very small and isolated town at the end of the road on the north edge of the Mojave Desert and the southern end of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.. They were having a Lake Isabella Days Festival and biker gangs from all over California were known to be coming to congregate there and bust the town open. The Sheriff and Town Marshal deputized almost every rancher, every local tribal member and the capable townsman to keep the peace. There were more Stetsoned men with holstered pistols, jeans and cowboy boots walking around than I've ever seen before or since. Many were carrying shotguns or carbines. All of their. Pickup trucks on the main streets were guarded by their dogs and had full gun racks. Lots of bikers showed up, but they were the most peaceful folk you'd ever see. They didn't even spit on the street and all the trash went into garbage cans. Very surreal Old West cowboy experience. And I'm descended from families that emigrated to Southern California in the 1800's. Heck, my grandparents were born in LA when it was still a very small town, long before Hollywood. Even the local LA County Sheriff when I was a boy in the early 1960's had pictures of himself from around the time my parents were born in the 1920's being with a horseback posse in cowboy gear carrying lever action rifles and revolvers on horseback to hunt robbers in our lical foothills. The Old West isn't so old. Just get out into the back country and look carefully.
@@brianmccarthy5557 I was living outside San Bernardino, CA, when I was able to visit Tombstone. I now live in Washington state, where I acquired a concealed permit as soon as I was recognized as a resident. Our county sheriff is a Constitutional sheriff, and we all heartily support him. In fact, you see signs on people's private residences thanking him for the work he has done protecting our rights from both state and federal government overreach. While I lived in California, (30 years), I was always denied a carry permit, even though I have nothing, not even misdemeanors, on my record.
yeah that's worse than tombstone, the latter being a fair fight. bisbee just straight murder and sounds totally unnecessary. what a shame. kinda cool that law about murder while commitment of another crime goes that far back. but why wasn't heath also sentenced to death I wonder.
Yeah, there's a bit of a difference between two groups of people having a notable grudge against one another and innocent people simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time like a doorway.
Given Arizona's long history of dirty politics he may have had political influence. The locals probably had good reason to believe he wouldn't spend the rest of his life in prison. Heck, even today Governor Newsom of California is getting ready to release the Manson Family member who thrust a carving fork into Rosemary Labianca to torture her while killing her and her husband a few days after murdering Sharon Tate and the others. The locals probably wanted to avoid that common occurence by taking some direct action. Personally I don't blame them at all. And robbers who don't hesitate to kill four people, including a pregnant woman, are probably neither first time offenders or first time killers. And those who know them well enough to plan a robbery with them are certainly no innocents. If you want to cover a little known but violent episode of the West from the same time period you might want to research the Evans-Sontag Gang in the Central or San Joaquin Valley of California and their violent shootouts. I believe John Bossenacker covers this in one of his books.
Thanks for the visit. We’ve been to both Bisbee and Tombstone, but we were not aware of the Bisbee massacre. Did you visit the Copper Queen Hotel? We stayed there, evidently in a room that we shared with one of the ghosts that haunt the hotel. Might make a good story for you sometime.
We haven't stayed at the Copper Queen, no. Went in the lobby during one trip but have yet to stay there. I think I know the story that you're referring to though. 😊 Might have to schedule a night one of these days.
Wasn't the Lofton Hotel one of the buildings that caught fire earlier this year? I grew up in Bisbee and I was never sure where the massacre took place.
We haven't been there since the fire so I'm not 100% sure of where the damage was precisely, but judging from aerial shots I saw on the news, it almost looked like it was the two business immediately to the right. I would have to imagine the Letson Loft might have sustained some damage.
Im trying to get information on Bisbee that may sound crazy. I went thru Bisbee for work travel, had no time to spend but remember when travel to and back , I saw religious figures on side of mountains. There were many statues along my drive, in many different spots and high on sides of hill and mountains. Just curious if you know anything about this. Ive been looking for info as it stood out to me as unusual. Thanks for any suggestions on why,
Oh gosh. I'm sorry, I can't say that I've ever noticed anything of the sort in my visit there and I don't remember Glenn mentioning anything of the sort either unfortunately. Hopefully if anyone else sees your comment they will know and share.
Thank you for taking me to a place I will probably never be able to see. Mob justice is the best justice. Killers feared the people more than they feared the law. Should be noted as our society continues its decline.
I grew up near there in Sierra Vista and used to travel all around that area on my motorcycle. I haven't been back there for about 40 years now but it is interesting country.
This is one of my favourites along with the history of Tombstone videos I wonder if they ever make a movie like they did with Tombstone that could be yours and Amy's next project 🤩 once again thanks just love em all 👍
If this is your passion… I hope someday you’ll do this full time. You are a good narrator, if I may say so being that English is my second language. Bravo!
It is so much fun, inspiring and rhought provoking to walk in the places where history was made. I lived in a territorial jail that was made into a home . A group of bandits chased down and arrested by Theodore Roosevelt and some of his ranch hands and neighbors , were housed in that jail / my house I what was then Dickinson , Dakota Territory. until they went to trial.
Thanks so much! Glenn and I both worked really hard on the this video between researching, editing, recording the voiceover, and filming the on site clips. 😊
