Frank Stilwell

Early life Frank was the son of William "Henry" Stilwell and Charlotte B. "Sarah" Winfrey. Frank was born in Iowa in 1856 (as estimated from his self-reported age of 24 in the 1880 census).

His older brother Simpson "Comanche Jack" Stilwell was an Indian fighter, scout, Deputy U.S. Marshal, police judge, and U.S. Commissioner.

Arrival in Arizona Frank and his brother Simpson traveled from Anadarko, Indian Territory to Prescott, Arizona Territory in 1877.

In the 1880 census he listed himself as 24 years old, and living in Charleston, occupation "keeping livery," and reported that he had been born in Texas.

Named deputy sheriff Stilwell was hired as an assistant deputy sheriff by Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan in April, 1881. Four months later, in August, Behan fired him for "accounting irregularities".

Arrested and acquitted for robbery On September 8, 1881, a passenger stage on the 'Sandy Bob Line' in the Tombstone area bound for Bisbee, Arizona was robbed. The masked bandits robbed all of the passengers of their valuables and the strongbox of about $2,500. During the robbery, the driver heard one of the robbers describe the money as "sugar", a phrase known to be used by Frank. Wyatt and Virgil Earp rode with the sheriff's posse attempting to track the robbers. At the scene of the holdup, Wells, Fargo & Co. undercover agent Fred Dodge discovered an unusual boot print left by someone wearing a custom-repaired boot heel.

On October 13, two weeks after Frank was acquitted on the state charges, Virgil in his role as Deputy U.S. Marshal filed new federal charges against Stilwell and Spence for the federal crime of interfering with a mail carrier. Virgil took Stilwell and Spence to Tucson for arraignment where they were held at the territorial jail. While Virgil was in Tucson, he deputized Wyatt to act in his place as assistant city marshal in Tombstone.

The Cowboys thought the new arrest was in regard to a separate stage robbery that had occurred five days before October 8 near Contention City, and saw the new arrest as evidence that Stilwell and Spence were being unfairly harassed and targeted by the Earps for any stage robbery. They let the Earps know they could expect retaliation.

While Wyatt and Virgil were in Tucson for the federal hearing on the charges against Stilwell and Spence, Cowboy Frank McLaury confronted Morgan Earp, Spence and Stilwell being friends of McLaury and his brother Tom. He told Morgan that the McLaurys would kill the Earps if they tried to arrest Spence, Stilwell, or the McLaurys again. The Tombstone Epitaph reported "that since the arrest of Spence and Stilwell, veiled threats [are] being made that the friends of the accused will 'get the Earps.'" The newspapers misreported that Stilwell and Spence had been arrested for the different recent October 8 stage robbery near Contention City, probably helping to lead to the mistaken conviction that Stilwell and Spence were being persecuted by the law.

Murder of Morgan Earp

The day after Morgan Earp's assassination, Coroner Dr. H. M. Mathews held an inquest in which Pete Spence's wife, Marietta Duarte, stated that her husband and Frank Stilwell, Indian Charlie, Frederick Bode and an unnamed "half-breed" had returned home only one hour after the shooting, and that her husband had threatened her with violence if she told what she knew. Witnesses said they saw former Cochise County Sheriff's Deputy Frank Stilwell running from the scene. The Coroner's jury concluded that Spence, Stilwell, Frederick Bode, a man named Fries, and Florentino "Indian Charlie" were suspected in Morgan Earp's assassination. Spence immediately turned himself in so that he would be protected in Behan's jail.

Stilwell's death in Tucson

On March 20, Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp received information that Frank Stilwell, Ike Clanton, Hank Swilling, and another cowboy were watching the passenger trains in Tucson intending to kill Virgil Earp. Wyatt and his assistant deputies Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, "Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson, and Sherman McMaster accompanied Virgil and Allie to the rail head in Benson. Fearing another attack, they decided to stay with Virgil and his wife aboard the train to Tucson, armed with pistols, rifles and shotguns. McMaster wore two belts of cartridges.

Upon their arrival in Tucson, the Earp posse spotted Stilwell and other Cowboys. "Almost the first men we met on the platform there were Stilwell and his friends, armed to the teeth", Virgil later told the San Francisco Examiner. "They fell back into the crowd as soon as they saw I had an escort, and the boys took me to the hotel to supper." Watched over by the well-armed Wyatt and his posse, Virgil and Allie had dinner in Tucson at Porter's Hotel, then reboarded the train. As the train pulled away from the station, gunfire was heard. Witnesses said they saw men running with weapons but could not identify anyone. Wyatt later told his biographers that he saw Frank Stilwell, and another man he believed to be Ike Clanton, armed with shotguns lying on a flatcar. When Wyatt and his men approached, the two men ran. Stilwell stumbled, allowing Wyatt to catch him. In a story published on May 14, 1893, Wyatt told a reporter for the Denver Republican he shot Stilwell as he attempted to push the barrel of Earp's shotgun away. Ike said they heard that the Earps were coming via train and had plans to kill Stilwell. Other accounts reported that Clanton and Stilwell went to the train depot to meet a witness named McDowell who was to appear before the grand jury. Only upon their arrival at the depot did they learn the Earps were in Tucson. George Hand, who saw the body, said Stilwell was "the worst shot up man I ever saw."

Earp's story In a 1926 interview with biographer John H. Flood, Wyatt said that they spotted Stilwell and Clanton armed on a flatcar in the train yard, apparently waiting to ambush the Earps. Both men ran after being confronted by the armed Earp party. Stilwell dropped his weapon and stumbled as he ran in the dark train yard, and Wyatt caught up to him and killed him with a point-blank shotgun blast under the ribs as Stilwell tried to fend off Earp's weapon. Wyatt reported that Stilwell's last words were "Morg! Morg!", probably referring to Morgan Earp.

In a March 1882 interview with the Arizona Daily Star, Virgil Earp told the reporter "Before Stilwell died he confessed that he killed Morg and gave the names of those who were implicated with him. When my brothers were leaving Arizona they got dispatches from Tucson saying that Stilwell and a party of friends were watching all the railroad trains passing that way, and they were going through them in search of all Earps and their friends, carrying shotguns under their overcoats and promising to kill on sight. Our boys were bound to look out for themselves, and when they got near Tucson were very cautious. They found Stilwell near the track and killed him."

Frank's brother "Comanche Jack" Stilwell soon heard of his brother's death and went west with hopes of avenging him, but he never reached Tombstone and soon went back without doing so. and penetrated his liver, stomach, and abdomen, leaving powder burns on his coat. The coroner reported that Stilwell had been shot by five different weapons. When Paul arrived in Denver, he served a warrant for Doc Holliday's arrest on charges that he killed Frank Stilwell in Tucson. Wyatt Earp, also in Denver, feared for Holliday's life if he was returned to Tombstone. He asked his friend in Trinidad, Colorado, Sheriff Bat Masterson, to help get Holliday released. Sheriff Masterson appealed to Governor Frederick W. Pitkin and succeeded in getting Holliday released from jail.

Burial The Tucson Weekly Citizen reported on March 28, 1882, that Stilwell "was buried this afternoon, the coffin being conveyed to the grave in an express wagon, unfollowed by a single mourner." Stilwell was originally buried in the old Tucson City cemetery, but when the cemetery was moved, most of the residents were reburied in a mass grave in the Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson.

In popular culture

Memorial statue This is the location of the 1880s Tucson Depot. It was in this location where Frank Stilwell, suspected in the murder of Morgan Earp on March 18, 1882, was killed by Wyatt Earp in the company of Doc Holliday. The location is now part of the Amtrak Station which is located at 400 N. Toole Ave. in Tucson, AZ. Life-sized statues of both Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday stand at the approximate site of where Stilwell was encountered by Wyatt Earp and his posse, at the former Tucson Southern Pacific Depot, and began their pursuit of Stilwell. The buildings that are there now are not the ones that were at the station in 1882, and the building that is there where the statues are placed at is the former Railway Express building, but in 1882, it is where the Porter Hotel (later renamed San Xavier Hotel) building was. The hotel was destroyed in a fire just after the turn of the century, and the original depot itself was demolished shortly after the completion of the current depot and its buildings in 1907. The Southern Arizona Transportation Museum conducts tours of the site and the rest of the Historic Depot upon request.

Media portrayals Stillwell was portrayed by John Baxter in Season 5 of the Television Show The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp starring Hugh O'Brien as Earp. The death of Stilwell is prominently featured in the 1993 film Tombstone, in which he was played by Tomas Arana. Stilwell was then portrayed by John Dennis Johnston in the 1994 film Wyatt Earp.