John Tunstall - Aftermath

Aftermath

Tunstall's murder ignited the Lincoln County War. Bonney was especially affected by the murder as Tunstall had always treated him well. Bonney is alleged to have said that Tunstall "was the only man that ever treated me like I was a free-born and white", and swore, "I'll get every son-of-a-bitch who helped kill John if it's the last thing I do."

Bonney, Richard M. Brewer, Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bowdre, George Coe, Frank Coe, Jim French, Frank McNab and other employees and friends of Tunstall's went to the Lincoln County Justice of the Peace, "Squire" John Wilson. He proved sympathetic to their cause and swore them all in as special constables to bring in Tunstall's killers. This posse was legal and led by Richard "Dick" Brewer, a well-respected ranch owner who had been Tunstall's foreman. The newly minted peace officers called themselves Regulators and went after Evans, Morton, Hill, and Baker and the others implicated in Tunstall's death. Two legally deputized posses rode at large in Lincoln at war with each other.

The Regulators tracked down and captured Morton and Baker on March 6, killing them during an alleged escape before reaching Lincoln a few days later. They said the two had killed McCloskey of the Regulators. Several other killings, committed by both the Regulators and the gunmen hired by Murphy-Dolan, followed those of Morton, Baker, and McCloskey. On April Fool's Day 1878, the Regulators killed William Brady, the sheriff of Lincoln, along with his deputy, George Hindemann. Half a dozen Regulators, including Bonney, Jim French, and Frank McNab, carried out the reprisals. Brewer was not present at the ambush. The Regulators also killed Buckshot Roberts at Blazer's Mills, southwest of Lincoln in what is now the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Brewer was killed in the shootout there.

The war essentially ended in the July 15 through July 19, 1878 Battle of Lincoln. Known as "The Five-Day Battle," this conflict resulted in the defeat of the Regulators' forces when the U.S. Army from nearby Fort Stanton, under the command of Colonel Nathan Dudley, intervened in the fight despite a new federal law prohibiting the Army to enter into civilian matters. Dudley threatened the Regulators while the Dolanites strutted along Lincoln's street.

After their loss to the Dolan forces in the Five-Day Battle, the Regulators and the people who had fought with them quickly left town. Bonney remained in New Mexico, moving to Fort Sumner, New Mexico on the border of the Texas Panhandle near the Pecos River. Bonney survived until July 14, 1881, when he was shot and killed at Fort Sumner by Pat Garrett. Appointed as sheriff of Lincoln County, Garrett had been given a mandate to get rid of Billy the Kid and his gang.