John Tunstall - Emigration and Career

Emigration and Career

As a young man, he emigrated to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1872 to work at Turner, Beeton & Tunstall, a store in which his father was a partner. Tunstall left Canada for the United States in February 1876.

He spent six months investigating sheep ranches in California, but decided to try New Mexico, where land was cheaper and more abundant for ranching. Soon after his arrival in Santa Fe, he met Alexander McSween, a lawyer who told him of the potentially big profits to be made in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Tunstall bought a ranch on the Rio Feliz, some 30 miles (48 km) nearly due south of the town of Lincoln, and went into business as a cattleman. In the town he also set up a mercantile store and bank down the road from the Murphy & Dolan mercantile and banking operation established a few years earlier by James Dolan, Lawrence Murphy and John H. Riley, of Irish ancestry. The Murphy-Dolan store was known colloquially as "The House." Tunstall and McSween were supported by John Chisum, the owner of a large ranch and over 100,000 head of cattle.

Murphy and Dolan ran the town and surrounding county of Lincoln as though the area were their fiefdom. Any business transaction of consequence in the county passed through them. They controlled the court. The Sheriff of Lincoln, William J. Brady, was theirs. Writing about the two gangster storekeepers, one Lincoln resident said, "They intimidated, oppressed, and crushed people who were obliged to deal with them." Tunstall was eager to make money in Lincoln County, too, but when he set up his store in Lincoln town and offered at least decent prices and reasonable dealings, the locals flocked to do business with him and to get out from under Murphy and Dolan.

Tunstall’s mercantile business put him into conflict with the powerful political, economic, and judicial structure that ruled New Mexico Territory. This group of men was known as the Santa Fe Ring. Ring members included Thomas Catron (1840-1921), the boss, who was the attorney general of New Mexico. Catron owned 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) of land, one of the largest land holders ever in the history of the United States. Catron numbered among his colleagues the following men: William Rynerson, a district attorney, who had assassinated John P. Slough, the Chief Justice of New Mexico, and gotten away with it; Samuel Beach Axtell, the Territorial governor, who was fired for corruption by President Rutherford B. Hayes; and Warren Bristol, a territorial judge, who lied on the record to protect Catron. The Attorney General's dealings included holding the mortgage on "The House." When too many of the residents of Lincoln switched their business to Tunstall’s store, Murphy-Dolan began a slide into bankruptcy and Catron’s bottom line was affected.

Murphy and Dolan tried to put Tunstall out of business, first harassing him legally, then trying to goad Tunstall into a gunfight, using hired gunmen, most of whom were members of the Jesse Evans Gang, aka "The Boys." Tunstall recruited half a dozen local small ranchers and cowboys from those who had reason to dislike Murphy and Dolan. These men worked his ranch and protected him while he tried to settle his conflict with Murphy and Dolan. One of Tunstall's employees was the 18-year-old William Bonney (aka Henry McCarty, aka William Henry Antrim, aka El Chivato, 1859 - 1881), who would later be dubbed by the newspapers as "Billy the Kid".

On 18 February 1878, Tunstall and several of his ranch hands, including William Bonney, were driving nine horses from Tunstall's ranch on the Rio Feliz to Lincoln. A posse deputized by Lincoln Sheriff Brady went to Tunstall's ranch on the Feliz to attach his cattle on a warrant that had been issued against his business partner, McSween. Finding Tunstall, his hands, and the horses gone, a sub-posse broke from the main posse and went in pursuit, although the horses were not part of any legal action. William "Billy" Morton, one of the deputies, said, "Hurry up boys, my knife is sharp and I feel like scalping someone." Evans and Tom Hill had recently broken out of jail.

Evans, Hill, Morton (and probably Frank Baker) rode ahead after Tunstall. Evans, Morton, and Hill caught Tunstall and his men a few miles from Lincoln, in a hilly area covered with scrub timber. Tunstall, the nine horses, and his hands were spread out along the narrow trail. Bonney, who was riding drag, alerted the others. The deputies began firing without warning. Tunstall's hands galloped off through the brush to a hilltop overlooking the trail. Tunstall first stayed with his horses, then rode away, but was pursued by the three deputies.

Only the three deputies survived the confrontation with Tunstall. Most historians believe that Tunstall likely surrendered. He was shot through the breast with a rifle, and someone shot him in the back of the head with a revolver. The posse faked the crime scene, removing Tunstall's gun and firing it, then arranging it near his body. This type of set-up was a common gambit in the Wild West. Not one of the Tunstall group believed the deputies' "resisting arrest" account. A third party, who was not present but heard an account from a posse member, testified to this account of summary murder.

The historian Robert Utley suggests that Tunstall may have tried to defend himself when cornered by Morton, Hill, and Evans. Joel Jacobsen notes that Tunstall died some hundred yards from his horses, suggesting the posse wanted him rather than the horses. Other evidence and testimony called into question the official story claimed by the three deputies and embraced by the Murphy-Dolan faction.