William Brocius - Texas Origins?

Texas Origins?

In late October, 1880, Wyatt Earp transported Brocius to Tucson for trial in the shooting death of Marshal Fred White. During that trip Brocius told Wyatt Earp that he had escaped from prison in El Paso, Texas. The El Paso Daily Times speculated that he was the man that Texas Ranger Thomas Mode shot in the right ear. According to Earp, Curly Bill asked him about lawyers during the journey, and Earp recommended a man named James Zabriskie. Curly Bill had said he could not use Zabriskie because Zabriskie had years earlier been his state prosecutor for a crime he had been convicted of in El Paso, Texas—a robbery in which a man had been killed. The Tombstone Epitaph reported that "Within the past few years he stopped a stage in El Paso County, Texas, killing one-man and dangerously wounding another. He was tried and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary, but managed to make his escape shortly after being incarcerated."

Later historical work based on these events has linked Brocius with a man known as William "Curly Bill" Bresnaham who was convicted in a robbery attempt in Texas in 1878 along with another known cowboy of the Tombstone area named Robert Martin. The men were convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, but both escaped, presumably to the southwest Arizona Territory. Since both Robert Martin and Curly Bill became known as leaders of the rustlers in Arizona Territory, they are likely the same Robert Martin and Curly Bill of the Texas crime. Wyatt Earp reported that Brocius told him he was from Texas. According to historian Robert M. Utley, Robert Martin was a member of the Jesse Evans gang of outlaws in New Mexico during the mid-to-late 1870s. Billy the Kid briefly joined this group before going to work for John Tunstall. Evans's gang, a looseknit consortium of desperadoes known as "The Boys", ended up fighting against the "Regulators" during the Lincoln County War. Because of the time frame, the location, and his friendship with Martin, Curly Bill Brocius may have been a member of the Evans gang as well.