John Heath

The Bisbee Massacre

When they hung John Heath from a telegraph pole,

 it wasn’t just because of the money he stole.

Four people lay dead in the streets of Bisbee,

 and the Bisbee citizens couldn’t find a tree.

Goldwater-Castaneda, was a bank and a store,

 cashin’ miners’ checks and a whole lot more.

Payday came for the Copper Queen Mine,

 Heath had a plan, it was clandestine.

He hired hard men, Arizona’s worst,

 robbers and killers, each of them cursed.

He’d hold a dance while the others robbed the place,

 then he’d lead the posse on a wild goose chase.

The plan started well, but who could foretell,

 it would go to hell, as the victims fell.

A woman great with child, three other bodies piled,

 tranquility defiled, a feat to be reviled.

As the killers headed out, Heath would know their route,

 he led the posse round about, his aim causin’ doubt.

With his cover blown, Heath lets out a groan,

 ‘til the facts are known, they’ll lock him in Tombstone.

One by one the gang is run in by the law,

 each plan to escape had a fatal flaw.

Sample and Howard trailed to a canyon,

 maybe shoulda’ picked a better companion

 Kelly spies a freight on which he will hop,

  gets caught by the Marshal at the Deming stop.

 Dowd and Delany head for Sonora,

  Coverin’ their faces with a fedora.

 Gringos cannot hide in a Mexican town,

  Daniels will track both of them down.

A trial brings justice for these miscreants;

  killin’ those people was a capital offence.

Heath’s separate trial, takes a little while,

 he’ll smirk and he’ll smile, ‘cuz he is so vile.

Though it isn’t right, Heath’s sentence is light,

 a hundred Bisbeeites, assemble in the night.

They hit the county jail, where he’s held without bail,

 Heath goes kinda’ pale, justice might prevail.

They ain’t got no gallows, they ain’t got no tree,

 they’ll hang him on a pole just for all to see.

Heath will proclaim he’s an innocent man,

 the Bisbee Massacre wasn’t his plan.

He asks that they not fill him full of shot,

  he just wants a cross and a Boot Hill plot.

Death by strangulation was the Coroner’s call,

 the rope was too short and the pole was too tall.

It might be self-inflicted, one can’t never tell,

 it don’t even matter, Heath is gone to Hell.

Later Sheriff Ward builds a people dropper,

 so the rest can hang, legal and proper.

A crowd of two thousand in Old Tombstone,

 watch them drop, their sins to atone.

Thus ends the story, I’m sorry it was gory,

 there ain’t much glory in Outlaw Purgatory.

LDT May 8, ‘22

          John Heath (or Heith) planned and organized the Bisbee Massacre. He knew that the Copper Queen payroll at the Goldwater-Castaneda store would be an easy prize. He recruited his accomplices in Clifton and closed his saloon there. Then he opened a new establishment in Bisbee for the sole purpose of distracting the citizenry from the robbery. On the evening of December 8, he held a big dance.

          The robbery soon went horribly wrong. Two passers-by were shot and killed when they refused to comply with the robber’s instructions. When Deputy Sheriff Tom Smith tried to intervene, he was shot and killed. Annie Roberts, who was 8 months pregnant, was killed as she looked out from her boarding house.

          The five robbers were tried together, but Heath managed to get a separate trial. Though some of the gang had implicated Heath earlier, they refused to testify against him. With a weakened case, the prosecution was only able to get a conviction on Second-Degree murder charges. Judge Pinney sentenced Heath to life in the Territorial Prison. His attorney immediately announced an appeal.

          Angered by Heath’s light sentence, a mob formed in Bisbee. Joined by others from Tombstone, they forcibly removed Heath from the Cochise County Jail on the morning of February 22, 1884. His lynching was immortalized by frontier photographer C.S. Fly.

          The other five gang members, “Tex” Howard, “Big Dan” Dowd, “Red” Sample, “York” Kelly and “Billy” Delaney were legally hung on March 28, 1884. A thousand people crowded into the grounds of the Cochise County courthouse to see the event while another thousand watched from outside. A bleachers was set up to enhance the view from outside. It was torn down the night before the executions. I believe this was the largest mass execution in Arizona history.

Contemporary News clippings from the Bisbee Massacre:

The Bisbee Massacre – Outlaws, Outrages and Outright Lies (azrockdodger.com)

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