The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Badge recalls the violent 1870s, when a war broke out between several wealthy ranchers and a trio of corrupt businessmen in the city of Lincoln. The most famous participant in the conflict was William Henry McCarty, aka William H. Bonney, better known as “Billy the Kid,” though the outlaw gained most of his notoriety during the Lincoln County War by killing the sheriff. William Brady and several deputies. wearing Lincoln County insignia. The troubles in Lincoln County began when city merchants Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan were joined by a third partner named John Riley in his Murphy and Dolan Mercantile and Banking ownership. At the time, Lincoln County was the largest county in the nation, encompassing approximately 20% of all New Mexico, but that soon changed. Governor Axtell, who was directly siding with Murphy-Dolan in the dispute, outlawed the regulators. Undeterred, the Regulators made plans to settle scores with Sheriff William Brady, whom they suspected of looting Tunstall’s store after his death. Within a month, six Regulators, including The Kid, ambushed and killed Sheriff Brady and George Hindman, another of her deputies, in the middle of Lincoln’s main street. Brady suffered at least a dozen injuries and Hindman was shot twice.
Murphy, Dolan, and Riley were part of a corruption network that stretched as far as the territorial capital of Santa Fe. They used their political connections to obtain government contracts with Fort Stanton and soon controlled virtually all commerce in the large county. The immense profits from the products they sold at exorbitant prices in their store, coupled with the low prices they paid smaller ranchers for their cattle, understandably angered the county’s less prosperous residents.
Lincoln’s attorney, Alexander McSween, was sympathetic to the plight of smaller ranchers. He and John Tunstall, a wealthy English cattle rancher, opened a rival mercantile store to compete with Murphy and Dolan’s monopoly store. His new venture was financially backed by John Chisum, another wealthy rancher in the region who owned more than 100,000 head of cattle. The John Wayne film “Chisum” is based on the main characters of the Lincoln County Saga.
In 1878, Murphy and Dolan used their political connections to obtain a court order granting them the right to Tunstall’s sixteen horses as payment for a debt he allegedly owed. The gang formed by Sheriff William Brady to serve the order and the sixteen horses was made up mostly of criminals. Many were members of the Jessie Evans Gang, a gang of outlaws that once counted Billy The Kid among its members. The gang bided its time until Tunstall was caught alone in the open on February 18, 1878. When he objected to his presence on his land, he was shot dead by Jessie Evans, William Morton, and Frank Baker. Although they were too far away to prevent the murder, several of Tunstall’s “cattle guards”, including The Kid, witnessed it from a distance. It was Tunstall’s murder that ignited the Lincoln County conflict into a full-blown range war.
Outraged by the murder, The Kid and several of Tunstall’s “cattle guards” formed their own gang called “The Regulators”. Led by Dick Brewer, Tunstall’s ranch foreman, the Regulators’ sole reason for existing was to track down and apprehend Tunstall’s killers. The Regulators soon drove off Morton and Baker and battled the two men on the field until they surrendered. The Regulators returned to Lincoln a few days later claiming that Morton and Baker had been killed during an alleged escape attempt. Few believed this story, given the number of bullet holes in the two men, but since the Regulators had arrest warrants charging Morton and Baker with Tunstall’s murder (obtained by Alex McSween), they were still operating within the confines of the law. though dimly–at that point.
It may have been corrupt, but the violent murder of Sheriff Brady and his deputy on Lincoln’s main street was enough to convince many other county residents that there were no ‘good guys’ in the conflict, as both sides in the range the war seemed equally bloody.
John Copeland was appointed sheriff to replace the late Brady, but when he refused to take sides in the conflict, Murphy-Dolan again called on his corrupt political associates to remove him and replace him with one of their own. Sheriff George Pippin not only favored the Murphy-Dolan faction, he was on their payroll. The bloodshed continued with sporadic killings, eventually culminating in a five-day siege of McSween’s home in Lincoln, during which his house was burned down. The Regulators who had taken refuge in the house managed to escape and flee, but McSween was shot dead, though he was unarmed when he ran out of the burning house.
In the fall of 1878, President Hayes appointed Governor Lew Wallace to replace the corrupt Governor Axtell, whose collusion with the Murphy/Dolan group was a major factor in the Lincoln County conflict. In an attempt to end the rank war, Governor Wallace issued an amnesty for all combatants except Billy the Kid. The amnesty officially ended the range war.
Meanwhile, the Kid and his gang of supporters had been rusting cattle for a living and had become a serious problem for area ranchers, including John Chisum. In November 1880, Pat Garrett was elected Lincoln County Sheriff with Chisum’s endorsement, running on a platform to end cattle rustling in the county, with Governor Wallace offering a $500 reward for capture of Billy the Kid.
Sheriff Garrett and a posse tracked down and killed two of the remaining Regulators: The Kid’s closest compadres Tom O’Folliard and Charlie Bowdre, and on July 14, 1881, killed Billy the Kid at Fort Sumter, New Mexico. . All three are buried together at Fort Sumter. Their names are engraved on the headstone, below an epitaph that reads, simply, “Friends.” After the marker was stolen multiple times, it was surrounded by a heavy wire cage to deter further souvenir hunters.
