Chasing the Train Robbers

The pursuit and first arrests  |  February 1900

This is Part 2 of a Multi part series. Start with Part 1 HERE

When the men left Fairbank on the evening of February 15, 1900, they had a wounded companion to deal with. Jack Dunlap had been hit during the gunfight at the express car. Wells Fargo messenger Jeff Milton was badly wounded too, but the robbers had gained little from the attack.

By the following morning, Dunlap was found on the route toward the Dragoon Mountains. His companions had gone on without him.

According to the newspaper reports that followed, Dunlap gave officers their names. The search now had men to look for, as well as a trail to follow.

Across the Dragoons

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tom Broderick joined the pursuit with Sid Mullen and Tom Vaughn from Sheriff Scott White’s force, Charley Hood, Hooker Koontz, and Al White.

The Arizona Daily Star described their movements in its February 21 issue. This was the party, the paper said, that found Dunlap on the trail leading toward the middle pass of the Dragoons.

Another account placed him at Sycamore Springs, nine miles from Tombstone. The first reports had given a distance of about six miles. Wherever the precise spot was, Dunlap was in no condition to keep traveling.

The officers brought him into Tombstone in a conveyance. Then they headed out again.

On their next trip over the Dragoons, they encountered Bob Brown, whom the Star described as the leader of the five men involved in the holdup.

Brown apparently considered resisting. The paper said he “showed fight,” but gave way when faced with the posse’s guns.

Once captured, he agreed to lead the officers to the two brothers then being called Owen.

The report does not describe a long chase or another exchange of gunfire. Brown directed the party to their hiding place, and the brothers were taken without much difficulty. They were brought to Tombstone and lodged in jail.

In a few days, the search had produced Dunlap, Brown, and the two brothers. One man was still being sought: “Bravo Juan.”

Looking for Juan

Broderick left the posse after the brothers were captured and reached Tucson on Monday evening. The rest of the party continued the search, taking Brown along.

The Star reported that Bravo Juan was in Willcox. Broderick expected him to be difficult to catch, but he was confident the officers would get him.

That February 21 account still left Juan’s whereabouts and capture unsettled. The paper praised the speed of the pursuit, but made part of that praise conditional on whether he had actually been taken.

A later report announced that he had.

Special Detective J. H. Thacker was quoted as saying Bravo Juan had been captured across the border below Bisbee. The article, headed “Cochise—Fairbank,” declared that the five men involved in the Fairbank affair had all been rounded up.

The clipping does not tell us how Juan was caught or who made the arrest. For now, that part of the story comes through Thacker’s reported confirmation. The fuller account of his capture will have to wait until we find it.

By the time this news appeared, Dunlap was dead.

Dunlap in the Tombstone jail

The newspapers had doubted Dunlap would survive from the time he was found. One report described an abdominal wound from a full shotgun charge fired by Milton.

He was brought into the county jail, where he was held on a charge of attempting to rob the United States mail.

On February 22, A. H. Emanuel, identified in the report as both mayor and United States commissioner, sent Marshal Griffith a brief notice. Jesse P. Dunlap, alias “Three Fingered Jack,” had died at 7:30 that morning.

The notice described death as having discharged him from custody “because he stopped breathing.”

It was a grim way to record the end of the wounded man’s week in jail.

Dunlap’s reported statement had already become part of the robbery coverage. Newspapers said he named his companions when he was found. But the clippings we have do not contain his full words or explain who heard them and wrote them down.

That leaves us with the reported fact that he supplied names. It does not give us enough to put a detailed confession into his mouth.

The brothers before a commissioner

The case against the brothers was also moving forward.

Assistant United States Attorney T. D. Bennett came to obtain them on an additional charge of obstructing the United States mails. According to reporting reproduced from the Prospector, they were brought before Commissioner Emanuel, waived examination, and were held under $10,000 bonds pending action by the federal grand jury.

They were still accused men awaiting further proceedings.

The newspaper also corrected something that had been wrong in the earlier coverage: their names.

Readers had seen Owen and Owens. The docket, the report said, listed George and Lewis Owings.

It is a small correction, but a useful one. As this story continues through different newspapers and court reports, the same brothers can appear under several spellings. Here, we will use Owings, following the paper’s account of the docket entry.

News from Milton

Milton, meanwhile, was in a Tucson hospital.

He had been taken back to Benson after the holdup, then sent on for treatment. The first reports described a shattered arm and raised the possibility that it would have to be amputated.

The later “Cochise—Fairbank” article had better news. Milton was improving and, the paper said, was no longer suffering pain.

It was only a short update, but for people who had read the first alarming accounts, it was welcome news. He still had a recovery ahead of him.

The story begins to widen

The same newspaper article that reported Dunlap’s death and the brothers’ proceedings introduced two more names: Burt Alvord and B. F. Downing.

Both, it said, had been arrested and were in the Tombstone jail.

Their reported charges concerned the train robbery at Cochise the previous fall. Thacker said he had long believed Downing was involved in that robbery and had planned the Fairbank attack as well.

That was the detective’s position. It was not yet a finding from a trial, and the article did not place Alvord among the men who rushed Milton’s express car.

Still, the two robberies were now appearing together in the news. The investigation was reaching beyond the men pursued from Fairbank and into questions about who might have helped arrange the attacks.

That is where the next stretch of the story begins.

For this first week, the immediate pursuit had largely run its course. Dunlap was dead. Brown and the Owings brothers were in custody, and Juan’s capture was being reported. Milton was improving in Tucson.

The shooting at Fairbank had lasted only a short time. Sorting out the men’s involvement—and what the authorities could prove—would take considerably longer.

Sources and research notes

Arizona Daily Star, Wednesday, February 21, 1900, page 4, “Tom Broderick.” This report supplies the posse members, the return to Tombstone with Dunlap, Brown’s capture, the capture of the brothers, and the continuing search for Bravo Juan.

“A Fairbanks Hold-Up,” supplied newspaper clipping. The newspaper title, issue date, and page number are not visible in the crop and require confirmation before publication. This account reports Dunlap’s discovery at Sycamore Springs, nine miles from Tombstone, and says he named his accomplices.

“Cochise—Fairbank,” supplied newspaper clipping. The newspaper title, issue date, and page number are not visible in the crop and require confirmation before publication. It reports Thacker’s confirmation of Juan’s capture, the Alvord and Downing arrests, the brothers’ proceedings and corrected names, and Milton’s improvement. It reproduces Emanuel’s notice dated February 22 reporting Dunlap’s death at 7:30 that morning.

The earlier Fairbank coverage includes the Oasis of February 17, 1900, and the Tombstone Epitaph of February 18, 1900, page 1. Those reports provide the background to the holdup and initial discovery. Matching Prospector and Epitaph wording is treated as shared reporting rather than independent corroboration.

The reports differ on the distance from Tombstone to the place where Dunlap was found. His reported naming of companions, the suspects’ alleged roles, and Downing’s alleged planning remain attributed. The supplied clippings do not contain a complete statement by Dunlap or establish convictions.

The account of the brothers’ court appearance is introduced in the source as material from the Prospector. The clipping does not give the hearing date. Its placement here does not establish its exact timing relative to Dunlap’s death.

George and Lewis Owings follows the clipping’s description of the docket spelling. Owen and Owens appear in earlier reporting. Dunlap also appears as Jack and, in Emanuel’s reproduced notice, Jesse P. Dunlap.