M. R. Peel’s Funeral and the Inquest

Tombstone and Millville, Arizona Territory — March 26 to April 3, 1882

On Sunday afternoon, March 26, 1882, Tombstone gathered to bury Martin Ruter Peel. The twenty-six-year-old engineer had been shot to death the previous evening inside the Tombstone Mill and Mining Company office at Millville. Two masked riflemen had entered the office, fired two shots, and disappeared into the darkness. No clear motive had been established.

The funeral came before the investigation had produced answers. What Tombstone had instead was a dead young man, a grieving father, and another killing added to a period of extraordinary violence in Cochise County.

The Funeral at the Tough-Nut Office

According to the Tombstone Epitaph, Peel’s remains were brought to the company’s office at the Tough-Nut mine. The funeral took place there at about half past four on Sunday afternoon. The newspaper described a large gathering of people who had assembled to pay their respects.

The service was conducted by the Rev. Endicott Peabody, rector of the Episcopal church. The Epitaph gave unusual attention to the young clergyman, reporting that he was visibly affected while conducting the service. The account described the room as deeply emotional, particularly when Peel’s father entered.

Judge Bryan L. Peel had lost his son without warning. The newspaper reported that men not accustomed to showing emotion were moved by the sight of the grieving father. The tablet on the coffin identified the dead man as M. R. Peel, twenty-six years old and a native of Texas.

After the service, the procession accompanied Peel’s remains to the cemetery, where he was buried.

Judge Peel Speaks

On the same newspaper page, the Epitaph printed a short statement addressed “To the People of Tombstone” and signed B. L. Peel. It is important because the words were not an editorial interpretation of his grief; they were presented as Judge Peel’s own statement.

Peel began by acknowledging that he might not be in a condition to express a calm opinion. He then addressed the law-abiding citizens of Cochise County. In his view, the community faced a criminal class that could not be successfully convicted through the courts. Citizens, he argued, would have to organize for their own protection and “protect yourselves and wipe them out,” abandon the country to them, or face being murdered one at a time as his son had been.

The statement captures the anger surrounding the murder better than any later retelling could. It was the reaction of a father whose son had been killed only hours earlier, but it also reflected a wider fear in Tombstone: if a young engineer with no known enemies could be murdered while sitting in his employer’s office, who would be next?

The Coroner’s Inquest Begins

The coroner’s inquest opened on March 27. Rather than immediately naming suspects, the inquiry began by reconstructing what had happened inside the Millville office.

Company clerk George W. Cheyney described the arrival of the two masked men and prepared a diagram showing the positions of the men in the office. He testified that the attackers entered with rifles leveled and that the shooting followed almost immediately. After the gunmen fled, Cheyney and the other survivors armed themselves, went outside, and helped summon additional men.

When they returned to the office, Peel had no pulse. His clothing had caught fire from the close-range shot. His body was moved into an adjoining room.

Cheyney knew of no enemy who would have wanted Peel dead. He could suggest robbery as a possible motive, but the gunmen had demanded neither money nor bullion. He also testified about the two rockets seen after the shooting on a line between Charleston and Tombstone. Their connection to the murder, if any, was never established.

F. F. Hunt, the company assayer who had been in the office, likewise knew of no personal dispute involving Peel. Housekeeper Mary Melane, whose room was above the office, testified that she heard the shooting and believed she heard Peel cry out.

Other witnesses described flashes or rockets seen after the shots. Henry Nelson testified that he found a hat in front of the office. The hat became one of the principal physical clues examined during the inquiry.

A Revolver and the Tracks Outside

On the second day of testimony, mill manager W. L. Austin added an important detail to the account of the shooting. Austin testified that he had a revolver near him and reached for it when the armed men entered. He believed Peel may also have made a movement and thought that could have prompted the shot. Austin dropped behind the counter and escaped the second shot.

This testimony is more precise than the initial newspaper account and clarifies an uncertainty in the first reports of the murder.

Austin had also examined tracks outside the office. He described two different sets of boot prints. One measured approximately nine and one-half inches long and three and one-half inches wide. The other was larger and showed distinctive hollows in the heels. Horse tracks were also followed from the area. One animal appeared large and recently shod.

The tracks seemed promising, but they would prove much harder to identify conclusively than newspaper speculation initially suggested.

The White Hat and Henry Raymond

The inquiry also turned toward a man named Henry Raymond. His movements near Charleston and Millville were examined, as were his hat and boots. Raymond denied wearing a white hat and gave testimony about when he had traveled through the area. His statements concerning the timing of his trip were not entirely consistent.

Other witnesses were called to establish when and where Raymond had been seen. The testimony created questions but did not establish that Raymond had been one of the masked gunmen.

The hat itself produced another problem. On the fourth day of testimony, T. J. Harrison of Charleston said the hat shown at the inquest resembled one he had once worn. He believed he had obtained his hat from Fin Clanton, who reportedly said it had come from a Charleston saloon keeper. Later testimony showed that similar hats were available locally. What had initially looked like a distinctive clue was becoming less certain.

Hunt and Grounds Enter the Investigation

While the inquest was underway, events elsewhere in Cochise County suddenly brought two other men to the attention of investigators: Zwing Hunt and Billy Grounds. They had been wanted on livestock-related charges, not for Peel’s murder. The violent attempt to arrest them and its consequences form a separate story.

For the Peel inquiry, however, their boots and horses became evidence. Witnesses who had examined the tracks at Millville were asked to compare them with footwear and animals associated with Hunt and Grounds.

The results were anything but conclusive.

Austin believed the boots might have made the tracks and said he was personally quite positive, but he could not swear that they had. He thought one of the horses corresponded closely with a track found near the mill, while he could not identify the other.

Henry Fishback thought one pair of boots might have made one of the tracks but was unsure. Ernst McClure also believed a pair might correspond. Carpenter J. E. Smith reached a different conclusion: in his judgment, none of the boots had made the tracks. Smith thought one of the horses might have left one set of hoofprints, but he also made clear that he was not an expert tracker.

The physical evidence therefore suggested possibilities, not identification.

The Last Witnesses

The fifth and final day of the inquest continued the examination of the tracks, boots, horses, and hat. D. H. Holt testified concerning the hat recovered after the shooting and noted that another man in Charleston possessed one like it.

Dr. H. M. Matthews then testified to the cause of death. The rifle ball had entered Peel’s right side and passed through his heart. Death had been immediate.

At that point the testimony was complete.

The Verdict

The jury recessed shortly after midday and reconvened to consider the evidence. Despite days of testimony, numerous witnesses, comparisons of boots and horse tracks, the recovered hat, and growing suspicion surrounding several men, the evidence did not establish the identity of either masked gunman.

The jury found that M. R. Peel, approximately twenty-six years old and a native of Texas, had died at the Tombstone Mill and Mining Company mills on the night of March 25, 1882, from a gunshot wound inflicted by “parties unknown to the jury.”

That distinction matters. Zwing Hunt and Billy Grounds would become strongly associated with the Peel murder in later accounts, and contemporary suspicion certainly turned toward them. But the coroner’s jury did not identify them as Peel’s killers.

For the moment, the murder remained officially unsolved.

The investigation had begun with two masked men disappearing from a Millville office. More than a week later, after five days of testimony, the law was no closer to proving who had pulled the triggers.

But while the inquest had been taking testimony, another violent encounter had already changed the direction of the story.

Sources and Research Notes

• Tombstone Weekly Epitaph, April 3, 1882, p. 3, reprinting the Daily Epitaph of March 27: funeral account, B. L. Peel’s “To the People of Tombstone” statement, and first day of the coroner’s inquest.

• Tombstone Weekly Epitaph, April 3, 1882, pp. 4-6 and p. 1: subsequent days of the coroner’s inquest, including testimony concerning Henry Raymond, W. L. Austin, the hat, boot and horse tracks, Hunt and Grounds, and the final verdict.

• Los Angeles Herald, March 28 and March 31, 1882: contemporary coverage of Peel’s murder and later suspicion concerning Hunt and Grounds.

• George W. Parsons diary, March 26, 1882: contemporary reaction to Peel’s murder and the wider concern over lawlessness.

• 1881 Arizona Business Directory and Gazetteer: B. L. Peel listed as an attorney at law at 317 Allen Street, Tombstone.

• Robert Lenon / SciHistory research compilation, “The Puzzling Assassination of Martin Peel in Millville and the President Threatens Martial Law,” used to cross-check the sequence and locate contemporary sources.

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