The Riverside Escape of November 1889

Eugene Middleton reached Riverside about seven o’clock on the morning of November 2, 1889. He had been shot through the face and neck, searched for valuables, and left behind as eight Apache prisoners escaped. Sheriff Glenn Reynolds and his guard, W. A. Holmes, were still lying beside the road.

The day before, Middleton had driven out of Globe with the two officers and nine prisoners bound for the territorial prison at Yuma. Now he was back at Riverside on foot, bringing word that Reynolds and Holmes were dead.

News soon reached the surrounding towns. Understanding exactly what had happened took longer. Even after the survivors had given their accounts, some details remained in dispute. [1]

The party had left Globe on the morning of November 1. According to the Arizona Silver Belt, Middleton drove a large coach drawn by four horses. Holmes and the Mexican prisoner, Jesus Avott, rode with him on the front seat, while Reynolds accompanied the coach on horseback. Eight Apache prisoners rode inside.

By the following morning, they had passed Riverside and reached a long grade. The coach was heavily loaded, and prisoners were taken out to lighten it for the climb.

The restraints became a point of disagreement almost immediately.

One version had the prisoners shackled together by their legs, making it difficult for them to walk. Deputy Sheriff Ryan disputed that. He told the Silver Belt that only three pairs of leg irons had been used when the party left Globe: two on prisoners who remained in the coach, and one on Avott.
Avott’s irons were removed when the prisoners got out. The Apache prisoners walking with the officers were handcuffed in pairs. [1]

Middleton drove ahead with the Apache Kid and another prisoner still inside the coach. Behind them came Avott, Reynolds, six Apache prisoners, and Holmes.

For a time, the walking prisoners remained some distance from the officers. Then the gap narrowed.

The Silver Belt’s November 9 account said the prisoners edged closer until they were only a few feet away. Two seized Reynolds from behind. Another pair turned on Holmes before he could bring his rifle into use.

Avott saw the struggle begin and ran toward the coach.

According to the newspaper, he shouted a warning to Middleton that the prisoners were killing the officers.

Middleton had heard shots, but the paper said he initially supposed Reynolds was firing them. Avott’s arrival told him otherwise. [1] The newspaper’s later account, published November 23, added more detail from Avott. It also made clear that another version was circulating.

Avott reportedly said Holmes fell when the prisoners seized him, “as though he had fainted.” One of the attackers, identified in that account as Pash-ten-tah, took Holmes’s rifle and went toward Reynolds, who was struggling with the men holding him.

According to Avott, Pash-ten-tah shot Reynolds with Holmes’s rifle. He and his companion then returned to Holmes and shot him where he lay.

The other account

This report was passed from one of the fugitives through reservation contacts, named Hos-cal-te as the man who shot both officers and Middleton. It also described Reynolds being shot with his own shotgun.
The Silver Belt printed both versions, but its editor considered Avott’s more likely to be correct. The accounts agreed that the prisoners had overpowered the officers and obtained their weapons. They disagreed over who fired them and the order of the shootings. [2]

The November 9 article also described the officers’ wounds.

It reported three or four buckshot wounds in Reynolds’s face and head, along with a pistol wound entering near the left shoulder and passing through his trunk.
For Holmes, it reported one gunshot wound. The bullet had entered his left arm, passed through his heart, and exited on the right side. The paper reported no other wounds on his body. [1]

Avott’s description of Holmes falling as though he had fainted does not establish why he collapsed. But the contemporary newspaper described a bullet passing through his heart. Although the original inquest record has not been located for this article, that reporting gives us reason to question later accounts attributing his death solely to a heart attack.
Up ahead, Middleton drew his pistol and covered the Apache Kid, ordering him back into his seat. The other prisoner got out and ran back toward the struggle.

Middleton leaned out to see what was happening. A shot struck him in the right cheek, passed through his face and neck, and came out at the back of his neck. The Silver Belt reported that it narrowly missed the vertebrae.
He fell to the ground beside the coach.

The newspaper described him as conscious, lying face down with an arm underneath him. When one of the prisoners pulled at his coats to search him, Middleton let his body go limp. The man concluded that he was dead.
The November 9 account said the Apache Kid then jumped from the coach and joined the others. It did not include the familiar later story that the Kid stopped another prisoner from killing Middleton. [1]

Even the identity of Middleton’s shooter was uncertain.

Middleton believed that the prisoner who had left the coach returned with Reynolds’s shotgun and fired at him from beside the road. But Dr. J. W. Largent, who examined the wound, believed Middleton had been struck by a small-caliber rifle bullet. The Silver Belt discussed both possibilities.

Two weeks later, Avott’s account attributed the shooting to Pash-ten-tah and his companion. It also disputed the accusation against Hos-cal-te, placing him at the stage during the attack on the officers. The reports do not allow us to settle those differences confidently. [1][2]

After the shooting, the prisoners searched the officers and Middleton.

The Silver Belt reported that Reynolds’s gold watch and chain were taken, along with cash and papers. Holmes’s pockets were turned out. Middleton lost money, a watch, and other belongings. The prisoners also took weapons and ammunition.
According to the November 9 account, after the men had started away, one returned and stood in the road watching Middleton. Middleton remained still, fearing another shot if he moved.

The man eventually passed on. Only after the prisoners disappeared did Middleton get up and make his way back to Riverside. [1]

Avott had also escaped the immediate scene, although his account shows that he had been frightened of both sides.
In the statement published November 23, he said he feared Holmes might shoot him if he went to help. He also feared Middleton would mistake him for an attacker. When he reached the coach, Middleton reportedly covered him with his pistol and ordered him aboard.

After Middleton was shot, Avott ran.

He said two of the fugitives fired at him as he climbed a nearby knoll.
The November 9 report said Avott later obtained a stage horse and rode to Florence, initially using a white rancher as an intermediary to report what had happened. By November 23, the paper reported that Governor Lewis Wolfley had pardoned him and that he had returned to Globe. [1][2]

Help came to the scene, but too late for Reynolds and Holmes.

The Silver Belt identified D. H. Snyder and a watchman from the Ray mine as the first to reach the bodies. They found tracks beside the road and initially thought the officers might have been ambushed by an outside party.
The paper stated that this was supposition. The tracks did not establish that anyone beyond the prisoners had participated.
The bodies were taken to Riverside, where the Pinal County coroner held an inquest that afternoon. A party later brought them back to Globe, arriving Sunday afternoon. [1]

Middleton’s mother accompanied him when he was taken to Florence for care. Dr. Mann came from San Carlos to examine him. By the time the November 9 article appeared, Middleton’s condition had improved, and the paper expected him to be able to return to Globe within a few days.

The military and civilian pursuit was already underway. Troops moved toward Riverside and into the surrounding country, while posses followed the fugitives’ trail. The Silver Belt described tracks becoming difficult to follow in rocky country and parties returning exhausted.

On November 5, Governor Wolfley issued a reward proclamation.

It placed the killings on the public highway between Riverside and Florence, in Pinal County, and described Holmes as acting as Reynolds’s deputy or guard.

The territorial reward was $500, subject to the proclamation’s conditions concerning conviction following capture alive, or authenticated evidence that fugitives had been killed during a lawful attempt at capture.

A separate Gila County notice, dated November 14 and signed by Sheriff Jerry Ryan, offered $50 for each named fugitive. The list included the Apache Kid. [3][4]

Ryan also advertised for Reynolds’s missing watch.

The notice described a heavy gold case, handsomely chased, with “G. R.” engraved on the front and “Glenn Reynolds” inside both covers. Attached to it had been a massive gold chain with a buckle-like link. Ryan offered a reward for information leading to the recovery of either.

The advertisement was still appearing in the Silver Belt on December 28. [4]

The prisoners had never reached Yuma. Reynolds and Holmes had been returned to Globe, and Middleton had survived a wound that the first reports suggested might kill him.

The newspapers continued trying to sort out who had done what on the grade beyond Riverside. Their accounts leave disagreements over the shootings, but they also preserve the details of the return: the officers’ bodies, a wounded driver receiving care, and an advertisement seeking a watch engraved with Reynolds’s name.

Sources and research notes

[1] Arizona Silver Belt, “Victims of Apaches.” Supplied clipping, treated as the November 9, 1889, account explicitly referenced in the November 23 follow-up. Confirm the date and page against the full issue before publication.

[2] Arizona Silver Belt, November 23, 1889, page 3, “The Riverside Tragedy—The Indians Who Killed the Officers Identified.”

[3] Governor Lewis Wolfley’s reward proclamation, dated November 5, 1889. Newspaper identification and publication date are not visible in the supplied crop.

[4] Arizona Silver Belt, December 28, 1889, page 3. County reward notice dated November 14, 1889, and advertisement seeking Reynolds’s watch and chain.

Additional early reporting: Tucson Citizen, November 2, 1889, page 1, “Another Indian Tragedy”; Arizona Daily Star, November 3, 1889, page 1, “Eight Apache Convicts.” Portions repeat the same courier dispatch and should not be counted as independent corroboration.

Editorial note: The detailed shooting sequence is attributed to the newspaper’s rendering of Avott’s account. The alleged fugitive account was transmitted indirectly. Neither has been treated as an original sworn statement. The original coroner’s inquest has not been examined.
Names follow the spellings in the cited clippings. Variant spellings should be checked against court or prison records before identifying the named prisoners across different reports.