Ex Lawmen Pete Gabriel and Joe Phy shoot it out

Florence, Arizona Territory — May 31, 1888

At about eight o’clock on the evening of May 31, 1888, shots from the Tunnel Saloon interrupted the usual activity along Florence’s Main Street. Inside, former Pinal County sheriff J. P. “Pete” Gabriel and his former deputy, Josephus “Joe” Phy, were firing at one another. The encounter moved through the front doorway and into the street, leaving both men wounded.

Phy died shortly after midnight. Gabriel survived, although the first reports described wounds serious enough to make his recovery uncertain.

The following afternoon, an inquest assembled testimony from men who had witnessed different portions of the encounter. Several said Gabriel fired first. They disagreed about whether Phy entered the saloon with a revolver already in his hand. After hearing the evidence, the coroner’s jury found that Gabriel had killed Phy in self-defense.

The newspaper report and published testimony preserve a detailed account of the shooting. They also reveal the limits of what witnesses could see as the men moved through the saloon and into the street.

A Former Sheriff and His Deputy

Gabriel and Phy had once worked together in the Pinal County sheriff’s office. By the spring of 1888, their relationship had deteriorated into a dispute that others in Florence recognized as dangerous.

The local report headed “A Double Tragedy” traced the beginning of their difficulties to an incident nearly three years earlier. According to the newspaper, Gabriel discharged Phy after finding him asleep while a satchel belonging to Gabriel remained exposed to theft. Phy then refused to vacate the sheriff’s office until Gabriel ordered him to leave. A subsequent meeting, the paper reported, produced further unnecessary talk from Gabriel.

Their disagreement later became entangled with county politics. Phy sought the sheriff’s office, and the newspaper described him as believing Gabriel’s opposition would undermine his chances of election. It also attributed part of the growing hostility to a remark Phy allegedly made concerning an assault on Gabriel at Casa Grande and Gabriel’s subsequent arrest of Phy.

These were the newspaper’s explanations of the feud. They establish how the local press described the falling-out, but they do not give us an independently verified account of every exchange between the men.

The Weekly Journal-Miner of June 6 likewise characterized the trouble as an old political feud, saying bad feeling had existed for two or three years. It reported that Gabriel, while attending United States court in Phoenix as a grand juror, had expressed reluctance to return home because he anticipated trouble.

At the Tunnel Saloon, proprietor J. G. Keating had heard enough to warn Gabriel. In his inquest testimony, Keating said Gabriel had been drinking at the bar immediately before the shooting. Keating told him that he had heard Gabriel and Phy were going to “shoot it out” and advised him to avoid the encounter.

Gabriel replied, according to Keating, that he was not going around town afraid of anyone. If anyone came to bother him, he would put his hand on his pocket.

Phy Enters the Saloon

The Tunnel Saloon was operated by Miller and Keating. A notice in the Arizona Weekly Enterprise of June 2 announced that the establishment had been remodeled and refitted and invited customers to visit. That ordinary business notice appeared alongside news of an extraordinary event at the saloon.

The witnesses placed Gabriel near the bar when Phy entered through the front door.

Henry Hammels, a twenty-two-year-old resident of Mesa City, testified that Gabriel asked Phy what he wanted. Hammels then saw Gabriel fire the first shot. He left as the shooting continued.

Keating also said Gabriel fired first. He recalled Gabriel calling “Joe,” reaching for his pistol, and firing before Phy. Keating remained long enough to describe the men moving toward the entrance.

Peter R. Brady Jr. supplied another account. He had entered with Gabriel shortly before Phy arrived. Gabriel had his hand in his waist and made the remark “Joe” as he fired, Brady testified. Phy then drew his pistol and returned fire.

Brady was confident that Phy had not entered with a pistol in his hand. John C. Harris, who had been sitting outside the saloon, likewise said he saw Phy enter without one drawn. Harris acknowledged, however, that Phy could have drawn a weapon after entering.

Thomas Sullivan remembered something different. He said he saw Phy enter with a revolver in his right hand, and that shooting began immediately afterward. Sullivan could not say which man fired first because the shots came so close together.

The testimony therefore supports a distinction that is easily lost in a shorter retelling. Several witnesses identified Gabriel as the first to fire. Whether Phy approached him with a weapon already drawn remained disputed.

From the Bar to Main Street

Keating testified that the first shot extinguished the front lamp. With the light out, he could see the flashes from the pistols but could not count the shots.

Brady’s recollection differed. He remembered the front lamp still burning when he left the saloon. The surviving testimony does not resolve that disagreement.

Keating said Phy moved away from the doorway toward the right corner while Gabriel worked along the bar toward the entrance. Gabriel went outside first, and Phy followed. More shots were fired in the street.

Other witnesses watched this portion from nearby businesses. J. W. Rannels had been standing near W. E. Guild’s office when he saw Phy approach the saloon. After the shooting began, Rannels and another man moved away. He subsequently saw Gabriel emerge, followed by Phy, and described additional firing outside. Guild corroborated Rannels’s testimony.

Keating’s account included a knife. After following the men outside, he heard Phy say he was dying. Gabriel replied that he was dying also and raised his head. Keating then saw Phy strike Gabriel in the neck with a knife.

The initial newspaper report described Phy lying wounded in the street while still holding a bowie knife, briefly discouraging people who tried to assist him. It counted eleven shots during the encounter. That number came from the report; the witnesses did not all claim to have counted the firing.

Phy was carried to the stage corral. Gabriel continued down Main Street toward the O.K. livery stable, where he fell and was assisted into a room.

The Wounded Men

Dr. W. M. Harvey examined Phy and later described three gunshot wounds to the inquest.

One bullet had struck the lower portion of the left thigh. Another had entered the abdomen above the navel. A third entered the shoulder and passed through the shoulder and lungs.

Harvey considered the shoulder wound fatal. He testified that the abdominal bullet had not entered the bowels, correcting the initial newspaper report’s speculation that intestinal injury had occurred.

The paper placed Phy’s death at approximately half past twelve that night, about four and a half hours after the shooting. The encounter began on May 31; his death therefore occurred in the early hours of June 1.

Gabriel’s condition also appeared dangerous. According to the first report, one bullet entered his left side close to the heart and exited below the left shoulder blade. A second entered near the right groin and passed out low near the spine.

A doctor was summoned from Sacaton, approximately eighteen miles away. Dr. Sabin reached Florence at about 1:30 in the morning. The newspaper reported that he found Gabriel enduring his wounds with considerable fortitude, but it warned that the injuries reduced his prospects of survival.

Phy’s funeral took place on the afternoon of June 1. The local account reported Masonic burial ceremonies at the grave.

The Inquest

Justice John Miller, acting as coroner, heard testimony on June 1. The published proceedings included statements from men inside the saloon, men watching from outside, and the physician who examined Phy.

Keating’s testimony supplied both an account of the shooting and evidence of the warning he had given Gabriel. Brady and Hammels identified Gabriel as the first to fire. Sullivan’s testimony placed a drawn revolver in Phy’s hand as he entered. Harris and Brady contradicted that detail.

The jury nevertheless reached a definite conclusion. Its verdict stated that Phy had died from a gunshot wound inflicted by J. P. Gabriel and that the act had been committed “in self defense.”

That was the coroner’s jury’s finding. The inquest was not a criminal trial, and its verdict should not be described as a trial acquittal.

The published proceedings establish that the jury heard testimony identifying Gabriel as the first shooter and still found self-defense. A faithful account must preserve both facts.

Gabriel’s Recovery

Gabriel’s survival became clearer over the following weeks.

On June 27, the Weekly Journal-Miner reported that he was improving and that his friends hoped for his eventual recovery. On July 4, it stated that he could be up and around for an hour or so each day and regarded his recovery as only a matter of time.

Those brief notices provide a documented ending to the immediate story. Phy had been buried the afternoon after the shooting. Gabriel remained alive and was gradually regaining his strength.

The Tunnel Saloon encounter left more than a fatality and a wounded survivor. It left testimony that allows the shooting to be examined closely without pretending that every detail is settled. Witnesses agreed on much of the sequence, disagreed about Phy’s drawn weapon and the saloon’s lighting, and described different portions of the struggle outside.

The inquest’s conclusion was clear. The circumstances leading to that conclusion require the fuller record: a longstanding feud, a warning before the encounter, Gabriel’s first shot, Phy’s return fire, and the fight that continued onto Main Street.

Sources and Notes

“A Double Tragedy,” Arizona Weekly Enterprise, June 2, 1888, page 3.

“The Inquest,” contemporary newspaper publication of testimony and the verdict dated Florence, June 1, 1888.

Arizona Weekly Enterprise, June 2, 1888, page 3: Tunnel Saloon business notice.

Weekly Journal-Miner, June 6, 1888, page 2; June 27, 1888, page 3; July 4, 1888, page 3.

The sources disagree about Phy’s age, so no age is assigned here. Descriptions of the feud are attributed to the contemporary newspaper account. Witness disagreements are retained, and the coroner’s verdict is distinguished from any subsequent court proceeding.