Murder in the Pima County Jail

The Killing of Jailer Andrew Holbrook

Tucson, Arizona Territory — April 29, 1883

On the morning of April 29, 1883, what began as a complaint about dirty breakfast dishes inside the Pima County Jail ended with Jailer Andrew Holbrook mortally wounded and two prisoners facing a murder charge.

The details of the escape attempt would later be reconstructed in considerable detail. Nearly a year after the killing, the Arizona Weekly Citizen published an account of the case along with a diagram of the jail showing the prisoners’ cells, the broken bar through which they escaped, the jailer’s room, and the locations associated with the shooting.

One of the men involved, Joseph Casey, also gave his own account of what happened.

Taken together, the records provide an unusually detailed look inside the Pima County Jail on the morning Andrew Holbrook was killed.

A Complaint About Dirty Dishes

Joseph Casey and Harry Sinclair were prisoners in the county jail.

On the morning of April 29, a complaint was made that dishes used by the prisoners had not been properly cleaned. Holbrook went into the jail yard to speak with the prisoner responsible for washing them.

It appeared to be an ordinary jailhouse problem.

Inside, however, Casey and Sinclair were preparing to escape.

A bar near Casey’s cell had been worked loose, creating an opening through which the prisoners could get out of the cell area. The diagram later published by the Weekly Citizen specifically marked the location as the “Broken Bar.”

Once through, Casey and Sinclair gained access to the jailer’s quarters.

There they found the means to remove their restraints. More dangerously, they obtained firearms kept inside the room.

The prisoners were now outside their cell, free of their heavy restraints and armed.

Holbrook was still in the yard.

The Door Slams Shut

The layout of the jail became critical to what happened next.

A door separating the jailer’s area from the yard had been held open. According to the later account, the fastening holding it was pulled loose and the door was allowed to close.

The sound attracted Holbrook’s attention.

He returned to investigate.

Casey later described what happened when Holbrook entered. His account must be treated for what it is—the recollection of a condemned prisoner given after his conviction—but portions of it correspond with the diagram and other reporting of the shooting.

Holbrook encountered Casey armed with a revolver.

Rather than simply allowing the prisoners to pass, the jailer attempted to stop him.

Casey fired.

The first shot missed.

The diagram published by the Weekly Citizen later marked a position inside the jailer’s area as “Casey, 1st shot.”

The confrontation continued.

Holbrook then became aware that Sinclair was also armed.

With two armed prisoners loose inside the jail, Holbrook moved toward the doorway leading back toward the yard.

Casey fired again.

This shot struck the jailer.

The newspaper’s diagram marks a second position as “Casey, 2d shot,” with Holbrook’s position shown nearby.

Holbrook had been badly wounded, but he was still able to move through the doorway.

The prisoners did not escape.

Holbrook Is Mortally Wounded

Medical help was summoned.

Dr. John C. Handy attended Holbrook, who was subsequently taken to St. Mary’s Hospital.

The wound proved fatal.

Andrew Holbrook died later that day.

The attempted jailbreak had failed, but Tucson now had something considerably more serious on its hands. A county jailer had been shot while performing his duties, and the men responsible remained inside the jail.

Casey and Sinclair were secured.

For Tucson authorities, however, keeping the prisoners behind bars was only part of the problem.

Anger in Tucson

Word of Holbrook’s shooting spread through town.

The killing generated considerable anger, and reports soon circulated that citizens were considering taking matters into their own hands.

A gathering was reported at Levin’s Park and Brewery, a well-known Tucson meeting place.

There was talk of removing the prisoners from the jail and administering punishment without waiting for the courts.

Such threats could not be dismissed lightly in territorial Arizona. Mob violence and lynching were very real possibilities, particularly when a killing generated strong public anger.

Sheriff Bob Paul had custody of Casey and Sinclair, however, and the prisoners remained under the protection of the law.

Security at the jail was strengthened.

Whatever intentions may have been discussed among angry Tucson residents, Casey and Sinclair were not taken from their cells that night.

The threatened immediate punishment never occurred.

Reconstructing the Shooting

What makes the Holbrook case particularly interesting today is the surviving diagram published by the Arizona Weekly Citizen on April 19, 1884.

It provides more than a general floor plan.

The drawing identifies Casey’s Cell, another cell described as the one occupied by Casey with a close fastening, the Broken Bar, the guard’s corridor, jailer’s room, sheriff’s office, jail yard and the entrance from the jail gate.

It also marks the positions associated with the shooting.

For a nineteenth-century newspaper account, it is an unusually useful piece of evidence.

The diagram allows the reader to follow the movements described in the accompanying story: the prisoners leaving the cell area, entering the jailer’s quarters, Holbrook approaching from the yard, and the confrontation occurring near the doorway.

The newspaper even included the gallows in the jail yard.

That detail had particular meaning when the diagram appeared.

It was published almost a year after Holbrook’s murder, when Joseph Casey’s own case had reached its end.

Casey’s Version

The accompanying Weekly Citizen article included a lengthy account of Joseph Casey and his statements concerning Holbrook’s death.

Casey’s words are valuable, but they require caution.

By the time the article appeared, Casey had been convicted and was awaiting execution. He had every reason to explain his actions in the manner he considered most favorable to himself.

His account therefore should not be confused with an independent eyewitness report.

Even so, it provides details that can be compared against the physical arrangement shown in the newspaper diagram and other accounts of the killing.

That distinction is important.

The purpose is not to decide what Casey must have been thinking or to recreate conversations that cannot be established. The surviving evidence already tells a compelling story.

Two prisoners found a way out of their cell.

They obtained weapons inside the jail.

Andrew Holbrook discovered what was happening and confronted them.

Joseph Casey fired at him.

The first shot missed.

The second did not.

Holbrook died from his wound.

And Casey and Sinclair remained in custody.

The Jail Held

The escape attempt had accomplished almost nothing its participants intended.

Casey and Sinclair had freed themselves from their cell and restraints and obtained firearms, but they never made it out of the Pima County Jail.

Instead, Andrew Holbrook was dead.

The killing transformed the legal situation facing the prisoners and stirred enough anger in Tucson that authorities had to protect the accused from possible mob action.

For Joseph Casey in particular, the consequences would eventually lead back to the same jail yard where the escape attempt had begun.

The diagram published the following year shows a small enclosure standing apart from the main jail building.

It is labeled simply:

Gallows.

Historical Source

Arizona Weekly Citizen, Tucson, April 19, 1884. The newspaper’s extensive account of Joseph Casey included Casey’s recollections of the Holbrook killing and the published “Diagram of Pima County Jail.” Because the account appeared nearly a year after the April 29, 1883 shooting and shortly before Casey’s execution, statements attributed to Casey should be regarded as Casey’s version of events rather than independent proof of every detail.