In the history of the American West, few names carried the weight of terror that Frank Stillwell’s did. A man of unyielding will and extreme cruelty, he earned a reputation as one of the most ruthless outlaws the frontier ever produced. His name alone was enough to strike fear into law-abiding citizens. Born Frank C.
Stillwell in Iowa in 1856, the son of William Henry Stillwell and Charlotte B. Sarah Winfrey, he moved with his family to Kansas Territory at a young age, settling near Palmyra along the Santa Fe Trail. There, Frank spent much of his youth watching the frontier expand and tensions with Native Americans escalate. In 1863, when Frank was seven, his parents divorced.
William took custody of their three sons, Jack, Millard, and Frank, while Charlotte took their two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. It was a difficult time for Frank, who struggled to accept his parents’ separation. Frank’s father, William, served in the Union Army during the Civil War as a soldier in Company B of the Eighteenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry under General William Tecumseh Sherman. William took part in Sherman’s famous march to the sea, which helped end the war.
Frank’s brother, Simpson “Comanche Jack” Stillwell, was an Indian fighter, scout, deputy U. S. marshal, police judge, and U. S.
commissioner. He was known for his strict stance on crime and unwavering dedication to justice, a stark contrast to the path Frank would eventually take. In 1877, Frank and his brother Simpson traveled from Anadarko in Indian Territory to Prescott, Arizona Territory. While in Prescott, Frank worked at the nearby Miller ranch.
There, he committed his first act of violence. On October 18, 1877, Frank got into an argument with the newly appointed cook, Jesus Vega. The argument escalated, and in a fit of rage, Frank drew his pistol and shot Vega in the lung, killing him. Frank was later acquitted on the claim of self-defense.
This incident set the stage for Frank to sink deeper into a life of crime. After the shooting, Frank left the Miller ranch and began working as a stagecoach driver for C. H. Hamlight.
He later claimed ownership of a mine in Mohave County, but his mining ventures were also marked by violence. On November 9, 1879, Frank became involved in a dispute over the mine’s ownership with Colonel John Van Houten. The argument turned violent, and Van Houten was brutally beaten with a rock. He died from his injuries, and Frank Stillwell and James Cassidy were charged with murder.
Despite the charges, both men escaped indictment by the grand jury due to lack of evidence. That was not the end of Frank’s troubles. In the 1880 census, Frank registered himself as a twenty-four-year-old living in Charleston and working as a fireman. He claimed he was born in Texas, though this may have been a lie.
Frank changed his identity many times and falsified information about himself. On September 8, 1881, a passenger trip on the Sandy Bob line in the Tombstone area, heading to Bisbee, Arizona, was robbed. Masked bandits stole all the passengers’ valuables and made off with a safe containing an estimated $2,500. During the robbery, the driver heard one of the robbers describe the money as “sugar,” a phrase known to be used by Frank.
Wyatt and Virgil Earp rode out with the sheriff’s posse to track down the outlaws. During the investigation, Fred Dodge, an undercover agent for Wells Fargo and A. M. P.
, discovered an unusual boot print left by someone wearing modified heels. The Earp brothers traced the boot to a shoe repair shop in Bisbee, known for making boots with wide legs, and were able to link the print to Frank Stillwell. When Stillwell arrived in Bisbee with his partner Pete Spence, he was arrested by Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, and Billy Breckenridge based on the evidence gathered. Judge Wells Spicer set Stillwell’s bail at $7,000, paid by C.
H. Hamlight. At the preliminary hearing, Stillwell and Spence presented several witnesses who supported their alibis. The word “sugar” used to describe the money and the unique boot print were not enough to convict Stillwell.
Judge Spicer dismissed the charges for insufficient evidence, just as he had done with Doc Holliday earlier that year. Despite the lack of evidence, many historians believe Frank Stillwell was indeed involved in the Sandy Bob robbery. Tensions in the Wild West of Arizona continued to escalate as the Earp brothers, Virgil and Wyatt, pursued the notorious “Cowboy” gang. On October 13, just two weeks after Frank Stillwell’s acquittal, Virgil, acting as deputy U.
S. marshal, filed new federal charges against Stillwell and his partner Pete Spence for obstructing a mail carrier. Earp believed they were responsible for a string of robberies, including the recent Sandy Bob holdup. The two men were taken to the territorial prison in Tucson to await trial.
While Virgil was in Tucson, he sent his brother Wyatt to serve as assistant city marshal in Tombstone in his place. But the Cowboys saw this as an opportunity for revenge. On October 18, Frank McLaury, a friend of Stillwell and Spence and a member of the Cowboy gang, confronted Morgan Earp and warned him that if they tried to arrest his friend again, they would be killed. The situation was tense, and newspapers made things worse by publishing inaccurate reports.
They claimed Stillwell and Spence had been arrested for robbing another stagecoach near “Contention City” on October 8, even though they were already in custody in Tucson at that time. This led to the false conclusion that the Earps were targeting innocent men and that Stillwell and Spence were being wrongly persecuted. The case was eventually dropped due to insufficient evidence, much to the frustration of the Earps and the citizens of Tombstone. The Cowboys would soon learn that the law was not something to be broken, and the confrontation at the O.
K. Corral was being set in motion. The day after the brutal assassination of Morgan Earp, investigator Dr. H.
M. Matthews began an intensive inquiry. Marita Duarte, the wife of the outlaw Pete Spence, made a shocking confession. She stated that her husband had returned home only an hour after the shooting, accompanied by Frank Stillwell, Indian Charlie, Frederick Bode, and an unidentified accomplice.
She also revealed that her husband had threatened her with force if she disclosed any information to the authorities. Other witnesses confirmed they had seen Frank Stillwell fleeing the scene of the crime. It was believed that Stillwell, Frederick Bode, Fries, and Florentino “Indian Charlie” were all involved in the murder of Morgan Earp. Meanwhile, Pete Spence turned himself in and was placed under guard in jail.
With the legal system failing, Wyatt Earp concluded he needed to deal with the problem himself. He believed the only way to avenge his brother’s death was to track down the attackers and kill them. The Earp brothers had been targeted by a group of outlaws, and Wyatt knew he could not rely on the courts to deliver justice. Tension between the Earps and the Cowboys had reached its peak.
On March 20, Wyatt Earp received news that his brother Virgil was being targeted by Frank Stillwell, Ike Clanton, Hank Swelling, and another Cowboy. They were planning to kill Virgil in revenge for their friend’s death at the O. K. Corral.
Wyatt realized he had to act quickly. He assembled a team of deputies, including Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, Turkey Creek Jack Johnson, and Sherman McMaster, and boarded a train to Tucson with Virgil and his wife Allie. They were all fully armed and determined to protect Virgil at all costs. Upon arriving in Tucson, Wyatt and his group saw Stillwell and his gang of Cowboys.
The tension was palpable. Virgil later told the San Francisco Examiner, “Most of the men we met on the sidewalk were Stillwell and his armed friends. They joined the crowd as soon as they saw me under guard, and the men took me to the hotel for dinner. ” During dinner, Wyatt and his men kept watch over Virgil and Allie, ready to move at any moment.
As the train left the station, gunshots rang out. Witnesses saw armed men fleeing but could not identify anyone. Wyatt later claimed he saw Stillwell and Ike Clanton, and that when he and his men approached, the two men fled. Stillwell tripped, allowing Wyatt to catch him.
In a story published in the Denver Republic, Wyatt testified that he shot Stillwell while the outlaw was trying to push aside the barrel of his rifle. Ike Clanton managed to escape and went to the press with his version of events. He testified that both he and Stillwell had gone to Tucson to clear their names of federal charges related to Stillwell’s involvement in the Bisbee robbery of 1881. But that was not the real reason for their trip.
It later became clear that the true motive was revenge against Virgil Earp, whom they believed had been involved in Stillwell’s arrest. Clanton also testified that Stillwell disappeared from the hotel before being found dead near the railroad tracks, shot multiple times. However, eyewitnesses reported seeing Stillwell and his gang armed on the sidewalk waiting for Virgil’s arrival. Some said Clanton and Stillwell were at the train station to meet a witness named McDowell, who was scheduled to testify before a grand jury.
When they realized the Earps were present, they knew trouble was brewing. Stillwell’s body was discovered the next day along the tracks, riddled with bullets. It was suggested that Stillwell’s poor shooting skills contributed to his early death. One thing was certain: the Earp brothers had become targets of the ruthless Cowboys, who would stop at nothing to seek revenge.
The Earps knew they had to remain vigilant and protect themselves. The American West was truly wild, and the Earp family was at the heart of its brutality. Frank Stillwell’s funeral, the man accused of involvement in Morgan Earp’s assassination, was a somber affair. On March 28, 1882, the Tucson Weekly Citizen reported that Stillwell’s coffin was transported to the grave by a fast wagon with no mourners accompanying it.
It was a sad and lonely end for a man who had lived a life full of violence and crime. Stillwell was originally buried in Tucson’s old city cemetery, but when the cemetery was relocated, most of the dead were reburied in a mass grave at Tucson’s Evergreen Cemetery.