The Bisbee Massacre: Robbery, Murder and Retribution in Arizona Territory, 1883-1884

In December 1883, five outlaws attempted to rob the A.A. Castaneda Mercantile in the fledgling mining town of Bisbee in the Arizona Territory. The robbery was a disaster: four citizens shot dead, one a pregnant woman. The failed heist was national news, with the subsequent manhunt, trial and execution of the alleged perpetrators followed by newspapers from New York to San Francisco. The Bisbee Massacre was as momentous as the infamous blood feud between the Earp brothers and the cowboys two years earlier, and led to the only recorded lynching in Tombstone-John Heath, a sporting man, was thought to be the mastermind. But new research indicates he may have been innocent. This comprehensive history takes a fresh look at the event that marked the end of the Wild West period in the Arizona Territory.