Archive:William Brocius

William "Curly Bill" Brocius (18??-1882) was a western outlaw and member of the "cow-boys" of the Tombstone area in the Arizona Territory.

Brocius sometimes confused with "Curly Bill" Graham, who was probably a different outlaw of the same general place and period. Or Graham may be a different alias. In newspapers of the time he is usually known simply as Curly Bill, but later history has also referred to him by the spelling of Curley Bill. The spelling of "Brocious" has also been used (including in modern movies), but "Brocius" is the name the outlaw used for his maildrop in Tombstone, according to one published letter of the time. Brocius is probably an alias. His birth name (including middle initial) and date of birth remains unknown.

No known photograph of Brocius exists, but from description he was known to have been a big man, well-built, with curly black hair, and of freckled complexion.

Brocius is described by Billy Breakenridge in his book Helldorado as being the most deadly pistol shot of the cowboys, able to hit running jackrabbits, shoot out candle flames without breaking the candles or lantern holders, and able to shoot quarters from between the fingers of "volunteers." When drunk, Brocius was also known for a mean sense of humor, and for such "practical jokes" as using gunfire to make a preacher "dance" during a sermon, or making Mexicans at a community dance take off their clothes and dance naked. (Both incidents are reported by Wells, Fargo agent Fred Hume, and were alluded to in the period newspapers).

Brocius probably came immediately to the Arizona Territory from Texas, but his earlier history is a matter of question. Wyatt Earp, from conversations with Brocius while transporting him to Tucson for trial, thought he was an escaped outlaw from El Paso. According to Earp, Curly Bill said he had been prosecuted there for a stage robbery in which a man had been killed. Historical work has linked him with a man known as William "Curly Bill" Bresnaham connected in a Texas robbery attempt (1878) with another known "cow-boy" of the later Tombstone area, named Robert Martin (see external link below). Both men were convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison, but both escaped, presumably to the southwest Arizona Territory where both became known as leaders of the rustlers there.

Following the death of Old Man Clanton (Newman Haynes Clanton) in the Guadeloupe Canyon Massacre in August, 1881, Brocius became one of the leaders of a very loose-knit cow-boy gang. He had earlier been arrested for the 1880 death of Tombstone City Marshal Fred White, following an incident where Brocius's gun discharged, whether purposely or accidentally, while surrendering it to White. He was arrested immediately after the incident by Wyatt Earp, who "buffaloed" him (hit him over the head with a pistol barrel) in the process. Earp took Brocius to Tombstone the next day for trial, possibly averting a lynching. White died two days after being shot.

Although charged with the murder of White, and spending most of November and December 1880 in jail in Tucson awaiting trial, Brocius was finally acquitted with a verdict of accidental death. In favor of Brocius' case was that White himself, before he died from his wound, had testified that he thought the pistol had gone off on accident. Wyatt Earp also testified in favor of Brocius-- an irony given their later deadly feud.

Brocius was known as a rustler, but for a time, he also worked as a tax collection agent for Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, making other rustlers pay taxes on their stolen cattle (the money went into the sheriff's coffers and added to his salary).

In May, 1881, Brocius was shot by a compadre after an argument. The bullet passed though the neck and out the opposite cheek. Though the bullet must have passed very near vital structures, Brocius recovered.

In July, 1881 Brocius and Johnny Ringo were said to have gone to Hauchita, New Mexico to kill William and Isaac Haslett in revenge for the deaths of Clanton members Bill Leonard and Harry Head, who had attempted to rob the Haslett brothers' general store weeks earlier.

Later that month, Brocius was said to have led an ambush attacking a Mexican trail herd in the San Luis Pass killing six vaqueros and torturing the remaining eight men. There is no way of historically verifying these stories however, and Brocius was not charged with the crimes. These events also occured quite near the time of Brocius' serious wound, so his involvement in them is somewhat questionable.

Returning to Tombstone following the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in October, 1881, Brocius may have participated in the attempt to kill Virgil Earp and the later assassination of Morgan Earp. Again, Brocius was not charged. However, after the murder of Frank Stilwell by the Earp party in the Earp Vendetta Ride, Brocius was deputized, issued a warrant for Wyatt Earp by Sheriff Johnny Behan and sent to bring back Earp, who was in the Whetstone Mountains outside town. Earp, who was also looking for Brocius in revenge for the death of his brother Morgan, encountered Brocious March 24, 1882 at Iron Springs (today's maps show this as Mescal Springs). There, in the gunfight that followed, Wyatt killed Brocius with a double shotgun blast to the chest. Brocious also fired at the moving Wyatt, but narrowly missed, hitting Wyatt's coat on both sides.

Wyatt's account from memory, 45 years later, of the fight at Iron Springs, given to biographers John Flood and Stuart Lake (Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal) matches in all essential details an account of the fight given separately by a jailed Doc Holliday to a newspaper in Denver in May, 1882, just two months after the fight (and while Wyatt was in Gunnison). If the fight at Iron Springs didn't happened much as Wyatt told it, it is difficult to explain how Earp would remember a fiction made up with Holliday, even after nearly half a century, as well as if it had actually happened.

After Brocius' death, his friends probably buried the body on the nearby Patterson farm on the Babocomari River. If so, the gravesite has since been lost. Some claimed that Curly Bill escaped, changed his name, and went to Texas. However, he was never seen again in Tombstone after March 24, 1882, despite a $2,000 reward later put up by the Tombstone Epitaph for an authentic interview and sighting of him alive.

Tombstone historian Ben Traywick has argued that this was too much money for a man like Brocius to turn down for a chance to tweek the Earps and their supporters in the bargain, especially since he was not wanted by the law in Arizona for any crime, and had no reason to disappear when he did (and certainly no reason to go back to Texas, where he actually was wanted). But the money offered by the Tombstone Epitaph was never claimed.

Portrayals in Film

Brocius is played against type by a young Jon Voight in Hour of the Gun (1967). This was Voight's first film role. (Later Voight's break-through role would be as Joe Buck, the cowboy in Midnight Cowboy who parodies the Earp/Holliday relationship).

Brocius is played by Powers Boothe in the 1993 movie Tombstone (1993) starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp. This movie draws heavily on the Breakenridge book Helldorado.

Brocius is played by Lewis Smith in the 1994 movie Wyatt Earp (1994) starring Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp.

Resources

• Sifakis, Carl. Encyclopedia of American Crime, New York, Facts on File Inc., 1982

External links

http://www.westernoutlaw.com/stories/files/Showdown.pdf This includes some good quotes from historical documents assembled by Ben Traywick.

http://members.tripod.com/~Tombstonehistory/cbindex.html Cites and historical detective work on Curly Bill by Steve Gatto.

http://www.tombstone1880.com/archives/curly.htm Contemporary newspaper account of Curly Bill's near-fatal shooting in May, 1881.