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Archive:William Brocius

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

Brocius is sometimes confused with "Curly Bill" Graham, who was a different outlaw of the same general place and period. [Curly Bill Graham was killed in a gunfight with deputy sheriff James D. Houck Oct. 17, 1887, buried in Young, Az, and is almost certainly not the Curly Bill of Charleston and Tombstone]. In newspapers of the time Brocius 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 the Arizona Territory, 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. These conversations were reported in the Tombstone Epitaph at the time. According to Earp, Curly Bill had asked him about lawyers during the journey, and Earp had recommended a man named Zabriski. Curly Bill had said he couldn't use Zabriski because Zabriski had years earlier been his state prosecutor for a crime he had been conviced of in Texas-- a robbery in which a man had been killed. Later historical work based in this fact has linked "Brocius" with a man then known as William "Curly Bill" Bresnaham, who was convicted in a Texas robbery attempt (1878) with another known "Cow-boy" of the later Tombstone area, named Robert Martin (see external link below). These men were convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison, but both escaped, presumably to the southwest Arizona Territory. Since both Robert Martin and Curly Bill became known as leaders of the rustlers in Arizona Territory, they are almost certainly the same Robert Martin and Curly Bill of the Texas crime.

Wyatt was transporting Brocius to Tucson for trial after the 1880 shooting of Tombstone town 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. Wyatt Earp, acting in his capacity as deputy sheriff of Pima County, then took Brocius to Tucson the next day for trial, possibly averting a lynching. Brocius waived his right to a prelimiary hearing, which is good evidence he wanted to get out of town.

Virgil Earp would briefly succeed White as town marshal for a period of less than two weeks. However, U.S. deputy marshal Virgil Earp was not present at the White shooting, and held no local law enforcement post at that time.

White died two days after being shot, by which time Brocius was in jail in Tucson. Although formally charged with the murder of White, and spending most of November and December 1880 in jail 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 slowly 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 in July, 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, like the Haslett killings, also occurred quite near the time of Brocius' very serious wound, so his involvement in them is somewhat questionable. Diarist George Parsons saw Brocius on October 6 at the ranch of the McLaury brothers in the Sulphur Spring Valley, while Parsons was riding as part of an indian scouting party, and noted that even by then, Curley Bill was well enough to right, but had not yet completely recovered from his wound 5 months before.

Following the death of Old Man Clanton (Newman Haynes Clanton) in the Guadeloupe Canyon Massacre in August, 1881, Brocius probably a primary leader in the very loose-knit cow-boy gang. Parson's refers to Brocius as "King of the Cow-boys" in early October, 1881. Following the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in October, 1881, Brocius may have participated in the attempt to kill Virgil Earp and (more probably) the later assassination of Morgan Earp. Again, however, Brocius was not charged.

After the murder of Frank Stilwell by the Earp party (March 20, 1882) 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 Curly Bill on March 24, 1882 at Iron Springs (today's maps show this as Mescal Springs). Brocius was camping, and was surprised while in the act of cooking over a campfire near the springs. It may have been Wyatt's good that Brocius, an excellent pistol shot, chose to use a shotgun as his first weapon (he may not have had his pistols one). In the gunfight that followed, Wyatt killed Brocius with a double shotgun blast to the chest from a range of about 50 feet. Brocius narrowly missed, hitting only Wyatt's long winter coat and frock.

Wyatt's account from memory, 45 years later, of the fight at Iron Springs, given to biographers John Flood (unpublished manuscript-- see link below) 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 happen much as Wyatt told it, it is difficult to explain how Earp would remember a fiction made up with Holliday, after nearly half a century, as well as if it had actually happened.

After Brocius' death, his friends were said by Flood to have buried the body on the nearby Frank Patterson ranch on the Babocomari River. This land, close to the original McLaury ranch before the McLaurys moved to the Sulphur Springs Valley in late 1880, originally is believed to have previously belonged to Frank Stilwell, and is located on the river, about five miles west of Fairbank. If so, the gravesite has been lost. Some claimed that Curly Bill escaped, changed his name, and went (back) 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 probably a wanted man). In any case, 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


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