User talk:Viriditas/sandbox47: Difference between revisions

Issues

Posse members

In addition to Fred Fornoff, others have come up. This probably needs to be dealt with. On first glance, it appears likely others were involved at some point.

• It looks like Fornoff originates with Barnes (96)
• Needs to be resolved before I can move on.

Witnesses

• Only one known witness according to Hietter 2006, yet Barnes 1930 clearly describes two. It isn’t at all clear why the robbery of Barnes’ house was not connected to the train robbery. Would need court transcript to know for sure and to clear up all of the discrepancies.
  • At least two additional authors make the connection. Marshall Trimble is one; Janet Downs is another.
    • This needs to be resolved.

Historical context

• Numerous train robberies within the same time period by different people on both coasts. The drought hypothesis doesn’t seem to explain the most notable ones.
  • Pull or keep? Need to make a decision.
• The pardons don’t seem to make any sense unless you consider the idea that the true amount stolen was much higher than reported and, per the sources, the pardons were motivated by Wells Fargo in the background as a way to track the men to see where they had actually hidden the money. According to several sources, this was a tried and true tactic for recovering stolen money. In other words, release the prisoners and follow them closely.
  • Counterargument. Pardons were procedure before paroles were established. Need to have at least one other source confirm that Wells Fargo used this tactic. Needs followup.
• Although bordering on fantasy, why would Wells Fargo be motivated to hide the true amount stolen?
  • Looks like A.J. Patane pursued the same line of reasoning: “In the meantime, Atlantic & Pacific Railroad officials publicly downplayed the robbery, claiming the bandits had stolen an “insignificant” sum of approximately $700 to $800 and had not opened a through safe containing $150,000. Behind closed doors, however, the A & P had hinted differently. Prior to the posse’s departure, the company allegedly offered Buckey a staggering $25,000 reward for return of the loot.”
    • This ties in to the Patane RS check below. Once that’s done, I can choose to pursue this or not.

Framing

• Hietter (1999) in his dissertation points to historian Walter Nugent. This is super interesting, as it gives the Canyon Diablo train robbery a larger historical context that it fits neatly into, in terms of what Nugent calls a Type II frontier. This would also work well in either the background or the Hashknife Outfit section, as it shows how violent cattle rustlers and criminal activity were part of this framework. More needs to be said about the larger idea.
  • The train robbery occurred during a time when crime was declining in general.
  • Mining, cattle ranching, (economy) and unmarried men (gender ratio, less women and families), and population growth were said to contribute to higher rates of crime. The population growth factor did not come into play in this instance, unlike other counties.
  • Perception of crime transitioned along with the change from a frontier territory to statehood. Crime went from being seen as a personal and private matter to a public one.

Means, motive, and opportunity

• • So far, the only info we have is an older, 19th century argument for thrill seeking, or impulse or opportunistic crime. Not much to go on.
    • To do: Add backstory about motive to “The Hashknife Outfit” section.
      • Began, but did not complete. It turns out the backstory is sourced to Sparks, which could be a problem.
• The story doesn’t end after the arrests; a news archive search shows that additional people were arrested as accessories, apparently Mormons from the Utah territory accused of helping the outlaws and supplying them with fresh horses. This seems unusual on the face of it, given that the Mormons were in conflict with the Hashknife Outfit. Were some of these people related by family?
  • A.J. Patane in a 2002 article for Wild West claims that just before the four men from the Hashknife Outfit planned the train robbery, they were living in an area known as “Stud Camp”, which was adjacent to Joseph City, Arizona, an LDS town. This is an interesting coincidence.

Supporting characters

• There is apparently a huge backstory about the lost Boston schoolteacher that Smith saves and the shootout in Texas, but yet not a word of it is accessible.

Scholarship

• • Why a 40-year gap between the incident, the trial, and the prison terms, and the first discussion about the crime in the general literature (Barnes 1930)? Were these authors waiting until all the suspects were dead?
  • Why the 117-year gap between the incident and modern scholarship?
  • True crime was popular in the early 20th century, yet nobody bothered to write about this? Makes no sense.

Accuracy of accounts

• Trimble’s account is one of the most coherent aside from Hietter, although it isn’t at all clear how much of it is true, Trimble does try to clarify and sift some of the myth from the facts, but perhaps not enough to satisfy most historians.
  • Lees Ferry crossing is incredibly complex and convoluted. Need to simplify in narrative
  • Did Sterin fight in the Rough Riders alongside O’Neill? Why is this so difficult to answer? Answer hinges on the fake name he used. Was it him? Lots of historical photos available. Should be easy for a historian to solve. Has it been answered?
    • Needs an answer. There are photos for all of these guys. How could this not be answered already?
• A.J. Patane’s 2002 account might even be more accurate than Trimble’s. It delves deeply into the buried treasure angle.

Maps

• Maps: Full map of manhunt in Patane 2002
  • I’m having difficulty reading the map due to the low resolution. May need outside help.

Injuries

Still working on this, but I recall at least two non-fatal injuries, Smith and a lookout, but I think there was another one.

• Should also note the widely publicized false reports of two sheriffs that were killed. It was never discovered who spread this rumor but it can be traced to one newspaper reporter. Did they or someone else make it up? Given Hietter’s 1999 thesis discussion of the media bias, this would be the place to mention it. We don’t necessarily need a separate media section, so I’m not sure how to write this just yet. Then again, a section on “media coverage” is probably fine.

Confessions

• It was reported that one had confessed as early as April 20. Which one?[1]

How to separate the fiction, myths, legends, and facts?

Several possible solutions:

• By date and attribution of author
• By current understanding
• Omit fictional narratives entirely without mentioning them

Preferred method:

• Identify and sequester myths in separate section, “Legends”
  • Doing…

Proposed content for Legends section

• Legends of lost or hidden treasure persist, as well as the legends of the released convicts going after the hidden loot. Was Smith the ringleader the entire time? Many unanswered questions.
  • Smith as ringleader. This is an interesting angle, because you would expect the others to testify against him, but they didn’t (need to verify). Looking at the prison photos, Smith was the healthiest and most well-fed, as if he had access to loot while on the run for so long. The rest of them look terrible, with one foot in the grave, which some were due to TB. But something doesn’t add up. Smith was suffering from a major gunshot wound to the thigh when that photo was taken, yet he looks like he just walked out of a spa.
    • To do: See Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner for July 6 & 10.
  • Exclude or include? I’m leaning towards exclusion of lost treasure since most of the stories have no sources. I may consider including the ones I can find attribution for at some point.
  • Possible explanation: Downs 1981 shows how closely the myths about lost loot are told in relation to the Canyon Diablo train robbery. In one paragraph, the author is talking about the 1889 train robbery. And yet in another, they write about lost loot from a different train robbery. If one wasn’t a close reader, one might think they were the same incident. This could explain how some authors confused the issue.
  • Christopher O. Uebelhor promoted the idea again in the 2009 issue of Wild West: “O’Neill organized a crack posse and captured the outlaws at Wahweap Canyon, just over the border. O’Neill recovered about $1,300, but evidence points to a much more lucrative heist, some $150,000, possibly cached in several spots along the escape route.” It isn’t yet clear who is promoting this idea; in other words, who is Uebelhor citing?
• Several writers may have fictionalized aspects of the story
  • Gladwell Richardson (Two Guns, Arizona, 1968) has been accused by other historians and scholars of making stuff up, and his accounts may be responsible for most of the fictional tales.
  • William Sparks (The Apache Kid, 1926) This account is almost impossible to find online except as mentioned by other sources. Sparks claims the tales were relayed directly to him by former bandit Dan Harvick, but there is zero indication any of this is more than myth.
  • William MacLeod Raine is said to have published something, possibly fiction, about O’Neill

Why would such a notable train robbery have so many gaps and missing information? Could it be attributed to the underlying chaos of the territory in flux from a frontier to a state? For example, when the government up and moved towns, there was a documented upheaval as a result of the move. Could this explain the poor record keeping?

• • Rise of yellow journalism. Joseph Pulitzer purchased the New York World in 1883 just six years before the robbery.
  • Example: Frank Love’s 2005 article in The Yuma Sun about the train robbery is a wonderful read, but is apparently 90% bullshit and 10% unfounded speculation. The number of errors in this article might exceed the number of facts. How is this even possible? No editor?

Media sensationalized crime, but unusually, did not wage editorial jeremiads against it. Bad news was often deliberately downplayed, but could not be avoided. Because news began to travel fast with the railroads, omission was harder to get away with.

• • Violent crime was the number one reported category in frontier territory newspapers, and often exaggerated the prevalence
    • Hietter (1999) analyzes the media coverage of the Canyon Diablo train robbery (336, 338):
      • “A 1889 train robbery in Yavapai County provides an excellent example of how one sensational crime could dominate a newspaper’s content. On March 21, 1889 [note, this date is disputed -V.], “four masked and heavily armed men” held up an Atlantic and Pacific Train at Canyon Diablo. Yavapai County Sheriff “Bucky” O’Neill and other officers pursued the desperados for 600 miles [note this distance is disputed -V.] before finally capturing them three weeks later after a shootout near Beaver, Utah. The robbery and the monumental manhunt afterwards dominated the Miner, producing at least 36 distinct stories. In fact the robbery accounted for roughly 20% of all news stories dealing with crime in the Miner from February to the end of June 1889.”
    • Note, the inaccuracies in the above account are due to Hietter citing Sparks (1926) in fn 30, p. 345; he appears to correct this retelling in Hietter (2006).
      • It’s not exactly clear why the date of the crime varies, but one possible explanation is based on the reportage. In several instances, newspapers often reported the crime with different dates because they led with the date that the article was submitted. This probably confused readers and researchers alike. Some of the earliest stories show this to be true. But it doesn’t explain why writers like Barnes were consistently getting the dates wrong. I discussed a related problem on the refdesk some time ago, and the discussion came to the conclusion that accuracy wasn’t important until the 20th century, but I don’t know if that explains the problem with dates. Published variations from March 19, 20, and the 21st. The 19th could be explained based on Barnes; his house was robbed by the outfit on that date and his retelling is oddly confusing (which I don’t understand, perhaps everyone was drunk in the 19th century because they couldn’t access fresh water, as some have claimed, haha). The date of the 20th is explained by a newspaper article which notes the crime occurred the day before it was published on the 21st. That date can be explained by people misreading the former. There’s one other problem. The confusion with dates might also arise because of the time of the crime which changes from one day (11pm or so) to the next (1am).
        • Done. Solved with new footnote.
• Need to add how “canyon” was not yet established in English newspapers in the territory, as many still used the older Spanish term “Cañon” or canon without the tilde. Some of the earliest territorial coverage of the train robbery shows this usage.[2]

Sorting by reliability

To do

Primary

• High. Territory of Arizona. (Acts, Resolutions and Memorials of the Fifteenth Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Arizona, 1889)
• High. Historian. Paul T. Hietter. (“‘No Better Than Murderers'”, 2006). Probably the most important source in the entire article as it is expert, comprehensive, modern, and neutral. No other source has that combination.
• High. Historian. Larry D. Ball. (Desert Lawmen, 1992).
• High. Journalist/historian. Dale L. Walker (“Rough Rider: Buckey O’Neill of Arizona”, 1997[1975]). Walker is unusually careful in his outline of the story, and sticks to just the facts. He points out that the story of Sterin fighting side by side in the Rough Riders with O’Neill is a legend. If more writers were as careful as Walker, we wouldn’t have this problem.
• Medium. Writer. Will C. Barnes. (“The Canyon Diablo Train Robbery”, 1930). Personal memoir of original incident and his participation in the first posse. Problem is that his account has been ignored by official sources for some reason, but it has been covered by others. Why was it ignored? This question hasn’t been answered. It turns out that Barnes participated in the case against the bandits. Why isn’t there more about this? The dates all seem to be wrong for some reason. While the dates are wrong or off by a few days, much of the information appears to be accurate. Still making my way through it.

Secondary

• Medium. Theobald & Theobald (Wells Fargo in Arizona Territory, 1978). Possible errors in regards to dates. Also lowball loot numbers, which kind of feeds into the ideas up above. Demote to “medium” until I can trace the errors.
• Medium. Historian. Jerry D. Thompson. (“‘That’s Just What Kids Did back Then'”, 2001). May have accidentally repeated some errors in his paper.
• Medium. Educator/Official historian of the State of Arizona. Marshall Trimble’s material diverges slightly from most other material. Still working on this.

Tertiary

• High. Unknown, writer. Bob Baker. (“Canyon Diablo Train Robbery”, 2021). Associated with Sharlot Hall Museum. 100% accurate depiction of the event based on primary and secondary sources.
• Medium. True crime writer. R. Michael Wilson. (“Great Train Robberies of the Old West”, 2007). Wilson provides an exceptionally well written account of the major facts, but also mixes in unsubstantiated rumors. To his credit, in the back of the book, he cites his sources, but how much of it is true versus rumor is unknown.
• Low. Unknown occupation. Christopher O. Uebelhor (“Canyon Diablo, Arizona”, 2009). Good for citing small, common details. Bad because it repeats debunked info from other sources. Marked as tertiary because summarizes primary and secondary sources.
  • The number of errors in Uebelhor is too great to ignore. Do not cite.
• Low. Historian. James H. McClintock. (“Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern”, 1916). Filled with errors.
• Low. Sheriff Cecil Calvin Richardson. (“Canyon Diablo: The Roughest, Toughest Hellhole of them All”).[3] Mostly legends.

Arizona Memory Project

Arizona State Archives recommended the Arizona Memory Project for access to hard to find material.[4]

Draft 2 log

In progress

• Corrected most reliable estimate of loot amount based on Hietter (2006), pp. 273, 297, note 19.
• Corrected most reliable estimate of manhunt distance traveled base on Hietter (2006), p. 273.
• Temporarily removed McClintock, James H. (1916). Arizona, Prehistoric, Aboriginal, Pioneer, Modern the Nation’s Youngest Commonwealth within a Land of Ancient Culture. Vol. II. S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. p. 475. OCLC 679312974. Per RS concerns up above. May add back in the future.
• Corrected source for original robbery date (March 20) by removing Barnes and pointing to Meehan & Dinges 2011, as it’s the most recent reliable source available.
• Added text and footnote to Section 1151 (1887), the Territory of New Mexico law that was first passed in 1887.
• Removed Fred Fornoff. Trimble 2015 mentions Fred Fornoff as a member of the posse as do a few other embellished stories. It makes no sense as Fornoff worked in New Mexico, not Arizona. Unless there’s actual evidence Fornoff was involved, I’m temporarily removing it because I can’t verify it past the point of a tall tale. This could be a coincidence, but it turns out there was a temporary misidentification of a “fifth man” that could be interpreted as someone like Fornoff in 2006 by the Arizona Historical Society, but soon retracted as an error. This was revealed in 2011 by Meehan and Dinges. Could this error explain some of the accounts of a fifth man? Further note: Carl Holden does bear a slight resemblance to Fornoff in photos (They have the same distinctive mustache that was in style in the 1880s and a similar chin, but their earlobes are very different). This could also explain the confusion. One other thing that has me curious: there are at least three, perhaps more, famous photos of the Canyon Diablo posse. Photographer Edward St. Clair is pictured second from the left. Then, who is taking the photo? Were there five men?
• Temporarily removed ​Trimble, Marshall (2015). Arizona Outlaws and Lawmen: Gunslingers, Bandits, Heroes and Peacekeepers. History Press. ISBN 9781626199323. OCLC 904037200. Material diverges from established facts in the case. May restore if I can verify.
• Added mention of special train car. Note the historical importance of the train depot photo featuring the posse, which has not yet been added per Meehan & Dinges 2011. I didn’t add it because the old photo is generally poor, but I have to admit that since historians consider it important for several reasons, I should add it anyway. It’s considered important because 1) it’s the only known photo of the Flagstaff train depot before it burned down, and 2) it captures the entire posse just before they begin their manhunt.
• Increased infobox counter to two non-fatal injuries, taking into account Smith’s gunshot wound in Texas prior to extradition.
• Expanded background; split into railroad and train robberies; expanded trial and sentencing vis-à-vis Smith
• Add capture dates.
• Beginning citation cull, including additions and deletions; fixing URLs and verifying all links
• Beginning date verification; this is one of the most difficult issues as various sources use different dates; wherever possible, I will replace the bad dates with the good ones; where it is not, I will use terms like early, mid, or late month-name
• Removed Hart 1998 for making erroneous claim that “the first armed train robbery [occurred] in 1870”. This is getting tiring.
• After several months, I believe I have fixed the robbery date problem with a footnote.
• Added new source for horse stealing claim.