Cochise County, Immigration & Crime

Years ago, when my sister and I were in high school, a women from our church and her husband confronted my mother, making some off the wall accusations about my sister and I.  Our mother never said anything, but went the high school and asked the principal (a family friend – and a good Republican, his brother-in-law was the county chair at the time) if the accusations were true. He laughed in her face.

The people who confronted my mother were good “Christian” Republicans, quite conservative, missionaries, and had all the right credentials.  The bottom line turned out to be a cat-fight with the woman being jealous that my sister was dating a guy she wanted her precious little blessing to date.  Their accusations and bullying hurt my mother badly to the point where she is still terrified of women in church.  Every time she saw this woman coming, she would go the other way.  It was that bad.

I decided I am not letting this obnoxious commenter do the same thing to me.  I also realized my mother’s discovery process was a good thing.  For the past few days my posting has been a bit slack.  I’ve been going back over my research, talking to people and making sure I was not wrong.  Last night I had a three hour phone conversation with one of my sources.  I am not wrong.  My fault may lie in the fact that I never thought certain details necessary.  Maybe I was wrong.

This being the case, I am going to detail a few things we discussed about immigration, the Border Patrol, illegals, and Cochise County.  Most of it is same song, new verse, but my source (who is also a good friend),  basically has no dog I this hunt, as he would put it.  To put things into perspective, my friend, I will call “J” is a real Texan.  He is a Texan’s Texan, complete with oil leases, horses, a ranch, and would be naked without his cowboy boots.  He is an amateur archaeologist.  He is quite conservative, very level headed in a Texas sort of way, and was not going to vote for John McCain until I convinced him otherwise.  Fortunately there is no more avid devotee than the recently converted.  “J” has contacts everywhere.  He is one of the best methodical historians I know, specializing in the Wild West, ancient civilizations, Indians (he is part Choctaw and detests the term ‘Native American’), and the history of Texas and New Mexico.

His musings on the border situation are based on a life-time of observation, education, and knowledge.  I would take his word about something over anyone I know, simply because he really doesn’t care about the issue one way or another.  He does not approve of the movement of illegal Chinese and North Koreans over the border.  Neither do I.  This said, he also does not mind the movement of migratory illegal Mexicans across the border if they are coming across to work.

There is a reason for this.  According to my friend, and this is something I’ve repeated for well over a year, the migratory habits of certain indigenous Mexican populations are based on well-established habits that date back to the time when this part of the world was first populated.  Last night he reminded me that they are using the same trails, and same ‘roads’ the ancients used when they would bring parrots, shells, and cocoa up from Mexico and trade with the ancients who populated the Southwest.  His theory is if you were to take the Mexican migrants who are using these paths, you would find, if you do the DNA, that many of them are actually descendants of those ancients.

This leads me to another point.  Many of the indigenous migrants who are crossing illegally, are genetically more “Native” or Indian, than Hispanic.  You need to go back to your history, and we are dealing with ignorant wretches who have no earthly idea what history is, let alone have the brains to interpret it.   Add the fact that there is such a prejudice against the history of the Wild West, among the intellectual  circuit and we have a problem.

Not long after I started writing about immigration, I was in contact with another Cochise County source, this person in law enforcement.  One of the things he mentioned was the fact that before the (KKK instigated) immigration laws of the 1920’s,  approximately two million (count’ em) seasonal migratory workers crossed the border every year to work, and would then return home.

THE COWBOY CONNECTION WITH ORGANIZED CRIME
The secret to understanding the immigration situation in Cochise County is to know, intimately, the details of Wyatt Earp’s life while he was in Tombstone.  I know, it is bitterly ironic, but true.  I’d completely forgotten the role Skeleton Canyon (on the map as Guadeloupe Canyon) plays in the entire scenario until my friend James reminded me of it.  He also reminded me I wasn’t very bright when I broke away from our group and walked back to the car a few years ago, but I am jumping ahead of the story.

In order to have an educated grasp on the immigration situation today in Cochise County, one must understand what was going on there in 1879-1882.  For those who believe in the movie history lessons, Tombstone will give you an accurate picture of the times, situation, and the people involved in what was rapidly reaching the point of a shooting war with Mexico.  I also need to tell you that the movie Tombstone is quite accurate and is the first time the depravations of the Cowboys have been presented as organized crime.  To date, I think I have the names of something like 140 men in my data-base.

As an aside, a group of us have been tracking the movements of outlaws across the American West during the post-Civil War years of 1876-1885 or so.  I specialize in Tombstone, if you’ve not already guessed that.  The depravations of these outlaws, Virgil Earp said there were around 200 of them and I have no reason to doubt him, ranged from Texas to Arizona.  I don’t think we even have an accurate body count, but I think it is safe to say hundreds lost their lives, and I’m not talking outlaws.  My theory is they were an off-shoot of Quantrill’s Raiders.  I have antidotal evidence that Old Man Clanton once rode with Quantrill but I cannot prove it.  A more tenuous connection comes through the fact that the most infamous outlaw in Cochise County, Johnny Ringo, was related by marriage to Colonel Coleman Younger, uncle to the infamous Younger Brothers.  The Youngers were part of the and were directly involved with Quantrill.  John Ringo’s decent into trouble began when, as a troubled young man, he was shipped to Texas to cool his heals with his Younger relatives.  There he became directly involved in the James-Younger GangMason County War.

NEW MEXICO
“Texas” John Slaughter was basically forced to leave Texas under a cloud of suspicion.   (I don’t care what his fans say).  He moved into Tularosa, New Mexico and soon became associated with a group of outlaws up around Carlsbad known as the Three Rivers gang.  When he arrived in New Mexico, he brought with him drovers named Charley Snow, Frank Stilwell,   Curly Bill Brocius, (NOTE:  the web site featured is very anti-Earp)  Wes Fuller, Billy Claiborne , etc.   While in New Mexico, Curly Bill gravitated toward Lincoln, where he began a friendship with another little known outlaw, Billy Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid.    To complete the circle of connections, I have found documented evidence placing Billy the Kid in Las Vegas, NM in a meeting with Jesse James.  BTK worked for John Chisum who employed two brothers, (I am still searching for a 2nd piece of documentation).  The brothers moved Chisum’s cattle from Roswell to his Cochise County ranch.  (FYI, at one time Chisum and Cochise legend, rancher Henry Hooker, who was an Earp associate were in business together in Cochise County – when it was Pima County).  When Chisum closed out his ranch in the A. T. the two brothers, Frank and Tom McLaury moved town toward the San Pedro, where they bought a ranch on the Babocomari,  which is just a few minutes from present day Tombstone.  (All of this is terribly important in the fight against the Border Wall).  Around the same time, another family moved from their pervious A. T. location to a ranch near the McLaurys.  This family included Ike, Phinn, and Billy Clanton.

The Lincoln County Cattle (1878) War   did not begin until John Slaughter entered the picture.  Long story short, during that time frame, John Slaughter was so infamous he was considered a greater security threat to New Mexico than was BTK. Following an epic poker game between Slaughter and Chisum, where Chisum lost, Slaughter was captured and taken to Fort Stanton and held under guard.  He cut a deal with Governor Lew Wallace, who was more interested in writing a novel, Ben-Hur, than he was dealing with outlaws.  Slaughter would take his men and leave New Mexico.

Slaughter had cattle ranging all the way from Carlsbad to Tularosa. He basically takes the modern route of Highway 70, going right in front of my parent’s property in San Patricio.  Along the way he rounds up what remained of the murdered John Tunstall’s cattle.  He goes through Mescalero, to Tularosa, gathers up his beautiful young wife (who turned out to be one gutsy woman) and continues on what is Highway 70 to Las Cruces and picks up the Butterfield Stage Route (basically I-10) and goes into Cochise County.