During the early history of Kaufman County, there were three different men who resided here in the mid to late 1800's all with the name John Heath.  First there was John O. Heath, an early pioneer and stalwart citizen who came here in 1845 and settled in what became Heath, Texas in Rockwall County; secondly there was John Heath who was born in Ireland 1818 and died here in 1895; and thirdly John Wesley Heath, an outlaw and subject of this document, who planned the robbery that sparked a murderous incident in Arizona's history.

The Kaufman Sun
21 Feb 1884
"John Heath is to be hung in Arizona early in March for a murder he committed while aiding a bank robbery in Tombstone.  His mother and wife live in Terrell."

   The above newspaper article told the fate of John Heath to those who knew him and his family in Kaufman County, but the details of the story were not correct.  The following will tell the tale of Terrell's Outlaw, who is still recognized as a notorious figure in Tombstone, Arizona history as the ring leader of the infamous "Bisbee Massacre".

   On the evening of December  8, 1883, five men rode into the booming copper mining town of Bisbee Arizona.  They had heard the $7,000.00 payroll for the Copper Queen Mine would be in the vault of the Goldwater and Castaneda Mercantile, the largest store in town.  Right at dusk while three of the men stood watch outside, two of the bandits walked into the store with their pistols drawn just as it was closing.

   With guns pointed at store-owner Joseph Goldwater the men demanded the payroll monies, and forced him to open the safe.  However, they soon discovered they were there too early - the wagon carrying the payroll had not yet arrived.  The two men quickly took jewelry, cash and watches from the customers unlucky enough to have still been in the store at the time.  While Goldwater handed over the little money inside the cash drawer and safe, the robbers forced his partner, Jose Maria Castaneda, from a sickbed in the rear of the building and found a sack containing $700.00 and a watch under his pillow.  The toll of their robbery was approximately $3,000.00.

   For reasons that are totally unclear to this day, the crime became a murder spree and one particularly heinous, even for those times in the Arizona Territory.  The three outlaws outside were becoming restless, wondering why the other two had not come back outside.  They decided to show the curious bystanders who had gathered they were in charge and began shooting up and down the narrow street.  They shot through the store's window killing J.C. Tappenier, one of the customers inside the store.

   Sheriff's Deputy D. Tom Smith, who was eating supper at the town restaurant when he heard the shooting, hurriedly ran towards the store.  The outlaws blasted him as he approached, killing him instantly.  Another bullet from their guns entered a boarding house through a wall and struck a pregnant Bisbee resident, Mrs. Annie Roberts.  She died from her wounds within a few hours.  The outlaws also shot J. A. Nolly through the body as he stood outside his office, killing him, and shot another man through the leg as he was trying to run from the shooting spree.

   This all happened in less than five minutes.  The five outlaws left town in no real hurry.  They were confident of not getting caught.

   The town leaders quickly notified Sheriff J. H. Ward via telegraph in Tombstone, 20 miles away.  Ward had taken over the job after John Behan's term had expired.  Behan was the sheriff who took sides with the Clanton cowboys when they fought with the Earps at the OK Corral on 26 Oct 1881.  Sheriff Ward quickly formed his own posse from Tombstone and began a search.  He commanded Deputy Sheriffs John H. Hoover and A. G. Hill to take a posse west.  Sheriff Ward turned to Deputy Sheriff William Daniels to head up the posse in Bisbee.  Daniels quickly gathered his men and headed out on the trail after the outlaws.  This is when John Heath became involved in the situation.

   Heath, who owned a large saloon and gambling hall in Bisbee just down the street from the Goldwater-Castaneda Mercantile, told Daniels and others he knew the men involved and probably could take the posse to where the group of outlaws could be found.  Daniels, though leery of Heath's character, followed Heath's advice in hopes of a quick apprehension of the outlaws.  Ward, Daniels and others knew Heath had a tarnished reputation as a "sporting man".  There had been an incident in 1881 when Heath was implemented with some horse thieves and it was well-known he did not run a completely legitimate saloon and gaming business.

   It was soon apparent to Daniels the posse was getting nowhere.  Heath's claim seemed to be coming up dry and his facts led the lawmen in circles.  When the men of the posse seriously questioned Heath, accusing him of leading them on a false trail, he left the group with a man who worked for him and went back to Bisbee to his saloon.

   It took several weeks but these lawmen eventually caught up with the outlaws.  They were Comer W. "Red" Sample,  James "Tex" Howard,  Daniel "York" Kelly,  Daniel "Big Dan" Dowd, and  William "Billy" Delaney.  Two were found just across the border in Mexico, one in a barber shop in Deming, New Mexico, and two more at Clifton, Arizona, where one had given Castenada's watch to a lady-friend.

   Through interrogations of the bandits Deputy Daniels figured out that John Heath knew more about the outlaws than reasonable and arrested him for complicity in the "Bisbee Massacre," the name being used for the event.

   When confronted John Heath talked.  He confirmed the lawmen's suspicions.

   Bisbee residents seethed with anger at the blatant killings.  This mass murder in Bisbee aroused the town perhaps more than Tombstone's shootout at the OK Corral had.  Tombstone and Bisbee residents watched with avid interest to see the outcome of the trials.

   The six men went on trial February 17^th, 1884 in Tombstone.  The five bandits were tried first.  On February 19^th, they were all sentenced to be hung on March 8^th, 1884.  When called to testify at the trial, Joe Goldwater raised both hands to be sworn in.  Told he needed raise only his right hand, he replied that when he saw the defendants, he was in the habit of raising both hands.

   Heath's trial began on the 20^th and during the trial he did not deny knowing the others accused nor to being their ringleader, and admitted he was the master mind behind the robbery, making light of the intelligence of the other men.  He left it up to the other five to carry out the plan, and called witnesses who testified he was in his saloon at the time.  He adamantly stated the shootings and murders were not a part of the original plan and he had no control over the actions of the five men who had actually committed the crimes.  He cowardly admitted to hiding behind the bar of his saloon while the shooting was taking place during the robbery.  He felt these facts would end up convincing a jury to be lenient toward him.

   On February 21^st John Heath was convicted of second degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery, and sentenced to life in the Yuma prison.  The jury had shown him the leniency he had hoped for.  Heath felt lucky and figured to serve his time in prison.  There was always the chance of a pardon, or in his criminal mind, the chance of escaping.  He was just pleased his wasn't a death sentence.  However, Heath was not smart enough to realize the pattern of lynch law had been more or less constant throughout history in Arizona.  Citizens rebelled against the slowness of the law, so they often took it into their own hands.  Lynching was a measure employed only in the case of brutal crimes, and this was to be Heath's fate.

   When the verdict was read the people of Bisbee were enraged at Heath's "light" sentence, given his involvement, and a mob of fifty men descended on the jail house in Tombstone early on the morning of February 22^nd.  They forced Sheriff Ward's jailers to release Heath into their custody and testimony has proven no deputy really tried to hale the actions of the lynch mob.  There were no trees available in the area, but there were telegraph poles.  The mob tied Heath's hands behind his back, bound his legs and wrapped his head with a white shirt, covered his eyes, then placed his hat back on his head.  They threw a rope around the top of a telegraph pole on Toughnut Road, halfway between First and Second Streets, in the middle of town, and tied the other around Heath's neck, hoisting him to his death.

   That the general public approved of this action is reflected in the verdict of the coroner's jury:

"We the undersigned, a jury of inquest, find that John Heath came to his death from emphysema of the lungs--a disease common in high altitudes - which might have been caused by strangulation, self-inflicted or otherwise."

   This was signed by Dr. George E. Goodfellow, Territorial Coroner and Sheriff Ward.  It is further stated that each member of the party who dispatched him ritually placed his hands on the noose around the victim's neck.

John Heath hanging from the telegraph pole

   The following is a description of the incident as told by Orson Pratt Brown, a man who knew the men who had committed the crimes.  He lived in Bisbee and Tombstone in the 1880's.

   Soon after the sentence was announced, and Heath was lynched, the entire hanging event for the other five men took on a 'circus' air.  When Sheriff J. L. Ward ran out of courtesy tickets to the event one enterprising business man built bleachers around the gallows and began selling tickets for the standing-room-only event.  Famous western entrepreneur and Tombstone resident, Nellie Cashman, disapproved of the 'festivities' and was outraged by the behavior of the citizens of Tombstone and Bisbee, feeling that no death should be celebrated.  She befriended the five convicts, visiting them constantly to provide them with spiritual guidance.  She spoke to the sheriff about the upcoming event, pleading with him to put a curfew in place during the day of the hangings so that no crowds would stand by the street to watch.  The sheriff conceded, and a curfew was set.  Next, she and some friends went at night to the site of the execution, destroying the grandstand with hammers and axes.  While the hangings proceeded as accorded, no one was able to watch, and Nellie achieved what she wanted:  the five men died feeling that a small portion of dignity had been restored to them.

   Later on the day of the executions, Cashman found out that a medical school planned to dig up the bodies of the five convicts, and they were to be used as study corpses.  She had two prospectors stay ten nights at the Boothill Cemetery, to ensure that the men stayed in their graves, and no one came to ask for the bodies.

   Nellie Cashman was known as a crusading citizen for rights and she owned a restaurant and hotel in the Tombstone area.  She had known all the bad men and law men of Arizona Territory history.  According to a legend  a client once complained about Nellie's cooking, and Doc Holliday drew his side arm, asking the customer to repeat what he had said.  Embarrased, the client replied "Best I ever ate".

   One of the condemned men, Dowd, remarked that the multi-gallows that was built for the hanging was "a regular choking machine."  His analysis was quite correct.  Of the five, only one died of a broken neck - the other four died by strangulation, with death taking as long as ten minutes for one of the men.

   The Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone has marked graves for the five bandits.

And mistakenly, a marked grave for John Heath.  There is proof here in Kaufman County that Heath's body was brought back to Terrell and buried by his family.  It is thought this wooden marker is kept in Tombstone purely as a tourist attraction.

The Kaufman Sun
February 28th, 1884

"John Heath was taken by a mob from jail and hung in Tombstone.  His remains were brought to Terrell and interred yesterday.  He was a notorious gambler, burglar, horse and cattle thief."

Records in Kaufman County show he lies in an unmarked grave in Oakland Cemetery.

John Wesley Heath

Born:  15 Dec 1844 - OH
Died: 22 Feb 1884 - AZ
Buried: Oakland Cemetery - Terrell, TX
MD #1 :  Mary Ann Redman -  24 Oct 1867
MD #2 :  Sara E. Moore           25 Mar 1869
KNOWN CHILDREN:  Myrtle, Kittie & John

Sources:

• Helldorado:  Bringing the Law to the Mesquite by William M. Breakenridge, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1992, 1928.
• Wild and Woolly:  An Encyclopedia of the Old West by Denis McLoughlin, New York, Barnes & Noble Books, 1975.