William Brocius, AKA Curly Bill Brocius, was a famous gunslinger, outlaw, and opponent to the Earps in the Wild West. He was a cowboy who was active during the time the Earps were in Tombstone.
Curly Bill is believed to have participated in the assassination of Morgan Earp. He was killed by Wyatt Earp in retaliation for his participation in the assassination and affiliation with the Cowboys.
For a period of time, Curly Bill Brocius was known as "Arizona's most famous outlaw."
Arrival in Arizona
Curly Bill came to the Arizona Territory in about 1878. He already had a reputation as an Outlaw Cowboy and a rustler.
Brocius was known for a mean sense of humor when drunk. He was reported to have perpetrated such "practical jokes" as using gunfire to make a preacher "dance" during a sermon and making Mexicans at a community dance take off their clothes and dance naked.
The Shooting of Fred White
On October 28, 1880, Curly Bill and some of his friends had gotten drunk and began to cause problems on the streets of Tombstone.
The Town Marshal, Fred White, confronted the drunk Brocius and attempted to grab his weapon. During the attempt, the gun went off and shot White in the groin. Wyatt Earp witnessed the shooting and, in response, pistol-whipped Brocius and had him arrested.
White was carried to a doctor, and they initially thought he would recover the next day. He gave a statement that exonerated Curly Bill of murder, but that night, White's condition worsened. Brocius later claimed that his gun was discharged accidentally and reportedly immediately regretted shooting White.
He testified at his trial that he did not consider himself to have committed a crime. Brocius waived his right to a preliminary hearing, apparently because he feared a, as White was very popular as town marshal. Brocius was anxious to be moved out of town. Deputy Sheriff Earp and George Collins immediately took Brocius to Tucson for trial.
White died two days after Curly Bill shot him. Before dying, White testified that he thought the pistol had accidentally been discharged and that he did not believe that Curly Bill shot him on purpose.
Wyatt Earp supported this testimony, as did a demonstration that Brocius's pistol could be fired from half-cock, and the fact that it had been found to contain six rounds, with only one of them fired.
After spending most of November and December 1880 in jail awaiting trial, Brocius was acquitted with a verdict of accidental death.
Wyatt told his biographer John H. Flood, Jr., many years later, that he thought that Brocius was still armed at the time and did not notice that Brocius' pistol lay on the ground in the dark until Brocius was already down.
Despite being responsible for the deaths of several other men during his life, Brocius had apparently personally liked White and maintained that his death had been an accident.
Outlaw Behavior
Despite being released from jail and avoiding being lynched, Curly Bill showed no signs of reforming.
Shooting of Dick Bloyd: On March 8, 1881, Brocius and his friend Johnny Ringo rode to Maxey, near Camp Thomas, Arizona. Cowboy Dick Lloyd got drunk while playing poker in O'Neil and Franklin's saloon.
After shooting and wounding one man, Lloyd rode his horse into the saloon where Brocius was drinking. Brocius and several other men resented the interruption, and about a dozen of them, including Brocius, shot and killed Lloyd. Owner O'Neil took the blame and was acquitted.
Jim Wallace: On May 25, 1881, after some heavy drinking with a friend and Lincoln County War veteran, Jim Wallace, and many other cowboys. Wallace insulted Curly Bill's friend and ally Tombstone, Deputy Marshal Billy Breckenridge.
Breckenridge did not react to the insults and just shrugged them off. However, Curly Bill demanded that Wallace apologize. Wallace refused and left the saloon, only to be followed by Brocius. Feeling threatened, Wallace shot Curly Bill, wounding him in the cheek and neck.
Marshal Breakenridge arrested Wallace, but the court ruled he acted in self-defense.
The Assassination of Morgan Earp: Following the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881, Brocius robbed the Tombstone-Bisbee stagecoach on January 6, 1882, and the Tombstone-Benson stage the next day.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp gathered a posse and rode after the men but was unable to find them in the Chiricahua Mountains. Brocius returned to Tombstone on March 17. He was named by Pete Spence's wife, Marietta Duarte, as a participant in the assassination of Morgan Earp.
Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer disallowed her testimony because it was hearsay and because she could not testify against her husband.
Lacking evidence, the prosecution dropped all charges against the Cowboys. Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp killed outlaw Cowboy Frank Stilwell in Tucson on March 20, 1882, while guarding his brother Virgil en route to California.
Death of Curly Bill
After Morgan Earp's death, Wyatt declared war on the Cowboys and began hunting them down.
Ironically, 18 months prior to the gunfight, Wyatt had testified in his favor and protected him against a mob ready to lynch him. Now Brocius seized his weapon and began firing at Earp.
Earp returned fire with his shotgun and pumped Brocius with a load of buckshot to the stomach, nearly cutting him in half. Curly, Bill fell into the water at the edge of the spring.
The Cowboys returned fire but miraculously missed Wyatt and his party. The lawmen shot a couple more Cowboys before they retreated.
William Curly Bill Brocius's life came to an end. He had one of the wildest three years in the West before his demise at the hand of Wyatt Earp.