Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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THREE FINGERED JACK DUNLAP



On July 17, 1897 Burt Alvord accepted a fulltime appointment as constable in Willcox. It was a fun job that suited him well, but he was having difficulty making ends meet. He and Billy Stiles decided to branch out into train robbery. They put together a gang of toughs and planned the robbery of a train at Cochise Station a few miles west of Willcox. The robbery was success, but it didn’t exactly put them on Easy Street. After the booty was divvied up the gang dispersed. Another train robbery was planned but a new gang of toughs was needed. For the new gang Alvord and Stiles recruited Bravo Juan Yoas, Bob Brown, George and Lewis Owens, and Three Fingered Jack Dunlap. The targeted train rolled into the station at Fairbank, near Tombstone, on the night of February 15, 1900. When Jeff Milton threw open the door to the express car the robbers waiting outside shattered his arm with a rifle slug. Milton got off a shotgun blast that Three Fingered Jack took most of with his abdomen and groin. Milton then tossed the keys to the safe behind some sacks in the corner of the express car and collapsed between two large trunks. The robbers continued to fire into the car, but the trunks protected Milton. When they could not find the keys the robbers left empty handed. They galloped out of town but did not get far before the badly wounded Three Fingered Jack toppled out his saddle and was abandoned by his worthy friends. Early in the morning the wounded outlaw managed to start a small cactus fire to warm himself. When found by the posse his clothes were smoldering and his feet were burnt. Three Fingered Jack Dunlap lived long enough to rat out his friends for leaving him and to implicate Alvord and Stiles as the gang leaders. He is peacefully at rest in the Boot Hill Cemetery in Tombstone.

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Photos

3 FINGERED JACK
Boot Hill Cemetery is on the east side of Hwy 80 about a third of a mile north of Fremont Street.