Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

---

BARNEY K. RIGGS



Barney Riggs came from a good Texas family and always stood on the side of law and order, by God, even when it came to shooting a sassy neighbor or cousin. Barney was born in Arkansas in 1856 but was raised on a ranch near Salado, Texas. Two of his uncles Brannick and James decided to try their luck in Arizona in 1876 and Barney joined them in 1880 working with his Uncle James near Dos Cabezas. James had lost his first wife and married a Colorado girl named Elizabeth Hudson. Elizabeth had a son named Richmond Hudson who was born in 1863. Richmond and Barney became close pals as step cousins. During February of 1882 Barney married Vinnie Hicklin in Dos Cabezas. The marriage soon produced a son. Barney was not often an intemperate man in those busy days, but he was always a surly drunk when he was intemperate. It led to difficulties with Vinnie and Vinnie hopped the fence with Richmond Hudson and he soon began bragging about seducing Barney’s wife around town. On September 29, 1886 Barney walked up to Richmond at Osborn’s corral and killed him dead as a hammer. Justified or not, Barney was convicted of murder and given a life sentence at the Yuma Territorial Prison. In January of 1887 he began serving his long term; he was model prisoner though and soon became a trustee. On October 27, 1887 Barney saved the life of prison superintendent Thomas Gates by killing a convict named Labrado Puebla who was busily trying to plunge a knife into Gates’ throat during a bloody escape attempt. For saving the warden’s life Barney was given a full pardon but asked to leave Arizona forever. He picked up his son in Los Angeles and went back to Texas. Vinnie never forgave him. He started over as a rancher near Pecos, Texas where he married Annie Frazer Johnson and began a new family. Annie’s brother was Sheriff Bud Frazer of Reeves County. Bud hired an outlaw deputy named Killin’ Jim Miller and the two of them soon became bitter antagonists. Miller’s gang eventually killed Bud down in Toyah but the antagonism had spread to Barney. Miller sent two of his henchmen, John Denson and William Earhart, to Pecos to murder Barney. On October 3, 1896 Barney calmly dispatched both killers with head shots in the Johnson and Heard Saloon. Killin’ Jim Miller left the area but continued his long career as a back shooter and was finally hanged up in Ada, OK in 1909. Barney started in drinking more and more and Annie finally had to divorce him in 1901. Buck Chadborn was appointed by the court to administer the divorce settlement; he was Annie’s son-in-law. On April 8, 1902 Barney yet again angrily accosted Buck with a walking stick and Buck had to kill him. Barney was a surly drunk. The photo shows the site outside the north sally port at Yuma Prison where Barney won his parole by killing Puebla. The picture was taken from the water station where Guard B. F. Hartlee killed three other convicts during the escape attempt. The second photo shows the convicts cemetery outside the prison where Puebla and his pals are buried in unmarked graves.

---

Photos

DENSON KILLED BY THE DOOR
There is still a bullet hole in the wall near the door. It might be the same bullet that first passed through Denson's head.

EARHART KILLED BY THE BAR
There is still a bullet hole in the wall just above the floor that may have been fired by Earhart just before Barney killed him.

ORIGINAL BAR FROM 1896. BARTENDER IS FAKE.
There is a motion detector in the saloon that triggers the bartender to start in telling the story about the gunfight that happened there soon after it was built.

ORIENT HOTEL
The Johnson and Heard Saloon is the red brick building to the right of the hotel. Barney killed Denson and Earhart inside the saloon