Hysterical Journey To Historic Places


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North America » United States » Arizona » Tombstone
March 1st 2013
Published: March 1st 2013
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BLONDE MOLLIEBLONDE MOLLIEBLONDE MOLLIE

From Tombstone take Hwy 80 southeast towards Bisbee about 3.75 miles to Davis Road. Turn left and keep going eastward until hell freezes over. Out past McNeil the pavement ends. Keep on going until you get to Leslie Canyon Road. It is a major Y instersection. Bust off to the left and proceed northeast about 3.5 miles to a private road into a ranch. Blonde Mollie is buried on private property, but the ranch owner has been generous with access to her grave. Look around in the weeds about 60 feet southwest of the grave for the foundation stones for the ranch house.
BLONDE MOLLIE



Blonde Mollie Williams was a Tombstone Prostitute who had taken up a living arrangement with Buckskin Frank Leslie on a ranch belonging to Milt Joyce out near the south end of the Swisshelm Mountains in Cochise County. Things went along smoothly enough for the happy couple as long as Buckskin Frank could manage to stay sober. He was one of those mean drunks and the drunker he was the more treacherous he got. Staying at the ranch helped with his sobriety but he would sometimes get fearful thirsty. Whenever that happened to him a trip to Tombstone was required. On July 11, 1889 Buckskin Frank had just returned home from a week long toot in celebration of the Fourth of July Festivities. Sometimes it takes a thirsty man a whole week to get his drinking done. He was bad drunk when he got home and immediately started up a ruckus with Blonde Mollie accusing her of infidelity with the hired man, Jim Neal. In a jealous rage Buckskin Frank shot them both. Blonde Mollie died, but Jim scampered off into the brush. Buckskin Frank presumed Jim’s wound was mortal, but Jim had made it to the neighbors, got help and recovered fully. When arrested Buckskin Frank’s story was that he shot Jim Neal because Jim had killed Mollie. At the trial the jury believed Neal’s story and Buckskin Frank was convicted of murder and sentenced to a hefty stretch in the Territorial Prison in Yuma. He prospered in prison because he was off the sauce there. In due course he became the prison’s pharmacist and eventually won parole. He married a rich girl from Stockton who had helped him with the parole, but soon went right back to being a surly drunk and found himself on the discard heap. Many years later Jim Neal hired Buckskin Frank as a swamper in an Oakland saloon. Failing in health in 1925 he stole a pistol from the saloon and disappeared to be heard from nevermore again in those parts. It is presumed that he went off into the hills and committed suicide. The neighbors buried Blonde Mollie in the front yard of the ranch house where she died. It is an awfully forlorn spot for a fun-loving girl to spend eternity in.

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