Following are two versions of an encounter between Billy Breakenridge and Curly Bill Brocious. Which one is accurate?
Version 1.http://www.thehighchaparral.com/historic4.htm Note: This version tracks with the one in Bill O'Neal's
Encyclopedia of Western GunfightersVersion 2."Up in Galeyville, Curly Bill Brocius took a bullet in the cheek from drifter Jim Wallace, a veteran of the Lincoln County Wars. Wallace had approached the visiting Billy Breakenridge and tried to pick a fight. Curly Bill stepped in and made Wallace apologize to the deputy. This, of course, did not sit well with Wallace, who continued to joust verbally with Curly Bill, then shot him as the cowboy was mounting his horse. Breakenridge reported, The bullet hit him in the cheek and knocked out a tooth coming through his neck without cutting an artery. James Hancock, who also claimed to be present, later said that every one thought that Bill was dead, and he could not talk anyway as the bullet had partly paralyzed the vocal cords in his throat".
A number of Curly Bill's friends disarmed and arrested Wallace. They were holding him in a corral when Breakenridge came to claim him. The Arizona Weekly Star reported that the cowboys were threatening to lynch Wallace, but Breakenridge recalled that they turned him over easily. He expalined to the group that armed men would not be welcome at the justice of the peace's when the case was considered and got a reply both nonchalant and chilling-- "that they did not care to go down, for if Curly died they would hunt Wallace up, and if Curly lived he could hunt him up himself." The Weekly Star, commenting on the shooting, editorialized, "A great many people in southeastern Arizona will regret that the termination was not fatal to one or both of the participants.""
Above excerpt is from
And Die in the West, by Paula Mitchell Marks
