[Read The Blanton Gang - 1877 as told by Gustav Becker
to give you an understanding of the below newspaper accounts.]


WEEKLY ARIZONA MINER
PRESCOTT, ARIZONA,         FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1877
LETTER FROM JERRY HAYWOOD

EDITOR MINER:--A most cowardly and dastardly murder was perpetrated upon the person of a German, (name unknown) at Carissa Creek, a small stream about twenty miles from this place. It is supposed that he was killed on Thursday morning.  He was found by Mr. Wm.F.Hawthorn--better known as "Billy Free," the buckboard driver, on Saturday morning.  The body had been lying, it is supposed, exposed in the sun for two days, as it was in a putrefied state when found.  The country is overrun with horse thieves and murderers.  I think that steps should be taken to bring them to justice.  Such crimes do not speak well for our country's boasted civilization.  The papers of the deceased are in possession of Mr. Hawthorn, and when he arrives I will give you more information.

     The deceased was sinking a well on the Carissa, and, it is said, had about $1,500 in gold coin, which was the cause of his murder, without doubt.  It may be necessary to find some sure and speedy way whereby horse-thieves and murderers can be punished.

(The citizens know the proper course to pursue.--ED.)
HORSEHEAD CROSSING, A.T., Aug. 6, 1877
THE ARIZONA ENTERPRISE

PRESCOTT, ARIZONA, SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1877, Page 3, Col. 1.

    The news comes from Horsehead Crossing, on the Little Colorado, of a murder; the victim of which is a German, whose name is unknown.  It is supposed to have happened on the 2d instant.  The body was found by W.F.Hawthorne, the driver of the buckboard on the Prescott and Santa Fe line, on the 4th instant, at Carrizo Creek, about twenty miles east of Horsehead Crossing.  The deceased had been sinking a well on the Carrizo, and was supposed to have about $1500 in gold coin.  The citizens of that section have therefore drawn the conclusion that he was killed by robbers.

ARIZONA WEEKLY STAR
TUCSON, ARIZONA,               THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1877
CAMP APACHE
                                                                                                             CAMP APACHE, A.T.
                                                                                                                      August 13th, 1877 
To the Editor of the Arizona Star:
     I have been informed that an old German, who lived somewhat secluded in the vicinity of Horse Head Crossing, Little Colorado, was murdered last week by some person or persons unknown to my informer. The supposition is that the murderers believed he had a large sum of money concealed about his house, and in trying to force him, through fear of death, to show them where it was hidden, they carried their experiments too far, and the unfortunate man died from the effects of their persecutions.
                                "OCCASIONAL"
WEEKLY ARIZONA MINER     PRESCOTT ARIZONA     August 24, 1877
LETTER FROM LITTLE COLORADO
EDITOR MINER:--The name of the person murdered at Carissa Creek is Frank Louder.  The papers found at his ranch give no further information of himself or friends, being nothing but hieroglyphics pertaining to Spiritualism.  He was eccentric almost to insanity in his belief, selecting this wild, desolate spot to be alone from the world, so that he could converse in secret with the inhabitants of the Spirit Land.  He once told one of the buckboard drivers that he had a brother in Cincinnati, Ohio, but never anything more than that.
     The crops in this section are flourishing.  Ballinger's camp, on the south side of the river, has 200 acres of grain and vegtables; Smith's camp, on the north side of the river, has 150 acres of corn, vegetables and sugar-cane; and Allen's camp, about 30 miles above Sunset Crossing, has about the same, and all expecting good crops.  About three miles opposite Allen's camp is Lake's; he also has about 200 acres planted.  The next place is Horsehead Crossing, above Allen's camp; the people at this place are not practical farmers, but theoretically can tell a head of cabbage from an onion or potatoe.  
     This is the business part of the Colorado Chiquito, there being two stores, one of which Mr. Bernado Frayres is proprietor, and your humble servant is master of the other.  Mr. Felix Scott has just returned from Utah, where he has been purchasing cattle, with the intention of going extensively into the stock business. Emigrants are still coming from the East en route to Arizona, and from their conversations, I am able to glean that they have met with the usual amount of croakers and tramps, the former not being able to find a fortune or a perfect Eden, the latter being unable to run his check for the usual amount of liquor necessary has concluded to seek other fields to eke out his miserable existance. One of this type stopped at my place over night. The tales of woe and wrongs that he had received from others was heartrending indeed; but one thing he failed to do, was to take in his sign which indicated that he dealt extensively in the perpendicular retail whisky business.  Such men are better out of a country than in it, being only an eye-sore to their friends and no benefit to themselves or anyone else.
     The small-pox is raging violently up the river. Col. Jas. C. Hunt has lost two children, besides various other persons being sick with it, and a great many deaths.  The disease of small-pox is contageous; there is another disease, not new, but seems to be epidemic,--that is stealing.  The driver of the mail from Camp Apache to Allen's camp, has decamped, taking mules, buckboard and mail with him.  However, I think that if the citizens of this section of the country could only effect a meeting with him, they could administer a medicine, although severe, which would effectually cure him.
Yours, truly, JERRY P. HAYWARD.
Horsehead Crossing, Aug. 14, 1877.
                  
ARIZONA WEEKLY STAR
TUCSON, ARIZONA,                        THURSDAY,  SEPTEMBER 20, 1877
CAMP APACHE
To the Editor of Star:--DEAR SIR: Since my last to you there has been information received from Springerville, that one man named Sheppard was killed and another named Snyder badly wounded at the hands of certain hard characters--some call them horse-thieves--that are roaming round in the mountains near the head-waters of the Little Colorado river.  The people seem to be afraid of their lives and property and have not yet the hardihood to order them away.  Its a clear case of local terrorism and a state of affairs that requires the prompt and energetic action of our civil officers to rid the country of such dangerous characters.
                                "OCCASIONAL"

From Jack Becker's Collection