When A Brave Man Fainted

NOVEMBER, 1935. ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 11 When a Brave Man Fainted The Story of Prescott's Last Legal Public Hanging

By WILL C. BARNES IN THE early days of Arizona legal hangings were public functions held out of doors where everybody who wished to view the affair could do so at their leisure.

The first legal execution in the Territory along these lines took place, as far as this writer can learn, at the little village of Yuma on May 2, 1873. The scaffold was erected upon the little plaza in the center of that town which located the event right in front of the windows of Yuma's one and only public school. The late Miss M. E. Post, one of our pioneer teachers, distressed at the thought of her pupils seeing such a sight, dismissed her school for that day. History fails to say, however, how many of the children thus turned out of school were present when the drop fell and the criminal paid the penalty for a terrible murder.

The following incident is believed to have been the last of such affairs in Arizona, public sentiment having been aroused sufficiently to put a stop to them.

My old friend, the late Honorable John J. Hawkins, for many years a leading lawyer of northern Arizona, and who served a term or two as Judge of the United States District Court at Prescott, gave me some additional facts concerning this case a few months before his death in Los Angeles. Judge Hawkins was present on the occasion and helped revive O'Neill.

In the summer of 1885 a man named Dilda came to the Williamson Valley, north of Prescott. He was traveling in a covered wagon and accompanied by a young woman, supposed to be his wife. She was a weakling and apparently mentally unsound. Dilda was a dark, swarthy man, morose and sullen in disposition. He shunned the society of his fellow men and seemed to enjoy solitude and the "wide open spaces" rather than the haunts of civilization. as represented by the fringe of saloons, gambling rooms, and homes of ladies of easy-very easy indeed-virtue that lined three sides of the plaza in the center of which stood the county Court House at Prescott.

No one ever learned his nationality No one ever learned his nationality nor did he vouchsafe any very definite information as to the events of his life previous to his arrival in Arizona.

On their way across the Williamson Valley Dilda and his wife, evidently seeking a suitable location, camped one night at an old abandoned ranch. The place supplied good water, the range about it was covered with excellent feed for his two horses and a possible "built up" bunch of range cattle and as no one was around to object to his use of the property Dilda decided to locate right there.

The man must have had some money, for while he did no manual labor of any kind he patronized the local stores for food and supplies.

The location of the ranch chosen by these wanderers was isolated and far off the traveled road. Thus he and his wife had few visitors. As time ran on the neighbors began to miss chickens, turkeys, ducks, etc., while steady old range cows known to be bringing up sturdy offspring for their owners turned up childless and alone.

Occasionally a nearby range family, returning from a visit to the Prescott stores, missed small amounts of foodstuffs, flour, sugar, yeast powders, canned goods, etc. Never much at one time but still enough to cause them to look around and wonder had they been taken by some hungry passerby or deliberately stolen by somebody. In those early days doors were never locked nor windows nailed down in ranches. We were all neighbors and friends. Any traveler needing food was welcome to help himself. However, while the food was not a great item, the cowmen began to suspect that the Dilda family might be responsible for some of the missing calves. Such things had happened in the range country where meat hungry persons were concerned.

Now, in the range country borrowing food was one thing while calf stealing was "something else again." A thing not to be condoned or quickly forgotten. Mrs. Dilda seldom left their place but her husband made occasional trips to the post office where he never received either letters or papers. Also he made visits to the local store for supplies.

Watching the ranch one morningfor some had their suspicions as to the Dildas operations a couple of cowboys saw Dilda ride away from their ranch onto the range. They rode boldly up to the house after he was out of sight. They wished the woman good morning, dismounted and turning their ponies loose about the cabin, engaged her in conversation. "She wan't much on hos-(Continued on page 22)