Deputy Sheriff William A. Holmes

William A. Holmes

Deputy Sheriff William Holmes and Sheriff Glenn Reynolds were shot and killed and another deputy was shot and seriously wounded while taking several outlaws to the Yuma Territorial Prison in Yuma, Arizona.

The deputies were overpowered when they let the prisoners out of the prison wagon to give the horses an easier walk on an incline. Two of the suspects were later killed and three others arrested and tried for the murders.

The leader of the gang that murdered the two was known as the Apache Kid. The following year he was responsible for the murder of Chief Ben Williams, of the Bisbee Police Department.

The Apache Kid was a former sergeant of the U.S. Army's Indian Scouts who assisted General George Crook in the capture of Geronimo. He was later charged with desertion and murder following a drunken riot in which several Indians were killed. In 1888 he was sent to Alcatraz but his conviction was overturned one year later.

Soon afterward he and several other Indians were re-arrested and again convicted the charges. While being transported to the Yuma Territorial Prison they escaped, resulting in the murders of Sheriff Reynolds and Deputy Holmes. For the next five years, the Apache Kid and his fellow warriors went along the U.S.-Mexican border on committing murders and other crimes along both sides of the border.

The Apache Kid mysteriously disappeared in 1894.