Legends of the Old West - PLEASANT VALLEY WAR Ep. 3 | “Bad Blood”

Episode Date: July 21, 2021

The Graham brothers form a secret pact with cattle baron Jim Stinson. In the process, the Grahams betray their friends, the Tewksburys. The betrayal ends the friendship between the two families and leads to a gunfight, courtroom trials, and more secret schemes … and then outlaws from Texas arrive to kick the feud into high gear. Join Black Barrel+ for bingeable seasons and no commercials: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin’s World, Once Upon A Crime, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Lego Fortnite. Lego Fortnite is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of Lego play and

Fortnite created to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android and play Lego Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. On May 29, 1883, Jim Tewksbury and his neighbor George Blaine walked into a mercantile in Woodruff, Arizona, about 90 miles from the Tewksbury Ranch.

walked into a mercantile in Woodruff, Arizona, about 90 miles from the Tewksbury Ranch. They wore the classic disguises of Old West bandits, bandanas wrapped around their faces. The store was operated by a Mormon businessman who was present in the store that day. The story goes that the two bandits terrorized the clerks and then stole $500, a set of field glasses, a pistol, and for some reason, a few cans of peaches. They rode away, probably thinking they'd gotten away with it. But two things gave away the identity of Jim Tewksbury, his skin color and his voice. The Tewksbury brothers had darker skin than the other settlers in Pleasant Valley. Their mother was a Native American woman from California, and her sons had distinctive features in that time and that place. And Jim had a distinctive voice as well.

So it didn't take long for the store owner to realize who had robbed him, and it didn't take long to narrow down Jim's list of possible accomplices to his friend and neighbor, George Blaine. But for various reasons, authorities waited more than a year to arrest the pair, and by that time, the store owner, who was the key witness to the crime, had problems of his own. The year between the robbery and the trial of the bandits was pivotal in the feud. It wasn't the deadliest year, though it did have its share of bloodshed. But it was the year of the bandits was pivotal in the feud. It wasn't the deadliest year, though it did have its share of bloodshed.

But it was the year that the tables turned and the Graham brothers showed their true colors. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch. And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're

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Go to shopify.com slash r-e-a-l-m now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash realm. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. And this is a six-part series about the bloodiest feud in the West, the Pleasant Valley War. This is Episode 3, Bad Blood. Bad Blood Johnny Graham had money problems.

He took out loans to cover gambling losses. He might have made some bad business decisions as well. His younger brother Tom appears to have covered for him at times, but even Tom had his limits. It's possible, and maybe even likely, that the cattle baron of Pleasant Valley, Jim Stinson, knew about Johnny's troubles. It's easy to picture the small-town description we often use today. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows everyone else's business. In the fall of 1883, Johnny Graham met with Jim Stinson. Jim had a

proposal. He would give Johnny 25 cows and 25 calves, which had a value of $25 each. In exchange, Johnny had to provide evidence that would lead to the arrest and conviction of anyone who was stealing Stinson's cattle. the arrest and conviction of anyone who was stealing Stinson's cattle. The value of the cattle was $1,250, which was a lot of money at the time, at least for Johnny Graham. It would have been nothing for Stinson. But for the sake of comparison, in 1883, Johnny could take that money and rent a huge house in the bustling city of St. Louis for more than five years.

And of course, in the rural community of Pleasant Valley, the money went even further. So those cattle would have helped Johnny a lot, and he accepted Jim Stinson's proposal. They signed a formal contract on November 14, 1883, but they waited four months to record the contract with the county. They didn't make it official until the end of March 1884. The day after the contract was recorded in March, Johnny Graham went to the office of the district attorney. He filed a complaint against six of his Pleasant Valley neighbors, three Tewksbury brothers, and three others. He swore that five months earlier, in October 1883, his neighbors and friends had altered the brands of cattle that belonged to Jim Stinson.

He said they also altered the brands of cattle that belonged to him and his brother Tom. Now it's possible Johnny was telling the truth about the Tewksberries. Jim Stinson had more than a thousand head of cattle, and it was common for small ranchers in the area to snipe a few animals from Stinson's herd. Or Johnny may have thought he was telling the truth. He might have seen the Tewksberries and others branding cattle that he thought were Stinson's. Or his complaint might have been a total lie. But whatever the case, he was about to pass the point of no return.

A sworn statement would greatly injure and probably sever his friendship with his neighbors. Apparently he thought it was worth the price, or he felt he had no choice. Based on Johnny's sworn statement, the grand jury subpoenaed six witnesses for the case against the Tewksbury's and the others. Everyone appeared for hearings on June 7, 1884. At the end of the proceedings, the grand jury produced four indictments for cattle rustling, which was considered grand larceny in Arizona territory. It was a felony that could land you in prison for 10 years.

The defendants were all arrested that day. From the Tewksbury family, brothers John, Ed, and Jim were taken into custody. The three others were neighbors, George Blaine, Bob Sixby, and Al Rose. This accusation by Johnny Graham drew the line for the two sides of the feud, and the situation started to take on the feel of the most infamous feud in American history, the Hatfields versus the McCoys. Each side had a big family at the center and then allies around it. And interestingly, at this exact same time, the summer of 1884,

the Hatfield-McCoy feud was raging in Kentucky and West Virginia. The timelines of the major events of the two feuds are almost identical. So while the Hatfields battled the McCoys in the east, the Tewksbury's were about to start battling the Grams in the west. The Sixpies and Roses had ranches fairly close to the ranches of the Tewksbury family, and the neighbors posted bail for all the defendants. According to Pleasant Valley historian Eduardo Pagan, this second trial was pivotal for both the accused and the accusers. A lot was revealed in the testimony for and against both sides. Naturally, the prosecution put forth its theory about the defendants allegedly rustling Stinson's

cattle. But the defense had its own stories to tell. Several Pleasant Valley families came forward and testified that neither Graham brother was anywhere near the area where the alleged rustling happened. So the Grahams couldn't have witnessed anyone altering brands. And worse for the prosecution, the defense introduced a copy of Johnny Graham's contract with Jim Stinson. of Johnny Graham's contract with Jim Stinson. The contract made it look like Johnny had a motivation to lie. The judge was exasperated. He turned to the jury and gave the most blunt and simple instruction. If you believe the Grahams, find the defendants guilty.

If you do not believe the Grahams, find the defendants not guilty. The jury did not believe the Grams, and the defendants were found not guilty. And then the legal stuff went to a crazy level. Al Rose, one of the six defendants, was obviously angry at the whole affair. He and a friend filed a perjury complaint against the Grams. A grand jury returned indictments against Johnny and his brothers. A bench warrant was issued for the arrest of the Grams. They weren't arrested at the time, but by now there were plenty of bad feelings to go around for everyone. After the perjury indictments came the trial for armed robbery.

Jim Tewksbury and his friend George Blaine, both of whom were defendants in the big trial a month earlier, were back in court to face charges of armed robbery. They were finally arrested for robbing the Mormon store a year after it happened. This trial turned out like all the others. The jury found them not guilty. But this time it was on more of a technicality. The jury didn't have much choice because the key witness failed to appear. The clerk who identified the robbers

was a polygamist, and in the year between the robbery and the trial, he fled to Mexico to avoid prosecution for bigamy. So the first half of the summer of 1884 was full of legal squabbles, and it was a turning point for the Tewksbury brothers and the Graham brothers. But except for John Tewksbury slapping Johnny Graham after the big trial in June, there was no recorded violence or verbal altercation between the two sets of brothers. But that was about to change. At the end of July, it was time to start organizing the fall roundup that would begin in September. The roundup could last for several weeks, and it required lots of coordination. Even though the first half of 1884 had been full of hot tempers and bad feelings and serious accusations, the Pleasant Valley community assumed those things could be

put aside for the greater good. A roundup meeting was scheduled for July 23rd at Jim Stinson's ranch, and it turned out to be a very bad idea. Near the appointed day, John Tewksbury, George Blaine, Ed Rose, and a man named William Richards rode to the Stinson Ranch. In the aftermath of what was to come, some newspapers said the four men went to the meeting with bad intentions. They were planning to start trouble. Other papers asserted the men were just going to help organize the roundup, as usual. Waiting at Stinson's ranch were five hired hands. One of them was Marion McCann, who had testified against the Tewksbury allies in the trial back in June. McCann also happened to be a deputy sheriff for the next county over, which bordered Stinson's

ranch. McCann only had a few days left working for Stinson, so he tried to stay civil as the four riders approached, but it didn't last long. First the insults started, then the gunshots. It's not clear who started insulting whom, but all agree that McCann told Tewksbury he wanted nothing to do with him. McCann told three of the four men to leave. Ed Rose could stay. John Tewksbury and George Blaine were incensed. Tewksbury said he could go anywhere he damn pleased. Blaine cursed at McCann. The verbal sparring heated up. McCann had been hovering in the shade of the ranch house, but now he picked up his Winchester rifle and walked out into the hot July sun. He planted himself in front of Blaine's horse. William Richards, the fourth rider,

saw where this was going. He turned his horse and galloped away. He turned his horse and galloped away. Blaine hurled another curse at McCann, but he didn't seem to want a more serious confrontation. He turned his horse and started to follow Richards. But after a few strides, he changed his mind. He yanked the horse around, pulled his revolver, and fired at McCann. The bullet whizzed by McCann and missed. McCann raised his rifle and returned fire, and his shot was on the mark.

Witnesses saw Blaine grab his throat as he tumbled off his horse. He rolled on the ground, clutching his neck and gurgling blood. John Tewksbury grabbed his gun and fired at McCann, but he missed. McCann fired back and scored another hit. John was wounded, but it wasn't severe. He spurred his horse and raced away. That left Ed Rose sitting on his horse and George Blaine suffering on the ground. A couple of Stinson's men rushed over to Blaine and picked him up.

They carried him into the shade and washed his wound with water. Incredibly, the wound wasn't fatal. It looked and sounded terrible in that first instant, but George would survive. Ed Rose and some of Stinson's men gently transported George to Ed's ranch. The remaining cowboys at Stinson's ranch thought John Tewksbury and William Richards might return with reinforcements, so they rode to the neighboring ranch of the Graham brothers. As it turned out, they shouldn't have worried. William Richards wanted nothing more to do with the shooting, and John Tewksbury was too wounded to be concerned with continuing the fight. too wounded to be concerned with continuing the fight. The community was amazed that George Blaine survived. The bullet from McCann's gun had actually hit him in the mouth.

It struck near the left corner of his mouth and shattered the jawbone. The bullet broke into three pieces. One came out through George's neck, which caused the wound that looks so bad in the moment. The other two bullet fragments lodged in George's neck, which caused the wound that looks so bad in the moment. The other two bullet fragments lodged in George's jawbone. His face and neck were a bloody mess, which probably led everyone to believe he would die on the spot. Even though George survived, he had more pain coming. He endured a three-hour surgery to remove an inch of bone and a molar that had been driven deep into his neck,

all without anesthesia. A few months later, McCann stood trial for shooting George Blaine and John Tewksbury. But there's no clear record of the outcome, which probably means the trial fizzled out. Court was only in session a couple times a year, and it was an ordeal to get everyone to travel to the courthouse, so the process was easy to frustrate. If key witnesses didn't show up for whatever reason, or a couple other things went wrong, it was easy for prosecutors to simply put the case aside and move on to other things. And that's probably what happened in the case of Marion McCann. And that's probably what happened in the case of Marion McCann. But 1884 continued to be the year of the courts. And with each new trial, or attempted trial, the relationships in Pleasant Valley worsened.

The Graham brothers were at the center of the next one. And they made the stupid mistake of alienating and infuriating cattle baron Jim Stinson. At the beginning of the year, Stinson was an ally. Stinson and Johnny Graham had signed a contract that they hoped to use to essentially eliminate the Tewksbury's and their neighbors by sending them to prison for cattle rustling. But the plan didn't work, and it continued to backfire. The Tewksbury's were acquitted at their trial, and then they filed perjury charges against the Graham brothers for lying while under oath. The Grahams were indicted by a grand jury, but they weren't arrested. Instead, their partner, Jim Stinson, put up money as a bond. The bond would allow them to stay out of jail before their trial, but it was also supposed to ensure that they showed up for their trial. When the district court convened for the October 1884 term, witnesses and jurors made the long

trek to Prescott to assemble in the courtroom. Everyone was there, except the Grams. They never showed up, which meant Jim Stinson had to forfeit the money he'd put up as a bond, and he was mad. Stinson had given the Grams $1,200 worth of cattle when they signed their contract to implicate the Tewksbury's, and the plan failed. Then he'd put up more money to keep the Grams out of jail while they waited for their trial, and they'd failed to appear. Jim Stinson was done with the Graham brothers, and now he concocted a Machiavellian scheme that he hoped would hurt the Grams and the Tewksbury's. By the time the legal fiasco in Prescott was done,

winter was on the doorstep of Pleasant Valley. Stinson sent a letter to a prominent rancher in the next county over, about 80 miles east of Pleasant Valley. The letter claimed that two of the rancher's prized cows that had been missing for a year and a half could be found in Pleasant Valley. The letter said the cows had been rebranded and were in the herd of Johnny and Tom Graham. Furthermore, the letter said there was a witness to the theft, and that witness was Jim Tewksbury. The rancher was a member of a large stock association, so when the snow cleared in the spring of 1885, the association sent a range detective to Pleasant Valley. The detective's job was to see if he could get Jim Tewksbury to swear out a complaint against the Grams. The detective incentivized Jim a little further

by offering to pay him for his time in gathering evidence. Jim went to a Justice of the Peace with information about the alleged theft of the cows. The justice started to swear out a complaint against the Grams, but then he thought better of it and refused to finish it. The detective was undeterred. Later that spring, he rode out again, and this time he persuaded Jim and several others to accompany him to the Graham Ranch. The informal posse included a deputy sheriff, Ed Rose, Bob Sixby, and Jim's brother, Ed. At the Graham Ranch, Jim Tewksbury pointed out one of the supposedly stolen cows. The detective found the other and inspected the brands on both. To the posse, the brands looked like the work of a rawhide artist,

a person who uses a straight iron to change a brand. The Grams protested. They conceded that the animals had once belonged to the rancher in the next county, but they said the rancher sold the cows to a Mormon rancher. Then the Mormon rancher sold the cows to them. They were willing to sign affidavits that swore to the sequence of events. In May of 1885, the detective stood before a grand jury and charged the Grams with cattle rustling. He named as witnesses three Tewksbury brothers and their father. Following the pattern of Pleasant Valley, the case went to trial. The situation for the Grams

was worrisome, but the evidence was circumstantial. The four Tewksbury witnesses were not saying they saw the actual theft of the cattle. All the prosecutors had were two cows that might be the missing animals, and two brands on those cows that might have been reworked. So the prosecutors decided they needed more witnesses. The judge ordered a delay of a week and a half. The Grams claimed they would use the time to gather witnesses of their own. When court reconvened, the Grams failed to appear once again. It was no surprise when the newspapers in Arizona Territory branded the Grams liars and men with no regard for the sanctity of their oaths. Not surprisingly, the Grams' list of friends and supporters shrank with regularity. But fear not, a family of outlaws from Texas was already in the area,

and in a couple years, they'll join forces with the Grams to give us one side of the war that will dominate the whole second half of our story. We'll get to the family of outlaws in a minute, but they weren't the only arrivals from Texas in the mid-1880s. A big Texas outfit called the Aztec Land and Cattle Company drove enormous herds into northern and central Arizona. Their employees, dubbed the Hash Knife Cowboys, were a notoriously rough bunch. the Hash Knife Cowboys, were a notoriously rough bunch. They were frequently on the run from the law, and they had no compunction about shooting each other or anyone else. When they weren't poaching cattle from small ranchers, they stole from their own herds, and they stole from Native American herds, which obviously inflamed anxieties and tensions between white settlers and Apaches that were already hot. While the Grams and the Tewksbury's bickered in court, Native American leaders and their people endured tremendous pressure. Not only were they forced to live within certain confines dictated

by the U.S. government, but they'd been forced to abandon their traditional roles in society. the US government, but they'd been forced to abandon their traditional roles in society. And one of the worst parts about the reservation was that it forced lifelong enemies to live right next to each other. In 1885, about 150 Apaches left the San Carlos Reservation in a desperate hope to recapture the life they once knew. They were led, of course, by Geronimo. U.S. Army troops scattered in all directions trying to pick up their trail, including the familiar raiding grounds of Pleasant Valley, but the military simply couldn't find

them. The Army called in more units to help track what were usually called renegades, and placed hundreds of troops at every known watering hole along the Mexico border. Still, the warriors slipped past the army and killed two civilians and 20 Apaches from a rival band. The military spent the winter months of 1885 and 1886 in a deadly cat-and-mouse chase through the canyons of southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Finally, in September 1886, Geronimo surrendered. His campaign turned him into a legend, and in Pleasant Valley, as the immediate fear of Apache raids slowly subsided, the feud between the Tewksbury's and the Grams picked back up again.

But now, the Grams, who had alienated almost everyone, found some new allies. The Hashknife Cowboys were always heavily armed, and over the next few years, many hired themselves out to the Grams to do dirty work. And then, the family of outlaws from Texas joined in the issue. They were the Blevins family, and they started a ranch at the northern end of Pleasant Valley sometime in 1884. According to family legend, they were on the run, so the exact date of their arrival is impossible to nail down. The father was Martin Jackson Blevins. He was originally from Missouri, and again, according to the lore, he and his family were forced to flee Texas because of a gunfight after a horse race. Whatever the exact details were of the gunfight and the horse race,

most historians agree the Blevins family was implicated in stealing horses in Central Texas. So, they ran west and landed in Pleasant Valley, Arizona. The eldest son, Andy, found work as a cowboy on Jim Stinson's ranch. Andy sometimes used the name Andy Cooper, probably to escape legal trouble in Texas. He was wanted for stealing horses and killing a deputy sheriff. But since this story already has about a thousand names, we'll call him Andy Blevins to avoid unnecessary confusion. In 1886, as Geronimo's campaign was winding down, the Blevins family, and Andy specifically, started to become notorious in Arizona. And in 1887, the Blevins brothers, and yes, it's another family with a bunch of brothers,

that's just the way it was in the West, the Blevins brothers got into a shootout with the Tewksbury brothers, which made the Blevins brothers natural allies of the Graham brothers. That alignment set the stage for five bloody years in Pleasant Valley. Next time on Legends of the Old West,

the Blevins family steals horses and cattle and even whole ranches as they build their infamous reputation in Arizona. But when a member of the family disappears, it leads to a chain reaction of violence in Pleasant Valley. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week. They receive early access and the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com.

Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched by Julia Bricklin and written by Julia and myself. Special thanks to historian Eduardo Pagan for his help during this production. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. Original music by Rob Vallier. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com for more details and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcasts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Please visit

airwavemedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin's World, Once Upon a Crime, and many more. Thanks for listening.