John Tunstall

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John Henry Tunstall (6 March 1853 – 18 February 1878) was a New Mexican rancher and prominent figure in the Lincoln County War.

Born in Hackney, London, England. Tunstall emigrated to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1872 where he spent his time working at Turner, Beeton & Tunstall, a store in which his father was a partner. Tunstall left Canada for the United States in February 1876. He spent six months investigating the possibility of becoming a sheep rancher in California, but decided instead to try New Mexico, where land was cheaper and more abundant. Soon after his arrival in Santa Fe he met a lawyer, Alexander McSween, who persuaded him that there were potentially big profits to be made in Lincoln County. Soon after arriving in Lincoln County, New Mexico, Tunstall went into business as a rancher and set up a mercantile store and bank close to the Murphy & Dolan mercantile and banking operation established a few years earlier by James Dolan, Lawrence Murphy and John H. Riley. Tunstall and McSween were supported by John Chisum, the owner of a large ranch and over 100,000 head of cattle.

Alarmed and enraged by Tunstall's plans, Murphy & Dolan attempted to put him out of business, harassing him legally and when that did not work, trying to goad Tunstall into a gunfight, using hired gunmen, most of whom were members of the Jessie Evans Gang. Tunstall recruited half a dozen tough cowboys, one of whom was the boy who would later be known as Billy the Kid, to protect him while he tried to settle the dispute. On 18 February 1878, while alone, Tunstall was shot and killed by William Morton, Jessie Evans and Tom Hill, apparently on the orders of James Dolan. Frank Baker has also been suggested to have been present during the murder, but that is not certain.

Tunstall's murder ignited the Lincoln County War. Deeply affected by his murder, Billy the Kid became a member of the Regulators, along with friends Charlie Bowdre, Dick Brewer, and Doc Scurlock, the group being supported by Alexander McSween, who obtained the Regulators offical authorization, with the members being deputized. The Regulators tracked down and captured William Morton and Frank Baker on March 6th, then executed them both on March 9th, along with fellow Regulator William McCloskey, whom the Regulators believed to have betrayed them.

Billy the Kid later claimed that Tunstall "was the only man that ever treated me like I was a free-born and white", and swore: "I'll get every son-of-a-bitch who helped kill John if it's the last thing I do." Several other killings followed the Morton-Baker executions, committed by both the Regulators and the gunmen hired by Murphy-Dolan, culminating in the July 15th through July 19th, 1878 Battle of Lincoln. John Tunstall's gun is located at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, UK (website www.royalarmouries.org).

[edit] Trivia

• Tunstall was portrayed in the 1988 film Young Guns by English actor Terence Stamp and in the 1970 film Chisum by veteran English actor Patric Knowles. Intriguingly, Stamp was 50 and Knowles 58 years old when cast as Tunstall, who was only 24 at the time of his death.

• A biography of Tunstall and a history of the Lincoln County War is The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall by Frederick Nolan published in 1965 by the University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque NM.