The event forever known as the Bisbee Massacre took place on Main Street at the Castaneda and Goldwater Mercantile Emporium on December 8.
given a change of venue? And, why weren’t they given separate trials instead of trying all five men together? Most of the testimony by the witnesses was hearsay and circumstantial.
Could the court-appointed attorneys have done a job better defending their clients? Did they fear public retribution if they if they represented the defendants too well and planted seeds of doubt in the jury?
There was never any doubt about the outcome. The five men were convicted, found guilty and sentenced to hang on March 28th, a few weeks after the trial ended.
Because he wasn’t present at the scene of the crime, Heath was tried separately. His trial began immediately after the others were sentenced.
All five testified that Heath had nothing to do with planning or participating in the Bisbee robbery-murder.
Heath was found guilty of murder but sentenced to life in the territorial prison. On the morning of February 22nd an angry mob stormed the jail, ignoring the five condemned men, took Heath out and hanged him from a telegraph pole on Toughnut Street.
John Heath was the only man in Tombstone’s wild and wooly history to be lynched.
A few weeks later, on March 29th the five condemned men stood on the scaffold. Each proclaimed his innocence. It would be the largest mass hanging in Arizona history.
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