William Larkin Stiles
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William Larkin Stiles (d. 1908), also known as Billy Stiles or William Larkin, was an outlaw of the American Old West who, with partner Burt Alvord, led a small gang of train robbers while an acting deputy sheriff in the Arizona Territory during the 1890s.
[edit] Biography
Born in Casa Grande, Arizona, Stiles worked as a prospector and ranch hand in the Superstition Mountains as well as working occasionally with lawman Jeff Milton and other law enforcement officials having a reputation as an expert tracker. Eventually meeting Wilcox marshal Burt Alvord, the two formed a partnership and were very successful robbing trains in southern Arizona with "Three Fingered" Jack Dunlap, Bravo Juan Yolas, Bob Brown and brothers George and Louis Owens. Under the guise of deputy sheriffs, they were able to interfere with investigations by local authorities.
In 1899, they were apprehended attempting to rob the Southern Pacific Railroad. The two had a minor falling out over the incident with each blaming the other and Stiles wife also testified against him in court.
Alvord soon broke him out of jail however, tying up the jailer and freeing Stiles from his cell with the keys, and the two disappeared from the area. Later reaching Mexico, they reportedly assisted in the capture of the Mexican bandit Augustin Chacon. Shortly after this, they attempted to fake their own deaths sending two coffins with their supposed bodies to Tombstone, Arizona but this ruse was quickly uncovered by authorities.
This would eventually led a group of Arizona Rangers who, in 1903, entered Mexico in pursuit of the fugitives. While successfully capturing Alvord, Stiles was able to escape the country making his was to the Orient, spending considerable time in China and the Philippines.
Although his later whereabouts are not recorded, it is claimed that Stiles eventually became a sheriff in Nevada County under the name William Larkin. In 1908, he was killed when trying to deliver a court summons.
[edit] References
- Breakenridge, William M. Helldorado: Bringing the Law to the Mesquite. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8032-6100-4
- Eppinga, Jane. Apache Junction And the Superstition Mountains. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0-7385-3040-9
- Prassel, Frank Richard. The Great American Outlaw: A Legacy of Fact and Fiction. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8061-2842-9
