Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Photo of the Week #001 - Biggest manhunt in Arizona's history

During my wanders through Flickr pages I stumbled upon this picture from freeparking collection. This wanted poster comes from boxes of family photos that the user inherited and which are really interesting especially those depicting scenes from the far west.
The poster shows the reward due for the capture of the men involved in the "Powers Affair", the biggest manhunt in Arizona's history.



An account from wikipedia says:

"In 1909 Jeff Powers and his family homesteaded in Rattlesnake Canyon and began mining nearby. When two of Powers' sons, Tom and John Powers, failed to report when drafted into World War I, Sheriff Robert F. McBride of Graham County delivered a letter to the Powers' asking them to come in for prosecution, but it was ignored. Several weeks later, on the night of February 9, 1918, Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Haynes, Sheriff McBride, and Deputy Sheriffs Martin Kempton and T.K. Wooten arrived at the Powers' cabin near the Powers Mine. They carried arrest warrants for Tom and John Powers for draft evasion, and warrants for Jeff Powers and his hired man, Tom Sisson, for an unrelated charge. Just before dawn on February 10, as the Powers camp was preparing breakfast, they heard two of their horses gallop by their dogs began barking. When Jeff Powers stepped outside with his rifle Deputy Sheriff Wooten yelled, "Throw up your hands! Throw up your hands!" A furious gunfight ensued, leaving Sheriff McBride, Deputy Sheriffs Kempton and Wooten, and Jeff Powers dead. Marshal Haynes escaped to nearby Klondyke, Arizona, while the Powers boys and Tom Sisson fled south to Redington on the San Pedro River, leading to the biggest manhunt in Arizona's history. They entered Mexico south of Hachita, New Mexico, where on March 8 they surrendered to a U.S. Army patrol that had picked up their trail and crossed the border in pursuit. At their trial, all three men were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Sisson died in prison at the age of 86, but the Powers brothers were paroled in 1960, forty-two years after their conviction. They were pardoned by Governor Jack Richard Williams nine years later."


The photo is by freeparking published under this Creative Commons license

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