Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-03-04
EARLY DAY ROBBERY AND HANGING AS TOLD
 BY TOMBSTONE PAPER

The following is an excerpt from the Daily Prospector (Tombstone) of February 22, 1884, which recalls the Heath hanging:
 The 22nd of February, 1884, was an eventful day in Tombstone, and the Prospector herewith presents an ac- count of that days lynching with the events leading up to it. About 5 o'clock in the evening of that day Richard Heath was taken from jail and hanged to a telegraph pole. He was one of party of six-Dan Dowd, Billy Delaney, Tex Howard, Ed Kelly and Red Sample being his associates implicated in the Bisbee murders. These men had concocted a plot to rob a store in Bisbee, where consider able money was deposited, and on the night decided on for the robbery Heath opened dance hall in the lower end of town and at some distance from the store. Free drinks were one of the inducements offered to attract the populace to his resort, and thus al low his pals to work their scheme of robbery unmolested.
 Discovered at Safe
 While engaged in the work of loot ing the safe they were discovered and the alarm given. A deputy sheriff, in attempting to arrest the burglars, was killed. For the purpose of terrorizing the citizens, the desperadoes com menced shooting indiscriminately through the streets. Mrs. Roberts the wife of miner, who was standing in doorway, was killed by one of the bullets.
 In the excitement that followed, the robbers succeeded in making their es- cape. But their freedom was of short duration. Delaney and Dowd were captured in Mexico. Sample and How ard at Clifton, while Kelly fell into the clutches of the law at Douglas These five, together with Heath, who ] was arrested as an accomplice, were brought to Tombstone for trial. The latter received life sentence in the penitentiary at Yuma. The others were sentenced to death.
 Wanted Quick Action
 The citizens of the county, while willing that the accused should have a fair and impartial trial, were deter mined that should verdict of guilty be rendered, each and every one ot them must expiate their crime at the ropes end, and in pursuance of this resolve, Heath was taken from the jail and lynched when the news that he had received a prison sentence was known. Heath died game. He asked for handkerchief and with his own hands tied it over his eyes; then he requested the crowd not to riddle his body with bullets, and on being as sured that his request would be com- piled with, he said he was ready to be swung into eternity.
 His companions in crime were le- gally executed the following months, the five being. hanged from the same scaffold.
 To show the recklessness of the men and the utter indifference dis played by them at their fate, even when standing in the very shadow of the gallows, this incident is told the Prospector by gentleman who was present. John L. Sullivan, who was then in the zenith of his glory, with Pete Mccoy, Steve Taylor and other shining lights of pugilism, were starr ing the southwest. They gave an ex- hibition in Tombstone, and while here visited the jail where the five men under sentence of death were in- carcerated. After the greetings were over and the conversation became general, Tex Howard remarked to Sul- livan: "John, you're undoubtedly a great man; you've knocked out every body that has gone against you; but there's little man," pointing to sher- if J. l.. Ward, "who will perform 9 greater feat in the knockout line day after tomorrow than you ever at tempted" "What's that said Sulli- van. "Why, he has taken contract to knock five of us out in one round next Friday and it's hundred to one | sbot that ha wins without A Struggle,' ,