The Red Jack Gang Stagecoach Robbery
Disguised as a respectable traveler, Jack Averill spent a week in the Florence area gathering intelligence on payroll shipments leaving on the stages. He was actually the notorious Red Jack, leader of the Red Jack Gang. On August 10, 1883, he noticed that the Wells Fargo Stage had been loaded with a strongbox that required two men to lift it. He boarded the stage as a passenger. As the stage began its climb between the Riverside stage stop to the Pioneer stage stop, he started singing loudly from the stage. This was a signal to his gang (which was lying in wait) that there was a large quantity of money on board. His gang ambushed the stage and started firing at the passengers before guards could reach for their weapons.
Jack's gang shot repeatedly at the stage and killed the stage messenger Johnny Collins. The gang then ordered one of the passengers, Felix LeBlanc to throw the strongbox out of the stagecoach and forced him to beat at the lock with a hatchet until it broke open. The robbers took $2000 in silver and $500 in gold from the strongbox and then rode away (that much silver is worth about $88,000 today and that much gold is worth about $100,000 today). This money was intended to pay the silver miners their wages.
The Pursuit of the Robbers
Soon a posse was organized and pursued the Red Jack and his gang of stagecoach robbers. Eventually the posse caught up to two of the robbers, Joe Tuttle and Len Redfield who did not put up a fight and "shook from head to foot" when approached by the posse. They also took co-conspirator Frank Carpenter into custody.
The other robbers had moved on by the time the posse arrived. The posse split up with half taking the prisoners to the jail in Florence and the other half continuing the pursuit. Joe Tuttle provided a confession and gave the details of the crime and named his co-conspirators.
Public sentiment in Florence was very hostile to the robbers and in fact the Florence newspaper called for vigilantes to lynch the prisoners, saying that "it has already been decided that as soon as it is positively known that the prisoners are the guilty ones they shall be taken out, given a fair trial before a citizen's committee, and promptly executed. There is no other way to put an end to these atrocious murders. The administration of justice through our courts is too uncertain. We have seen this truth illustrated here in several instances. The so-called strong arm of the law has proven to be very feeble when raised against criminals in this section, and the people have concluded to take the matter into their own hands in extreme cases like the one now under discussion."
Knowing that a vigilante lynching was imminent, the US Deputy Marshal J. W. Evans came and with 7 men began guarding the jail. The District Attorney protested the action and argued that a Deputy Marshal had no authority to guard a county jail. Evans relented and withdrew his guards.
On September 3, a mob of about 100 armed vigilantes stormed the jail and took Joe Tuttle and Len Redfield. The vigilantes strung ropes over the braces between one of the joists in the jail corridor and hung both men. They took Frank Carpenter out of his cell, showed him the hanging bodies, and told him that he was young enough that they weren't going to hang him but that if he didn't mend his ways he was going to end up like the other two. The vigilantes then brought in a doctor who pronounced the two men dead. Once this happened, they left the bodies hanging and the mob disbanded.
An inquest was conducted by Judge Thomas whose verdict was that Tuttle and Redfield had been hung by "persons unknown."
Two of the Robbers lynched by a mob
The shootout
Sheriff Bob Paul from Tucson took up the pursuit of Red Jack and his fellow stagecoach robber Charles Hensley (there was by this time a large reward offered for their apprehension). On October 3, 1883 Sheriff Paul's posse caught up with Red Jack and Hensley near Fort Grant Arizona. Red Jack and Hensley started shooting at the posse and the posse started shooting back. Soon both robbers were riddled with bullets and died.
When the law searched the bodies of the robbers the money wasn't found. To this day the $500 in gold is still missing. People have searched for it for over a century but have never found where the bandits hid the loot.
The last of the robbers dies of fright
Frank Carpenter, the last living member of the Red Jack Stagecoach Gang, had narrowly escaped being hung in Florence. He was released on bail and was waiting for his trial.
In November of 1883 the Arizona Gazette reported the following:
"Frank Carpenter, who was recently admitted to bail in Florence on the charge of being an accessory to the Riverside stage robbery, and has been living on his ranch some twenty miles from Benson, died on Tuesday last from nervousness and fear. The hanging of Redfield and Tuttle has so worked on him that he imagined every person he met was going to hang him, which so affected his mind that he died of fright."
Thus ended the Red Jack Gang.
