THE WILD WEST HISTORY

Burt Alvord

The son of a justice of the peace, Alvord was born in 1866 in the Arizona Territory . Often traveling with his father Alvord was present at Tombstone, Arizona during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral at the age of 15. Alvord was later appointed deputy sheriff by Cochise County Sheriff John Slaughter in 1886 and quickly established a reputation as an excellent tracker bringing in many cattle rustlers and other wanted criminals. However it is suspected Alvord began operating as an outlaw during this time.

While Slaughter was suspicious of Alvord there were no charges that could be proved by the time of Slaughters retirement in 1890. Alvord began rustling cattle in the mid- 1890s before becoming marshal of Wilcox, Arizona in 1899. Alvord later formed an outlaw gang with Billie Stiles and began committing armed robberies. While the gang was captured in September after a train holdup near Cochise County but later escaped from jail. The Alvord-Stiles Gang was again captured in 1903 but escaped once again.

Shortly after this Alvord and Stiles attempted to fake their deaths sending their coffins to Tombstone however the two were continued to remain wanted men. The Arizona Rangers , pursing the men into Mexico in 1904 trapped them where Alvord was wounded in the gunfight and brought back to Arizona were he was sentenced to two years imprisonment. The details of his later life are unclear however he was supposedly spotted in South America as far as Jamaica until 1910 when the death of a Panama Canal worker in 1910 was claimed to be Alvord however his identification was never verified.