Tom’s Tombstone Travels: The Power Shootout
The Gunfight at the OK Corral was not the bloodiest shootout in
Arizona history. That honor seems to belong to what is known variously as
the Power Shootout, Power's Cabin Shootout, Power Brothers Shootout and
the Shootout in the Galiuro Mountains. It also led to the largest manhunt in
Arizona history, at least until that time. And in the opinion of many, it also
resulted in one of Arizona’s greatest injustices and created hard feelings that
separated citizens of Graham County for many years. The shootout occurred
on February 10, 1918, and that was very much still the Wild West in the
mountains of southern Arizona.
The Power family, who seemed to forever live under a dark cloud of
bad luck, was led by Thomas Jefferson “Jeff” Power, a former Texan who
settled his family in Graham County in 1909. The other members were Jeff’s
mother, Granny Powers, the oldest son Charlie and the only daughter and
baby of the family, Ola Power. In between were John and Tom. When Jeff
was only 28 years old his wife Martha died when the roof of a neighbor’s
house collapsed while she was there to give the family a house warming gift.
There may have never been a family that was as hard working as the
Power family, but bad luck would continue to plague them. A feud with the
Wootans, a neighboring rancher, developed and each accused the other of
rustling. The Power family was badly outnumbered. Eventually, Charlie had
enough of all the troubles and the hardscrabble life and moved to New
Mexico. Jeff sold his cattle and bought a gold mine that had produced
$65,000 the year before. He also hired a fellow named Tom Sisson to
replace Charlie. In 1915, Granny was killed when a runaway horse and
buggy crashed. Ola was injured, but recovered. Ola moved into a two-room
cabin by herself and Jeff, the boys and Sisson moved into shack by the
mine. In November of 1917, Ola ate some contaminated canned food and
died in Jeff’s arms a week after her 23rd birthday. The Power family
suspected the Wootans of poisoning their food supply. No poison was found
in her tissues.
Sheriff McBride was convinced that there was foul play on the part of
the family and he took an inept Doctor W.E. Platt to the body of Ola and he
first claimed she had a broken neck and then noticed a distended abdomen
and pronounced she had died of an a botched abortion. A subsequent
autopsy revealed that the neck was not broken and her hymen was intact.
Cause of death was unknown, but rumors were rampant.
In the elections of 1916, Tom Power supported Robert Franklin
McBride for sheriff of Graham County. On Election Day, Kane Wootan, the
registrar, refused the Power brothers the right to vote on the basis of
illiteracy. The fact that the brothers could both read and write didn’t matter
to a Wootan and caused the rift to widen. McBride won and appointed Kane
Wootan as one of his deputies.
The United States was well into World War I and the Selective Service
Act had been enacted on May 18, 1917. The Power family living far back in
the mountains was hardly aware of the war or the requirement to register.
They would later claim they went to the post office to register and was told
by the Postmaster that the Army only wanted volunteers. Jeff Power had the
opinion that if his boys were not good enough to vote, they weren’t good
enough to fight. So, the boys never registered, and that was a
misdemeanor.
Many attempts were made by county Sheriff MacBride and W. R.
Chambers, the county attorney, to get a warrant for what was a federal
offense and serve it on federal property where the Power cabin was located.
A federal attorney finally approved the warrant after he covered his own rear
by eliminating all references to federal offices on the warrant and the
complaint. U.S. Marshal J. P. Dillon instructed Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank
Haynes to take Sheriff McBride as one of his posse, and McBride was to
choose one other man to go along.
Deputy Robert Kempton volunteered to go, but McBride chose to take
Kane Wootan despite the hatred between the Powers and the Wootans.
Kempton was very disappointed and McBride took it upon himself to allow
Kempton to ride along as a “horse holder.” It seems the posse began the
whole affair from a slightly less than legal footing.
The Power cabin was about nine miles from the nearest place
accessible by car. The posse took a car to a nearby ranch where they
expected to borrow horses. The rancher, a friend of the Powers, refused
them. They drove on to Kane Wootan’s ranch and used his horses.
The morning of February 10, 1918, was bone chilling cold and the sun
had not yet reached the deep canyon where the Power cabin held Jeff, Tom
and John Power and Tom Sisson. Their barking dogs led the Powers to think,
“Mountain lion” and Jeff went to the door with his rifle on hand. He heard a
nervous voice call out, “Throw up your hands! Throw up your hands!” A shot
followed and Jeff fell back into the cabin mortally wounded. John ran to the
door amid a hail of bullets and began to fire. Splinters of wood from around
the door penetrated his left eye and much of his face. Tom ran to the
window where an incoming bullet filled his left eye with shards of glass. He
fired at shadows in the yard. Tom Sisson was in his bunk and never got up.
It was determined that that the posse never identified themselves as
lawmen. The firing ceased and Tom and John searched the yard and the first
body they found was Kane Wootan. The second body was unknown to the
Power brothers but was that of Martin Robert Kempton. The third body was
Sheriff Robert Franklin McBride. The only surviving member of the posse was
U.S. Deputy Marshall Haynes who turned out to be a coward who fled at the
first gunshot. He told a story of his bravery to the press and the court as to
how he stood knee deep in bodies and spent cartridges. The truth of the
matter was that the boys did not know that a fourth man had been there,
and the neighbors, upon hearing the sound of gunfire, ran to the Power
cabin and then to town for help. On the way to town they ran into Haynes at
a neighboring ranch and the marshal learned for the first time of the death
of his comrades. Another neighbor back at the cabin was doing all he could
for Jeff who kept repeating over and over again, “Why did Kane shoot me? I
had my hands up beggin’ for peace.”
The Power brothers and Sisson knew they were in great trouble and
would be lynched for the killings. Their only hope for survival was in crossing
the nearby border into Mexico. This set off one of the largest manhunts in
Arizona history. Posses from five counties would join in the hunt. The
number of men looking for the fugitives would reach as high as 1500
deputized lawmen and 700 Army troops. Such noted lawmen as former
Arizona Ranger and then Cochise County Sheriff Joe Wheeler would be sure
they had them surrounded only to have them slip away.
On March 8, 1918, nearly a month after the shootout, a troop of the
7th Cavalry out of Hachita, New Mexico, led by Lieutenant Woolcott P. Hayes
followed some footprints eight miles across the Mexico border and found the
almost bare feet, starving fugitives, who made no protest about being
arrested below the border. Hayes said the Power gang could have easily
killed him but they did not. Lieutenant Hayes also refused to surrender his
prisoners until he received assurance they would not be lynched.
To say the trial that began on May 13, 1918, was a fair trial would be
somewhat overstated. The boys pleaded self-defense and some witnesses,
who would have provided testimony to their favor were not called. The dying
declaration of a witness is considered to be truthful and allowed, but the
judge denied Jeff Power’s deathbed statement from being entered. The
prosecution was allowed to enter warrants into evidence that the defense
could see the ink was not even dry. Oddly, all records of the trial transcript
disappeared except for one page of shorthand.
The boys were easily convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment
because the death penalty had been recently abolished. The furor over the
Power case cased it to be immediately reinstated. The three entered the
state prison at Florence on May 22, 1918. Most “lifers” served less than 10
years in prison at that time. In January 1957, almost 39 years after
entering prison, Tom Sisson died in the prison hospital. On April 20, 1960,
due to two years of effort by Don Dedera and the Arizona Republic, the
brothers were given a parole hearing. A week later they left the prison with
new levis, boots, hats and $12.50 in pay. Tom was 68 and John was 70.
Tom died on September 11, 1970 and John on April 5, 1976. Jeff, Martha,
Ola, Tom and John are all buried in the Klondyke Cemetery in Klondyke, a
ghost town in Arizona. Wootan and Kempton are buried in the Safford City
Cemetery in Safford, Arizona. Sheriff McBride is buried in the Pima Cemetery
in Pima, Arizona.
Thanks to Mike Hartner of Safford, Arizona for the photo