The Valenzuela Gang
Arizona the Youngest State
McClintock, 1913, page 473

In 1887 Superintendent Josiah Gribble of the Vulture mines and 
two guards, Johnson and Littlefield were murdered a few miles 
from Vulture, as they were starting for Phoenix with a bar of 
gold bullion, valued at $7000, the product of the Vulture Mill.  
Gribble had been warned at Vulture by T.E. Farish of the risk he 
was taking but replied that he had fought robbers in Australia 
and South Africa and was willing to meet any thieves in Arizona.  
The murders, Inocente and Francisco Valenzuela and a younger 
Mexican, probably saw from afar the arrangement of guards and 
killed the three at first fire.  The murderers fled southward, 
headed for Mexico.  At the Gila River they separated.  They 
tried to cut the bar with an axe, but failed, so buried the 
bullion in a cache near Powers' camp.  The chase after the 
murderers was one of the most spectacular ever known in the 
Southwest, in it participating Sheriff Bud Gray, Hi McDonald, 
Henry Garfias and Jim Murphy, all hardy and determined men and 
hard riders.  They followed the trail across the blazing desert 
and the Mexicans narrowly escaped capture.  Francisco got safely 
into Mexico, escaped extradition, and in the course of time died 
at Altar.  Inocente, from Phoenix later stole back to the 
cache on the Gila.  His absence was marked and a posse 
descended upon him.  Impeded by his golden burden he was 
unable to travel with any speed.  He showed fight and was 
killed and the bar was recovered.  The third Mexican claimed 
that he was compelled to take part in the robbery and his 
story was accepted because he turned state's evidence.


The same Valenzuela gang for years terrorized the section 
along the Hassayampa River, robbing placer miners and killing 
wherever they were opposed.  They also are charged with the 
murder of Barney Martin and his family in the summer of 1886.  
Martin had kept a little store and had acted as stage agent at 
Stanton in the Antelope HIll secion of Southern Yavapai County 
where he had incurred the enmity of the local gang of cutthroats 
and thieves.  Martin finally sold out and with the money for 
the sale of his property in his pocket and with his wife and 
several children, he loaded his few remining effects into a 
covered wagon and started for Phoenix.  Few men were more 
popular than he and his departure was generally regretted so 
his way southward was one of welcome and good cheer.  
Captain M.H. Calderwood at Coldwater Station on the Agua 
Fria had been notified of the impending arrival of the 
Martin family and prepared a royal reception.  But several 
days passed after the stage had reported Martin's departure 
from the Brill Ranch, on the Hassayampa and Calderwood 
became alarmed.  Not far from the present Hot Springs 
Junction was found the track of a wagon leading off into 
the hills.  This track was followed a few miles and the 
trailers came upon the remains of a wagon that had been 
burned and in the ashes the charred bodies of Barney 
Martin and the members of his family.  The murders had 
been committed on the highway and the wagon had been 
driven away from the road to try to hide the evidences 
of the crime.  The bodies of the murdered ones were 
brought back to the Brill Ranch and there interred, the 
headstone a perpetual reminder to those who thereafter 
passed of the dangers of pioneer days.

There was an understanding at the time that these Mexican 
outlaws had a secret leader in S.P. Stanton who was assassinated 
by a young Mexican about 1886 in revenge for an insult of 
several years before to the boy's sister.  Stanton long was 
a resident among the Mexican population, ostensibly a 
storekeeper, suppling goods to the Mexican placeros.  
He was charged with complicity in the Barney Martin murder 
but nothing could be shown against him.  There was a general 
belief that Stanton had been a Catholic priest, but this was 
denied in 1901 by Hector Riggs who told that "Stanton was 
never a  Catholic priest, though he went far upon the road 
toward priesthood.  He was expelled from Maynooth College for 
immoral conduct and though he took his case in person to Pope 
Pius IX he failed to get himself reinstated."



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