July 1, 2009
I sent out the first batch of 8-Page-Mickeys yesterday. They should start landing any minute now. Got the first response from Albuquerque:

"Love those mini-Mickeys!"
—The Top Secret Writer

Yes, there is something so cool about those 8-Page-Mickeys, even though it is incomplete, people are responding. Robert Ray's wife, Bea, sat down, read it and said, "I want to read the rest." That's a good thing.

Finished the Apache Kid book last night.

Once again, if you want one, call Bob Pugh at (520) 293-1260. A couple interesting tidbits:

McKanna claims the Apache Kid grew up in the Ash Flat area of Arivaipa Creek and that he preferred this area to hide in (the book says, "The Ash Flat region is near the northern end of Aravaipa Canyon"), and also the Santa Catalinas north of Tucson, and then in the Sierra Madres. The book calls out Fronteras, Bavispe, Nacozari de Garcia (south of Fronteras and west of Bavispe), but he doesn't explain why. I'm contracting Gus to do us a series of good maps for this.

When the Kid ran away from Sieber and Pearce at the Tragic Pow Wow, he was on foot. Gonshayee, who allegedly became a sub-chief of the S1 clan when Apache Kid declined, testified at the court marshal, "I saw [Kid] afterwards way up the Gila [River]. . .Kid got up there on foot, of course he is better than a horse, can run better than a horse."

I'm using that quote for sure! Sometimes you can't make up anything better than the real stuff.

When the Kid came back from Alcatraz he was serenaded by the 10th Cav. band at San Carlos, but within days Captain Bullis filed a complaint against the Kid for the murder of Michael Grace near Crittenden during the raid a year earlier when the Kid almost went to Mexico but returned. Kid was arrested and transported to Tucson and put in the Pima County Jail. He was then taken to Globe for his trial which lasted only a day (and convicted and sentenced to seven years in Yuma). This takes some of the onus off of Sieber and puts it on Bullis, who is our heavy anyway. Interesting. According to McKanna, it's Bullis who sets in motion the final transformation of the Kid into "a renegade."

All told, the Kid spent two years in prisons from the San Carlos Guardhouse, Alcatraz, and the Pima and Gila county jails.

McKanna sites evidence that Massai teamed up with the Apache Kid in Mexico, and in October of of 1890 Captain Bullis complained of numerous disturbances on the San Carlos Res during the year and blamed Massai. And "In 1893 Captain Johnson admitted that Kid had made several intrusions upon the reservation. On at least one occasion Kid was accompanied by two Chiricuahuas from Sonora, one of whom might have been Massai."

Our friend Bachenol, who McKanna calls"Bachoandoth" loses his head. He was decapitated by scouts who tracked him down after his escape from the ill-fated Reynold's stagecoach ride.

Also, a newspaper claimed the best way to eliminate the Kid was "to offer 'head money' on the reservation." So, our decapitated beginning and ending, has some historic heft. As if we needed it! Ha.

Both Mexico and the U.S. feared the Kid's raids so much that, in June of 1890, Mexico approved a reciprocal crossing agreement that allowed troops from both countries to pursue renegades across the border.

Again, quoting McKanna: "In 1896 Archie McIntosh, a scout, suggested to General Miles that, with the aid of five Apache scouts, he could capture Kid. Miles, rather foolishly, endorsed the plan, but McIntosh went on a drinking binge and Miles fired him before he began his expedition."

According to the artist Ross Santee, the Kid rode with Pancho Villa's troops in 1915. Even as late as 1935 there were reports that the Kid "had visited old friends at San Carlos."

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish."
—Old Vaquero Saying