The murder of John Tunstall, a wealthy…

The murder of John Tunstall, a wealthy Englishman, catalyzes the Lincoln County War.

Tunstall had arrived in November 1876 in Lincoln County, New Mexico, where he intended to develop a cattle ranch, store, and bank in partnership with the young attorney Alexander McSween and cattleman John Chisum.

They had discovered that Lincoln County is controlled both economically and politically by Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan, the proprietors of LG Murphy and Co., the only store in the county.

The factions are ethnically at odds, with the Murphy faction mostly Irish Catholic, while Tunstall and his allies are mostly Scots-Irish Protestants.

LG Murphy and Co. have loaned thousands of dollars to the Territorial Governor, and the Territorial Attorney General had eventually held the mortgage on the firm.

Tunstall had learned that Murphy and Dolan, who buy much of their cattle from rustlers, have lucrative beef contracts from the United States government to supply forts and Indian agencies.

The government contracts, along with their monopoly on merchandise and financing for farms and ranches, have allowed Murphy, Dolan and their partner Riley to run Lincoln County as a personal fiefdom.

Murphy and Dolan refuse to give up their monopoly.

In February 1878, in a court case that is eventually dismissed, they obtain a court order to seize all of McSween's assets, but mistakenly include all of Tunstall's assets with those of McSween.

Sheriff Brady forms a posse to attach Tunstall's remaining assets at his ranch from seventy miles from Lincoln.

Few local citizens join Brady's posse, which enlists a gang of outlaws known as the Jesse Evans Gang.

On February 18, 1878, members of the Sheriff's posse catch up to Tunstall, who is herding his last nine horses back to Lincoln.

Frank Warner Angel, a special investigator for the Secretary of the Interior, later determines that Tunstall was shot in "cold blood" by Jesse Evans, William Morton, and Tom Hill.

Tunstall's murder is witnessed from a distance by several of his men, including Richard Brewer and Billy the Kid.