Famed lawman and gambler of the Old West Wyatt Earp didn’t just draw his firearm in Tombstone. He had a killing event at the train station near what is now Maynards Restaurant here in Tucson. It’s just that no one noticed because there was an even bigger event going on Downtown.
“(Wyatt Earp) started his vengeance ride here in Tucson on March 20, 1882,” tour guide Mauro Trejo said. “He shot Frank Stillwell at the train station. He was escorting (the body of) his brother Morgan, who had been murdered March 18, a couple of days before.”
Earp spotted Stillwell — an Earp family enemy — lurking about and “Wyatt Earp shoots him in the chest with a double barrel shotgun, only nobody noticed it.”
Why didn’t they notice?
To find that out, curious readers will have to join Trejo on his new tour, “Death After Dark.” For about two hours, Trejo will lead participants around Downtown, pointing out the locations of where some 50 people met their doom.
“It goes over some of the more interesting deaths that have happened Downtown,” he said. “Some historic, some that are a little obscure, but just kind of macabre.”
This is not a ghost tour — Trejo is a self-admitted skeptic — but some of these deaths are gruesome. Take, for example, the three men who drowned in a cesspool on the corner of Congress and Fifth streets where the old Martin Drug Company once traded. Then there are these poor people.
“There are the 10 people who were hanged in the courthouse plaza,” Trejo said. “There’s the owner of a hotel who goes crazy and winds up shooting the place up, shoots a police officer, gets thrown in jail. His wife commits suicide by drinking something called carbolic acid, which she was able to get at the drug store. She drinks it and dies this long, slow, painful death.”
That happened at the Pueblo Inn.
As a seventh-generation Tucsonan, Trejo has made a career telling the stories that might be lost to history were it not for his recounting of them. The trick to giving a good tour, he said, is to separate fact from legend, because there are so many stories that cannot be verified.
Therefore, he gets to do what he really loves — research and reading old newspapers. He applies that knowledge when he gives tours with both his own company, Walking Tours of Tucson, and with Tucson Presidio Historic Museum. Trejo also gives monthly talks at the Tucson Museum of Art.
The Death After Dark tour covers about two miles. Trejo said it’s not strenuous and although he talks about 50 deaths, it does not mean there are 50 stops. It shoves off at 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday from the Presidio Museum. Participants should wear comfortable shoes and bring plenty of water. The tours will continue at least through September and if they prove popular, Trejo will extend them.
Until then, there are plenty of opportunities to hear some ghastly stories. Still, Trejo likes it and he thinks participants will, too.
“It’s a fun tour where you get to learn some interesting stuff, a little bit about history,” he said. “I guarantee everybody’s going to walk out of there learning something that they didn’t know or about a death that they didn’t know. It’s fun and a little bit different.”
Friday nights Death After Dark Tour by Mauro Trejo
WHEN: 8 to 10 p.m. Fridays through Sept.
WHERE: Meet at 196 N. Court Avenue
COST: $20 for members of Tucson Presidio History Museum, $30 for all others
INFO: 520-662-0594 or visit tucsonpresidio.com/walking-tours
Saturday and Sunday nights Death After Dark Tours by Mauro Trejo
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through September
WHERE: Meet at 196 N. Court Avenue
COST: $30 through August with the code SUMMER50; After Sept. 1 the price is $60
INFO: 520-329-2639, trejostucson.com/tours
