Deputy Sheriff Jake Bowman

Jake Bowman

Deputy Sheriff Jake Bowman was shot and killed when he was attacked by a group of Apache Indians led by the Apache Kid near the hot springs in Sonora, Mexico.

The Apache Kid was wanted for murdering Sheriff Glenn Reynold and Deputy Sheriff Williams Holmes, of the Gila County Sheriff's Office in 1889, and Chief of Police Ben Williams of the Bisbee Police Department in 1890.

Deputy Bowman had learned that the Apache Kid may be in the area of the Hot Springs and set out with another deputy to scout the area. They went to investigate a column of smoke rising from a small canyon in Guadalupe Canyon near the Slaughter Ranch. As they approached the area they were ambushed and Deputy Bowman was fatally shot. The other deputy was able to escape through the thick brush.

Deputy Bowman's body was recovered several days later and returned to Arizona for burial.

The Apache Kid was a former sergeant of the U.S. Army's Indian Scouts who assisted General George Crook in the capture of Geronimo. He was later charged with desertion and murder following a drunken riot in which several Indians were killed. In 1888, he was sent to Alcatraz, but his conviction was overturned one year later.

Soon afterward, he and several other Indians were re-arrested and again convicted of the charges. While being transported to the Yuma Territorial Prison, they escaped, resulting in the murders of Sheriff Reynolds and Deputy Holmes. For the next five years, the Apache Kid and his fellow warriors went along the U.S.-Mexican border, committing murders and other crimes along both sides of the border.

The Apache Kid mysteriously disappeared in 1894.