Arizona, the Youngest State
1913, McClintock, page 487
Possibly Arizona's most noted Justice of the Peace was Jim
Burnett of Charleston, who was killed by W.C. Greene in
Tombstone. According to an old resident of Cochise County,
the degree of lawlessness in Tombstone, wasn't a marker to
Charleston, where they began the day at dark and where the
San Pedro cowboys were allowed the fullest of swing. But
the toughest of all was Burnett." Burnett had a number of
followers who seemed to do about what he wanted and who
maintained him in authority as dictator of the town. Burnett
made only one quarterly report to the Cochise County Board of
Supervisors and with it he made demand for a balance of $380
in fees. The supervisors cut it down. Burnett thereafter
pocketed all fees and fines and advised Tombstone that
"Hereafter the Justice's Court of Charleston precinct will
look after itself." Jack Schwartz, a saloon keeper, killed
an assistant foreman in one of the mills, one Chambers.
Burnett is said to have levied a fine of $1000. Schwartz
not exactly satisfied with the judgment is said to have
consulted Mark Smith, with the idea that an appeal might be
taken from the Justice's Court. The lawyer assured him
that he was getting off light. Schwartz appreciated the
gravity of his crime just in time to escape, before
District Attorney Lyttleton Price sent a posse for him
from Tombstone with a warrant. An instance of Burnett's
operations was when he walked up to Jack Harrer when that
desperado was crazy with drink, pulled him from his horse,
disarmed him and on the spot fined him twenty head of
three year old steers. Through such transactions as this
and through trading in cattle that had "strayed" across
the border, the Charleston justice attained a competency.
It is singular that his killing was for one crime that in
all probability he did not commit.
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