By Bob Baker
After several train robberies in the Arizona Territory, the territorial legislature made train robbery a separate crime punishable by death. The law was passed on March 1, 1889. Less than three weeks after its passage, a sensational train robbery occurred that many believed would result in the death penalty for the train robbers under the new law.
On March 27, 1889, Prescott’s newspaper, the Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner, gave this account of the train robbery that occurred on March 20th while the eastbound Atlantic and Pacific train was stopped at Canyon Diablo Station east of Flagstaff.