By Kristen Kauffman
Bob Parsons was a twenty-seven-year-old English teamster with three fingers that didn’t close and a reputation for disorderly conduct. In June of 1894, he was fined fifty dollars and given fifty days in jail for bludgeoning someone with a beer bottle. He had no address and rotated living in hotels between Jerome and Prescott.
His girlfriend was Bohemia–or at least that’s what she told everyone her name was. Her real name was Birjina Valasquez, and not much is known about her except that she was twenty-three and a well-known prostitute working in Jerome. She and Parsons had been dating for two years.
In 1894 the United Verde and Pacific Railroad was nearly complete, connecting Jerome to Chino Valley at Jerome Junction. As the rail construction progressed, a camp—known as “Saloon Camp”—moved across Mingus Mountain with them. F. J. Haas and Henry C. Adams were in charge of the saloon tent, providing the nightlife the men had come to expect in town. It was these two men who became key witnesses at the coroner’s inquest on August 22, 1894. C.L. Haynes, one of the men working on the railroad, reported that Valasquez lived at the camp for about a week. Speculation is that Valasquez and Parsons had been living together in Jerome, and that she left him to work at Saloon Camp to live there alone.
The afternoon of Monday, August 20th was the first and only time the locals at Saloon Camp had seen Valasquez and Parsons together. Parsons and Valasquez drank together, but later that night, Joseph Tapa saw Valasquez leave the kitchen, leading Jose Conta to her tent. By 1 AM, Tapa heard Valasquez shout, “Bob is killing me!” Tapa, Haas, Adams, Haynes and others rushed into the tent to pull the blood-soaked Parsons off of Valasquez’s body. Haas saw Conta standing behind Parsons, his back arched and ready to bludgeon Parson’s head with a rock. Haas knocked Conta down while others pulled Parsons away. He dropped the knife. Valasquez was stabbed 15 times with a butcher knife–eleven wounds on her neck and four on the rest of her body, any one of which would have been fatal. One report says that her head was nearly severed. Two hours later, Haynes gave Haas the butcher knife to hold for evidence. Haynes muttered he was relieved she was dead.
Some men wanted to lynch Parsons immediately, while more law-abiding citizens put him on a stage headed to Prescott. Alerted to the potential danger, Undersheriff Cartter intercepted the stage at the head of Yaegar Canyon and brought Parsons back to Jerome for the coroner’s inquest. Once the inquest found him responsible for Valasquez’s death, Deputy Merritt brought Parsons to Prescott for his murder trial. Parsons remained mute on the subject, claiming he had no memory of what happened.
On Wednesday, August 29th, Bohemia was brought to Prescott to be buried in the city cemetery, though no headstone remembers her. Bob Parsons pled guilty, and by November was convicted and given a life sentence to be served at Yuma Territorial Prison. On May 17, 1907, Governor Joseph H. Kibby pardoned Parsons as a favor to English diplomats, under the condition that Parsons never return to Arizona. Parsons told the parole board in 1907 that, at the end of August 1894, he was despondent, had been drinking heavily after a fight in a Prescott saloon and murdered Bohemia after several days of drinking. He said that, once pardoned, he would never break the law again, as he no longer drank. Parsons moved to Los Angeles, where he lived quietly, true to his word.
“Days Past” is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners International (www.prescottcorral.org). This and other Days Past articles are also available at www.archives.sharlothallmuseum.org/articles/days-past-articles/1. The public is encouraged to submit proposed articles and inquiries to dayspast@sharlothallmuseum.org Please contact SHM Research Center reference desk at 928-277-2003, or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information or assistance with photo requests.