by 
Maricopa Junction train station circa 1900-1920.
John C. Powers was a Pinal County Sheriff’s Deputy and a Special Officer for the Southern Pacific Railroad. As a railroad officer, he was commissioned to work in three counties where the Southern Pacific operated: Pinal, Maricopa and Pima.
He was born in Texas on Oct. 3, 1883. He is believed to have come to Arizona in the early 1900s. Powers was assigned to Maricopa Junction where he was in charge of security for the busy Southern Pacific Railroad line. His duties included protecting the passengers, freight and property of the railroad. He also kept the hobos and undesirables from riding the boxcars without a ticket. His methods and treatment of the hobos and enforcing the law would earn him a reputation and the nickname “Maricopa Slim”.
Maricopa was a regular stop for all trains of the Southern Pacific or Espee as it was affectionately known. While the train loaded water and paying passengers, Powers would check the box cars and force every hobo off of the train. He would hold them until the train left. Powers then took all of the hobo’s valuables, weapons, and sometimes shoes and force them to depart on foot. Melvin Drake, a Maricopa Pioneer said that Powers always carried a wooden Billy club, which was filled with lead. Hobos referred to Powers as the “Southern Pacific Boogey” because of his reputation of using cruel methods in his handling of hobos and law breakers.
The legend has it that Maricopa Slim was involved in several illegal killings some allegedly by hanging and others by beating the victims to death. The allegations were never proven although there are verified stories of Powers knocking out people with his fists, a club and the barrel of his pistol.
It is not known exactly when Powers first began working as a deputy and a railroad special officer but his name began appearing in newspapers around 1911. The Arizona Republican newspaper dated April 11, 1911 reported that J.C. Powers of Maricopa yesterday brought in Ambrosio Navarro on a charge of selling liquor to Indians.
On June 29, 1911 theArizona Republicantold the story of Powers arresting two hobos for beating up another hobo at the edge of the Maricopa city limits. The victim was told to leave town before he got into more trouble. “The two victors were hustled handcuffed together without mercy to the city jail. The edifice is an adobe building immediately behind the post office and the Williams Hotel.” The building had two rooms, one used as a makeshift jail and the other a store room for Judge Perry Williams. Williams owned the hotel, was the Justice of the Peace and Postmaster for Maricopa. He stored blankets for the hotel, Indian pottery and other goods that he sold.
The two hobos managed to break out of the jail and were seen running along the tracks headed east out of town. Powers had been notified and chased them in an automobile but was unable to cross the tracks in the vehicle and had to stop. He jumped from the vehicle and ran on foot. He was able to make them stop under the threat of being shot. Powers hogtied them together in chains and handcuffs and locked them in an empty box car in the railroad yard.
Later that evening, Powers went to check on the two prisoners and saw that they were able to get out of their chains and had knocked out some of the side boards on the box car and were just about to exit through the hole they had created. Powers yelled at them to halt and one of the men said he would belt him with a rock. Powers entered the box car and clubbed the man who had threatened him with the butt of his gun, knocking him down. Powers held the other man at gunpoint and then placed handcuffs on both of them. Powers saw that the men had somehow cut through their chains. He noticed that one of the men had one suspender that was much wider than the other one. He checked the suspender and found a small pocket had been sewed onto it. In the pocket were a half a dozen little files and a steel saw blade.
This time the two bandits were chained at the legs together and cuffed to some seats in the waiting room of the railroad station. The two men stood up and began cursing at Powers and insulting him. Powers punched one of them in the nose which knocked both men down. He then watched over them through the night. Powers was suspicious of the two men because of the two escape attempts and because they had tried to put up a fight. He sent a description out to the Southern Pacific Railroad and found out that both men were wanted for safecracking and robbery of a Southern Pacific office in Los Gatos, California. There was also a $100 reward for each man which Powers would collect. Judge Williams also found them guilty of the escape and damage to his storeroom and the jail and sentenced them to six months in the county jail.
On Feb. 14, 1912 Arizona became a state. During the last week of February, Dorris Haines fired three shots from his pistol on a Southern Pacific train that had left Gila Bend headed for Maricopa. He had allegedly fired at the brakeman who was attempting to have him removed from the train. The railroad office wired ahead to Maricopa where John Powers was waiting for Haines. Powers arrested him without a fight and after chaining his legs together loaded him on the next train back to Gila Bend.
Powers and Haines were in the caboose and the train was making good time when Haines hobbled to the rear door and jumped from the moving train. It was dark and Powers did not want to jump from the train and chase Haines on foot. Powers waited until morning at Gila Bend. He was given a horse and they rode the train back to the area where it was believed Haines had jumped. Powers found the trail and followed it for five miles before he came upon Haines resting in the shade of a tree. He arrested him again and escorted him to Gila Bend where Haines was tried and found guilty.
In January 1913, two men, J.C. Miller and Jack Williams, escaped from the county jail in Florence. The two men had been arrested in December by Deputy Sheriff Powers. The escapees had hopped on the Winkelman to Tempe train. They were then spotted on a hand car they had stolen heading on the tracks to Maricopa. Powers was notified by telegraph. Around 10:30 p.m., Powers saddled his horse, armed himself and headed north following the rail line. Shortly before midnight Powers encountered the two escapees a few miles from Maricopa. They were heavily armed and riding the hand car. After a short exchange of gunfire, Powers had killed J. C. Miller and Jack Williams surrendered.
It was reported in the Jan. 4, 1913Bisbee Daily Reviewand other newspapers that it was “one of the nerviest exhibitions in Arizona in a number of years”. This may have been the start of the legend surrounding Powers as shortly after, the nick name “Maricopa Slim” began appearing in Arizona newspapers.
In June, Maricopa Slim was called to Phoenix to make 26 Gypsies “pony up” their fare for riding on the Southern Pacific. Powers also captured an escaped convict Modesta Munez. Munez escaped from a stockade in Tempe. Powers along with deputies Oiea and Perry (the Gila Monster) traveled by automobile to Chandler to arrest a rancher P. A. Yarbrough for attempted murder. Yarbrough had shot one of his employees who was arguing with him over his pay.
The June 27th issue of the Arizona Republican told the story of Governor George Hunt receiving two petitions from different parts of the state asking him to remove from office Powers and Deputy Sheriff Perry also known as “The Gila Monster” by those hobos and criminals that had crossed his path. Perry was assigned to the Gila Bend station for the Espee.
TheRepublicansaid of Powers: “Maricopa Slim, who is in real life Deputy Sheriff Powers of Maricopa Station in the county of Pinal, and as such is a terror of evil doers.” The petitions accused Maricopa Slim and the Gila Monster of “cruelty” and “inhuman treatment” of those who rode the boxcars of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The petitions were from the local Socialist Party of Bisbee and Jerome.
The article also said that according to officials of the Southern Pacific Railroad, “Perry and Powers are the two best officers on the whole system. The efforts of the men have reduced the freight claims for the Tucson division, for pilfered freight over $35,000 in the last year or more than the rest of the system put together it is reported. Every train is met by these officers and most of the ‘gentlemen of leisure’ who ride over the country in ‘side door pullmans’ are taken from the trains. Whenever the tramps or hobos are civil, the officers let them alone, but when they get insolent the officers use rough methods to intimidate them. The records of the railroad turned in by these officers show that 75 percent of the tramps are armed and a large percentage of them have burglar tools in their possession.”
The article continues, “During the present year Powers has taken over 100 revolvers from hobos that he caught riding the trains. Every type of firearm is represented in the collection from wicked looking Lugers automatics to Ivor Johnstone bull dogs. Every time these officers search a train they practically are in danger of their lives and both officers have had several escapes from being murdered by the ‘box car tourists’.”
Governor Hunt responded that he had no authority to remove them and referred the complaint to the Maricopa and Pinal County Sheriffs. No action was taken against the officers.
The Aug. 17, 1913Arizona Republicanreported that Maricopa Slim and a Mr. Coleman were granted a “saloon license” at Florence and were going to open the business in Casa Grande. The name of the new “parlor” would be “The Oasis” or the “Dew-Drop-Inn.”
In December, theTombstone Epitaphreported a story about a young man Walter Standow who was walking across country and working his way by writing stories for syndicated newspapers about celebrities he would come across during his travels. He interviewed Maricopa Slim Powers and said of him: “Maricopa Slim is not so terrible as he is pictured. He has killed only two men. He told me he didn’t mind helping fellows that are going through but that he is down on yeggs.” Yegg was a word which meant safecracker or robber.
The year 1914 would be a busy and dangerous year for Maricopa Slim. In January, Mrs. William Elliot was found unconscious, gagged and bound in her home in Casa Grande. She had been assaulted, robbed and her home ransacked. Maricopa Slim ordered posses out to roundup any hobos in the area. Nineteen men were arrested and held in jail overnight until Mrs. Elliott regained consciousness and was able to identify the man or men who had committed the crime.
The Holbrook News reported in August that “The Hobos of America” an organization sometimes known as the “Hobos Union” was threatening to have a congressional investigation made of Maricopa Slim. They said he was a “terror to hobos from coast to coast. Nearly all professional knights of the road know him and fear him.”
On Aug. 20, Deputy Sheriff Powers traveled to Sacaton in his automobile after receiving a report that four Mexicans were at Sacaton Siding acting in a disorderly manner. Upon arrival, Powers was notified that the Sacaton Trading Post had been robbed and the storekeeper Paul P. Clark had been beaten and knocked unconscious by the four Mexicans. Deputy Sheriff Sears from Phoenix joined Powers in his automobile and they took up the trail of the four bandits.
Sears and Powers caught up to the Mexicans who were seen crossing the desert on horseback. When they saw the officers, the Mexicans spurred their mounts and tried to get away. A running gun battle then commenced. The Mexicans unable to outrun Slim’s automobile, dismounted and took cover behind some bushes and began firing at the two deputies. Powers drove the vehicle as fast as it would go through the hail of bullets directly towards the four bandits both deputies returning fire as they drove. One of the Mexicans fell dead and two others were wounded in the shoulder. The three surviving Mexicans dropped their rifles and raised their hands in surrender. The prisoners were shackled and driven to Maricopa where they would be turned over to the Pinal County Sheriff Henry Hall.
The Mexicans were thought to be part of the gang of woodcutters who had been involved in the deadly shootings of Deputy Sheriff Phineas Brown, Will Landry and two other men in Devil’s Canyon near Ray. The shooting and hunt for the Mexicans would result in seven people being killed before it was over.
An article about W.F. Johnson, who had been arrested for assaulting Conductor Shelley of the Southern Pacific Railroad, appeared in theTombstone Epitaphon Aug. 30. It said that Johnson had been in St. Mary’s hospital in Tucson for two weeks with a head injury suffered after being beaten by the “famous Espee special agent known as Maricopa Slim.”
On Sept. 23, Maricopa Slim trailed the Barnum and Bailey Circus train from Mesa to Douglas, Arizona. Four “negroes” and a white man had robbed a Mexican, beat him and tossed him from the moving train between Tempe and Maricopa. Arriving in Douglas, Slim was joined by Deputy Sheriff Huss of Tucson and Special Officer Black of the circus train. They arrested the suspects who were found with some of the stolen items on them.
The headline for the Nov. 5 edition of theArizona SentinelandYuma Weekly Examinerread “GUNMAN ‘MARICOPA SLIM’ DIES WITH BOOTS ON.” It went on to say that Maricopa Slim got what he had coming for many years. The story said that Slim had killed eight men “but the ninth victim had turned the tables and planted Maricopa Slim at Maricopa yesterday.”
The Sentinel’s version of what happened was that the Al G. Barnes Circus was in town and Maricopa Slim went to check on the train. A man whose show name was “Sideshow Black” had been shot by Maricopa Slim three years before but had recovered. They had both sworn to get each other. Slim had approached Sideshow Black and knocked off his hat to uncover a scar on Sideshow Blacks head which identified him as the man Slim had wounded. The shooting then commenced with Maricopa Slim shooting Sideshow in the back once and twice in the chest. As Sideshow fell he fired and hit Slim twice in the head.
The version that some newspapers told including theArizona Republicanwas different with no mention of Slim having killed nine men. John Powers had gone to the Maricopa Station around 2:30 in the morning to meet the train. He came upon a group of white men arguing with some “negroes.” Mike Meehan an employee of the Barnes Circus was attempting to throw a black man off the train. Officer Barnes yelled at Meehan to stop and hold up his hands. Meehan ignored his orders and Powers fired on him the bullets striking him in the arm and chest. Meehan fell and another bullet hit him in the leg. As Meehan lay on the ground, he drew a pistol and fired hitting Maricopa Slim in the stomach. Maricopa Slim died on the train on the way to the Gila Bend railroad emergency hospital. Meehan was taken to the Florence prison infirmary where he died a few days later. Pinal County Sheriff Henry Hall said Meehan confessed that he shot Maricopa Slim while Slim was standing over him. Some witnesses said the shots that killed Maricopa Slim came from someone else on the train but no evidence was found to indicate this.
Meehan had given his name as Edward Paridy and later Frank Sawyer. He was also known as Patrick Meehan. There were other versions of what happened including one that said Maricopa Slim shot Meehan in the back but the official version was similar to the story printed in the Republican. John C. Powers was survived by his widow and two sons. TheRepublicancovering the funeral said that “Every sheriff’s deputy, police officer and constable in Maricopa County whose duty allows, followed the remains to Greenwood Cemetery.”
“Maricopa Slim,” as his fellow officers knew him, was a man to be feared by the lawless, and though there were such that called him a hard man, the lovers of law and order had a big regard for Maricopa Slim.”
The Western Liberal, a Lordsburg, New Mexico newspaper said, “Maricopa Slim had a wide reputation among the tramps, and there will be a thanksgiving in trampdon from coast to coast over his death.”
Loved and respected by many, feared and hated too. Somewhere between both trains of thought the legend of Maricopa Slim lies.
Author’s Note:
I would like to thank Patricia Brock and the Maricopa Historical Society for providing some information.
Sources:Arizona Republican: June 29, 30, 1911; April 11, 1911; February 26, 1912; June 11, 14, 20, 27, 1913; July 02, 07, 23, 1913; August 17, 1913, December 07, 1913.
Holbrook News: August 7, 1914
Copper Era & Morenci Leader: January 09, 1914
Tombstone Epitaph: September 27, August 30, 1914
Bisbee Daily Review: January 04, 1913, September 24, 1914
The Logan Republican: November 07, 1914
The Western Liberal: November 13, 1914
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
by by