Barney K. Riggs

Come with us as we explore the heroic actions of Barney K. Riggs (1856-1902) at Yuma and Pecos. In 1887, while a prisoner at the Arizona Territorial Penitentiary at Yuma, Riggs risked his life to save that of Superintendent Thomas Gates. Riggs received a pardon and returned to Texas, this time to the Pecos/Fort Stockton area. In 1893, the Jim Miller gang began terrorizing Pecos, and in 1896 Miller sent his two best henchmen to kill Riggs. However, Riggs put a .45 bullet through the brain of each, destroying the gang and making the streets of Pecos safe at last.