the area were their fiefdom. Any business transaction of consequence in the county passed through them. They controlled the courts. The Sheriff of Lincoln County, William J. Brady, was an Irish immigrant from County Cavan and was allied to the House. Tunstall was eager to make money in Lincoln County. Offering decent prices and reasonable dealings at his store, he attracted locals eager to find a competitor to Murphy and Dolan. In his letters to his family in London, Tunstall said that he intended to not only unseat Murphy and Dolan, but to become so powerful that half of every dollar made by anyone in Lincoln County would end up in his pocket. He also wrote about how he would soon raise the Tunstalls from the middle class to the highest levels of British polite society. Death Tunstall's mercantile business put him into conflict with the powerful political, economic, and judicial structure that ruled New Mexico Territory. This group of men was known as the Santa Fe Ring. Ring members included Thomas Catron (1840-1921), the attorney general and political boss of New Mexico Territory. Catron owned of land, and was one of the largest land holders in the history of the United States. Catron numbered the following men among his colleagues: Samuel Beach Axtell [1819-1891], the Territorial governor, who was fired for corruption by 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes; Warren Henry Bristol [1823-1890], a territorial judge; and William L. Rynerson [1828-1893], a district attorney, who had assassinated John P. Slough, the Chief Justice of New Mexico, and gotten away with it. Catron held the mortgage on "The House," so had a direct interest in its success in Lincoln. When too many of the residents of Lincoln switched their business to Tunstall's store, Murphy-Dolan began a slide into bankruptcy, and Catron's bottom line was affected. Murphy and Dolan tried to put Tunstall out of business, first harassing him legally, then trying to goad him into a gunfight. They hired gunmen, most of whom were members of the Jesse Evans Gang, aka "The Boys." Tunstall recruited gunfighters of his own: half a dozen local ranchers and cowboys who disliked Brady, Murphy, and Dolan. These men worked Tunstall's ranch and did his bidding during his conflict with Murphy/Dolan. One of Tunstall's employees was the 18-year-old William Bonney (né Henry McCarty, aka William Henry Antrim, aka El Chivato, 1859-1881), who was later dubbed "Billy