William Brocius (c. 1845 – March 24, 1882), better known as Curly Bill Brocius, was an American gunman, rustler and an outlaw Cowboy in the Cochise County area of the Arizona Territory during the late 1870s and early 1880s. His name is likely an alias or nickname, and some evidence links him to another outlaw named William "Curly Bill" Bresnaham, who was convicted of an 1878 attempted robbery and murder in El Paso, Texas. Brocius had a number of conflicts with the lawmen of the Earp family, and he was named as one of the individuals who participated in Morgan Earp's assassination. Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp and a group of deputies including his brother Warren Earp pursued those they believed responsible for Morgan's death. The Earp posse unexpectedly encountered Curly Bill and other Cowboys on March 24, 1882, at Iron Springs (present-day Mescal Springs). Wyatt killed Curly Bill during the shootout. In his journal written in October 1881, George Parsons referred to Brocius as "Arizona's most famous outlaw". Life in Arizona Brocius arrived in Arizona Territory from either Texas or Missouri about 1878, and went briefly to the San Carlos Reservation with a herd of cattle, before arriving in the Arizona Territory. Brocius was an Outlaw Cowboy and a rustler, and was for a time also a tax collector for Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, making other rustlers pay taxes on their stolen cattle (the money went into the sheriff's coffers and added to his salary). Brocius was known for a mean sense of humor when drunk. He was reported to have perpetrated such "practical jokes" as using gunfire to make a preacher "dance" during a sermon and making Mexicans at a community dance take off their clothes and dance naked. (Both incidents were reported by Wells Fargo agent Fred Dodge in his memoirs, and both incidents are alluded to in the newspapers of the time). Description An unauthenticated photo of Brocius is displayed in the Bird Cage Theater Museum in Tombstone. Two other unauthenticated photos of Brocius have been provided by descendants. Several writers who knew Brocius reported that he was well-built with curly black hair and a freckled complexion. Shooting of Fred White, 1880 In a drunken revelry, some of Curly Bill's friends were firing pistols into the air on October 28, 1880, in a dark vacant lot between Toughnut and Allen Streets, near where the Birdcage