On December 3, 1895, the settlers Elizabeth Merrill and her father, Horatio Merrill, were murdered by hostiles near Solomonville and on March 28, 1896, Alfred Hands was killed at his cabin on the eastern side of the Chiricahua Mountains, near the present day town of Portal. Accounts differ, some say that the Apache Kid killed the Merrill's and Hands but Britt Wilson says it was Massai. Either way, the newspapers and Arizona citizens pressured the local authorities into doing something about the renegades.