At the time, the corrupt Santa Fe Ring was in full swing, and in Lincoln, New Mexico, businessman and former soldier Lawrence Murphy and his partner had a monopoly on business, charging extremely high prices to ranchers and farmers for their goods.

In March 1876, Billy the Kid, known at the time as either Henry Antrim or William H. Bonney, began working at a cheese factory owned by Bowdre and Scurlock and through them, he met the Coe cousins and Saunders.

On July 18, 1876, Bowdre, the Coe cousins, Saunders and Scurlock broke into the Lincoln jail, freeing horse thief Jesus Largo from Sheriff Saturnino Baca.

On April 1, 1878, Regulators Bonney, Henry Newton Brown, Jim French, McNab, John Middleton and Fred Waite shot at the sheriff and his deputies through makeshift portals of the adobe wall they were behind.

[citation needed] On April 4, 1878, the Gunfight of Blazer's Mills took place, during which Buckshot Roberts was killed, along with Regulator leader Brewer, in addition to Billy the Kid, Bowdre, George Coe, Middleton and Scurlock being wounded.

Seven Rivers members John Galvin, Tom Green, Charles Marshall, Jim Patterson were also killed that day in Lincoln, and the Regulators were blamed.

The actor Michael Dante played the part of Saunders in the 1958 episode "The Deserters" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western television series Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston.