Allegedly his real name was Frank Jackson, a teenager who was a member of the Sam Bass gang.

The posse killed Bass, however Jackson escaped and rode through New Mexico until he reached Arizona where he assumed the name William F.

[5][6][7][8] He and his wife settled down near the small Sulphur Springs Valley mining town of Pearce.

There he spent most of his time hanging around saloons and associating with the members of an outlaw gang run by Albert R. “Burt” Alvord, who was the town constable when he wasn't working as a ranch-hand.

Traynor was engaged to be married to Mila Allaire, a young lady who was a member of a Willcox ranching family.

[5][6][7][8] On the evening of May 19, 1899, Traynor and his friend Henry C. Taylor, an off-duty bartender, walked into Tom Fulghum's "Elite Saloon" on the corner of Maley and Haskell Streets.

Downing was arrested and during his trial he claimed the following: "I accepted Taylor's invitation to take a cigar and as I answered, (Traynor) whirled around as though he went after his gun.

[5][6][7][8] Constable Burt Alvord was hired by the town of Willcox to police the boisterous cowboys in the area because of his reputation of being a bad man in Tombstone.

Among the members of the newly founded Alvord-Stiles Gang were local cowboys, such as Matt Burts, the Owen brothers and Jack Dunlap.

In order to carry out their mission Downing burglarized the Soto Brothers Mercantile store in Willcox where they pilfered dynamite.

Then, Downing and the gang burglarized a mining camp in Dos Cabezas, where they stole additional dynamite, plus explosive caps and fuse.

They held at gun point the engineer, the fireman, the mail clerk and a Wells Fargo man.

The stolen goods were removed from the chicken house and stashed in Bill Downing's ranch near Pearce.

1 on the Nogales-to-Benson line, were Jesse “Three-Fingered Jack” Dunlap, Tom “Bravo Juan” Yoas, Robert Brown, and George and Lewis Owings.

However, they were unaware that Jeff Milton a Wells Fargo Express messenger was aboard the train that day.

When a posse from Tombstone arrived and found Dunlap, he decided to cooperate and told them the names of those involved in the attempted but failed robbery.

Dunlap died shortly after the encounter, but not before implicating Burt Alvord, Billy Stiles and Bill Downing as the planners of the robbery.

[1][5][6][7][8] Bill Downing and some members of the gang were arrested and sent to the jail in Tombstone, since he had been implicated in the earlier Southern-Pacific Cochise Depot holdup.

He shot Deputy Marshal George Bravin in the foot, and freed the gang members who were in the jail, with the exception of Downing.

[1][5][6][7][8][9] Even though Downing was acquitted in the robbery case, he was found guilty of interfering with the United States mail, a federal charge and was sentenced to 10 years of prison-time to be served in the Yuma Territorial Prison.

This was a result of the gunshot injuries he received during a gun battle while riding with the Sam Bass gang back in Texas.

On April 17, 1902, she was hired as a domestic servant by Tucson civic leader and entrepreneur John Ivancovich.

A coroner's jury determined that she had died of heart failure and attributed it to worry and nervousness brought on by the conviction and sentence of her husband.

[2] Constable Bud Snow and Ranger Speed arrested Downing for serving women at the Free and Easy.

[5][6][7][8] Downing thought that the constable would come in through the front door and decided to leave the saloon through the back exit.

The Ranger ordered him to surrender, but Downing made a gesture as if he was reaching for his gun, forgetting that he had left his weapon in the saloon.

The bullet from Speed's rifle entered through Downing's right breast, punctured his right lung and exited beneath his right shoulder blade.

[5][6][7][8] Arizona Ranger Captain Wheeler made the following remark in regard to the community's reaction to Downing's demise: “This is the first time I have known a dead man to be without a single friend and the first time that I have known a killing to meet absolute general rejoicing in all this town and precinct.” Downing was buried in an unmarked grave in the Old City Cemetery of Willcox a.k.a.

[5][6][7][8][10] The coroner's jury found that the shot fired by Ranger Speed was in the performance of his duty as an officer of the law and that he was perfectly justified in the act, and, therefore, he was exonerated from all blame in the matter.