[3] In a drunken revelry, some of Curly Bill's friends were firing pistols into the air on October 28, 1880,[4] in a dark vacant lot between Toughnut and Allen Streets, near where the Birdcage Theater now stands.

Tombstone's Town Marshal Fred White attempted to disarm Brocius and grabbed his weapon by the barrel.

At the preliminary hearing for Brocius afterward, Wyatt testified that he had heard White say: "I am an officer; give me your pistol."

Brocius waived his right to a preliminary hearing, apparently because he feared a lynching, as White was very popular as town marshal.

Pima County Deputy Sheriff Earp and George Collins immediately took Brocius to Tucson for trial.

Before dying, White testified that he thought the pistol had accidentally discharged and that he did not believe that Curly Bill shot him on purpose.

After spending most of November and December 1880 in jail awaiting trial, Brocius was acquitted with a verdict of accidental death.

[8] Brocius was described by contemporary author Billy Breakenridge in his book, Helldorado: Bringing the Law to the Mesquite, as being the most deadly pistol shot of the Cowboys: "able to hit running jackrabbits, shoot out candle flames without breaking the candles or lantern holders, and shoot quarters from between the fingers of volunteers".

[9]: 472 On May 25, 1881, Brocius was drinking heavily in Galeyville with his friend of several months and Lincoln County War veteran Jim Wallace and eight or nine other cowboys.

[2] In July 1881, Bill Leonard and Harry Head attempted to rob William and Isaac Haslett's general store in Hachita, New Mexico.

[10] Curly Bill reportedly sold the stolen Mexican beef to Newman Haynes Clanton the next month.

When Old Man Clanton was herding the beef on the trail to Tombstone, he and four others were ambushed in the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre and murdered by Mexicans.

Marshal Wyatt Earp killed outlaw Cowboy Frank Stilwell in Tucson on March 20, 1882, while guarding his brother Virgil en route to California.

As they surmounted the edge of a wash near the springs, they stumbled upon Brocius, Pony Diehl, Johnny Barnes, Frank Patterson, Milt Hicks, Bill Hicks, Bill Johnson, Ed Lyle, and Johnny Lyle, cooking a meal alongside the spring.

[13] According to Wyatt Earp — and an anonymous report to The Tombstone Epitaph— he was in the lead of the posse when they suddenly came upon the Cowboys' camp at the springs from less than 30 feet (9m) behind an embankment.

[14] Texas Jack Vermillion, whose horse was killed, remained cool under fire and stuck close to Wyatt during the fight.

Eighteen months prior, Wyatt Earp had protected Brocius against a mob ready to lynch him for killing Town Marshal Fred White, and then provided testimony that helped spare him from a murder conviction.

[13] Earp biographer John Flood wrote that The Cowboys buried Brocius' body on the nearby ranch of Frank Patterson near the Babocomari River.

Dodge, an undercover operative for Wells Fargo in Tombstone, asked Curly Bill's associates about his death.

Graham was killed in a gunfight by Deputy Sheriff James D. Houck on October 17, 1887, and buried in Young, Arizona, and is not considered by historians to be the same Curly Bill of Charleston and Tombstone.

As reported in The Tombstone Epitaph:[18] The facts leaked out in this way: On the road to Tucson, Brocius asked Earp where he could get a good lawyer.

Zabriskie had prosecuted Brocius for the crime, and "he was tried and sentenced to the penitentiary, but managed to make his escape shortly after being incarcerated.

"[6][18] The El Paso Daily Times speculated that he was the man whom Texas Ranger Thomas Mode shot in the right ear.

[19] Modern researchers have linked Brocius with a man known as William "Curly Bill" Bresnaham, who was convicted in a robbery attempt in Texas in 1878, along with another known cowboy of the Tombstone area named Robert Martin.

[3] Evans's gang, a loose-knit consortium of desperadoes known as "The Boys", ended up fighting against the "Regulators" during the Lincoln County War.

Because of the time frame, the location, and his friendship with Martin, Curly Bill Brocius may have been a member of the Evans gang, as well.