Although it was thwarted by Jeff Milton, who managed to kill "Three Fingered Jack" Dunlop in an exchange of gunfire, the train robbery was unique for being one of the few to have occurred in a public place and was also one of the last during the Old West period.

[1][2] According to James H. McClintock, train robbery was popular in Arizona at the time, which was exemplified by the passing of a statute in 1889 that made it punishable by death.

After taking several thousand dollars in gold coins and bills, the gang rode into the Chiricahua Mountains, unsuccessfully pursued by a posse under Sheriff Scott White and George Scarborough.

The express car, Alvord hoped, would be carrying the United States Army's payroll for the soldiers stationed at Fort Huachuca.

[1][2] The train was traveling from Nogales to Benson, but it had to stop at the little town of Fairbank, located a few miles west of Tombstone, to offload some cargo.

[1][2][4] The night chosen for the robbery was February 15, 1900, and the five bandits were Bob Brown, or Burns, "Bravo Juan" Tom Yoas, the brothers George and Louis Owens, and "Three Fingered Jack" Dunlop.

[1][5][6] After the initial exchange, Brown and the Owens brothers began firing volleys into the express car while Yoas ran away to mount his horse.

Possemen under the command of Sheriff Scott White found Dunlop on the next morning and a few days later they captured Brown and the Owens brothers while they were traversing a pass in the Dragoons.

Dunlop later died in a Tombstone hospital, but not before revealing that Alvord and a local cattleman named William Downing had been involved in organizing the Cochise robbery.

Stiles said that it was he and a man named Matt Burts who held up the train at Cochise, but it was Alvord and William Downing who planned the robbery and provided the dynamite for the safe.

He wasn't in jail for very long though because on April 7, 1900, Stiles broke in, shot Deputy Marshal George Bravin in the foot, and freed Alvord and Yoas.

There was also support from the private sector as well; William Cornell Greene, the owner of the large copper mine at Cananea, offered $10,000 for the capture of Alvord or Stiles.

Finally, the Arizona Rangers entered Mexico and managed to wound both Alvord and Stiles during a shootout near the village of Naco in February 1904.

[6][10][11][12] Because he was popular among the authorities, Alvord was charged for "interferring (sic) with United States mails", instead of train robbery, which would have meant death.