The most unforgettable of his [Sugarfoot Jack’s] deeds occurred in Arizona in the early 1860s, during an organized raid on a band of Apaches. The posse of about a hundred attackers stumbled upon a large settlement and although their approach was detected, the Apaches had been unable to evacuate safely all of their family members. While Sugarfoot was wandering amongst the wicker and straw shelters, he came upon a baby abandoned outside one of the dwellings.
[…]
Without hesitation or thought, Sugarfoot took the abandoned Apache child and slung it into one of their burning shelters, waited for a few moments to watch the results, then moved on.
Seeing what had taken place, some of his party tried to retrieve the infant from the flames, but each time they touched the tiny body, now curled to a posture of foetal [sic] helplessness, its blackened skin peeled away in their hands. Even amongst a band of death-hardened pioneers such behaviour was enough to mark Sugarfoot Jack as a man apart. However, if a number of them had found his first act unforgivable, his second was demonic.
Finding another abandoned child, he proceeded to dandle this infant on his knee as he sat on a large stone, tickling it under the chin ‘in the manner of a playful mother’. Then, at the moment both he and the baby looked to be enjoying themselves, he drew his heavy pistol, placed it to the youngster’s head and, in defiance of those who had protested at his earlier cruelty, pulled the trigger.
When the smoke cleared his companions, outraged to the point of murder, could see once more the youthful, handsome face, now dripping with the brains of its victim.
Source:
Cocker, Mark. “The Tiger of the Human Species.” Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold: Europe's Conquest of Indigenous Peoples. Grove Press, 2001. 187-88. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Conner, Joseph Reddeford Walker, p. 268.
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