Switching Sides Alexander McSween’s move didn’t pan out.

When Alexander McSween came to Lincoln County, NM in the early 1870s, he went to work for the Murphy-Dolan company.  That outfit controlled mercantile and banking in the region—at least until John Tunstall came to the area.  McSween took a liking to the young Englishman and partnered with him in his effort to challenge the Murphy-Dolan House.  It was a fateful decision.  Tunstall was murdered by a House-backed posse in February 1878.  And McSween was shot down in the Battle of Lincoln five months later.