Billy Stiles couldn’t decide which side of the law to work. In the early 1890s, he served
as a tracker for Cochise County (AZ) lawmen John Slaughter and Jeff Milton. But by
1899, Stiles joined up with the gang of another former deputy, Burt Alvord, robbing
trains. In and out of jail, Stiles briefly served as an Arizona Ranger before going bad
again.
By 1908, he was a Nevada deputy sheriff under t

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows