Henry Garfias was the first marshal of Phoenix, and the highest elected Mexican-American official in the region. He earned the job during a stint as county deputy sheriff.
In 1881, at the age of 30, Garfias managed to track down the so-called “Ghost Bandit,”
who’d held up three stages and gotten away with an estimated $68,000. Garfias staked
out the Agua Fria crossing and saw Gillett town blac

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus