ArizonaRealCountry.com 39 March 2018 branding for the Jim Cooper ranch. Walter said it was a Good calf. George said it was following a Cooper cow and he was branding it for Cooper. Good and Cooper had run their cattle in partnership until that fall roundup when Cooper broke up the partnership by pulling his cattle away from the herd. That caused Good to flare at Cooper and about everyone else, including the Lee family. Cold Blooded Murder A short time after the dispute between Walter Good and George McDonald at the roundup branding, George was at his cabin. After cooking his meal and cleaning up, he went back into a canyon to a nearby spring to see about water. It was hot so he drank from the spring and decided to take rest in the shade. He lay down, started to braid a quirt and fell asleep. Somebody rose from behind a rock boulder 20 to 30 yards away, took careful aim at the sleeping McDonald and shot him right between the eyes. The bullet went through his brain and splattered against the rock he had put his head against. The assassin then mounted his horse and rode off up the canyon. On the way, a Spanish Dagger plant gouged a chunk of flesh out of his horse. Walter Good began being accused of the McDonald killing days later when it was noticed that his favorite horse had a gouge out of its flank like one that would be caused by a Spanish Dagger, Walter had a way of drawing suspicion to himself by his surly personality. Folks in the area were quick to point a finger at him for lawless acts. Two years earlier, when a Mescalero merchant, A.H. Howe was murdered, Walter Good and his sidekick, Jose Espalin, were suspected of the killing. Folks said Espalin did the killing for Walter and most likely fired the shot that killed George McDonald while he was sleeping. There was no hard evidence to link Walter Good and his sidekick to either crime. But the talk made Jim Cooper, already angry at Walter Good and his father, side with the Lees, further fanning the bitterness that boiled over on the range outside Tularosa with McDonald’s killing. In the middle of this environment was Tom Tucker, riding at Oliver Lee’s side, where he would remain for many years. From that year on, Tucker was always at Lee’s side. Range Wars continued from page 36 An Eye For An Eye Emma Altman was annoyed. Walter Good’s pinto horse was in her yard and had been for several days. She was getting tired of feeding it. She sent word to Good to come get the runaway horse. Walter promised he would come the next morning. Emma was the wife of Perry Altman, Oliver Lee’s half-brother. Walter didn’t relish going after the horse since he knew they suspected him of killing George McDonald. Still, it was his favorite horse so he set out the next morning to retrieve it. He said goodbye to his wife, Roberta. She was the last person to see Walter Good alive. John Good became concerned about his son when he failed to return. He began telling of his suspicions that the horse story was a trap and that the Lee’s had used it to draw his son into an ambush. Tucker Accused Good claimed Tom Tucker, Jim Cooper, and Oliver Lee had waylaid Walter as he rode to the Altman place to get his horse. There was no evidence to support Good’s charges. A massive search was launched for Walter but to no avail. Perry Altman was held and questioned for hours, but he had no information on Walter’s fate. He had his wife go stay at a neighboring ranch. While she was gone, someone burned down the Altman’s ranch house. Good charged that the Lee faction had burned the house to get rid of Walter’s body. Lee accused Good of burning down the house. Body Found Some two weeks later, Walter Good’s body was found at the tip of the White Sands. The coyotes had done their work. Little was left other than his clothes, his boots, his jewelry, and his skeleton. John Good was with the party of 15 searchers who found Walter’s body. He was shattered, filled with doubt, as he rode back to his La Luz ranch, leaving two men to guard the body. Walter had been killed by two shots to the temple. Two shots had been fired from Walter’s own pistol. The fact that he was shot twice ruled out suicide. John Good was sure the Lee faction had killed his son, just as sure as the Lee’s were that Walter Good had killed George McDonald. The First Gunfight As a crushed John Good rode with his men back to his ranch, the group encountered Oliver Lee, Tom Tucker, Perry Altman, Bill Earhart and Cherokee Bill on the trail. The Lee party had positioned themselves behind a ditch bank not far from the Malone ranch west of Tularosa. It looked to John Good like an ambush as he and five of his relatives rode over a small rise. The two groups were about 150 yards apart when the firing started. More than a hundred rounds were fired. Two horses were killed, another wounded, but none of the Goods or Lees were hit. It was some pretty wild shooting, considering Tom Tucker and Cherokee Bill considered themselves sharpshooters or at least told everyone they were. Perry Altman had been practicing with his new six-shooter. He crouched behind a bush and fired. His horse bolted and ran off, carrying his new Winchester with it. The horse ran to the Good camp and was captured. It was turned over by Good to the law in Las Cruces where it remained in a stable until the legal proceedings that followed were over. Tom Tucker was the only “veteran” of such a firefight, having fared not too well in the one he was in at the Middleton cabin in Pleasant Valley. The others had never been in such a gun battle and were too scared to shoot calmly or accurately. The battle was almost comic when related later. Tucker’s horse continued in a dead run with its critically wounded owner slumped on its back until it tired. When the horse stopped, Tucker slid to the ground, unconscious and bleeding profusely. He came to sometime that night to find himself laying in a rain and hail storm on soaking ground.