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Curley (also known as Curly) – Grant County associate killed by Pete Spence

He lived in Grant County at one time and was mixed up in ore stealing there [3][2]. He later became the running mate of Renick, but lacked the nerve to join Renick’s robbing exploit [1][2]. Curley delighted in presenting himself as a bad man, but was considered only a bluffer and not dangerous [1]. Pete Spence, well known in Grant County and Tombstone, had trouble with Curley and killed him at Clifton [3]. The killing was said to be justifiable, as Spence had always had the law on his side in similar affairs [1].

Sources

  1. generally supposed that the reason “Curley” did… (1888)
    generally supposed that the reason “Curley” did not join Renick in his robbing exploit was be- cause he lacked the nerve. “Curly” delighted in putting himself up as a bad man, but he was not considered dangerou
  2. Silver City Enterprise — 1888-1890 (full OCR, Internet Archive) — 1888-06-22 (1888)
    . He had some trouble with one “Cur- ley,” who also lived in Grant County at one time. “Curley” was to some extent mixed in some of the ore stealing then going on in this section, and later on became t
  3. Pete Spence, who is well known through-… (1888)
    Pete Spence, who is well known through- out the west, especially in Grant County and Tombstone, recently planted another victim at Clifton. He had some trouble with one “Cur- ley,” who also lived in Grant County
Generated by openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash · 94 words · 3 sentence(s) redacted for missing citations · published 2026-05-28

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