Pete Spence
Pete Spence (1852–1914), suspected of robbery in 1878 in Goliad County, Texas, changed his name from Elliot Larkin Ferguson. He was later a suspect in a stagecoach robbery outside Bisbee, Arizona and was known for his association with Outlaw Cowboys Frank and Tom McLaury and Ike and Billy Clanton of Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Spence was also a suspect in the assassination of Morgan Earp.
Origins
In the 1880 Tombstone census he gave his age as age 28, born in Texas, and listed his occupation as stock raiser. He was also reported as having been born in Louisiana in 1850. Little is known about his youth, but he enlisted in the Texas Rangers under Captain Wallace in 1874.
Ferguson was wanted for robbery in Goliad Co., Texas in 1878 and left the area for the Arizona Territory near Bisbee and Tombstone where he began using the name of Peter M. Spencer. He was one of a number of outlaws from Texas who sought sanctuary on the American frontier and the wild west. Locally known as Cowboys, Tombstone resident George Parson wrote in his diary, "A Cowboy is a rustler at times, and a rustler is a synonym for desperado—bandit, outlaw, and horse thief.".
