William Milton "Billy" Breakenridge (25 December 1846 – 31 January 1931) was an American lawman of the Wild West.
Biography[]
William Milton Breakenridge was born in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1846, and he served in the US Army during the Colorado War, taking part in the 1864 Sand Creek massacre while serving under John Chivington. After the war, he travelled to Arizona and became a Maricopa County deputy sheriff in Phoenix. He then travelled further south to Tombstone in Cochise County, becoming a deputy to Sheriff Johnny Behan; he was a friend to the local Cochise County Cowboys gang. After the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, he became a deputy US Marshal, a surveyor, and a railroad claims agent, and, in 1927, he interviewed Wyatt Earp for his future book, Helldorado: Bringing the Law to the Mesquite. He published the book in 1928, portraying Earp as a thief, pimp, crooked gambler, and murderer. He died in Tucson in 1931 at the age of 84.