Clayton James Spaulding , also known as the Arizona Kid , was an American gunfighter, bounty hunter, lawman, outlaw, stagecoach robber, hunter, treasure hunter, and vigilante of the late Wild West era. Born in the Arizona Territory , he was a petty criminal before working as a ranch hand in Maricopa County. In , while taking part in a cattle drive to New Orleans , he was framed for the murder of Philip LeClerk , imprisoned at Sisika Penitentiary , and sentenced to death, but he was sprung from his prison cart by Samuel Horley a week before he was due to be executed.
He went on to become a renowned gunfighter of the American West and American South , working on both sides of the law, while keeping the interests of the common Westerner in mind as he fought to protect honest farmers from hordes of outlaws, and also battled big business and the enforcers of the laws which benefited them. Arizona was a supporter of the populist wing of the Democratic Party , as he was opposed to big business and its corrupt role in Western politics, the Republican Party 's enforcement of civilization in the West, and the transition of the American West from a free and pastoral society to a civilized and strictly-governed society.
Arizona was motivated by his belief in the uplifting of the common man, justifying his working with the law to protect caravans from outlaws, but also justifying his occasional fights against the law, such as when he robbed wealthy people's stagecoaches, rescued criminals from the overbearing law, and acted outside of the law to kill murderous outlaws.
Arizona eschewed the racism which many other white Southerners held towards Black people during that time period, befriending the Black bounty hunter Iron-Sights Jones , as well as forming an unlikely partnership with the German immigrant hunter and murderer Little Pete. He spent his early childhood in Tombstone, where his father died in a mining accident when he was 4. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was 11, and Spaulding went on to become a vagabond on the streets of Flagstaff and Phoenix.
He occasionally ran into trouble with the law for petty theft, but, by the age of 17, he had mostly mended his ways and become a ranch-hand-for-hire. Samuel Horley freeing the prisoners. In , he took part in a cattle drive to Blackwater , Texas , but, at the same time as his entry into town, Philip LeClerk was murdered. The local law arrested Spaulding and a few other recent arrivals and framed them for the murder, and Spaulding - not wishing for his past criminal record to be used against him at the trial - gave his name as "Arizona", leading to him acquiring the nickname "the Arizona Kid".
