Pete Spence

Pete Spence
Pete Spence in 1883; prison mugshot. This is the only known photo of Spence.
Born	Elliot Larkin Ferguson 1852 Texas
Died	1914 Globe, Arizona
Occupation	Stock raiser, outlaw Cowboy, lawman
Criminal charge	Manslaughter
Criminal penalty	10 years
Criminal status	Pardoned after 18 months
Allegiance	Outlaw Cowboys
Conviction(s)	Manslaughter

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.

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.".

In Tombstone, Arizona Territory, Spence lived immediately across the street from the Earps in a house which still stands in Tombstone. For a time he ran Vogan's Saloon. In October, 1880 Spence was charged with grand larceny on a charge of possessing stolen Mexican mules, but was not convicted. Spence was a business partner of Frank Stilwell in the Franklin Mine and other mining ventures, and also in a Bisbee saloon. On August 12, 1881, he married Marietta Duarte.