Pima County Sheriff Wiley W. Standefer arrested Swilling and Andrew Kirby, but dropped the state charges so the federal courts could prosecute them and absorb the prosecution costs. Deputy U.S. Marshal Joseph W. Evans brought warrants for the two men to Prescott, where they were turned over to him, and Evans escorted them to the federal jail in Yuma. The sanitary conditions inside the prison at Yuma were very poor and, combined with the August heat plus the fact of his usage of a combination of narcotics and liquor to relieve the pain caused by old injuries ruined Jack Swilling's health further and eventually led to his death. He was released to the Hodges family, friends of the Swillings, and died in their home. The real culprits of the massacre were caught proving his innocence too late. The real robbers—led by a man Swilling and others had publicly accused—were identified only after Swilling's death.