As December came to an end, the factions hardened. On one side were the Earps, Clum, and a belief in vigilante justice and strict law enforcement to rid Tombstone of a serious threat from a thought-to-be large, organized gang of desperadoes. On the other side were Behan, Woods, and Reilly, defending the sheriff's office and due process of the courts while advocating that the evils of vigilantism and brutal enforcement outweighed short-term gains in safety; that vigilante killing of a few men was too high a price to pay for protection from the overrated cowboys. And, of course, both sides had a significant amount of selfinterest in determining who governed and received the plum appointments.
The streets of Tombstone daily grew more dangerous for the Earps. Members of the family would tell a strange story about someone in women's clothing who came to the door of one of their cabins, but left suddenly when Jim answered. Wyatt would come to believe it was a man dressed as a woman, ready to shoot should he answer. The family gradually packed up and moved into the seeming safety of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, across the street from the cowboy's favorite hotel, the Grand.
Sadie Marcus, the dancer turned love interest to both Behan and Wyatt Earp, apparently remained in Tombstone for some time after her breakup with Behan, gradually growing friendlier with Wyatt. Neither Sadie nor Wyatt left a record of what happened between them during those months, and the enigmatic Sadie did everything she could in later years to protect her secrets. During the autumn and winter of 1881, she and Wyatt apparently formed enough of a friendship to draw the ire of Sheriff Behan and the attention of Mattie and the rest of the Earp women.
With the gunfight controversy surrounding him, Wyatt had little chance of winning an election for sheriff in '82. He had been Behan's most likely opponent, but the Nugget had picked him apart so cleanly that he had barely a dream of mounting a campaign, although he still planned to run. Virgil, hobbled by his leg wound, wisely chose not to enter the race for chief of police, and the only law job that would remain for the Earps would be Virgil's post as U.S. marshal, with Wyatt serving as his deputy. Wyatt kept busy running his faro game, and the brothers invested in mining properties, water claims, and the like.
In late December, Tombstone celebrated the opening of a new theater that would later be called the Bird Cage Variety Theatre, a dandy little stage that hosted bawdy performers to the delight of miners and cowboys.
The Earps could only hope for a happier new year in 1882, even though the threat of danger still hung over Tombstone. With most of the family sequestered at the Cosmopolitan, there seemed a degree of safety until a young clerk at the Grand, Jack Altman, noticed the unusual visits of cowboys Pony Deal, Curley Bill, Ike Clanton, Ringo, and several others to the room they kept at the Grand, the same room from which the intended attack on Rickabaugh nearly took place. Altman also discovered that a slat had been removed from the room's window shutters, giving a good view of the Earps' room across the street at the Cosmopolitan. The Earps would be an easy target, when the assailants found the opportunity. Altman slipped across the street to warn the Earps of impending danger.20 Even forewarned, the Earps were not prepared. Such tips had become commonplace, Virgil recalled: "When Morgan and I got well, reports came in daily that we would be assassinated at the first opportunity."21
Three nights after Christmas, at about 11:30 P.m., Virgil Earp headed back toward the Cosmopolitan. "I stepped out of the Oriental Saloon to go to the hotel, when three double-barreled shotguns were turned loose on me from about sixty feet off," Virgil said.
The blasts came from between charred boards of a burned-out building across the street. As Virgil fell into the street, several men dashed out of the building, ran down Fifth, and disappeared into the darkness.
"Cries of 'There they go,' 'Head them off' were heard," Parsons wrote in his journal. "But the cowardly, apathetic guardians of the peace were not inclined to risk themselves, and the other brave men all more or less armed did nothing."
Three men raced down Toughnut Street, then into a gulch behind town. The blasts knocked Virgil into Fifth Street, with streams of buckshot passing through a window at the Eagle Brewery. The Epitaph said: "It is simply a miracle that Mr. Earp was not instantly killed, as in the darkness, with the simple aid of a bit of lighted paper the marks of nineteen shots were found on the east side of the Eagle Brewery and in the awning posts."22
Virgil pulled himself to his feet and staggered into the Oriental to find Wyatt. The marshal was helped to his room and two doctors were summoned. Virgil's left arm took most of the assault, with a longitudinal fracture between the shoulder and elbow. He was also hit from the rear, left of the spinal column, but that shot missed all vital organs.
Parsons delivered medical supplies to the hotel room and found a most unpleasant scene: "Hotel well guarded, so much so that I had hard trouble to get to Earp's room. He [Virgil] was easy. Told him I was sorry for him. 'It's Hell, isn't it!' said he."
Virgil's wife, Allie, was distraught. "Never mind, I've got one arm left to hug you with," Virgil told her, as Parsons recorded.
The next morning crowds assembled outside the Eagle Brewery to view the damage and speculate on who the perpetrators were. Parsons guessed that Ike, Curley Bill, and Will McLaury were the guilty parties. "Bad state of affairs here. Something will have to be done," Parsons wrote.
Up in the hotel room, the doctors conferred on a major decision. They had to decide whether to take the arm off completely or to try more surgery. They removed 5 1/2 inches of splintered bone from Virgil Earp's upper arm. One report said chances were four in five that Virgil Earp would die from his wounds.
The Epitaph reflected the terror in Tombstone, writing, "This further proves that there is a band of assassins in our midst.... The question naturally arises, who will be the next subject? And a further question, how long will our people stand for this sort of thing? It is no fault of these damned assassins that several persons were not killed in their dastardly attempt to murder a United States officer last night; for there were many people in the Eagle Brewery, over the heads of whom the passing shots flew on their course. A few inches lower and there would have been corpses prostrate upon the floor in place of frightened people wondering what had happened to cause this bombardment."23
Will McLaury, whom Parsons had suspected of pulling a trigger, had left town two days earlier to return to Fort Worth and was quickly dropped from the list of suspects. Many years later he would again become a suspect when a letter appeared hinting that he may have paid for the assassination attempts on the Earps. Lawyer McLaury wrote to his father in Iowa saying of his dealings in Tombstone: "My experience out there has been very unfortunate-as to my health and badly injured me as to money matters-and none of the results have been satisfactory-the only result is the death of Morgan and crippling of Virgil Earp." While not conclusive, it seems possible that the surviving McLaury brother instigated and funded the cowboys' retribution campaign.24
Wyatt had no trouble identifying suspects. "Virgil saw Stilwell go into the vacant building just as he was coming out of the Oriental," he wrote to Lake. "We found Ike Clanton's hat, that he dropped in getting away from the rear end of the building."25
Ike, ever the master of mess-up, apparently lost his hat with his name in it as he ran from the burned-out building. Ike Clanton had that remarkable facility to make a muddle of just about everything he undertook, then emerge as a survivor blaming everyone else. No matter what Ike tried, he just couldn't get it right.
The next afternoon Wyatt wired U.S. Marshal Crawley Dake in Phoenix:
Virgil was shot by concealed assassins last night. His wounds are fatal. Telegraph me appointment with power to appoint deputies. Local authorities are doing nothing. The lives of other citizens are threatened.
WYATT EARP
Dake responded immediately, telegraphing Wyatt Earp the appointment as Deputy U.S. Marshal, with the authority to select his own deputies. Virgil and Leslie Blackburn continued to hold commissions as deputy marshals, but
Wyatt Earp had the badge and the power behind it. Now he could challenge the assassins with federal authority behind him. That would have to wait, however, as he remained quietly in Tombstone for ten days watching over Virgil and his family.26
With Virgil Earp crippled and the family in chaos, the Nugget made the Earps the issue of the political race. In the late nineteenth century, local campaigns were usually short, lasting three weeks or a month, with all the excitement packed into a few days. In Tombstone in January 1882, the politicos, led by the two politician-editors, battled for political prizes. The Earps had been forced out of politics by gunfire and public sentiment. As Allie nursed Virgil in their room at the Cosmopolitan, the Nugget went at the Earps.
January began with another letter from Reilly to the Nugget, railing against the Epitaph and its pro-Earp bias, calling Clum's paper "a traitor to its supporters."
The Epitaph has devoted all its power ... to give to the world the opinion that none but fighting officers could preserve the peace and none but fighting citizens could live in peace in Tombstone, and for this purpose it has continually praised the Earps, and called their gambling or worse quarrells [sic], "brave deeds in the interest of law and order," took their texts from them or from the boyish fears of Mr. Marshall Williams or men equally blind. It has sent telegrams all over the country giving its distorted views of occurrences in Tombstone, and then gathered up the publications, the result of its own falsehoods, and published them here in Tombstone with a view to justify its course.
The Epitaph belonged to the new Associated Press, which received news stories from around the country, then condensed them and sent them out to member papers. Both Tombstone papers received AP dispatches, but most of the news from Tombstone came directly from the Epitaph. Reilly's charge was not totally accurate, because such papers as the San Francisco Exchange and San Diego Union had correspondents in Tombstone, and the Exchange received reports from both the Nugget and the Epitaph.
Reilly's letter went on to charge that Philpott's murder was "the result of a well-concocted scheme, put up by the men who knew all about Wells, Fargo & Company's business, to rob the stage and kill Robert Paul, whose known honesty, energy and bravery was dangerous to the clique that hoped by a monopoly of gambling, stage robbing and dead-fall keeping to control the politics and business of Tombstone."
Reilly accepted the Epitaph's condemnations of the county government but added, "If the Epitaph had with as much zeal and vigor attacked the malfeasance of United States Deputy Marshal Earp, Deputy Sheriff Earp and City Marshal Earp, when they carried in their pockets half a dozen warrants against their friends with whom they were gambling and drinking without arresting them . . . then the McLowrys would be alive today; the last act of the drama would have not occurred; Holliday and the Earps whatever their propensities might be, would never have dared to gratify these propensities under the cloak of official duty; and Tombstone would not to-day be the unwilling asylum of four or more men whose lives must be a burden to them and who cannot hope to live in it except by continuous bloodshed."27
Amid election passions, the Tucson Journal provided rumors that a band of New Mexico cowboys were riding into Arizona to make it their base after the people of Shakespeare showed they meant to drive away the outlaws by hanging two rustlers, Sandy King and Russian Bill. The Tucson Star heard and reported a different but equally dangerous scenario. "It is rumored, on good authority, that the cow-boys are disposing of all their stock and ranches in Arizona with a view of emigrating elsewhere." The paper concluded, "If this is true, there is liable to be still warmer times in Tombstone than yet experienced."28
Up in San Francisco, the Stock Report called for the citizens of Tombstone to take action and stop the cowboys quickly and with finality:
Hitherto, cowboyism has been considered a good joke in Tombstone. Men who personally are law-abiding citizens and holding good positions in the community would argue that the cowboys were a benefit to the town, as they circulated money and another element that gives the cowboys a strong backing is composed of men who reap the profits of the cattle raids. It is a poor argument that ill-gotten money expended recklessly by thieves, gamblers and murderers makes a town prosperous. It creates a state of society that in the long run will cost the taxpayers more than was ever realized by the circulation of the cowboys' spoils.
When an attempt is made to assassinate the Mayor of the town and a United States Deputy Marshal is assassinated in the public street, it is time for respectable citizens to take the law into their own hands, if the officers are powerless to enforce the laws. Vigilance Committees have often proven salutary in such case, and this seems to be one of the cases in which a Vigilance Committee and a few hangings would be justifiable.29
The Epitaph, with Clum still in Washington, battled hard to make the election political rather than an attack on the Earps. The paper emphasized the "Ten Per Cent Ring," which skimmed 10 percent of the tax money to reward civic officials. Reilly, a candidate for city recorder, became the focus of many attacks, although he was not part of the Nugget-endorsed People's Independent Party ticket. In the mayoral race, the Epitaph supported lumberyard owner Lewis W. Blinn over John Carr, who received the heavy endorsement of the Nugget and the People's Independent Party. Behan's respected deputy Dave Neagle had the Nugget endorsement for marshal over Flynn, who never succeeded in distancing himself from the Earps. It would be one of the grand oddities in politically confused Tombstone that the Nugget would support Carr, a Republican who appeared neutral on the Earp issue, while the Epitaph supported pro-Earp Democrats Blinn and Flynn in an election where party membership became of little importance.
"If the Ten-per-cent Ring get control of the city government as it already has that of the county, there will be no other way for a man to live in this community except to join the ring or the rustlers," the Epitaph editorialized. "The fact that the Daily Cow-boy and the Ten-per-cent Ring are advocating the claims of John Carr for mayor and Dave Neagle for city marshal is a sufficient reason why all citizens who would have the city government conducted differently from that of the county should vote against them .1130
The Nugget came up with the charge that if Flynn won, "he will shortly after the election resign his position, and thereupon the new Mayor, should it be Mr. Blinn . . . will proceed to fill the vacancy. . . . The statement is made that an agreement has been entered into to this effect, and further that one of the Earps has been mutually agreed upon as the appointee. We have the utmost confidence in the reliability of our informant ... and there is little doubt that a vote for Flynn is equivalent to a vote for a new lease of power for the Earps, and the citizens of Tombstone know full well what that implies."31
On election day, January 3, the Nugget ran the squib, "Doc Holliday and the Earps are solid for Blinn and Flynn. So is the Daily Strangler." Another squib said, "Jim Flynn is a good fellow and has many friends in Tombstone, but he is a victim of disreputable associations. Handicapped as he is by the support of the Stranglers' organ and the gang of thugs who follow in its wake, his chances of election are now conceded as hopeless." But most important, the Nugget ran the damning, "The election will to-day decide whether Tombstone is to be dominated for another year by the Earps and their strikers. Every vote against the People's Independent Ticket is a vote in favor of the Earps. Miners, business men and all others having the welfare of our city at heart should remember this."
Everything the Nugget said seemed to be remembered as the miners and merchants of Tombstone trooped to the polls. The election proved a triumph for the Nugget and the anti-Earp faction, with Carr winning the mayoral race, 830-298 over Blinn. Neagle carried the marshal's race, 590-434, and People's Independent candidates won three of the four city council seats and the treasurer's post. Reilly lost in a close election for city recorder.
"Exeunt Earps!" the Nugget headlined in bold type. The paper called it, "A triumph of the people over the Stranglers. The honest masses of people were jubilant at the com
plete discomfiture of the open and insidious enemies of the prosperity of our city, and the Stranglers' organ ... no doubt many votes were cast for the People's ticket through sheer disgust at the ruinous and wanton course pursued by the Stranglers' organ."
The Nugget also ran an erroneous exchange from the Lae Vegas Optic saying, "Wyatt Earp, a former Las Vegas slumgullion, got his stomach full of buckshot at Tombstone three or four days ago, and has been planted for worm feed. He was previously a policeman at Dodge City under Bat Masterson and had something to do with Fort Worth, Texas, before coming to Las Vegas." While the Nugget obviously knew the falsity of the rumor, printing the story would help to discredit the Earps.
Even up in the territorial capital, the voting made big news. The Prescott Democrat took the opportunity to offer its own repudiation of the Earps.
The election in Tombstone we consider a decided victory for law and order, and we feel almost certain that the disturbing elements which have been so great a drawback to its advancement, will hereafter take a back seat. The fact that men of such insignificance, socially, morally and mentally, as the Earps have been given so much prominence, shows a very unhealthy, not to say unnatural, state of feeling in the bonanza camp. Those distinguished swash bucklers honored Prescott with their presence some two years ago, and the odor of their unsavory reputation still taints the nostrils of our citizens. They came here from Kansas with an evil name, which seemed to be their only stock in trade.... We hear it stated that they championed assiduously the defeated ticket in the late election; if so, it is a good thing for the peace, progress and security of the people of Tombstone that the ticket was defeated. When desperadoes attempt to dictate to respectable people, it is time they were squelched, and there is no more effectual way of doing it than by the ballot.32
The Epitaph barely covered the election results and editorialized, "The election is happily past, and the electors are again free to pursue their daily vocations without recurrence to the subject as to who shall govern us for the next two years. The result is not just what we should have been pleased to see, and not what we labored for, but recognizing the fundamental principles upon which our government is based-that the majority shall rule-we acquiesce in the result without a murmur, and have only the kindliest feelings and best wishes for the officers elect, and will support them in every effort for the promotion of the public good."
Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend Page 31
