"Both Charlie and Stilwell were armed with pistols and carbines when they returned to the house Saturday night," Marietta Spence said. "The conversation between Spence and Stilwell and the others was carried on in a low tone. They appeared to be talking some secret. When they came in, I got out of bed to receive them and noticed they were excited. Why, I don't know. Stilwell came in the house about an hour before Spence and the other two."
The marriage of Pete and his Mexican wife had been marked by turmoil and beatings. The next morning, Marietta Spence said, more threats and abuse began: "On Sunday morning Spence told me to get breakfast about 6 o'clock, which I did-after we had a quarrel, during which he struck me and my mother, and during which he threatened to shoot me, when my mother told him he would have to shoot her, too. His expression was, that if I said a word about something I knew about he would kill me; that he was going to Sonora and would leave my dead body behind him. Spence didn't tell me so, but I knew he killed Morgan Earp; I think he did it, because he arrived at the house all of a tremble, and both the others who came with him. Spence's teeth were chattering when he came in. I asked if he wanted something to eat, and he said he did not. Myself and my mother heard the shots, and it was a little after when Stilwell and Indian Charlie came in, and from one half to three quarters of an hour after Spence and the other two men came. I think that Spence and the other two men, although they might have arrived during the night, had left their horses outside of town, and, after the shooting, had gone and got them. I judged they had been doing wrong from the condition, white and trembling, in which they arrived."
She also told of seeing an incident four days earlier, when Spence had been talking to an Indian, probably Charlie or Hank Swilling, as Morgan Earp walked past. "Spence nudged the Indian and said, 'That's him, that's him.' The Indian then started down the street, so as to get a good look at him."10
Marietta's mother, Francisca Castro, testified and backed up her daughter's story. Castro had filed assault charges against her son-in-law. Attorney Briggs Goodrich told of his meetings with Frank Stilwell, Ringo, and Wyatt Earp before the shooting. The testimony portrayed a trembling, teeth-chattering Pete Spence, who had some involvement in the murder, even if he had not held the gun. From Marietta's statements, it appeared Stilwell, too, had been part of the plot. The coroner's jury held that Spence, Stilwell, "John Doe" Freeze, Indian Charlie, and another man were the prime suspects in Morgan's assassination. Spence quickly turned himself in for the safety of Behan's jail. He kept a gun for protection should the Earps ride back to town and come looking for him."
Stilwell's participation in the killing would become subject to question because, as the Star reported, he had been seen in Tucson early in the morning after Morgan's murder, a ride on horseback of about seventy miles. While it would have been difficult to make such time, he could have done so with a fast horse or by catching a train. John Pleasant Gray and others would later say that a small, fleet horse carried Stilwell on his night ride.
Deputy Sheriff William Bell captured Swilling in Charleston, after Hank engaged in a bloodless gunfight in a saloon over a disputed rifle. Swilling received a sentence of twenty days in jail for the affray.12 The Epitaph would confuse the story and erroneously report that Swilling was Indian Charlie, but Charlie had chosen another sanctuary.
John Doe Freeze was almost immediately identified as Frederick Bode, a native of Germany who had listed his occupation as teamster, his age as 31, and his residence as Charleston in the 1880 census. Marietta Spence said that the man had been working as a teamster for the Acostas, who did hauling for Pete Spence's wood camp. The Freeze name probably came from the German pro nunciation of Frederich-Freed-uh-reek-or he could have carried the nickname Fritz. The case against Spence, Bode, and the others for murdering Morgan Earp came up for trial on April 2 and ended quietly. According to the Epitaph, the prosecution called Mrs. Spence to the stand, and the defense immediately objected. The prosecution dropped the case. Bode also was discharged. The paper did not give the reason for the objection. It can only be assumed the defense invoked the statute that wives could not then testify against their husbands. By that time, Wyatt Earp had made his own determination as to who had killed Morgan, and the cast of characters would be slightly different from the one described by Marietta Spence.
The Star and the Nugget kept railing against the injustice to Stilwell, but the Earps believed that Virgil survived his train trip only because they prevented Frank Stilwell from carrying out his execution plans. Through his years as a lawman, gambler, and buffalo hunter, Wyatt Earp had never been one to take human lives wantonly. Even after the shooting of Virgil, Wyatt Earp had not sought bloody vengeance. He had never been the vigilante-he had been the man who stood between the vigilantes and their form of justice. Now he believed he had no choice. After the Clanton trial and Morgan's murder, Wyatt Earp had come to believe that there was no solution other than to strike first, to become the victor before he became the victim.13
Wyatt Earp and his friends returned from Tucson to Tombstone Monday evening and settled into the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Pima County justice of the peace Charles Meyer wired Tombstone to say that the Earps were wanted in Tucson for the killing of Stilwell, and Behan should arrest the Earps. But the manager of the telegraph office, a friend of the Earps, showed the message to Wyatt before passing it on to Behan; he agreed to hold it as the Earp posse prepared to leave town again. Behan did not receive the telegram until 8 P.M., just as Wyatt's posse was getting ready to leave.
Billy Breakenridge said that Behan told him he had to arrest the Earps, and the sheriff wanted deputies Breakenridge and Dave Neagle to fetch their shotguns and return to back him up. Breakenridge said: "We had not gone a block on our way after our weapons when [the Earps] came out of the hotel. Behan met them on the sidewalk as they were getting on their horses and tried to arrest them.... They drew their guns on them and said they had seen him once too often and rode out of town as fast as they could go." The Nugget told the same story, with all members of the party pointing six-shooters at Behan.14
In a much different version, the Epitaph reported the Earp possemen had not raised their guns but were carrying rifles in the normal manner. "As Wyatt advanced to the front and approached Sheriff Behan, the sheriff said to him, 'Wyatt, I want to see you.' Wyatt replied, `You can't see me; you have seen me once too often,' or words to that effect. He passed out into the street and turned around and said, 'I will see [Pima County sheriff] Paul,' and then the party passed on down the street."
They went to the stable, mounted their horses, and left town. Clara Brown repeated the Epitaph version, then debunked the sheriff's statement. "Behan claims they resisted arrest, but the bystanders claim this was all that passed, and nothing was said about an arrest. He also asserts that every one of the party drew their guns on him, which is denied by the spectators. All were heavily armed, but no motion was made."
Behan's credibility was further damaged, and with it went the last shred of respect he retained among the law-and-order types in Tombstone. "Bad muss this," Parsons wrote in his journal. "Sheriff is awake now that one of his friends is killed. Couldn't do anything before. Things are very rotten in that office. Fine reputation we're getting abroad."
Even the Nugget took a little jab at the sheriff.
The action of sheriff Behan in attempting the arrest before completing his preparations to enforce it, if necessary, was strongly censured last night by many of our citizens. The Sheriff certainly has as good cause as any in this community to know the desperate character of the men with whom he had to deal, and it is possible he was a little hasty or over confident in the authority vested in him.15
Because Behan had neither presented a warrant nor said he was placing the party under arrest, it was not resisting arrest, and the little band rode out of Tombstone and into the national spotlight.
The murder of Morgan Earp had passed almost unnoticed outside Tombstone, but the Stilwell killing drew attent
ion throughout the nation. One of the main reasons was timing. Morgan was killed late on a Saturday night, after most newspapers had closed their Sunday editions and editors had stopped checking wire reports. Stilwell's body was found in the early-morning hours, in time to make Monday's afternoon editions with follow-ups on Tuesday. Parsons, Clara Brown, and other Tombstone law-and-order sorts would believe that the wrong killing had become the focus, but the Stilwell story still drew more attention and clearly affected the public perception of the Earps.
With the discovery of Stilwell's body, newspapers labeled Wyatt Earp's actions a vendetta. It quickly became the Vendetta, capitalized; a major story in California papers, which were devoting much column space to Earp's activities. The Fremont Street gunfight had been barely a blip in the newsprint of the West, but headlines of "The Arizona Vendetta" became commonplace in the San Francisco dailies. Earp, as a deputy U.S. marshal, had the jurisdiction to chase criminals for whom he carried a warrant. He also had the right to appoint possemen, and it can be assumed that Holliday and the rest were duly sworn in, though no confirmation exists.
Life went on in Tombstone. A new ice cream store opened on Fourth Street, and the singing societies held their meetings. Mattie and Bessie Earp prepared to leave town on Friday morning. For the first time since December of 1879, there would be no family members to watch over the business interests that had made the Earps major property owners in Tombstone.
"Mrs. James Earp and Mrs. Wyatt Earp left to-day for Colton, California, the residence of their husbands' parents," the Epitaph wrote on March 24. "These ladies have the sympathy of all who know them, and for that matter the entire community. Their trials for the last six months have been of the most severe nature." When the train passed through Tucson, a deputy sheriff had heard rumors that the Earp party was aboard and quickly rode into the station to search for Wyatt and Warren, only to find the two women.16 In Colton, James and his fa ther, Nicholas, awaited a telegram requesting their appearance in Arizona. Up in Sacramento, Newton, the eldest of the Earp brothers, also began packing his belongings should the call to arms arrive. Newton was the son of Nick's first wife, and he also had a background in law enforcement.17
Wyatt had all the help he needed with his band of questionable repute. Warren Earp was a tough fighter. Texas Jack Vermillion, whose long hair flowed down his back, had been a carpenter before joining Earp's posse, and was considered fearless and a crack shot. Holliday had been disparaged throughout the Southwest, and both McMasters and heavy-set Jack Johnson-called Turkey Creek Jack-had once ridden with the rustlers, McMasters being accused of stage robbery and horse stealing. Earp would explain later that they had long worked as Earp informants among the rustlers, providing information.
"Well, I had this Johnson with me and the thing was getting pretty warm between me and the rustlers and Johnson had joined my party, and he had been identified with this other party for a while and they got on to him," Earp said in a 1925 deposition. "I was using Johnson at that time the same as [today's police] would use a stool pigeon, but we didn't call them stool pigeons in those days. I was letting him get information for me. They had got on to him, of course it was a little dangerous fora man like that to go out alone." 18
Earp identified this Johnson as John Blount, who apparently took on the undercover assignment in an effort to get Earp and Wells, Fargo to support the release of his brother, Alan Blount, from territorial prison, which happened shortly before the killing of Morgan. According to Earp, John Blount had been a bookkeeper in Missouri and was well educated before going under the alias of Johnson in Arizona.19 McMasters, from Illinois, also had an unusual background, though few particulars are known. He spoke fluent Spanish, and his acquaintances believed him well educated.
Angry over the public rebuff from Wyatt Earp in front of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, Behan acted quickly, raising a posse of twelve men to pursue the Earps through Cochise County on the Tucson murder charge. He departed on Friday for a most unusual adventure.
Parsons seemed surprised as he wrote in his diary: "Excitement again this morning. Sheriff went out with a posse supposably [sic] to arrest the Earp party, but they will never do it. The cowboy element is backing him strongly, John Ringo being one of the [Behan deputies]. There is a prospect of a bad time, and there are about three men who deserve to get it in the back of the neck. Terrible thing, this, for our town, but the sooner it is all over with the better."
Behan's posse became one of the true oddities of the bizarre Arizona conflict. Backed by deputies Ringo, Fin Clanton, and other members of the cowboyoutlaw crowd, the sheriff rode out to pursue the U.S. marshal's band of Wyatt and Warren Earp, with troublemaker Doc Holliday, suspected thief Sherm McMasters, and the other shady characters. It is no wonder many Arizonans would view the situation as one band of crooks against another.
Deputy Breakenridge, who did not accompany the posse, defended Behan's unusual selection of deputies. "He took those men knowing that the Earp party would resist arrest, and, on account of the feud between them, he believed the cowboys would stay and fight."20
Behan defended himself to the Nugget. "He urges that the desperate character of the men for whom he had warrants, and the nature of the country in which they sought refuge, demanded that the pursuing party should be composed of men equally inured to the hardships of mountain life-men who are at home in the saddle, and of whose fighting qualifications there is no doubt. Of such men the posse was supposed to be composed. If necessary to capture criminals, we deem it would be right to employ Indian scouts and trailers, for 'the law must be supreme.' To some this may not seem just, but it is reasonable .1121
Pima County sheriff Bob Paul rode down from Tucson to meet Behan's posse before it returned to Tombstone. "As I had had no sleep since leaving Tucson I went to sleep in the express office and told Behan where I could be found," Paul wrote later. "He agreed to call me if he heard where the Earps were, as I wished to go with him.... I had a horse engaged to go with Behan and he agreed to call me if he started out again, but he did not do it and I returned to Tucson."22 Without Paul, Behan would be under no constraint to return the Earps alive.
Before Behan could find the Earps, the Earps found their first suspect. The little band rode into Pete Spence's wood camp in the South Pass of the Dragoon Mountains in the late-morning hours of Wednesday, March 22. According to the Hooker manuscript, the camp had been used as a rendezvous for rustlers, where stolen cattle would be driven to have their brands changed with running irons. Wyatt Earp and his band rode up to ask a group of mostly Mexicans for directions. The Earp party then approached Theodore Judah, an American among the workers, to try to locate Spence. But Spence was still in town, sitting safely in Behan's jail beyond reach of the Earps. Wyatt kept asking questions as he tried to locate Hank Swilling. When he finished the questioning, Earp led his party toward the Tombstone road.
From the distance another Mexican worker saw the band and realized it was coming after him. The Earp party went off the road and rode up the hill in pursuit of Florentino Cruz, called Indian Charlie by his cowboy pals, who they believed had been a lookout at the killing of Morgan. Simon Acosta, another worker, said he saw the Earp party start firing on Charlie. Through a translator, Acosta said: "I immediately ran up the hill and saw them shooting at Florentino. I did not see Florentino fall; I saw them following up the hill and firing at him. I did not pay attention to the number of shots fired. They stayed on the top of the hill awhile, dismounted, and soon after went off.... When I saw Florentino, he was running away. The pursuing party spread out, some on each side, and others immediately following."
Epimania Vegas added, "I saw the man that was shot running and jumping from side to side. I saw him fall."
Wyatt Earp never spoke much about this killing, avoiding the subject in newspaper interviews. In later years he spoke with three biographers, and the story was written differently each time. One version says Florentino ran away, then turned with gun drawn to receive a barr
age of shots from Earp and his pals; another says Wyatt approached Florentino and extracted a confession from him that he had been in the group that killed Morgan, along with Hank Swilling, Curley Bill, Ringo, and Stilwell, and that he had been paid $25 to help. By this version, Earp then challenged him to a one-on-one shootout, giving Florentino a chance to save his life. While such a shootout is probably a fabrication, there is a distinct possibility that Earp did talk with Cruz before leaving him dead in the Dragoons. Earp would later write to author Walter Noble Burns, "I am satisfied that Spence had nothing to do with the assassination of Morgan, although he was against us." Earp named Ringo, Curley Bill, Swilling, Stilwell, and Cruz as the murderers, information that could have come from Florentino Cruz before he received the barrage of bullets. Four shots struck Cruz, probably more than Wyatt Earp would have fired in a face-to-face shootout.23
The Earp band had finished its business. "They then came down the hill very leisurely to the road and returned in the direction of the camp," Judah testified at the coroner's inquest. "They proceeded but a short distance and turned around again. They then went along the road until it makes a sharp turn, and kept in the same direction, easterly, passing into the hills."Z4
The second killing of the Arizona Vendetta further stirred the passions of the population, with Parsons commenting: "More killing by the Earp party. Hope they'll keep it up."
The Arizona Star railed against the bloodshed, continuing to trumpet the need for due process over justice dealt from the barrel of a revolver. "As the hours roll on, the condition of affairs is growing into a war, and the banditti appear to be ignoring law and common decency, and have taken to the mountains as highwaymen, murdering whoever their fancy may lead them to believe are their enemies. They are heaping crime upon crime and lawlessness upon outrage."25
Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend Page 37
