39. Tombstone Nugget, Aug. 3, 1881; story refers to Skull Canyon.
40. Joseph Bowyer to John Gosper, Sept. 17, 1881, National Archives.
41. Morales to Gosper, Aug. 10, 1881; Arizona State Library, Archives Division, Secretary of the Territory, box 2.
42. Tombstone Epitaph, Aug. 5, 1881, from the Tucson Citizen.
43. Tombstone Epitaph, Aug. 13, 1881.
44. Arizona Weekly Star, June 23, 1881.
45. Tombstone Nugget, June 9, 1881.
46. Breakenridge, Helldorado, pp. 229-30.
47. Eugene Cunningham to Jack Burrows, Aug. 10, 1953, Burrows Collection.
48. Muir, "Shakespeare Becomes a Ghost Town," p. 25. There is no record of Ringo ever killing a man in Arizona, though it is possible he participated in rustling and murder raids against the Mexicans. The oft-told story that Ringo killed a cowboy named Dick Lloyd is contradicted by newspaper reports that say a Camp Thomas bartender named O'Neil shot and killed Lloyd after Lloyd wounded one man and threatened to kill others. The Mar. 13, 1881, Weekly Citizen says a jury was quickly assembled and the case ruled justifiable homicide.
49. San Francisco Examiner, May 28, 1882.
50. Jack Burrows, John Ringo: The Gunfighter Who Never Was (Tucson: University of Arizona, 1987), pp. 81-82.
51. Arizona Weekly Star, Dec. 14, 1881.
52. Ringo to Pima County Courts, Craig Fouts Collection, San Diego, Calif.
53. San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 3, 1881.
54. Bob Palmquist, "A Man for Breakfast Every Morning: Homicide and the Law in Tombstone, 1880-1882," Palmquist Collection, Tucson. Graduate seminar paper, University of Arizona, 1991.
55. Los Angeles Herald, Nov. 18, 1881, from Tombstone Nugget.
56. Bowyer to Gosper, Sept. 17, 1881.
57. San Francisco Weekly Stock Report, Oct. 3, 1881.
58. Parsons and Chafin, "The West of George W. Parsons," Apr. 21, 1881.
59. Tombstone Nugget, as reprinted in Arizona Weekly Star, Sept. 1, 1881.
60. Tombstone Nugget, as reprinted in Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Aug. 19, 1881. While there is little doubt the killings in Guadalupe Canyon were done by Mexicans, Will McLaury apparently believed Doc Holliday had some involvement. In his November 9 letter to D. D. Appelgate (Misc. MSS McLaury, New-York Historical Society), McLaury wrote: "It is now known that two other men who knew of the murder in the attempted robbery have since then been killed in Mexico. The report was by 'Greasers' but at the time they were killed Holliday was out of town 'said to be visiting Georgia."' There are no other hints in period reports of any Earp or Holliday involvement in the Guadalupe Canyon massacre, and such involvement seems impossible. Billy Byers made no such accusation, and clearly said he saw Mexicans looting the bodies. John Pleasant Gray believed it was done by Mexicans. Ike Clanton never made any such accusation even when he was accusing the Earps of just about every unpleasant deed imaginable. The story would lie dormant for six decades until being told again in Jack Ganzhorn's greatly exaggerated memoir I've Killed Men, first published in 1940, then again in 1971 in a fraudulent diary of O.K. Corral owner John Montgomery, then picked up by later writers.
61. San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 19, 1881.
62. San Diego Union, Aug. 28, 1881.
63. Tombstone Epitaph, Aug. 19, 1881.
64. San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 20, 1881.
65. Tombstone Nugget, Sept. 7, 16; Oct. 15, 1881.
66. New York Tribune, Aug. 25, 1881.
67. San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 3, 1881.
68. Frank Waters, The Earp Brothers of Tomhstone (New York: C. N. Potter, 1960). Waters combines information from interviews with Allie Earp and various Tombstone old-timers. Although much of the detailed information is questionable, it is apparent that Wyatt and Sadie became friendly after her separation from Behan.
69. Lake to Kent, Feb. 13, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard.
70. San Francisco Examiner, May 11, 1882.
71. Several letters to newspapers during late '81 and early '82 expressed a suspicion that Behan and the rustlers had some alliance with the cowboys. Wells, Fargo's Jim Hume came out and publicly made the charge to the Police Gazette and the San Jose Times (as quoted in the San Francisco Exchange, Feb. 16, 1882). On March 31, 1882, a letterwriter to the Los Angeles Express wrote: "It seems that the Earps believed (and not without cause) that the sheriff and party were exceedingly friendly with the cowboys, and it is certain the sheriff made no effort to detect the murderers of Earp." Several other letters expressed the same sentiment.
72. Burrows, John Ringo, p. 27.
73. San Francisco Examiner, May 11, 1882.
74. Ibid.
75. Fanny Kemble Wister, Owen Winter Out West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), p. 220.
76. Tombstone Epitaph, Sept. 10, 1881.
77. Tombstone Nugget, Sept. 13, 1881.
78. Tucson Citizen, Mar. 25, 1881.
79. Lake, Undercover for Well, Fargo, pp. 245-46. Later biographies of Earp and Breakenridge credited them with the investigative work. Both passed through glorifying biographers, however, while Dodge's version remains in a letter he wrote to Stuart Lake and stands as the sole first-person account of the events.
80. Tombstone Nugget, Oct. 22, 1881.
81. Parsons to Lake, Nov. 6, 1928, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.
82. San Francisco Weekly Stock Report, Oct. 3, 1881.
83. Tombstone Epitaph, Nov. 12, 1881, from San Francisco Stock Report.
84. Arizona Weekly Star, Oct. 13, 1881; Tucson Weekly Citizen, Oct. 9, 1881.
85. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 17, 1881.
86. Jennie Robertson, as told to Cynthia Pridmore, "Memoirs of Jennie Robertson," Cynthia Pridmore Collection, Newport News, Va.
87. Tombstone Epitaph, Nov. 20, 1881.
88. Parsons and Chafin, "The West of George W. Parsons," Feb. 2, 1915.
89. Combines Epitaph, Nov. 22, 1881, with edited trial transcript (Pat Hayhurst, "Spicer Hearing Documents," Arizona Historical Foundation, Tempe, pp. 238-39). Hayhurst edited the original trial transcript as a WPA project in the 1930s. The original transcript has since disappeared and is believed to have been lost in a fire at Hayhurst's home. Hayhurst deleted much material from his transcript. Original newspaper reports are the primary source of material on the Spicer hearing presented in this book.
90. Hooker, "An Arizona Vendetta," p. 76.
91. San Francisco Examiner, Mar. 23, 1882.
92. Ibid., Oct. 3, 1881.
93. Gosper to Blaine, Sept. 20, 1881, National Archives, DOJ, RG 60.
94. San Francisco Examiner, May 11, 1882.
95. The Aug. 28, 1881, Tucson Citizen identifies Morgan Earp as a member of Ed Byrnes's Top and Bottom gang, a collection of tinhorn gamblers who played a con game on train travelers stopping briefly at the depot. The report is most likely in error, since Morgan Earp served as Virgil's deputy at the time and arrested Byrnes on other charges. A later report in the May 24, 1882, Las Vegas Optic flatly denied any Earp involvement with the gang.
11 HAPTER 4. A MARCH TO DESTINY
1. San Francisco Examiner, Mar. 28, 1882.
2. Tombstone Nugget, Oct. 25, 1881; Arizona Weekly Star, Oct. 27, 1881.
3. San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 2, 1896.
4. Kate tells this story in many of her letters, including Mary Cummings's letter to Laffert, as quoted in Bell's The Illustrated Life and Tunes of Doc Holiday. The Earps' reason for summoning Holliday is never detailed, and some have speculated the brothers anticipated a fight and called him back to carry a gun. From information in the Flood and Hooker manuscripts and because of the Earps' seeming indifference to a fight early in the day of October 26, it seems more likely Wyatt would have called him back to salve Ike's suspicion about the Earps blabbing the deal. If, indeed, this was Earp's plan, it backfired when Holliday and Clanton bickered in the saloon. There is some question as to the mode of transportation. Wyatt says Doc arrived on the st
age. Kate says they all took a buckboard, and she erroneously said they arrived on the night before the gunfight.
5. Wyatt Earp quotes taken from the Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 17, 1881. Several statements differ from later published versions.
6. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 10 and 11, 1881, checked against Epitaph and Hayhurst versions.
7. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 24, 1881.
8. Ibid.
9. Hayhurst, "The Spicer Hearing Documents," pp. 86-87.
10. Mary Cummings to Laffert, Mar. 19, 1940, as quoted in Bell's The Illustrated Life of Doc Holkday, pp. 106-8.
11. John Clum, "It All Happened in Tombstone," Arizona Historical Review, April 1929, pp. 46-72, Gary L. Roberts Collection.
12. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 20, 1881.
13. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 11, 1881; Campbell's recollection of Wyatt's words were that he called him a "cattle-thieving SOB, and now you have to fight."
14. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 17, 1881.
15. Hayhurst, "Spicer Hearing Documents," p. 30.
16. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 11, 1881.
17. Ibid., Nov. 17, 1881.
18. Ibid., Nov. 13, 1881.
19. Ibid., Nov. 17, 1881.
20. Tombstone Nugget, Epitaph, Nov. 3, 1881.
21. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 20, 1881.
22. Tombstone Epitaph, Nov. 22, 1881.
23. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 22, 1881.
24. Tombstone Epitaph, Nov. 3, 1881.
25. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 5, 1881.
26. The time of the gunfight is uncertain. It must be remembered this occurred before times were standardized. Towns still operated on sun time, so different watches would have different times. Life in the 1880s was not so severely governed by the clock as it is today.
27. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 5, 1881. It is important to note that King heard only a snatch of a conversation. The words from an unknown Earp may have been something to the effect of. "If they draw, let them have it," or "If they go for their guns, let them have it." That King heard this comment out of context must be considered.
28. Tombstone Epitaph, Nov. 23, 1881.
29. During the cross-examination of Behan, defense attorneys identified the location of the shot as coming from the east of Fly's gallery, not from the rear of the lot, to the south of Fly's, as is commonly misreported in various later accounts of the gunfight. Gunfight analyst Jeff Morey notes that this would make Billy Allen the prime suspect if such a shot was indeed fired.
30. Holliday's "You're a daisy if you have" comment is colloquial for "You're a good one if you have got me." The term "daisy" was popular in the 1880s and generally meant good.
31. Tombstone Nugget, Oct. 30, 1881. The chest wound to Frank McLaury was reported in the Nugget but not mentioned in the coroner's report, which listed only fatal wounds.
32. The exact course of Morgan's wound is uncertain. The Epitaph says the bullet entered the right shoulder; the Nugget says it entered the left.
33. San Diego Union, Nov. 3, 1881.
34. Ibid.
35. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 8, 1881.
36. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 12, 1881.
37. Inquest reports appeared in the Nov. 5, 1881, Epitaph and Nugget.
38. Tombstone Epitaph, Oct. 29, 1881.
39. San Francisco Exchange, Oct. 27, 1881.
40. San Diego Union, Nov. 3, 1881.
41. Ibid.
42. "Buck Fanshaw's Funeral" was a Mark Twain short story that originally appeared in Roughing It, in 1872. The story told of Virginia City honoring saloonkeeper Buck Fanshaw with a huge funeral ceremony at the instigation of one of his friends who wanted to give him a proper sendoff. The result was a massive cortege and mourning that hardly reflected Buck's place in life.
43. San Francisco Exchange, May 28, 1882.
44. San Diego Union, Nov. 3, 1881.
45. Tombstone Nugget, Oct. 30, 1881.
46. Tombstone Epitaph, Oct. 30, 1881.
47. Tombstone Nugget, Oct. 30, 1881.
a HAPTER 5. "I THINK WE CAN HANG THEM"
1. Tombstone Nugget, Oct. 30, 1881.
2. Ibid.
3. Hayhurst, "Spicer Hearing Documents," pp. 29-37. Allen testimony not available from other sources.
4. Tombstone Nugget and Epitaph, Nov. 23, 1881. Behan testimony.
5. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 3, 1881.
6. Arizona Weekly Star, Nov. 3, 1881.
7. Ibid.
8. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 4, 1881.
9. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 5, 1881.
10. Arizona Weekly Star, Nov. 10, 1881.
11. McLaury to Appelgate, Nov. 9, 1881, Misc. MSS McLaury, William, The NewYork Historical Society (hereafter cited as McLaury MSS).
12. McLaury to Greene, Nov. 8, 1881, McLaury MSS.
13. Ibid.
14. Tombstone Nugget, Epitaph, Nov. 8, 1881.
15. McLaury to Greene, Nov. 8, 1881, McLaury MSS.
16. McLaury to Appelgate, Nov. 9, 1881, McLaury MSS.
17. McLaury to Greene, Nov. 8, 1881, McLaury MSS.
18. McLaury to Appelgate, Nov. 9, 1881, McLaury MSS.
19. McLaury to Greene, Nov. 8, 1881, McLaury MSS.
20. McLaury to Appelgate, Nov. 17, 1881, McLaury MSS.
21. Gosper to Kirkwood, Nov. 29, 1881, as reprinted in "Lawlessness in Parts of Arizona," the 1882 presidential report to Congress. Copy in Gary L. Roberts Collection.
22. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 10, 1881.
23. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 13, 1881; the Nugget version differs from the Hayhurst transcript.
24. Ibid.
25. The change from "capture" to "kill" is noted only in the Hayhurst transcript and is not mentioned by either paper.
26. Tombstone Epitaph, Nov. 15, 1881.
27. Loan papers from University of Arizona Special Collections, Az. 196, vol. 122. Behan and Clanton secured the loan from the L. M. Jacobs Mercantile, which also ran a loan operation. Strangely, Clanton paid off the $500 loan on November 25, less than two weeks later. It can only be speculated that Will McLaury assumed much of the financial burden as the hearing progressed. Behan's financial dealings are most suspicious during this period. On November 1, he secured a personal loan from Jacobs for $500. Then on November 2 Behan and jailer Billy Soule took out a $200 loan. During Behan's testimony, asked if he had contributed money to the prosecution, he denied that he had.
28. Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 23, 1898.
29. "The Compiled Laws of Arizona Territory" (1877) state: "When the examination of witnesses on the part of the Territory is closed, the magistrate shall distinctly inform the defendant that it is his right to make a statement in relation to the charges against him (stating to him the nature thereof), that the statement is designed to enable him, if he see fit, to answer the charge, and to explain the fact alleged against him, that he is at liberty to waive making a statement and that his waiver cannot be used against him on the trial." The magistrate was to ask only questions of name, age, birth, length of residence, and occupation. The law was slightly amended in 1881 to provide for a defendant reserving his right to make his statement until after his supporting witnesses had been heard. The law applied only to preliminary hearings, not to open trial. It does not discriminate between reading a prepared statement and making an unprepared statement. It should be noted that later researchers have inaccurately used Spicer's allowing such a statement to show prejudice in favor of the defendant. Territorial law clearly provided this option and it was not questioned during the hearing. Legal research on this topic provided by Bob Palmquist.
30. In Earp's prepared statement, he said he heard about the death threats from Williams, Farmer Daly, Ed Byrnes, Charley Smith, and a man identified by the Nugget as "Old Man Winter" and by the Hayhurst transcript as "Old Man Urrides." Earp also said there were three or four others who told him of the threats.
31. The words "pretty tight" appear only in the Nov. 17, 1881, Epitaph.
32. Tombstone Epitaph and Nugget, Nov. 17, 1881.
33. Earp's testimony taken from the Nov. 17, 1881, Epitaph and Nugget.
34. McLaury to Appelgate, Nov. 17, 1881, McLaury MSS.
35. Ibid., Nov. 9, 1881.
36. Ibid., Nov. 17, 1881.
37. Tombstone Nugget, Nov. 19, 1881. It should be noted that Spicer's decision strictly followed territorial law and was a clear ruling against the Earps. Later researchers, such as Ed Bartholomew, would charge that Spicer had clearly favored the Earps, but the refusal to allow Boyle's testimony without proper foundation could be considered evidence of Spicer's objectivity.
38. Virgil Earp does not make clear Wyatt Earp's actual appointment in his comments during the hearing. However, in the Mar. 28, 1882, Examiner story he says Wyatt served as a deputy U.S. marshal.
39. Tombstone Nugget and Epitaph, Nov. 20, 1881.
40. Ibid.
41. Tombstone Nugget and Epitaph, Nov. 24, 1881.
42. Tombstone Nugget and Epitaph, Nov. 28, 1881.
43. Tombstone Epitaph, Nov. 29, 1881.
44. Tombstone Nugget and Epitaph, Nov. 29, 1881.
45. Tombstone Nugget story taken from Tucson Weekly Citizen, Oct. 30, 1881.
46. Analysis by researcher Jeff Morey in various unpublished papers.
47. Morey has made a detailed analysis for a forthcoming book. In considering Morgan Earp's wound, Morey notes that the newspapers report opposite trajectories. The Nugget has a bullet ripping across Morgan's back from left to right, while the Epitaph says the shot traveled from right to left. Morey concludes that if the Nugget is right, Morgan was probably hit by a shot from his own party. Either Virgil's first shot at Frank McLaury or Wyatt's accidental discharge when wrestling with Ike Clanton is the most probable source for the left-to-right wound. If the Epitaph account is accurate, the probable shooter was Tom McLaury, as both Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp placed Tom closest to the street, in the best position to inflict such a wound when Morgan was facing into the lot.
48. Lake's notes, Huntington Library.
Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend Page 58
