Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend

by Casey Tefertiller

  8. San Francisco Examiner, May 4, 1882.

  9. Arizona Daily Star, May 7, 1882.

  10. Undated Nugget from Tritle's scrapbook, Arizona Historical Society, MS 794; Arizona Gazette, May 18, 1882.

  11. San Francisco Exchange, May 6, 1882; the Exchange picked up the Epitaph story and responded.

  12. Arizona Weekly Star, Mar. 18, 1882.

  13. Denver Republican, May 22, 1882; Albuquerque Review, May 13, 1882. Big-Nose Kate would later say the row came because Holliday objected to Wyatt's "steel shirt," or bulletproof vest, saying, "You should take the same chances I take. I'm out." This is a most unlikely story, notably because no "steel shirt" could stop a .45-calibre bullet. Holliday's drunken indiscretions provide a far more likely scenario.

  14. DeArment, Bat Masterson, p. 225.

  15. Denver Tribune, May 16, 1882.

  16. Rocky Mountain News, May 16, 1882.

  17. Ibid., May 21, 1882.

  18. DeArment, Bat Masterson, p. 229.

  19. Rocky Mountain New, May 25, 1882.

  20. Denver Republican, May 27, 1882.

  21. Rocky Mountain News, May 17, 1882.

  22. Arizona Daily Star, May 18, 1882.

  23. Rocky Mountain News, May 22, 1882.

  24. Denver Tribune, May 20, 1882.

  25. Arizona Daily Star, May 26, 1882.

  26. New Southwest and Grant County Herald, May 27, 1882, from Albuquerque Review. Lake's notes say, "stage to Deming, Santa Fe to Albuquerque, -1 wk."

  27. Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 23, 1898.

  28. Arizona Daily Star, June 1, 1882.

  29. Ibid., May 12, 1882.

  30. San Francisco Examiner, May 27, 1882.

  31. Gunnison News-Democrat, June 4, 1882.

  32. Judd Riley interview, Lake Collection, Huntington Library, box 11, F 41; Gunnison News-Democrat, June 18, 1882.

  33. Lod Angeles Tunic, Mar. 28, 1882.

  34. San Francisco Examiner, May 27, 1882.

  35. Gunnison News-Democrat, June 4, 1882.

  36. San Francisco Examiner, May 27, 1882.

  37. San Francisco Cali Chronicle, Poet, Examiner, Bulletin, and Report, Aug. 2, 3, 1882; San Francisco Report, Sept. 6, 1882.

  38. Langley's San Francisco City Directory lists the three Earp brothers residing at 406 Pine. The exact date of Wyatt Earp's arrival in San Francisco could not be determined.

  39. Denver Republican, June 2, 1882.

  40. Although the cause of Ringo's death will probably never be proven with certainty, there is little reason to link Earp to it. In 1893 he told the Denver Republican: "I never succeeded in finding Ringo. He got out of the country and was killed by somebody else." Both the Hooker MS and some versions of the Flood MS say he killed Ringo while leaving Arizona, which did not happen since Ringo was killed months after Earp left Arizona. The version of the Flood MS that Lake received does not include such a claim of killing Ringo, and Lake wrote to Hooker that Earp never told him he killed Ringo. After Lake wrote to Fred Dodge asking about the Hooker account, Dodge responded, "I am willing to bet ... that she never got the Ringo end from Wyatt" (Undercover for Wells, Fargo, p. 239). There is no evidence to link Earp to the killing of Ringo, and it is logically and logistically unlikely that he made the long ride back from Colorado, did the killing, then returned to Colorado without being seen. It is also unlikely that Earp then kept this spectacular story secret for the rest of his life. It is impossible that Holliday participated in the death of Ringo. Court records use the term "In propria Persona" to indicate Holliday personally appeared in a Pueblo court two days before Ringo's death.

  41. General assessment made through reading period newspapers and discussions with several Tombstone researchers, notably Carl Chafin.

  42. Copy of revocation papers in the Bob Palmquist Collection; original from Cochise County Recorder's office, Bisbee, Ariz.

  43. Tombstone Epitaph, Sept. 23, 1882.

  44. Behan File, University of Arizona Special Collections.

  45. Dake File, National Archives, DOJ, RG 60.

  46. Arizona Daily Star, Sept. 15, 1882.

  47. Rasch, "A Note on Buckskin Frank Leslie," p. 209.

  48. San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 25, 1894.

  49. Masterson and DeMattos, Famous Gunfighters, p. 57.

  50. Miller and Snell, Why the West Was Wild, pp. 556-61.

  51. Ibid., pp. 530-32.

  52. Luke Short dictation, Mar. 19, 1886, Bancroft Texas Dictations, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, Calif.

  53. San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 16, 1896.

  54. Ibid.

  55. National Police Gazette, July 21, 1883; San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 16, 1896.

  56. Masterson and DeMattos, Famous Gunfighters, pp. 29-30.

  57. Research and analysis on Earp in Idaho provided by Judge Richard G. Magnuson, who scoured Shoshone County records to gain an understanding of Earp's dealings in the Coeur d'Alene rush.

  58. Spokane Falls Review, Apr. 5, 1884.

  59. San Francisco Call, Dec. 7, 1896.

  60. Ferguson's account of the incident is from a letter he wrote to Lee J. Rose signed Danny Miller. In a subsequent letter Miller identifies himself as Ferguson. Rose sent the letters to Stuart Lake, and they are included in the Lake Collection (box 11, F.55) at the Huntington Library. Ferguson's account of the events is supported by Spokane Falls Review, June 20, 1884.

  61. Idaho Sun, July 8, 1884.

  62. Aspen Daily Timed, Oct. 14, 1885.

  63. Cason and Ackerman, "She Married Wyatt Earp."

  64. Emma Walling, Doe Holliday: Colorado Trials and Triumphs (Snowmass, Colo.: Walling, 1994), p. 74. Quote appeared in Denver Republican, Dec. 25, 1887.

  65. Los Angeles Herald, Feb. 3, 1887, citing source as Police Gazette.

  66. Celia Earp Inquest, Arizona Department of Library, Archives Division; Pinal County Inquests; Filmfile 88.6.1.

  9 HAPTER 9. A FIGHT FOR HONOR

  1. Lucius Beebe, "San Francisco Luxury Places," Holiday Magazine, April 1961, p. 38, Barbara Grcar Collection. The date of the incident cannot be established.

  2. San Francisco Chronicle, Apr. 29, 1893.

  3. Denver Republican, Mar. 14, 1893.

  4. Cason and Ackerman, "She Married Wyatt Earp."

  5. Ibid.

  6. San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 7, 1896.

  7. San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Dec. 2, 1896.

  8. San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 16, 1896. Spelling of tony changed from the original "tone."

  9. San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 3, 1896.

  10. San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 3, 1896.

  11. San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Dec. 3, 1896.

  12. San Fraacieco Examiner, Dec. 3, 1896.

  13. Ibid.

  14. San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 3, 1896.

  15. San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 3, 1896.

  16. Ibid., Dec. 4, 1896.

  17. Cason and Ackerman, "She Married Wyatt Earp."

  18. San Francisco Call, Dec. 4, 1896.

  19. Ibid.

  20. San Francisco Bulletin, Dec. 10, 1896.

  21. Los Angeles Herald, Dec. 6, 1896, Associated Press report.

  22. San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Dec. 5, 1896.

  23. Ibid.

  24. San Francisco Call, Dec. 15, 1896.

  25. Ibid., Dec. 7, 1896.

  26. New York Morning Telegraph, Jan. 6, 1910.

  27. San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 6, 1896.

  28. San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Dec. 9, 1896.

  29. San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Dec. 9, 1896.

  30. San Francisco Evening Bulletin, San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 10, 1896.

  31. San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 10, 1896.

  32. San Francisco Call, Dec. 12, 1896.

  33. San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 16, 1896.

  34. San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 16, 1896.

  35. San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 16, 1896.

  36. San Francisco Evening Bulletin
, Dec. 17, 1896.

  37. William D. McVey and Robert N. Mullin, "Wyatt Earp: Frontier Peace Officer," The Chicago Brand Book of Westerners, vol. 6, no. 9, 1949, p. 65, Gary L. Roberts Collection.

  38. Charles Fernald, "Wyatt Earp in Alaska," Chicago Posse of Westerners Brand Book, vol. 8, no. 11, 1951, p. 82, Gary L. Roberts Collection.

  39. Parsons and Chafin, "The West of George Whitwell Parsons," entry for Dec. 17, 1896.

  40. San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Dec. 24, 1896.

  41. Cason and Ackerman, "She Married Wyatt Earp."

  42. San Francisco Examiner, Mar. 17, 1897.

  43. Ibid., Mar. 18, 1897.

  a HAPTER 10. THE LAST FRONTIERS

  1. Don Chaput, The Earp Papers (Encampment, Wyo.: Affiliated Writers, 1994), p. 185.

  2. Halliwell interview; Peggy Greenberg interview with Roger S. Peterson, tape recording, Oct. 13, 1981, Roger S. Peterson Collection, Rocklin, Calif.

  3. Cason and Ackerman, "She Married Wyatt Earp."

  4. San Francisco Call, Apr. 30, 1900.

  5. Chaput, The Earp Papers, p. 186.

  6. Terrence Cole, ed., Nome, City of the Golden Beaches (Anchorage: Alaska Geographic Society, 1984), p. 76.

  7. Chicago InterOcean, Sept. 16, 1900.

  8. Seattle Poet-Intelligences, July 7, 1900.

  9. Chaput, The Earp Papers, p. 186.

  10. C. B. Glasscock, Lucky Baldwin, The Story of an Unconventional Success (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1933), pp. 282-85. Unruh, interviewed more than thirty years after the events, incorrectly recalled the name of Earp's saloon as the "Second Class." Actually, Earp ran the Dexter. The Second Class was a nearby operation.

  11. Grace Welsh Spolidoro and Elena Welsh Armstrong, interview by author, tape recording, Nov. 8, 1994. Spolidoro told of Sadie Earp's gambling; Mabel Earp Cason quoted Sadie Earp as telling of Wyatt's affairs in an April 9, 1956 letter to Mrs. Beeson (photocopy from Simmons Collection).

  12. Los Angeles Express, Dec. 12, 1901; Chaput, The Earp Papers, p. 188.

  13. John Hays Hammond, "Strongmen of the Wild West," Scrihner's, March 1925, p. 26. It should be noted that author Hammond recalled the mine guard incident from personal memories, while other stories in the piece he collected from other accounts.

  14. Oral recollections of John Flood, as told to Robert Mullin, then to Jack Burrows. In Alaska, various records showing Wyatt and Sadie residing at different addresses make the stories seem likely.

  15. Los Angeles Herald, Sept. 8, 1903.

  16. Ibid., Sept. 9, 1903.

  17. Entry for Sept. 19, 1903.

  18. San Francisco Call, June 20, 1886.

  19. Sacramento Bee, Sept. 12, 1958; A. M. King as told to Lea F McCarty, "Wyatt Earp's Million Dollar Shotgun Ride," True West, August 1958, p. 16.

  20. Entry for Oct. 14-15, 1910.

  21. Lod Angeles Tunes, Feb. 12, 1916; San Bernardino Sun, Jan. 26, 1916; San Bernardino News, Jan. 25, 1916. Lea McCarty, "Wyatt Earp's Burial Secret," True West, SeptemberOctober 1957, p. 18. There is a slight inconsistency between Rasor's 1916 testimony and King's recollections. Rasor says Earp went to the tent and retrieved his gun. King says Earp only threatened to get a gun.

  22. Waymire v. Trona trial transcripts, San Bernardino County courts.

  23. Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1911.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Al Turner, "Wyatt Earp's Unique Faro Game," Chafin Collection, Culver City. 26. Lod Angeles Examiner, July 28, 1911.

  27. Los Angeles Times, Herald, Examiner, Sept. 28, 1911, court records. There is some question whether the prosecutor dropped the case or Judge Rose dismissed charges.

  28. David Dempsey with Raymond P. Baldwin, The Triumphs and Trials of Lotta Crabtree (New York: Morrow, 1968), pp. 261-72.

  29. Raoul Walsh, Each Man in Hie Time (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974), pp. 102-5.

  30. Story came from John Flood, to Robert Mullin, to Jack Burrows. Flood often told this story, and it is orally repeated from several sources.

  31. DeArment, Bat Masterson, p. 396, from New York Morning Telegraph, Oct. 9, 1921.

  32. Earp to Hammond, May 21, 1925, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  33. Earp to Hart, July 7, 1923, Hart Letters, Los Angeles Museum of Natural History.

  34. Halliwell interview.

  35. This story has been told and retold but lacks solid documentation. It was reprinted in San Bernardino Sheriff's Office, 1853-1973 (San Bernardino: Sheriff's Employee Benefit Association, 1973), and told by Arthur M. King, among others.

  36. Major Lois C. Welsh, Ret., interview with author, tape recording, Oct. 15, 1994.

  37. John Henry Flood Jr., "Wyatt Earp," Chaffin Collection, Culver City, Calif., 1926. Chafin has one of several copies of the Flood MS. Flood apparently wrote several drafts of the MS and made some changes in the different versions.

  38. Earp to Hart, July 3, 1925, Hart Letters.

  39. Anne Johnston to Hart, Feb. 21, 1927.

  40. Hart to Flood, Jan. 31, 1927.

  41. Earp to Burns, Mar. 15, 1927, Burns Collection, University of Arizona Special Collections.

  42. Flood to Hart, Mar. 23, 1927, Hart Letters.

  43. San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 21, 1924.

  44. San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Sept. 20, 1924.

  45. Jack Armstrong to Gary L. Roberts, May 3, 1961, Gary L. Roberts Collection, Tifton, Ga. Armstrong worked as a rancher and served briefly as a special deputy with the Los Angeles Police Department.

  46. Halliwell interview.

  47. Roger S. Peterson, interview by Peggy Greenberg.

  48. Lake to Burton Rascoe, Jan. 9, 1941, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  49. Parsons to Dodge, Oct. 20, 1928, Dodge Collection, Huntington Library.

  50. Clum to Dodge, Dec. 26, 1930, Dodge Collection, Huntington Library.

  51. Earp to Lake, Nov. 26, 1928, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  52. Lake to Dodge, Feb. 7, 1929, Lake Collection, Huntington Library; Cason and Ackerman, "She Married Wyatt Earp," provides a similar description of the death scene, quoting the final words as "supposing, supposing."

  e HAPTER 11. LONG MAY HIS STORY BE TOLD

  1. Josephine Earp to Lake, Sept. 19, 1928, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  2. Lake to Josephine Earp, Nov. 9, 1929, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  3. Lake to Kent, Feb. 13, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard.

  4. Ibid., Oct. 15, 1930.

  5. Kent to Lake, Oct. 17, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard.

  6. Ibid., Mar. 17, 1931.

  7. Josephine Earp to Lake, Jan. 27, 1931, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  8. Lake to Josephine Earp, Aug. 23, 1931, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  9. New York Times, Jan. 10, 1932.

  10. Collier & Flinn Co., Ltd., list of available titles; Collier & Flinn correspondence file, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  11. San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, June 25, 1961.

  12. Pat McGilligan, Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), pp. 62-63.

  13. Lake to Rascoe, Jan. 9, 1941, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  14. The question of the Buntline Special remains an unsolved mystery. There is no tangible proof of the gun's existence. However, in 1929 Lake wrote letters to Alaskan newspapers trying to recover the gun, which makes it appear likely that he did not fabricate the weapon. If it did indeed exist, it seems more likely that it had a 10-inch barrel, as mentioned in Lake's notes, rather than the 12-inch barrel described in Lake's book. The 10-inch barrel would make it a more usable weapon.

  15. New York Triune, undated clipping in author's collection.

  16. John Clum, "Review of Frontier Marshal," Arizona Historical Review, January 1932, p. 71. Copy from the Carl Chafin Collection.

  17. Jay J. Kalez, "Texan Tamer," Frontier Tunes, May 1968, p. 29.

  18. Tucson Citizen, F
eb. 6, 1932.

  19. Tombstone Epitaph, Feb. 19, 1937.

  20. Hills of Eternity Cemetery, Colma, Calif., "Log of Burials." Wyatt and Josephine would both be cremated and buried under one tombstone. After a grave-robbing incident in 1957, a large seal would be put over the grave joining it to the nearby tombstone of Max Weiss to prevent further intrusions into the grave at the Jewish cemetery.

  21. Welsh interview.

  22. Armstrong interview.

  23. Josephine Earp to Lake, undated, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  24. Jeanne Cason Laing, interview by author, tape recording, Sept. 23, 1996.

  25. Mabel Earp Cason to Eleanor Sloan, May 30, 1959, Arizona Pioneers Historical Society/Tucson.

  26. San Francisco Examiner, July 16, 1939.

  27. Ibid., July 29, 1939.

  28. Waters, The Earp Brothers of Tombstone, p. 7. Waters told Carl Chafin of Allie's flask during a 1974 oral interview.

  29. Frank Waters, interview by author, tape recording, Jan. 3, 1995.

  30. Laing interview.

  31. Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford (Berkeley: University of California Press; 1978), pp. 84-85.

  32. Oakland Triune, Feb. 8, 1959.

  33. Wayne has also said that he was greatly influenced in his film portrayals by director John Ford, by stuntman/actor Yakima Canutt, and by actor Harry Carey.

  34. Frank Waters, The Colorado (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1946), pp. 224-27.

  35. Halliwell to Sullivan, February 1967, Devere Collection, Tombstone, Ariz.

  36. Lake, Frontier Marshal, pp. 42-43.

  37. Lake to Mullin, Aug. 17, 1953, Lake Collection, Huntington Library.

  38. Wayne Montgomery, "I Witnessed the O.K. Corral Fight," True West, February 1971, p. 18; Tombstone Epitaph, National Edition, Dec. 6, 1974.

  39. San Francisco Examiner, Nov. 21, 1959.

  40. Dodge to Clum, Sept. 24, 1930, Dodge Collection, Huntington Library.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  BOOBS

  Adams, Andy. The Log of a Cowboy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1903.

  Bechdolt, Frederick R. When the West Was Young. New York: The Century Co., 1922.

  Breakenridge, William M. (ghostwritten by William MacLeod Raine). Helidorado: Bringing Law to the Mesquite. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1928.