The reasons for Doc’s concerns were about to become public. The next day, March 24, the Tucson Star reported the source of his worries, with these revelations about the fugitives:
The names of the three who are traveling are Bill Leonard, Jim Crane, and Harry Hickey [sic]. The fourth is at Tombstone and is well known and has been shadowed ever since his return. This party is suspected for the reasons, that on the afternoon of the attack he engaged a horse at about 4 o’clock, stating he might be gone seven or eight days [or] he might return that night. He left about 4 o’clock, armed with a Henry rifle and a six-shooter, he started toward Charleston, and about a mile below Tombstone cut across to Contention, and when next seen it was between 10 and 11 o’clock, riding into the livery stable at Tombstone, his horse fagged out. He at once called for another horse, which he hitched in the streets. Statements attributed to him, if true, look very bad indeed, and which, if proven, are most conclusive as to his guilt either as a principal actor or an accessory before the fact.60
In light of what was said and happened later, the “fourth” alluded to in the Star was most likely Doc Holliday, although that was not apparent at the time and might have fit other residents of Tombstone. Bill Leonard was the “damned fool” whom Kate had heard Doc talking about. And he understood the import of Leonard’s involvement for him. That was why Wyatt had called him to his house so late at night. Later accounts, rumors, and accusations complicated perceptions of just what the rumor mill was saying at the time, but Doc clearly knew that his friendship with Leonard would cause problems for him. Kate did not linger in Tombstone. She returned to Globe, and based on her later actions and recollections, she apparently believed the worst. And so did others.
Billy Breakenridge would later report a rumor that when the stage stopped at Watervale late on the afternoon of March 15, “Doc Holladay [sic] who was there on horse back brought out a drink of whiskey and wanted Paul to take it but Bob refused telling him he never drank while on duty.” Breakenridge believed the whiskey to be drugged and Paul lucky he did not take it, though on what basis he would have arrived at such a conclusion other than prejudice against Holliday is far from clear. Afterward, Breakenridge said that Doc “got on his horse and road [sic] off and the stage proceeded on its way to Benson.”61
Rumors about Doc disturbed Wyatt. Representing Virgil as a federal posseman, and perhaps acting as a Wells, Fargo operative in Tombstone (with Marshall Williams again out of town), Wyatt did as much investigating of the case as he could until James B. Hume, the company’s chief detective, arrived to act for the company. Reward posters were printed over Bob Paul’s name as “Special Officer of W. F. & Co,” dated March 23, 1881, offering rewards amounting to $3,600 for Leonard, Head, and Crane. No reference was made to a fourth fugitive, and certainly not to Doc.62
Hume was convinced that Luther King was the key to successful prosecution of the case. Marshall Williams also told the reporter of the Tombstone Daily Gossip that King had “made a full confession to him [Williams] and Sheriff Behan showing how the matter had been planned, and where the robbers were to bivouac after its commission.”63 If King did make a full confession, he did not name Holliday, because if he had, Behan surely would have arrested Doc as soon as he reached Tombstone. Clearly, neither Hume nor Williams remotely implied a Holliday involvement, even though rumors reported as many as nine men involved in the planning and execution of the robbery. They, at least, were sure of King’s story that the robbery attempt and murders were the spawn of a four-man operation. King was in the care of the new undersheriff, Harry M. Woods, who was also the editor of the Tombstone Nugget, while Behan was on the chase. Then on the evening of March 28, the unthinkable happened. Luther King escaped by simply walking out the back door of the jail to a waiting horse.
The Tombstone Evening Gossip explained what happened:
At about 7:30 last evening Harry Jones entered the Sheriff’s office to draw up a bill of sale for King, he being desirous of selling his horse to Mr. Dunbar, and while so engaged King stepped out of the back door taking Deputy Campbell’s pistol as he went. Jones having occasion to ask King some questions in regard to certain marks on the horse turned to speak to him, and discovered that King had gone. The officers immediately rushed to the back door but he had vanished. Search was unavailing, and they had to acknowledge that King had escaped. Where he has gone or which way to look for him nobody knows.64
What made the episode particularly egregious was that Jim Hume had that very afternoon “warned the officers who had King in charge to guard him very closely, as there would be an attempt made in the evening to release him from custody, and that it was very little encouragement for men to leave their business and go out into the mountains after these men, and after capturing them have them let loose.”65 Virgil Earp elaborated, “Hume got Wyatt to go with him to the Sheriff’s office to notify them, and they asked as a favor of the Under Sheriff to put King in irons. He promised to do so, and fifteen minutes afterward King escaped, going on a horse that was tied back of the Sheriff’s office.”66
Undersheriff Woods quickly concocted a most remarkable and brazen newspaper item for the Nugget that doubtless left knowledgeable people speechless and men like Wyatt Earp and Jim Hume livid. He claimed that Leonard had been gone only seconds when he was missed, but he could not be found, adding, “It was a well planned job by outsiders to get him away. While there might at the time have been more watchfulness on the part of those in charge of him, still through the days and nights since his arrest a guard has been kept over him, and a single unguarded moment, but not without the aid of accomplices on the outside.”67
The Nugget’s explanation stank to high heaven, along with Woods’s negligence, and contempt rained on those who had let it happen. George Parsons noted with indignation, “King, the stage robber, escaped tonight early from H. Woods who had been previously notified of an attempt at release to be made. Some of our officials should be hanged. They’re a bad lot.”68 The Tucson Citizen expressed its disdain in plain terms: “The escape was the result of an inexcusable and culpable negligence on the part of the officer in charge as he had been notified of the intended escape of King.”69 The Epitaph joined in, adding, “King did use the boys at the Sheriff’s office rather rough, that’s a fact. He never said a word about going—never whispered ‘tra-la-la.’”70 Jim Hume sadly wrote to his fiancé, “Tombstone has a population of six thousand—five thousand of them are bad—one thousand of them known outlaws. I don’t want much of Tombstone.”71
Disgust and barbed humor aside, people were angered because of the seriousness of the crime involved. The Epitaph underscored the significance of what had just happened: “The escape of King is very important, not only in connection with the late murder near Contention, but with the extensive stock stealing now being perpetrated in Southern Arizona. He is possessed of valuable information, and it is thought under proper treatment he might have been induced to ‘give the business away.’”72
The Epitaph predicted that King would “make good his escape.” A week later, the Tucson Star reported a rumor that the Cow-Boys had hanged King in the Huachucas, explaining that “believing that King had ‘given them away’ to the officers,” the Cow-Boys had “resolved on punishing him, and with that purpose in view assisted him to escape.”73 If so, his friends were convinced that he already had given the business away. The Star’s story was never verified, but Luther King had vanished.
By then, the pursuit of the other principals, Leonard, Head, and Crane, had been abandoned. Clara Brown explained why succinctly: “The party in search of the stage robbers returned to Tombstone after an unsuccessful quest of over two weeks, enduring considerable hardship and wearing out their horses before giving up the chase. They were four days and a half without food and thirty-six hours without water.”74 The local press praised the efforts of the possemen, but there were plenty of reasons to be disappointed. “Their intention was good, but their luck was bad,” explained the Pr
escott Miner.75
King’s escape reshuffled the deck in Cochise County. It left unanswered questions and room for rumors to flourish. It marked the real beginning of friction between Wyatt Earp and John Behan. Earp saw in the appointment of Harry Woods as undersheriff a betrayal by Behan, who had promised him the post. He had learned of Woods’s appointment only after his return to Tombstone, and the escape of King added suspicions to resentment. To make matters worse, Behan refused to pay Virgil and Morgan for their part in the pursuit of the outlaws.
Virgil later described what happened:
Behan brought in a bill against the county for $796.84. We supposed it was to pay expenses for the whole party, but he rendered it as a private account. I went before the Board of Supervisors and they said Behan must vouch for us. This he refused to do, saying he had not deputized us. Everybody but myself and my brothers were paid, and we did not get a cent until Wells Fargo found it out and paid us for our time. From that time our troubles commenced.76
Behan had played his hand, and now anything he could use to justify his decision not to make Wyatt undersheriff would benefit him. Furthermore, Milt Joyce was no longer just Behan’s friend; he was also a member of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors, nursing a grudge against Doc Holliday and supporting Behan’s decisions. Joyce may well have been one of those most closely involved in promoting the rumors about Doc’s involvement in the Drew’s Station attack. He had both motive and means, as the next few weeks amply demonstrated. The rumors did persist, and there were those in town willing to feed them, either because of their distaste for Holliday himself or because the gossip hurt the Earps. Wyatt was not a politician, and he was more or less blindsided by this combination of events.
If Wyatt Earp was the real target of the rumors and had the most to lose politically, the man left most vulnerable by these developments was Doc Holliday. At the very least, Doc had a bull’s-eye painted on his chest, and everybody in Tombstone knew it. He was not a popular man to begin with. His relationship with Leonard was well known, and many people—even some close to the Earps—were prepared to believe the worst. And Doc had a nasty way of giving people additional reasons to dislike him. As Wyatt Earp later wrote, “He was his own worst enemy.”77
As if to prove the point, on April 13, 1881, Doc found himself again in Justice A. O. Wallace’s court facing charges of “threats against life.” Apparently, the incident arose from accusations linking him to the Benson robbery attempt and Philpott’s murder. One story that made the rounds later was that Doc had threatened anyone who accused him of complicity in the robbery attempt, declaring, “If I had pulled that job, I’d have got the $80,000…. Whoever shot Philpot was a rank amateur. If he had downed a horse, he’d have got the bullion.” The most reliable account claimed that the arrest came after yet another altercation between Doc and Milt Joyce. In this version, Joyce saw Holliday come into the Oriental and remarked, “Well, here comes the stage robber.” Doc, in turn, explained to Joyce what he intended to do to him, but before trouble could happen, Sheriff Behan arrested both men. Joyce then swore out the warrant for “threats against life” that took Holliday back to Wallace’s court on April 13.78
Earlier in April, Bat Masterson had received an urgent message from his brother in Dodge City, and on April 16 he climbed down from the eastbound Santa Fe passenger train at Dodge and into a gunfight, known afterward as the battle of the Plaza. Bat’s return was not welcome under the circumstances, and he did not linger in Dodge, but he did not return to Tombstone. In May, the charges against Luke Short for the killing of Charlie Storms were dismissed, and Short soon departed Tombstone as well. William H. Harris followed Masterson and Short, and he was soon back in business with Chalk Beeson at the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City. Rickabaugh and Clark were left without a partner or a protector, and it was probably at this time, rather than earlier, as most accounts have assumed, that the partners offered a one-quarter interest in the Oriental game room to Wyatt Earp, much to the chagrin of Milt Joyce.79
Johnny Tyler was still in town at that point, for the Tucson Citizen reported him involved in the highest-stakes game in the history of the camp with Dick Clark, John Marshall Nichols (known locally as “Napa Nick” or “Judge Nichols,” a faro dealer at the Crystal Palace), and a man named Billy Frees.80
Doc still could not free himself from the past or his nemesis, Milt Joyce. On May 30, the Epitaph announced, “Doc Holliday has been indicted by the Grand Jury on account of participation in a shooting affray some time since. He was released on bonds.”81 The charges did not derive from the Benson stage robbery attempt, but from his fight with Milt Joyce the previous fall. Though the case had been dismissed in Justice Wallace’s court, Joyce had pressed the matter with his friend Sheriff Behan, and with his clout as a county supervisor, he was able to get the indictment.
Curiously, the charge against Holliday was listed simply as “Indictment for Felony.” The original warrant was sworn out under the case title Territory of Arizona v. Doc Holliday. When he first appeared before Judge William H. Stilwell on June 2, he was asked if Doc Holliday was his true name. He replied that his name was “J. H. Holliday,” and the judge ordered that the indictment be amended. On June 3, Doc’s attorney, A. G. P. George, asked the court to dismiss the case “on the ground that it was found by a Grand Jury illegally impaneled.” The motion was denied. In an unrelated case, the firm of Goodrich and Goodrich also unsuccessfully protested against “irregularities in empaneling the Grand Jury” without better success with Judge Stilwell. On June 4, George asked for a “demurrer to the indictment and a change of venue,” but Stilwell scheduled the trial for June 6. On June 7, the case was continued until October 6, 1881.82
Strangely, Joyce’s grudge, the gamblers’ feud, and the unresolved issue of the robbery attempt and murders near Drew’s Station now melded together in a most unusual way. First, Wyatt Earp had apparently spent considerable time and energy simmering over Behan’s betrayal, and at some point he made the decision to challenge Behan for the office of sheriff in the next election. He also still had a burr under his saddle about the escape of King and the failure to catch Leonard, Head, and Crane, which he saw as a viable issue to use against Behan. If he could find the fugitives and bring them in, he could solve the crime, greatly enhance his chances of winning the election, and stop the persistent rumors about Holliday’s involvement.
Early in June, Earp approached Ike Clanton, the Cow-Boy leader, with a proposal. As Wyatt explained it later:
I had an ambition to be Sheriff of this County at the next election, and I thought it would be a great help to me with the people and businessmen if I could capture the men who killed Philpot. There were rewards offered of about $1,200 each for the capture of the robbers. Altogether there was about $3,600 offered for their capture. I thought this sum might tempt Ike Clanton and Frank McLaury to give away Leonard, Head, and Crane, so I went to Ike Clanton, Frank McLaury, and Joe Hill when they came to town. I had an interview with them in the back yard of the Oriental Saloon. I told them what I wanted. I told them I wanted the glory of capturing Leonard, Head, and Crane and if I could do it, it would help me make the race for Sheriff at the next election. I told them if they would put me on the track of Leonard, Head, and Crane, and tell me where those men were hid, I would give them all the reward and would never let anyone know where I got the information.83
Earp was shrewd enough to know that men like the Clantons and the McLaurys, who were engaged mostly in rustling and fencing Mexican cattle, had no particular use for stage robbers and murderers. In fact, such men drew attention to operations that otherwise were largely ignored and even tolerated for economic reasons. Before making a bargain, though, Clanton had concerns. He told Wyatt that the trio would make a fight, so he had to know if the reward would be paid dead or alive. Earp promised he would find out. Without revealing anything about his negotiations with Clanton, Wyatt had Marshall Williams wire Wells, Fargo headquarters, and on June 7, William
s received the following response: “San Francisco, June 7, 1881. Received at [blank] June 7, 1881, 4 o’clock P.M., To Marshall Williams. Yes we will pay rewards for them dead or alive. L. F. Rowell.”84
Though almost obsessive about secrecy in his negotiations with Wyatt, Clanton also approached Virgil Earp about the deal. Virgil, who apparently was not aware of Wyatt’s negotiations and not particularly happy about them once he found out, asked Clanton why he did not just capture or kill the trio himself. “Jesus Christ!” Clanton responded. “I would not last longer than a snowball in hell if I did that…. The rest of the gang would think we killed them for the reward and they would kill us.”85
In all, Wyatt had four or five conversations with Clanton, McLaury, and Hill, trying to reassure them of his commitment to absolute secrecy. Wyatt added one more thing for emphasis, “I told Ike Clanton in one of those conversations that there were some parties here in town that were trying to give Doc Holliday the worst of it by their talk, that there was some suspicion that he knew something about the attempted robbery and killing of Bud Philpot, and if I could catch Leonard, Head, and Crane, I could prove to the citizens that he knew nothing about it.”86
Joseph Isaac “Ike” Clanton’s deal with Wyatt Earp to betray the Benson stage robbers created secrets that would eventually lead to trouble between the Clantons and their friends, on the one hand, and the Earps and Doc Holliday, on the other.
Doc Holliday Page 18
