Tombstone: Bawdy and Rowdy, Tender and Tough
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PART I Tombstone: Bawdy and Rowdy, Tender and Tough tat1e01.indd 45 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM tat1e01.indd 46 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM Principal Tombstone Characters The Miners Charles DeBrille Poston Edward “Ed” Schieffelen The Cattleman Henry C. Hooker The Cowboys (Rustlers) William “Billy the Kid” Claiborne Newman H. “Old Man” Clanton Phineas “Phin” Clanton Joseph Isaac “Ike” Clanton William “Billy” Clanton “Old Man” Hughes Jim Hughes Robert Findley “Frank” McLaury Thomas Clark “Tom” McLaury William R. “Will” McLaury John Ringo Curly Bill Brocius The Earp “Gang” Wyatt Earp Virgil Earp Morgan Earp John Henry “Doc” Holliday 47 tat1e01.indd 47 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM 48 ARIZONA GUNFIGHTERS The Earp Partisans John Clum, mayor, editor, Tombstone Epitaph Fred Dodge, Wells Fargo undercover agent Marshall Williams, Wells Fargo resident agent George Parsons, gentleman miner The Gamblers James, Virgil, Warren, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp Doc Holliday Bat Masterson Luke Short Charlie Storms Buckskin Frank Leslie The Earp Wives and Courtesans Alvira Packingham Sullivan “Allie” Earp, wife of Virgil Earp Nellie Bartlett Ketcham “Bessie” Earp, wife of James Earp Celia Ann Blaylock “Mattie” Earp, wife of Wyatt Earp Josephine Sarah Marcus “Josie” (“Sadie”) Behan Earp, paramour of John Behan and Wyatt Earp Louisa Houston Earp, wife of Morgan Earp Mary Katherine Harony “Big-Nosed Kate Elder,” paramour of Doc Holliday The Suspected Stage Robbers Frank Stilwell Jim Crane Billy Grounds Curly Bill Brocius Doc Holliday Zwing Hunt The “County Ring” John Behan, sheriff of Cochise County John Dunbar, stable keeper tat1e01.indd 48 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM Principal Tombstone Characters 49 Milton Joyce, saloon keeper Harry Woods, publisher, Tombstone Nugget The Townsmen George Goodfellow, surgeon Milton Joyce, saloon keeper William M. “Billy” Breakenridge, deputy sheriff George Parsons, gentleman miner and diarist Endicott Peabody, minister The Coroner and Judges Henry Matthews, coroner Wells Spicer, lawyer, justice of the peace William Stillwell (no apparent relation to Frank), associate judge for Arizona J. H. Lucas, probate judge Law Enforcement Fred White, first Tombstone city marshal Ben Sippy, second Tombstone city marshal Virgil Earp, third Tombstone city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal John Behan, first Cochise County sheriff William M. “Billy” Breakenridge, deputy sheriff Frank Stilwell, deputy sheriff, suspected stage robber Crawley P. Dake, Arizona federal marshal Bob Paul, Pima County sheriff Jerome L. Ward, second Cochise County sheriff The Lawyers Lyttleton Price, prosecutor Ben Goodrich, prosecutor Will McLaury, prosecutor Thomas Fitch, Earp lawyer T. J. Drum, Holliday lawyer tat1e01.indd 49 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM 50 ARIZONA GUNFIGHTERS Coroner’s Inquest Witnesses John Behan R. F. Coleman Martha King P. H. Fellehy Preliminary Hearing Witnesses Henry Matthews, coroner Billy Allen Martha King Wes Fuller Wyatt Earp Virgil Earp H. F. Sills Addie Boland J. H. Lucas The Vendetta Riders Morgan, Warren, and Wyatt Earp Doc Holliday Sherman McMasters Charlie Smith Dan Tipton Turkey Creek Jack Johnson Texas Jack Vermillion The Vendetta Victims Frank Stilwell Florentino “Indian Charlie” Cruz Curly Bill Brocius (?) tat1e01.indd 50 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM CHAPTER ONE Pasteboard and Ivory History is an argument without end. —Pieter Geyl, in Napoleon: For and Against (1949) The Tombstone city marshal and his vagabond posse strode down Fremont Street, pausing just long enough for a few words with Sheriff Johnny Behan before brushing past him. They were dressed for town but loaded for bear. Thus began the famous march towards destiny. Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan and Doc walked slowly down Fremont Street toward the confrontation that would become known as the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Virgil carried a walking stick in his right hand and a six-gun in his waistband. Wyatt and Morgan were carrying pistols, and Doc was concealing the Wells Fargo shotgun under his undercoat. As they came within ten feet of the Clantons and McLaurys, Virgil called out, “Boys, throw up your hands, I want your guns.” Then something went terribly wrong. Someone fired a shot, and as Ike Clanton put it, “the ball opened.” Within thirty seconds, six men had been shot. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were dead or dying; Virgil and Morgan Earp were seriously wounded, and Doc Holliday was slightly hurt. Wyatt was unscathed. So was Ike, the instigator of it all, who had run away when the shooting began.1 Forty-seven years later, an old man rested in a small, 51 tat1e01.indd 51 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM 52 ARIZONA GUNFIGHTERS nondescript Los Angeles tourist cottage, attended by his wife, a kitten, and a doctor. Wyatt Stapp Earp died early on the morning of a bright mid-January day. His last words raised more questions than answers. “Supposing—supposing—” he had said to no one in particular before falling back on a pillow with an exasperated “Oh well.”2 We can easily suppose what might have happened to that wide spot in the road called Tombstone, Arizona, were it not for Wyatt Earp and a long-ago gunfight whose details and aftermath are vigorously argued by knowledgeable historians to this day. Tombstone—the O.K. Corral—a place and time many only slightly familiar with the American West think they know all about. And yet, there are still many questions. Who started the fight? Did the McLaurys or Clantons try to surrender? Did the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday get away with murder? Why were all these people in the middle of the desert anyway? One word answers the last question: silver. An early Tombstonian could see the source of most money in the town by looking towards the surrounding hills from Fifth and Toughnut. The Grand Central and Contention Mines, as well as the Toughnut Mine, near the Tombstone water tank, could be seen in the distance, as could the West Side Mine and the Lucky Cuss. The early life of Tombstone, the most famous place in the American West, was not much different than that of an earlier boomtown called Gila City nearby. Men “hurried to the spot with barrels of whiskey and billiard tables. Traders crowded in with wagonloads of pork and beans; and gamblers came with cards and Monte tables.”3 In 1861, just months after its first residents arrived, Gila City had everything but a church and jail. Three years later, a traveler reported, all that was left of that boomtown was “three chimneys and a coyote.” The silver strikes that began in 1878 assured that tat1e01.indd 52 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM Pasteboard and Ivory 53 Tombstone would be more, much more than that. And where there were miners, there were gamblers. Among the early Tombstone gambling men were Luke Short and Charlie Storms from Texas, Lou Rickabaugh and Ed Clark from Colorado, and many lesser lights. Deputy Sheriff William Breakenridge considered Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, and Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan, and Warren Earp “from Kansas and Oklahoma” to be among the most conspicuous gamblers.4 Attorney Wells Spicer observed in February 1880 that the town boasted “two dance houses, a dozen gambling places, over twenty saloons and more than five hundred gamblers. Still, there is hope, for I know of two bibles in town.”5 The Crystal Palace and Oriental Saloon sat astride the corner of Fifth and Allen. The Palace was anything but, merely a narrow, false-fronted structure with scarcely a window. The next year the Crystal Palace became the Golden Eagle Brewery, often just called the Eagle. A second story was added to house the offices of Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp and Dr. George Goodfellow, a man destined to become a prominent West Coast surgeon. The proprietors were the Tribolet brothers of Switzerland. Godfrey Tribolet came to Tombstone with nothing, accumulated enough money to start a new business, and then sent for his brothers, with whom he built a fortune in booze and beef. The brothers became politically prominent and were even involved in futile peace negotiations between the Apache chief Geronimo and Gen. George Crook.6 The Oriental Saloon was started by Milton Joyce and William Crownover Parker, the son of a prominent Oakland, California, family. The Oriental opened on Thursday, July 22, 1880, and was described at the time as the “finest one in town.”7 The place was run by Lou Rickabaugh, who eventually hired Wyatt Earp to keep order. The faro dealers at the Oriental would eventually include Morgan Earp, Luke Short, and Buckskin Frank Leslie.8 tat1e01.indd 53 1/2/2015 3:26:07 PM 54 ARIZONA GUNFIGHTERS Of course, Tombstone was not inhabited exclusively by gamblers. Mining engineer and Yale graduate John Jay Hammonds, a nephew of legendary Texas Ranger John Coffee Hays, was among the early visitors. Noted surgeon John Goodfellow practiced in the early camp, as did Kentuckian Mark Smith, a lawyer who eventually became the first senator from Arizona. Wyatt Earp claimed many years later that the law enforcement environment in early Tombstone “was not half as bad as Los Angeles” in 1926.9 Through the early boom years, Tombstone even boasted of appearances by such stage stars as the father of playwright Eugene O’Neill, James O’Neill, who had the misfortune of catching “silver fever” during his visit. One historian noted that James O’Neill proved an easy mark in 1880 when he fell into the clutches of a swindler named George M. Ciprico. Himself a sometime amateur actor, Ciprico in 1879 salted a claim in Tombstone known as the Cumberland Mine; then as was the custom, he issued a handsome prospectus offering shares for sale.