Tombstone -The Town Too Tough to Die · Deuce,so named because he al- ... than this slender, blond,...
1
Tombstone Big Ed Schielfelin. the prospector who discovered rich silver deposits in Arizona and who is given credit for founding the to~ of Tombstone. November 14, 1937 -"The Town Too Tough to Die" (N. H. Rose photo.) Nellie Cashman. boarding house keeper and ••cam p angel" of ••hell roarin'" Tombstone. Where Gunmen Played a Game with Death Sixty years ago men, carrying little more than unvarnished courage and well oiled guns, were beating their way through the western bad lands towa,.rda clump of desolate hills in south eastern Arizona, just a shake north of the Mexican border. The lure was silver. By FRANK CIPRIANI Tombstone, Ariz. B ACKin 1877 big Ed Schief· felin never dreamed of f 0 undin g "The Town That's Too Tough to Die." He was too busy prospecting for rich ores, and' dodging the bad men and worse Indians who in- fested the southwest. This was indeed risky business, and more than once he was warned that he probably would find his tomb- stone-meaning he'd be killed- instead of finding gold or silyer. But Schieffelin stubbornly went ahead. He found silver. And he founded Tombstone. A mining camp town mush- roomed over night on his silver discovery, and to him came the honor of selecting the town's name. He chose Tombstone, this macabre name having lingered in his mind from frequent warn- ings. Tombstone the town be- came, and Tombstone's the town that boasts today that it's too tough to die. You'll find it in southeastern Arizona, in a lazy setting of pur- ple hills, cactus, and mesquite, quite as drab as its surround- ings. Just 60 years old, it is not old as conventional towns go, but very old, almost patriarchal, as mining camps go. Much of the original 'I'omb- stone still stands, but the dash is gone. Ramshackle wooden buildings that once dazzled white under the desert sun now reflect dully the gray of age, and many of them, like tottering old men, lean gratefully for support against sturdier neighbors. The Tombstone that once had an en- ergetic population of nearly 15,000, against Tucson's 7,000 and Phoenix's 1,800, now mus- tel'S fewer than 1,000, while Tucson brags of 33,000 and Phoe- nix of 50,000. • • • Tombstone has experienced its seven ages of man. By all the rules of rise and decline of other western mining communities, it should now be buried in its own Boothill graveyard. But Tomb- stone carries on. It was made by the fortune seekers and adventurers who rushed to the hills of Schieffelin, men who toted guns and knew how to use them-the Earps, the Clantons, the McLow~rys, and the types of Doc Holliday, Gen· tleman John Ringo, Curly' Bill, and Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce- The prospectors piled in from everywhere, some simple, some shrewd, all bold, but not all bad, and in their dusty wake followed the bartender, card sharp, and madame and girls of the bagnio. Surveyors hastily laid out streets, and on them contractors speedily built rows of plain, low roofed frame structures from which protruded wooden awn- ings to shade the sidewalks. Allen street became the main thoroughfare, with rivals in Tough Nut and Fremont streets. Money came easily; it went more easily. A quarter was the smallest coin used. Liquor cost $1 to $5 a drink. Men lost $100 to $1,000 a sitting at the gam- bling tables. Where men live dangerously for high stakes, as they did in Tombstone, courage and the gun frequently rule. Men held life cheaply and sometimes killed on slight provocation. Dick Lloyd, a cowboy on a drunken spree, yelling "Whoo- pee," rode his horse into O'Neil's saloon near town, right into the midst of a hot poker game. The players, annoyed over the Inter- ruption, shot him off his horse, sent for the coroner, and reo sumed their poker game. • • • Stuttering Jerry Barton, a go- rflla-strong saloonkeeper and constable of nearby Charleston, killed men with his fists and sometimes used the gun, but he never "c-e-o-countedM·M-M·Mex- icans " in the notches on his gun- handle. William (Kid) Clay- .bourn, a tough cowboy, killed casually here and there, but fell under the gun of the quicker shooting Buckskin Frank Leslie, a good rider, a good shooter, a good scout, and a good bar- ten del'. Johnny- Behind· the- Deuce, so named because he al- ways played the deuce on the faro layout, shot and killed Henry Schneider, a mining en- gineer, because Schneider would not say hello to him. Tolerant of private shooting scrapes and even feuds, Tomb- stone's citizens whitened with fury at burglary, street and stage coach robberies, and mur- del' for profit. Punishment was (N. H. Rose photo.) John Holliday. a dentist who gave up the business of filling teeth with gold for that of filling men with lead. Graves in Boothill cemetery oi the five first men to be hcrnged legally in the town ofTomb.tone. That was S3years ago. a. the marker reveal •. (N. H. Rose photo.) Wyatt Earp, once Tombston.'s No. 1 manipulator of the hand gun, a. he appeared eleven year. ago. Modem Tombstone. the" town that's too tough to die," Today it has fewer than 1,000inhabitants: once i(had n.arly IS.DDD. (AsllOc:iated Preas photo.) law and order man. Behind him not long afterward came his brothers, Virgil, Morgan, James, and Warren Earp, and also one John Holliday. Holliday was a dentist who had given up the business of filling teeth with gold for that of filling men with lead. No deadlier shot, no more merciless killer ever stomped the plains and mesas of the west than this slender, blond, and gray eyed fighting man from Georgia. H 0 II ida y became Wyatt Earp's right hand gun- man. .Wyatt Earp came to Tomb- stone at a time when outlaws were robbing the stages on the Benson and Bisbee roads. He promptly offered his services as a messenger to the Wells-Fargo express. For seven months he rode the Tombstone-Benson stages, a loaded shotgun on his After their fight with the Earps. Left to right. in their caskets. Tom and Frank McLowery and Billy Clanton. (N. H. Rose photo.) swift, the justice of vigilance committees. There was the time a gang of men robbed a company store in Bisbee and killed J. C. Tap- pinier, the assayer. Posses from Tombstone and Bisbee speedily rounded up the gang, Frank Heath, Dan Dowd, C. W. (Red) Sample, Tex Howard, Bill De Laney, and York (Dan) Kelly. A Tombstone jury tried Heath first and found him guilty of second degree murder. A mob promptly seized Heath, hanged him to a pole, and announced they'd do the same to the next jury that returned such a vel" diet. One can guess the verdict of the subsequent jury that tried Dowd, Sample, Howard, De Laney, and Kelly. The five were hanged-the first men to be hanged legally in Tombstone. Tombstone soon developed into a hell roaring town, and in this hell roaring town in the win tel' of 1879 arrived Wyatt Earp, native of Mon- mouth, Ill., a fast thinking and faster shooting frontiersman. Earp wore the badge of a dep- uty United States marshal-a knees. For seven months there were no stage coach holdups. Earp won quick recognition as a handy man to have around in case of disturbance, and bust- nesses requiring protection bid for his special talents. He ac- cepted the offer of a partnership in the Oriental saloon (still standing), which at the moment was being threatened with vio- lence by a gang of gunmen. As his first act in the partnership Earp nonchalantly sent word to the gunmen that" if you're look- ing for trouble come on over. I aim to please." They never came. Earp probably never demon. strated more majestic nerve than the time that Johnny. Behind·the-Deuce wantonly rnur- dered Engineer Schneider. John. ny's real name was O'Rourke. He was a wizened runt, big eared and big nosed. A lynching party started out to make amends, and Constable George McKelvey, who had arrested O'Rourke, spirited him on a fast horse into Tombstone just ahead of the mob. Earp, as a law of. ficer, was called upon to protect him. Earp shoved O'Rourke into the bowling alley in Allen street, stationed Doc Holliday and Vir- gil Earp, who was town mar- shal, on guard, and then waited . in the street for the mob. All Wyatt Earp had was a double barreled shotgun in the crotch of his arm. The mob-nearly 500 fanatical men-rushed up; Earp stopped them with a sharp gesture. "We want Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce," they snarled. "You can't have him; he's my prisoner," thun- dered Earp. The lynching lead- ers threatened Earp. Then some one shouted, "Go ahead, he's only bluffing." At this Earp raised his shotgun and swept the front ranks. "Come on, then," he challenged grimly. " Let's see you get him. You can kill me, all right, but I'll blow the bellies out of you in front, and take a few of you to hell with me." This was no bluff. The mob broke. The life of Johnny- Behind-the-Deuce was saved. •• • Earp cherished great hopes of being sherif of the newly cre- ated Cochise county, a job, with various legal emoluments, worth $40,000 a year, but the plum went to John H. Behan, a man who did not lack courage, but who knew the political rather than the gunshooting end of the business. One of his notable acts was his appointment as deputy of William M. (Billy) Breakenridge, a fearless law en- forcer. Behan's appointment an- gered Earp. The two became bit- tel' rivals as servants of law and order-one the sherif, the other deputy marshal. This was at a time when the Clantons-Old Man Clanton and his sons, Finn, Ike, and Billy- and Frank and Tom McLowery were in the full flush of out- lawry. The Clantons operated a ranch on the San Pedro river, a few miles above Charleston, and the McLowerys ran another in SUlphur Spring valley, 25 miles southeast. Cattle thieves ran wild those days, and one group made regu- lar forays into nearby Mexico. This group acknowledged alle- giance to John Ringo, a gam- bler, a knight errant to women, and to William Brocius, better known as Curly Bill, who rated tops in cattle rustling. This was the outfit that Walter Noble Burns in his "Tombstone" de- scribes as one of the most strongly entrenched outlaw kingdoms in the west. The Clan- tons and McLowerys in particu- lar protected the Ringo-Curly Bill rustling interests, and they gave refuge to sundry f\lgitive desperadoes. There could be no bond be- tween the Earps, who ostensibly were law and order men; Wyatt, deputy marshal; Virgil, town marshal, and Morgan, town po- liceman, and the Clantons and McLowerys, who were not. Wyatt regarded Ike Clanton as a " sort of chief among the out- laws" and all the Clantons and McLowerys as cattle thieves. It was natural that bad blood should develop between such contrasting men, but the definite origins were plural rather than singular. Among them the fact that Billy Clanton stole Wyatt Earp's favorite horse; the fact. that the Clantons and Mel.ow- erys supported Johnny Behan instead of Wyatt Earp for sherif. Two events of similar design hastened a showdown. In March, 1881, between Tombstone and Benson, three road agents held up the Benson stage and killed Bud Philpot, the driver, and Peter Roerig, a passenger. The Earps and Doc Holliday pursued the gunmen, who escaped, only to die of bullets later anyway. The trio were Jim Crane, Bill Leonard, and Harry Head. Here was the feudal poison in this case. The Earps insinuated the murderers were Clanton men, and the Clantons retaliated by openly charging that Doc Holh- day, Wyatt Earp's right hand, participated in the holdup, and was the man who actually killed Philpot. As if this were not enough to intensify the feud, another stage was held up in September, 1881, this one near Bisbee. Again the Earps and Holliday joined the pursuit, and helped to arrest the two alleged highwaymen, Frank Stilwell and Pete Spence. And here was this added poison. Stil- well and Spence were Clanton- McLowery men. •• • The arrest infuriated the Clan- tons and McLowerys, who warned Morgan Earp, "You Earps and Doc Holliday are not as big as you think you are- we'll get you yet!" Breaken- ridge recalls in his memoirs that "Virgil Earp told me that the McLowerys threatened to kill every one who had a hand in ar- resting Stilwell and Spence." (N. H. Rose photo.) William M. (Billy) Breakenridge. a fearless law and order man who became deputy sherif. (N. H. Rose photo.) Jolut H. Behan. who got the lob of .hem ofCochi.e county. a $4D.DDD.a- year plum that Wyatt Earp want.d. Story of the Earps and Their Enemies All Tombstone knew that a showdown was due. On the night of Oct. 25, 1881, Ike Clanton and Tom McLowery drove into Tombstone in a light wagon. Doc Holliday, enraged over the outlaws' insinuations that he knew something about the Benson stage murders, cqr- nered Clanton, daring him to fight. "You've been threatening to kill me," he shouted. "We're man to man now-get out your gun and fight." It happened that Clanton car- ried no arms at the moment. The Earp boys appeared at this juncture, quieted Holliday, and sent Clanton away. But later Clanton warned Wyatt Earp that" no man can abuse me like Doc Holliday did and get away with it. I'll kill him, and I'll settle with all you fellows to- morrow." Wyatt Earp considered Ike Clanton's explosive 0 rator y merely drunken chatter, but changed his mind the next day when friends sent him fearful warnings that "Ike Clanton's on the warpath." The same news was carried to Wyatt's brothers, Virgil and Morgan, and to Doc Holliday. Of ominous import also was the information that reo enforcements in the persons of Billy Clanton and Frank Me- Lowery had come into town. All were armed, Wyatt was told, and all were raging to settle the long standing feud. Sherif Behan heard the rum- blings. He rushed over to the Clantons and McLowerys to dis- arm them. He found them near the O. K. corral in Fremont street, near Fourth. "Boys, I will have to disarm you to pre- serve the peace," Behan said. Ike Clanton showed that he had no guns, and Tom McLowery turned out to be as defenseless. The only ones carrying guns were Billy Clanton and Frank McLowery. They had four. They refused to disarm. Sherif Behan was still plead- ing with them to surrender their arms when he saw four men turn the corner at Fourth street. They were Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday. He ran out to head them off. "Go no further, men," he said to them stridently. "I want no trouble." The three Earps and Holliday brushed past him. A hush came over the street as these four men advanced. Storekeepers backed deep behind their coun- tel's. Death was in the air. The Clantons and McLowerys stood their ground. Now 100 feet separated them, now 50, now 25, now 10-- Out came the Earp and Holll- day guns. "You've been looking for a fight and now you can have it," cried Wyatt. "Throw up your hands! " ordered Virgil. "Don't shoot, I don't want to fight," pleaded Billy Clanton. Firing began at once. Ike Clanton and Tom McLowery bellowed they had no guns-a condition their foemen did not know. The Earps and Doc Hol- liday coolly and murderously kept on dealing hot lead. Ike Clanton fled. Tom McLowery retreated. Billy Clanton, only a boy, but a brave one, and Frank McLowery would not yield. • • • :Silly fired at Wyatt as Wyatt shot Frank McLowery and Mol" gan Earp blazed away at Billy. Doc Holliday, in a split second survey of the action, lifted Tom McLowery, unarmed off the ground with a' double blast from his shotgun as McLowery reached for one of Frank Mc. Lowery's extra guns. Billy Clan- ton, on the ground from Mol" gan Earp's bullets, continued the uneven battle. He drilled Virgil Earp through the leg and Morgan Earp through the shoul- del' just as Virgil finished him with a shot in the breast. Doc Holliday and Morgan Earp turned their guns on Frank Me- Lowery a split second after Me- Lowery creased Holliday's thigh. It was all over in 30 seconds. The casualties: Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLowery dead; Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday wounded. The Earps won the battle, but at the price of their exile. They were acquitted at a preliminary hearing, but could not avoid the stigma that four of them, heav- ily armed, had attacked four others, only two of whom were armed. Public sentiment reo coiled against them. They were not, helped by open charges in court-only by Ike Clanton's, it's true-that they had ar- ranged or actively aided in sev- eral bold stage robberies while posing as law and order men. The Earps read the signs. They saw thelr reign of power ending. They prepared to de- part, but for once challenged the fates too often. Assassins wounded Virgil and murdered Morgan. Wyatt Earp and Holli- day tarried long enough to set- tIe Morgan's score by slaying his killer, Frank Stilwell, the stage robber whom they had ar- rested some months before. In the spring of 1882 Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and a handful of followers rode slowly out of Tombstone, watched by hundreds of unfriendly eyes. In the crowd that saw them off stood Sherif Behan. In his hand he held two warants charging Earp and Holliday with the Stil- well murder. But he never served them. Tombstone a. it appeared in 1880.the year after Wyatt Earp arrived in town. (N. H. Rose pboto.)
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Transcript of Tombstone -The Town Too Tough to Die · Deuce,so named because he al- ... than this slender, blond,...
Tombstone
Big Ed Schielfelin. the prospectorwho discovered rich silver depositsin Arizona and who is given creditfor founding the to~ of Tombstone.
November 14, 1937
-"The Town Too Tough to Die"
(N. H. Rose photo.)
Nellie Cashman. boarding housekeeper and ••cam p angel" of
••hell roarin'" Tombstone.
Where Gunmen Played aGame with Death
Sixty years ago men, carryinglittle more than unvarnishedcourage and well oiled guns,were beating their way throughthe western bad lands towa,.rdaclump of desolate hills in south·eastern Arizona, just a shakenorth of the Mexican border.The lure was silver.
By FRANK CIPRIANITombstone, Ariz.
BACKin 1877 big Ed Schief·felin never dreamed off 0 u n din g "The Town
That's Too Tough to Die." Hewas too busy prospecting forrich ores, and' dodging the badmen and worse Indians who in-fested the southwest. This wasindeed risky business, and morethan once he was warned that heprobably would find his tomb-stone-meaning he'd be killed-instead of finding gold or silyer.But Schieffelin stubbornly
went ahead. He found silver.And he founded Tombstone.A mining camp town mush-
roomed over night on his silverdiscovery, and to him came thehonor of selecting the town'sname. He chose Tombstone, thismacabre name having lingeredin his mind from frequent warn-ings. Tombstone the town be-came, and Tombstone's the townthat boasts today that it's tootough to die.You'll find it in southeastern
Arizona, in a lazy setting of pur-ple hills, cactus, and mesquite,quite as drab as its surround-ings. Just 60 years old, it is notold as conventional towns go,but very old, almost patriarchal,as mining camps go.Much of the original 'I'omb-
stone still stands, but the dashis gone. Ramshackle woodenbuildings that once dazzledwhite under the desert sun nowreflect dully the gray of age, andmany of them, like tottering oldmen, lean gratefully for supportagainst sturdier neighbors. TheTombstone that once had an en-ergetic population of nearly15,000, against Tucson's 7,000and Phoenix's 1,800, now mus-tel'S fewer than 1,000, whileTucson brags of 33,000 and Phoe-nix of 50,000.
• • •Tombstone has experienced its
seven ages of man. By all therules of rise and decline of otherwestern mining communities, itshould now be buried in its ownBoothill graveyard. But Tomb-stone carries on.It was made by the fortune
seekers and adventurers whorushed to the hills of Schieffelin,men who toted guns and knewhow to use them-the Earps, theClan tons, the McLow~rys, andthe types of Doc Holliday, Gen·tleman John Ringo, Curly' Bill,and Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce-The prospectors piled in from
everywhere, some simple, someshrewd, all bold, but not all bad,and in their dusty wake followedthe bartender, card sharp, andmadame and girls of the bagnio.Surveyors hastily laid outstreets, and on them contractorsspeedily built rows of plain, lowroofed frame structures fromwhich protruded wooden awn-ings to shade the sidewalks.Allen street became the mainthoroughfare, with rivals inTough Nut and Fremont streets.Money came easily; it wentmore easily. A quarter was thesmallest coin used. Liquor cost$1 to $5 a drink. Men lost $100to $1,000 a sitting at the gam-bling tables.
Where men live dangerouslyfor high stakes, as they did inTombstone, courage and the gunfrequently rule. Men held lifecheaply and sometimes killed onslight provocation.Dick Lloyd, a cowboy on a
drunken spree, yelling "Whoo-pee," rode his horse into O'Neil'ssaloon near town, right into themidst of a hot poker game. Theplayers, annoyed over the Inter-ruption, shot him off his horse,sent for the coroner, and reosumed their poker game.
• • •Stuttering Jerry Barton, a go-
rflla-strong saloonkeeper andconstable of nearby Charleston,killed men with his fists andsometimes used the gun, but henever "c-e-o-countedM·M-M·Mex-icans " in the notches on his gun-handle. William (Kid) Clay-.bourn, a tough cowboy, killedcasually here and there, but fellunder the gun of the quickershooting Buckskin Frank Leslie,a good rider, a good shooter, agood scout, and a good bar-ten del'. Johnny- Behind· the-Deuce, so named because he al-ways played the deuce on thefaro layout, shot and killedHenry Schneider, a mining en-gineer, because Schneider wouldnot say hello to him.Tolerant of private shooting
scrapes and even feuds, Tomb-stone's citizens whitened withfury at burglary, street andstage coach robberies, and mur-del' for profit. Punishment was
(N. H. Rose photo.)
John Holliday. a dentist who gaveup the business of filling teeth withgold for that of fillingmen with lead.
Graves in Boothill cemetery oi thefive first men to be hcrnged legallyin the town of Tomb.tone. That wasS3years ago. a. the marker reveal •.
(N. H. Rose photo.)
Wyatt Earp, once Tombston.'s No.1 manipulator of the hand gun, a.he appeared eleven year. ago.
Modem Tombstone. the" town that's too tough to die," Today it has fewer than 1,000inhabitants: once i(hadn.arly IS.DDD. (AsllOc:iated Preas photo.)
law and order man. Behind himnot long afterward came hisbrothers, Virgil, Morgan, James,and Warren Earp, and also oneJohn Holliday. Holliday was adentist who had given up thebusiness of filling teeth withgold for that of filling men withlead. No deadlier shot, no moremerciless killer ever stompedthe plains and mesas of the westthan this slender, blond, andgray eyed fighting man fromGeorgia. H 0 II ida y becameWyatt Earp's right hand gun-man..Wyatt Earp came to Tomb-stone at a time when outlawswere robbing the stages on theBenson and Bisbee roads. Hepromptly offered his services asa messenger to the Wells-Fargoexpress. For seven months herode the Tombstone-Bensonstages, a loaded shotgun on his
After their fight with the Earps. Left to right. in their caskets. Tom andFrank McLowery and Billy Clanton. (N. H. Rose photo.)
swift, the justice of vigilancecommittees.There was the time a gang of
men robbed a company store inBisbee and killed J. C. Tap-pinier, the assayer. Posses fromTombstone and Bisbee speedilyrounded up the gang, FrankHeath, Dan Dowd, C. W. (Red)Sample, Tex Howard, Bill DeLaney, and York (Dan) Kelly.A Tombstone jury tried Heathfirst and found him guilty ofsecond degree murder. A mobpromptly seized Heath, hangedhim to a pole, and announcedthey'd do the same to the nextjury that returned such a vel"diet. One can guess the verdictof the subsequent jury that triedDowd, Sample, Howard, DeLaney, and Kelly. The five werehanged-the first men to behanged legally in Tombstone.Tombstone soon developed
into a hell roaring town, andin this hell roaring town inthe win tel' of 1879 arrivedWyatt Earp, native of Mon-mouth, Ill., a fast thinking andfaster shooting frontiersman.Earp wore the badge of a dep-
uty United States marshal-a
knees. For seven months therewere no stage coach holdups.Earp won quick recognition as
a handy man to have around incase of disturbance, and bust-nesses requiring protection bidfor his special talents. He ac-cepted the offer of a partnershipin the Oriental saloon (stillstanding), which at the momentwas being threatened with vio-lence by a gang of gunmen. Ashis first act in the partnershipEarp nonchalantly sent word tothe gunmen that" if you're look-ing for trouble come on over. Iaim to please." They nevercame.Earp probably never demon.
strated more majestic nervethan the time that Johnny.Behind·the-Deuce wantonly rnur-dered Engineer Schneider. John.ny's real name was O'Rourke.He was a wizened runt, bigeared and big nosed. A lynchingparty started out to makeamends, and Constable GeorgeMcKelvey, who had arrestedO'Rourke, spirited him on a fasthorse into Tombstone just aheadof the mob. Earp, as a law of.ficer, was called upon to protect
him. Earp shoved O'Rourke intothe bowling alley in Allen street,stationed Doc Holliday and Vir-gil Earp, who was town mar-shal, on guard, and then waited. in the street for the mob.
All Wyatt Earp had was adouble barreled shotgun in thecrotch of his arm.The mob-nearly 500 fanatical
men-rushed up; Earp stoppedthem with a sharp gesture. "Wewant Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce,"they snarled. "You can't havehim; he's my prisoner," thun-dered Earp. The lynching lead-ers threatened Earp. Then someone shouted, "Go ahead, he'sonly bluffing." At this Earpraised his shotgun and swept thefront ranks. "Come on, then,"he challenged grimly. " Let's seeyou get him. You can kill me,all right, but I'll blow the belliesout of you in front, and take afew of you to hell with me."This was no bluff. The mob
broke. The life of Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce was saved.
• • •Earp cherished great hopes of
being sherif of the newly cre-ated Cochise county, a job, withvarious legal emoluments, worth$40,000 a year, but the plumwent to John H. Behan, a manwho did not lack courage, butwho knew the political ratherthan the gunshooting end of thebusiness. One of his notableacts was his appointment asdeputy of William M. (Billy)Breakenridge, a fearless law en-forcer. Behan's appointment an-gered Earp. The two became bit-tel' rivals as servants of law andorder-one the sherif, the otherdeputy marshal.This was at a time when the
Clan tons-Old Man Clanton andhis sons, Finn, Ike, and Billy-and Frank and Tom McLowerywere in the full flush of out-lawry. The Clantons operated aranch on the San Pedro river, afew miles above Charleston, andthe McLowerys ran another inSUlphur Spring valley, 25 milessoutheast.Cattle thieves ran wild those
days, and one group made regu-lar forays into nearby Mexico.This group acknowledged alle-giance to John Ringo, a gam-bler, a knight errant to women,and to William Brocius, betterknown as Curly Bill, who ratedtops in cattle rustling. This wasthe outfit that Walter NobleBurns in his "Tombstone" de-scribes as one of the moststrongly entrenched outlawkingdoms in the west. The Clan-tons and McLowerys in particu-lar protected the Ringo-CurlyBill rustling interests, and theygave refuge to sundry f\lgitivedesperadoes.There could be no bond be-
tween the Earps, who ostensiblywere law and order men; Wyatt,deputy marshal; Virgil, town
marshal, and Morgan, town po-liceman, and the Clantons andMcLowerys, who were not.Wyatt regarded Ike Clanton asa " sort of chief among the out-laws" and all the Clantons andMcLowerys as cattle thieves.It was natural that bad blood
should develop between suchcontrasting men, but the definiteorigins were plural rather thansingular. Among them the factthat Billy Clanton stole WyattEarp's favorite horse; the fact.that the Clantons and Mel.ow-erys supported Johnny Behaninstead of Wyatt Earp for sherif.Two events of similar design
hastened a showdown. In March,1881, between Tombstone andBenson, three road agents heldup the Benson stage and killedBud Philpot, the driver, andPeter Roerig, a passenger. TheEarps and Doc Holliday pursuedthe gunmen, who escaped, onlyto die of bullets later anyway.The trio were Jim Crane, BillLeonard, and Harry Head. Herewas the feudal poison in thiscase. The Earps insinuated themurderers were Clanton men,and the Clantons retaliated byopenly charging that Doc Holh-day, Wyatt Earp's right hand,participated in the holdup, andwas the man who actually killedPhilpot.As if this were not enough to
intensify the feud, another stagewas held up in September, 1881,this one near Bisbee. Again theEarps and Holliday joined thepursuit, and helped to arrest thetwo alleged highwaymen, FrankStilwell and Pete Spence. Andhere was this added poison. Stil-well and Spence were Clanton-McLowery men.
•• •The arrest infuriated the Clan-
tons and McLowerys, whowarned Morgan Earp, "YouEarps and Doc Holliday are notas big as you think you are-we'll get you yet!" Breaken-ridge recalls in his memoirs that"Virgil Earp told me that theMcLowerys threatened to killevery one who had a hand in ar-resting Stilwell and Spence."
(N. H. Rose photo.)
William M. (Billy) Breakenridge.a fearless law and order man who
became deputy sherif.
(N. H. Rose photo.)
Jolut H. Behan. who got the lob of.hem of Cochi.e county. a $4D.DDD.a-year plum that Wyatt Earp want.d.
Story of the Earps andTheir Enemies
All Tombstone knew that ashowdown was due.On the night of Oct. 25, 1881,
Ike Clanton and Tom McLowerydrove into Tombstone in a lightwagon. Doc Holliday, enragedover the outlaws' insinuationsthat he knew something aboutthe Benson stage murders, cqr-nered Clanton, daring him tofight. "You've been threateningto kill me," he shouted. "We'reman to man now-get out yourgun and fight."It happened that Clanton car-
ried no arms at the moment.The Earp boys appeared at thisjuncture, quieted Holliday, andsent Clanton away. But laterClanton warned Wyatt Earpthat" no man can abuse me likeDoc Holliday did and get awaywith it. I'll kill him, and I'llsettle with all you fellows to-morrow."Wyatt Earp considered Ike
Clanton's explosive 0 r a tor ymerely drunken chatter, butchanged his mind the next daywhen friends sent him fearfulwarnings that "Ike Clanton'son the warpath." The same newswas carried to Wyatt's brothers,Virgil and Morgan, and to DocHolliday. Of ominous importalso was the information that reoenforcements in the persons ofBilly Clanton and Frank Me-Lowery had come into town. Allwere armed, Wyatt was told,and all were raging to settle thelong standing feud.Sherif Behan heard the rum-
blings. He rushed over to theClantons and McLowerys to dis-arm them. He found them nearthe O. K. corral in Fremontstreet, near Fourth. "Boys, Iwill have to disarm you to pre-serve the peace," Behan said.Ike Clanton showed that he hadno guns, and Tom McLoweryturned out to be as defenseless.The only ones carrying guns
were Billy Clanton and FrankMcLowery. They had four. Theyrefused to disarm.Sherif Behan was still plead-
ing with them to surrender theirarms when he saw four menturn the corner at Fourth street.They were Wyatt, Virgil andMorgan Earp and Doc Holliday.He ran out to head them off."Go no further, men," he said
to them stridently. "I want notrouble."The three Earps and Holliday
brushed past him. A hush cameover the street as these fourmen advanced. Storekeepersbacked deep behind their coun-tel's. Death was in the air.The Clan tons and McLowerys
stood their ground. Now 100feet separated them, now 50,now 25, now 10--Out came the Earp and Holll-
day guns. "You've been lookingfor a fight and now you can
have it," cried Wyatt. "Throwup your hands! " ordered Virgil."Don't shoot, I don't want tofight," pleaded Billy Clanton.Firing began at once. Ike
Clanton and Tom McLowerybellowed they had no guns-acondition their foemen did notknow. The Earps and Doc Hol-liday coolly and murderouslykept on dealing hot lead. IkeClanton fled. Tom McLoweryretreated. Billy Clanton, only aboy, but a brave one, and FrankMcLowery would not yield.
• • •:Silly fired at Wyatt as Wyatt
shot Frank McLowery and Mol"gan Earp blazed away at Billy.Doc Holliday, in a split secondsurvey of the action, lifted TomMcLowery, unarmed off theground with a' double blast fromhis shotgun as McLoweryreached for one of Frank Mc.Lowery's extra guns. Billy Clan-ton, on the ground from Mol"gan Earp's bullets, continuedthe uneven battle. He drilledVirgil Earp through the leg andMorgan Earp through the shoul-del' just as Virgil finished himwith a shot in the breast. DocHolliday and Morgan Earpturned their guns on Frank Me-Lowery a split second after Me-Lowery creased Holliday's thigh.It was all over in 30 seconds.
The casualties: Billy Clantonand Tom and Frank McLowerydead; Virgil and Morgan Earpand Doc Holliday wounded.The Earps won the battle, but
at the price of their exile. Theywere acquitted at a preliminaryhearing, but could not avoid thestigma that four of them, heav-ily armed, had attacked fourothers, only two of whom werearmed. Public sentiment reocoiled against them. They werenot, helped by open charges incourt-only by Ike Clanton's,it's true-that they had ar-ranged or actively aided in sev-eral bold stage robberies whileposing as law and order men.The Earps read the signs.
They saw thelr reign of powerending. They prepared to de-part, but for once challengedthe fates too often. Assassinswounded Virgil and murderedMorgan. Wyatt Earp and Holli-day tarried long enough to set-tIe Morgan's score by slayinghis killer, Frank Stilwell, thestage robber whom they had ar-rested some months before.In the spring of 1882 Wyatt
Earp and Doc Holliday and ahandful of followers rode slowlyout of Tombstone, watched byhundreds of unfriendly eyes. Inthe crowd that saw them offstood Sherif Behan. In his handhe held two warants chargingEarp and Holliday with the Stil-well murder. But he neverserved them.
Tombstone a. it appeared in 1880.the year after Wyatt Earp arrived in town. (N. H. Rose pboto.)
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