Earp remained calm in the midst of chaos. Fred Dodge would write: "In all that fusillade of shots, Wyatt's voice sounded as even and quiet as it always did. "32
As the townsmen took White to the doctor, Wyatt and Morgan Earp, along with Dodge, took charge of the prisoner. Everyone acquainted with the law feared that such a deed could lead to a lynching on the streets of Tombstone. They hustled him to the small jail, where Dodge and Morgan Earp stood guard while Wyatt, Doc Holliday, Virgil, and Turkey Creek Jack Johnson checked out the town. Dodge and Morgan Earp questioned every person approaching the jail to prevent any attempt to avenge the shooting of the town's marshal.33 With the threat of a hanging in the air, Curley Bill went before justice of the peace Mike Gray and waived his examination at his lawyer's suggestion. Wyatt hurried Bill out of town and up to Tucson before the good citizens could put together a lynching party.34
Two days later Marshal Fred White, 32, died. The Epitaph estimated that a thousand people turned out for the funeral, the biggest showing ever in the new mining camp. All gambling was stopped and most stores closed on November 1, the day of the funeral.
White's death caused the town council to change the existing gun ordinance from prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons to prohibiting the carrying of deadly weapons. This new law, that only police officers could carry guns in Tombstone, became a fitting memorial to Fred White. The council also appointed Virgil Earp acting city marshal and called for a special election on November 12. Virgil lost to Ben Sippy, 311-259, and Sippy won easily in the January general election when Virgil did not run.
Wyatt Earp took Curley Bill to Tucson for the hearing, and along the way picked up an interesting story. As Wyatt told the Epitaph, the outlaw asked him where he could get a good lawyer. Earp suggested the firm of Hereford and Zabriskie, but Curley Bill said he could not because James Zabriskie had prosecuted him in El Paso, Texas, for waylaying a stage, with one man killed and another wounded.35 The citizens of Tombstone were not aware they had a man of such exploits in their midst, and it would not have been a comforting thought. Curley Bill, notorious rustler and robber, would have months of waiting in a Tucson jail cell to learn whether his life would end at the bottom of a rope.
Politics in Tombstone began to polarize in late 1880 and early '81 as the town grew rapidly. Less than two decades earlier, the Civil War had torn the fabric of the Union asunder, and many Northerners were still suspicious of Southerners, even believing another war might be needed to quiet the rebels who still insisted on following their own ways, sometimes in defiance of the government. The old animosities carried all the way to Tombstone.
"The Republican Party saved it [the nation] and must perpetuate it. It is too soon to trust it to the hands of the party seeking its destruction 17 years ago," ardent Republican George Parsons, Tombstone's intrepid diarist, wrote on September 1, 1880. "I have some fears of a Solid South from the action of that South-their words, policy, fraudulent census returns-thereby increasing their representation and general action. The old issues are not forgotten. I can now see the hollowness of Southern Chivalry. It is a name and nothing more. What other government under heaven would have granted amnesty to its traitors, given them their lands back and put them in power, and what is the result.... Perhaps the Republican Party will be called on again in an emergency."
The ranchers and cowboys of southern Arizona were mostly Democrats of Southern origin or sympathies. Many came West from Texas, looking for a new start and opportunity. The townies were mostly Republican, often from the Northeast or San Francisco, and involved in mining ventures or businesses. The townsmen charged the cowboys as the source of crime, responsible for robberies and rustling in the hinterlands. Many small ranchers blamed the town toughssome called tinhorn gamblers-for the disorder. These were the cheap schemers, loungers, and con men, many of whom fancied themselves real gamblers. Both sides had their supporters, who would pass on stories for generations. The Clanton and McLaury families were perceived by many as prominent ranchers; the Earps belonged to the town faction. This was a situation filled with lingering an imosities, with Northerners against Southerners, townies against ranchers, and Republicans against Democrats.36
Arizona had a history of Southern sympathy and had once been declared a territory of the Confederacy. Between the town's two newspapers, the Epitaph voiced the Republican view while the slightly older Nugget leaned toward the Democrats. Pima County was heavily Democratic, but many of the new miners and merchants in Tombstone voted Republican. Many Southerners held some sympathy for the displaced Texas cowboys; Northerners tended to see them as unholy scum terrorizing their towns. But business took precedence, and some of the riffraff actually contributed to commerce in their own unruly way.
"The Tombstone country is of a peculiar character, the community being unsettled and dangerous," Virgil Earp said. "Most of the business men there stay simply to make money enough to live somewhere else comfortably, and, of course, the greatest object with them is to have as much money as possible spent in the town and to get as much of it as they can, careless of the matters of dispensation or the results of rough manners. Aside from the legitimate business men, the bulk of the residents are idle or desperate characters, most of them coming into town broke and depending upon the gambling table or criminal ventures to supply them with means of livelihood and dissipation."37
A little rustled stock helped keep meat prices down, and stolen Mexican gold and silver streamed across the gambling tables and into the saloonkeepers' pockets. The cowboys were good business, even if they were bad trouble. In contrast, the mine operators wanted a safe Tombstone to attract investors, and to protect their own lives.
Almost every election in the post-Civil War era held the fervor of a religious crusade, and the first Tuesday in November of 1880 caused high fever in the West. Republican James Garfield and Democrat Winfield Hancock battled for the presidency, while Pima County's most contested race centered on Bob Paul's bid to unseat Sheriff Charlie Shibell. Garfield won the presidency by fewer than 10,000 popular votes and an edge of 59 votes in the electoral college. The race in Pima County proved even more complex. Democrat Shibell, despite appointing Wyatt Earp as his Tombstone district deputy, was perceived as more an administrator than a tough lawman and received the support of the cowboys. Oddly, outlaw John Ringo served as a delegate at the Pima County Democratic convention despite a question of his legitimacy because he had no legal residence. The Democrats chose to avoid problems and seat Ringo. In another strange note, the expected division of the county played no role in the election, and the residents of the southern portion of the county voted for candidates who would serve them for only a few weeks.
Shibell, a slight man of average height, could barely make a shadow against big Bob Paul, who earned a reputation as a tough officer, building an impressive record in California. He had often worked for Wells, Fargo. Earp sided with Paul against his boss, although he remained as Shibell's deputy sheriff. Shibell won reelection by a close margin as rumors ran through town of massive election fraud. The San Simon Cienega precinct recorded 103 votes for Shibell and one for Paul, in a district that had no more than 50 eligible voters. All but one of the 23 Democrats on the ticket received those 103 votes, including Mike Gray, while nearly all the Republican candidates polled only one vote each. The Epitaph noted: "The odd vote is said to have been cast by a Texas cowboy, who when questioned as to why he was voting the Republican ticket, said: `Well, I want to show those fellows that there wasn't any intimidation at this precinct."'38
Election officials for the district included Ike Clanton and John Ringo, two characters whose names did not exactly inspire trust. More puzzling was that the district votes were certified by a Henry Johnson, a name no one seemed to recognize. To complicate matters further, Clanton and Ringo had been appointed to oversee the San Simon results, then had their appointments revoked a few days before the election because of uncertainty whether they actually resided in Arizona Territory.
Despite being relieved of their duties, Clanton and Ringo acted as election officials.39
Paul sought a recount, and the disputed election went before the district court in Tucson. Investigation showed that "Henry Johnson" was actually James K. Johnson, who had been with Curley Bill on the night of the shooting of Marshal White and did not quite qualify as one of Arizona's leading citizens. The situation became suspicious enough that Wyatt Earp apparently intervened. Earp officially resigned as deputy sheriff of Pima County, effective November 9. He would later say that he did not think it right to work in Paul's behalf to overturn the election while serving under Shibell. The ambitious Earp had little to lose with this decision. If Tombstone remained in Pima County, Paul would certainly reappoint Earp to the deputy job; if Tombstone became the seat of a new county, Governor John C. Fremont would appoint a new sheriff and Earp would be considered a prime candidate by the Republican governor, or so he must have thought.
Wyatt's resignation also came as the Earps made their biggest financial strike in Arizona. The brothers finally started succeeding as capitalists, selling a set of lots for $6,000, of which they received $1,000 down in August. In early November, Wyatt and partner Andrew S. Neff sold the Comstock mine for $3,000, a tidy sum at a time when lawmen made about $125 a month. They also sold an option on the adjoining Grasshopper mine. The Earps seemed to be finding their bonanza in land deals. Working as deputy sheriff would only get in the way of making real money. However, Earp would say he took an active role in helping Paul win the election fraud case. Earp's exact role is unclear, but he apparently struck a deal with Curley Bill: He would tell the accurate story of the Marshal White shooting in exchange for Bill's convincing his rustler pals to tell the truth about the San Simon fraud-trading one truth for another. Election judge Ike Clanton, Shibell's key witness, avoided the problem altogether by eluding the subpeona and never testifying.40
In Tucson, the debate continued. For two months, both sides in the election fraud put together their cases before arriving in court on December 28, 1880. It quickly became clear that there had been problems on both sides. Leslie Blackburn testified that he had seen votes for Shibell that had been inaccurately tabulated for Paul. Johnny Behan supported the statement. Johnson testified that he had shown up and Clanton told him to vote and sign his name "Henry Johnson." Other witnesses showed a pattern of deception 41 The election results stank so badly that the Arizona Weekly Star remarked: "There is evidently 'something very rotten in Denmark,' or in plain language there has been some big cheating somewhere, and by some persons. The evidence is very straightforward and to the point and unless an earth, or some other kind of quake, occurs to upset the testimony given yesterday, why it looks to us like a very plain case, that out of 104 votes cast in San Simon, about 100 were fraudulent."42
The decision came January 29, when Judge C. G. W. French ruled the entire vote for Shibell at San Simon invalid and declared Paul the winner, with 1,684 legal votes to Shibell's 1,628. But Shibell's attorneys acted quickly, filing an appeal that automatically kept Shibell in office until a final decision by the territorial supreme court. Finally, on April 12, 1881, the court dismissed the appeal and Paul was named sheriff of Pima County. By then, much had changed, both in Tombstone and in the life of Bob Paul.43
WITH WYATT EARP'S RESIGNATION and return to private life in November of 1880, Shibell appointed genial Johnny Behan, already one of the best-liked men in Tombstone, as his new deputy. Through his various government jobs Behan had made many friends among the state politicos, and his contacts would serve him well through the coming months. Everybody's pal Johnny Behan began a cordial relationship with the Earps, and even sought Wyatt's political support.
Talk had grown serious of trimming the southern portion of Pima County to form a new county. The sheriff of the new county would also serve as tax collector, taking a cut of the revenue from mines and railroads. It would be a posh job with easy pickings for a big paycheck. Both Earp and Behan wanted the position, and Earp said that Behan had a deal to offer: If Earp would not seek the sheriff's job, Behan would name him undersheriff and split the lucrative taxcollecting profits. They would hire office help and deputies on salary, then share the profits. Behan could collect the taxes and Earp would serve as top enforcer, just as he had in Dodge under Larry Deger and Charlie Bassett.44 Earp said he never applied for the sheriff's job, which would be awarded by Territorial Governor John C. Fremont. Behan said that he promised Earp the job whether Earp withdrew or not, which seems either unlikely or unwise.
Earp had other business at hand. One of his horses had been stolen shortly after he arrived in Tombstone, and he often heard rumors that the mount had wound up at the Clanton ranch. One night in late December an unusual series of events set off a confrontation. According to Behan, he had to deliver a subpoena to Ike Clanton in Charleston to testify in the Paul-Shibell case. After asking Virgil Earp how to locate Clanton, Behan set off for Charleston with his deputy sheriff, Leslie Blackburn, and another man. As they were riding in the dusk, they were passed by two speeding horsemen, one of whom Behan believed to be Virgil Earp. At roughly the same time, according to Wyatt Earp, he and Doc Holliday were returning from the Huachucas, where they were checking a water rights claim, when they ran into Sherman McMasters. Earp would later say that McMasters was one of several informants the Earps had among the rustler crowd.
"He told me that if I would hurry up that I would find my horse in Charleston," Earp said. "I drove into Charleston and seen my horse going through the streets towards the corral; I put up for the night at another corral." Wyatt said he wired back to brother Jim to get the proper paperwork to reclaim the stolen horse; Warren Earp soon after left Tombstone to deliver the documents. "While I was waiting for the papers Billy Clanton found out I was in town and went and tried to take the horse out of the corral. I told him that he could not take him out, that it was my horse. After the papers came he gave the horse up without any service of papers and asked me if I had any more horses to lose. I told him I would keep them in the stable after this and give him no chance to steal them."45
Behan said he arrived in Charleston after dark and found two familiar faces: "I ... met Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday there. I think I asked them what they were doing, or what they were on. Earp told me he was down there after a horse that had been stolen from him. Nothing more was said between us, and I came back to Tombstone. I was in Tucson a few days afterwards. I was told there that I came very near getting myself into a hell of a fuss. Ike Clanton said to me there that Earp said I had sent a posse of nine men down there to arrest him and take him to Tucson. Then he told me that he had armed his crowd and was not going to stand it. "46
It would be typical of Earp to run such a bluff on Ike Clanton-to preempt the situation before it became a problem. Earp succeeded in regaining possession of his missing horse and avoided bloodshed, confrontation, or serious incident. But Ike was not forgiving. The Clantons had been shown up in their own town, and they would hold a grudge. This also proved the beginning of difficulties with the deputy sheriff. Behan apparently believed the Earps had come to warn Ike of the subpoena so Clanton could hide out and avoid testifying. Only Ike's testimony could preserve the votes of the San Simon district for Shibell, and Ike faced the choice of testifying accurately and going to jail for election fraud or lying and sending Curley Bill to the hangman. Behan apparently thought Earp had interfered with serving the subpoena and resented the intrusion. Very soon, however, they all would have something else to occupy their minds.
After having one mount stolen, Wyatt Earp hated to let anyone else ride his favorite racehorse, Dick Naylor. But on the morning of January 14, 1881, Dick Naylor needed exercise, and Virgil wanted to take him for a ride. Wyatt relented and allowed Virgil to ride off and check a mining claim called the Last Chance, about three miles south of Tombstone on the road to Charleston. Virgil rode out of town on the powerful, high-strung horse, and nearly reached the claim when he heard a commotion comi
ng up the road. He saw a buckboard racing forward, with nothing else in sight, and recognized George McKelvey, the constable of Charleston, with a young, white-faced, manacled prisoner.
"Help us," the constable yelled. "They're after him to lynch him."
Virgil Earp told the prisoner to jump behind him on the back of Dick Naylor, and they raced into town, stopping at the Wells, Fargo office where Wyatt Earp watched their arrival. Wyatt recognized the prisoner as a little tinhorn gambler called Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce, for his favorite faro bet. Johnny told Wyatt he had killed a man in self-defense, and a mob from Charleston was on the way to lynch him.
What followed would become one of the more spectacular episodes in the Earp legend, with most agreeing that Wyatt's courageous actions that day im pressed many of his townsmen. By the most plausible accounts, Wyatt took a shotgun from the Wells, Fargo office, then hustled Johnny into Vogan's bowling alley and saloon across the street, where Jim Earp tended bar. A throng of men from Charleston filled Allen Street, in front of the bowling alley, and Deputy Sheriff Behan and Marshal Sippy arrived. Wyatt ordered Virgil, Morgan, Doc Holliday, Fred Dodge, and three or four others to circle the gambler as he led a march across town to the livery stable. Wyatt, with a shotgun in hand, led the posse and rarely spoke, saying only, "Stand back there and make passage. I am going to take this man to jail in Tucson."
The mob halted their progression, and Earp looked at mine operator Dick Gird and told him to back off. Gird may have been a leader or, more likely, Earp selected him because he knew that Gird commanded much respect in town and was no troublemaker. Earp made it clear that Gird would die if the mob attacked the posse. Gird moved back. Others in the mob edged backward and off to the side to allow Wyatt's posse to pass and reach the livery stable, then take Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce to Tucson. Wyatt risked his own life to save that of a no-account tinhorn gambler. "They could have gotten me easily, but no one fired a shot," he said years later.47
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