As a deputy U.S. marshal, Virgil Earp now faced increased pressure to act against the Cow-Boys, and the businessmen of Tombstone who were feeling the economic pressure created by the Cow-Boy situation explained their concerns to the Earps, who were the most likely to act. Practically, though, J. W. Evans was the deputy U.S. marshal who had taken charge of operations against the Cow-Boys, and, for the moment, Virgil still concentrated on his duties as the marshal of Tombstone with such efficiency that the Epitaph quipped, “Cowboys don’t seem to visit our city very much. Don’t they like the climate? We feel slighted.”62
The high profile of the Cow-Boy problem did require that Virgil cooperate with Sheriff Behan in both his role as the chief of police and his role as the deputy U.S. marshal at precisely the moment the strain between the Earps and Behan was approaching the breaking point, especially in light of Clum’s renewed criticism of the sheriff’s office. On September 9, with word that Pony Deal had been arrested by Bob Paul for robbing the Globe stage in February, Virgil and Behan attempted to arrest Sherman McMaster, but McMaster managed to escape, with Virgil firing after him. Behan gave chase but soon lost the trail.63 It was later reported that McMaster and John Ringo stole two horses at the Contention mine. Ringo, who had also been in Tombstone, was wanted for robbing a poker game at Galeyville. McMaster’s escape produced more criticism of Paul, Earp, and Behan. When the acting governor, John J. Gosper, visited Tombstone in September to personally investigate the Cow-Boy problem, he found Behan and Earp criticizing each other for failure to cooperate “in capturing and bringing to justice these outlaws.” He reprimanded both and demanded strong action at once.64
By September, the situation was having a detrimental effect on business. Even the Tombstone Nugget reported that “the Mexicans are very aprensive [sic] of the cowboys and are afraid to come to Arizona,” noting that a party of twenty came to Tombstone with Deputy Sheriff William Bell, “trusting that in his official capacity they would find ample protection.” The Nugget also reported other effects of the Cow-Boy problem:
The playful pastimes of the festive cowboys in stealing cattle and shooting the owners as a mark of affection is having its effect on the lumber market. It is almost impossible to procure any kind of lumber at this time for immediate use in the mines or for building purposes. Several orders for lumber have been telegraphed to San Francisco as men owing teams suitable for hauling lumber positively refuse to take any more chances outside of the city limits so long as the present state of insecurity for stock exists. The scarcity of hemp and rope factories is a serious drawback to all new and unsettled countries.65
The apprehension of business was not about conditions in Tombstone, but about the interruption of commerce created by the apparent lawlessness around Tombstone that not only posed the direct threat of stolen horses, shortages of timber, machinery, and other commodi-ties necessary to business operations but also threatened to have a potentially more disastrous impact on investments in the area. Both in Arizona and California the demand for action was shrill, almost hysterical. One resident declared that the Cow-Boys “now virtually control this section of the country.” They had been “emboldened by repeated success,” he said and lamented, “There have been but few arrests made, and, so far as I know, no convictions of this class of outlaws.”66 Many citizens plainly perceived a crisis of monumental proportions. Moreover, the situation suggested an organized operation, not merely random thievery and violence.
Some began to suggest the use of vigilance committees of “honest men banded together to rid the country of murderers and robbers.” The Epitaph took the suggestion to heart in a strongly worded summation of the situation:
“Committees of Safety” are not always safe defenders of the law, and should only be organized as a last resort; however, Cochise county has very nearly reached that point. As it is now the cattle men are afraid to say anything. As one stated to the writer the other day, “I can only live among them by keeping my mouth, eyes and ears constantly closed. I tell them if they want any of my stock to help themselves, only I would prefer they would not take the cows and heifers.” Whether it is through fear or not, it is a well known fact that the principal apathy is exhibited by the stock men themselves. Some of the principal ones never lose a head of stock, which leads one to believe they are not entirely guiltless themselves. The only remedy we can suggest is organization, and never rest until the last thieving desperado is killed or driven out of the country. Desperate diseases require heroic treatment.67
These feelings intensified after the robbery of the Bisbee stage on the night of September 8, 1881. Robbers, at least two in number, perhaps more, stopped the stage three miles south of Hereford and took $2,500 from the treasure box, $600 from the passengers, and a gold watch. Two posses, one consisting of Harry Woods, David Neagle, and Billy Breakenridge of the sheriff’s office, and another led by Vir-gil Earp as a deputy U.S. marshal, consisting of Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Marshall Williams, and Fred Dodge, went after the robbers. Three days later, the Earp posse brought in two suspects: Deputy Sheriff Frank Stilwell and Pete Spence. They were released on bail. Charges were dropped against Spence because of a lack of evidence. Stilwell, who was held on the basis of a boot print at the robbery scene and his habit of using the word “sugar” to describe money, was also released for insufficient evidence early in October.68
The Earps were convinced Stilwell and Spence were the guilty parties, however, and the incident heightened tensions between them and the Cow-Boy crowd. Both the Epitaph and the Nugget reported that “a number of cowboys” had threatened the lives of the Earps because of the arrests of Stilwell and Spence.69 A few days after the arrest, Frank McLaury, perhaps recalling the strongly worded Epitaph recipe for dealing with outlaws and its criticism of ranchers as accomplices of the outlaws, stopped Virgil Earp and demanded to know if he was raising a vigilance committee to go after him and his brother, the “Clantons, Hicks, Ringo and all us cowboys.” Virgil denied any such intent, but McLaury said, “Now … I’ll tell you, it makes no difference what I do, I never will surrender my arms to you…. I’d rather die fighting than be strangled.”70
McLaury also accosted Morgan Earp in front of the Alhambra in the presence of John Ringo, Ike Clanton, and the Hicks brothers. He told Morgan that he would never forgive Spence for allowing himself to be arrested by the Earps, then added, “If you ever come after me, you will never take me.” Morgan responded that if circumstances required it, he would arrest him. McLaury then responded, “I have threatened you boys’ lives and a few days later I had taken it back, but since this arrest, it now goes.” Wyatt Earp later reported that at least nine or ten men told him of threats against his life and the lives of his brothers by Ike Clanton, the McLaury brothers, John Ringo, and Joe Hill.71
Stilwell and Spence had strong ties to the Cow-Boys. Both men had faced criminal charges before in two separate cases of murder. They also hung out in the Cow-Boy haunts at Charleston, where they had ample opportunity to meet and become involved with the cattle thieves and other ne’er-do-wells causing trouble in the area. Stilwell owned several businesses in Charleston, including a saloon, a livery stable, and a lumberyard, and could have been quite useful in the fencing of stolen horses. In fact, in October 1880 Spence had been charged with stealing mules. Still, why McLaury chose the September arrests of Stillwell and Spence to defy the Earps openly was puzzling, because until that moment nothing approaching a feud existed between the Earps and the Cow-Boys.
Some good news did make the papers, although it was almost lost in the flurry of reports of Cow-Boy outrages. On August 23, “The ‘top and bottom’ gang of confidence men, who have so long infested Benson to the discomfiture and pecuniary loss of many Eastern tourists was … broken up, and the members driven from the town.”72 The occasion of this event was a quarrel between Big Ed Byrnes and Martin Mahain, two of the leaders. A shooting incident resulted in which Deputy McComas was shot in the thigh. Outraged citizens finally had enoug
h. They attacked the headquarters of the gang and piled all the furniture into the street and burned it, after which they “notified the party that if they did not leave town on the next train there would be some hanging done.” Byrnes was arrested and incarcerated at Tombstone. The rest of the gang caught the westbound train on August 24.73
If problems were not bad enough, early in October a breakout was reported from the San Carlos Indian Reservation. In the wake of this report, there was a flurry of livestock thefts including horses, mules, and cattle. By then, reports of Indian hostilities were viewed skeptically by some:
The cow-boys in Southeastern Arizona are having a pretty good time now; they can rob and murder and put the blame on the Indians. A border community always keeps a few “straggling hostiles” on hand for this purpose. After a party of ruffians has murdered a teamster or a rancher it comes into towns and reports the sight of Indian stragglers in that neighborhood; armed citizens go out and don’t find any Indians, but they find the body of a man “massacred by the red devils,” go back to town, hold a meeting, and pass resolutions that they ought to have the reservations right away, and that “every Indian in the country should be exterminated.”74
Whether Apaches were responsible for the raids or white thieves simply took advantage of the situation was never really determined in this instance, but a party of volunteers from Tombstone, led by John Behan, with Virgil Earp as second in command, rode into the Sulphur Springs Valley to investigate reports of Indian raids. The expedition camped at the Soldier’s Hole ranch of Frank and Tom McLaury, who had reported fourteen horses stolen. There, the Cow-Boy war seemed temporarily suspended as Virgil Earp and Curly Bill Brocius, described by George Parsons as “Arizona’s most famous outlaw at the present time,” greeted one another. They “shook each other warmly by the hand and hobnobbed together some time.”75 Wyatt Earp did not join in the pleasantries, however, and shortly Bill and two companions rode off. It was the most memorable moment of the whole enterprise, because the expedition proved a waste of time, and the volunteers returned to Tombstone with little to show for their efforts.
On October 8, the Benson stage was robbed north of Contention. Five days later, both the Nugget and the Epitaph reported that Wyatt and Virgil Earp had arrested Frank Stilwell and Pete Spence for the robbery.76 In fact, the Earps had arrested them on federal charges, claiming new evidence in the Bisbee stage robbery. Virgil, acting in his capacity as deputy U.S. marshal, took the pair to Tucson on October 13, where they were scheduled to appear before T. L. Stiles, the U.S. commissioner, on October 20.77 Virgil returned to Tombstone on October 14 and had a busy few days as marshal handling minor infractions. On October 18, he, Marshall Williams, and Sheriff Behan left for Tucson to attend the Stilwell-Spence hearing. Ike Clanton, William Allen, and Ham Light—all friends of Stilwell and Spence—also traveled to Tucson to be on hand for the hearing. In Virgil’s absence, Wyatt served as acting marshal.78
Doc Holliday was not a party to any of these happenings—intrigues, arrests, and expeditions. He was, after all, a gambler, and he was, for most of the time, where he was expected to be: at faro banks or poker tables, seeking his fortune apart from politics and criminal intrigues. He likely attended the San Augustin Festival in Tucson, which opened on August 28 and continued into September, and it may well be that he shared that experience with Kate, who always claimed that Doc attempted a reconciliation with her when her boardinghouse burned at Globe that summer.79 He certainly knew the opportunities for gain at the festival, and he may well have been one of those described by the Tucson Citizen, which noted in August that “as the Feast approaches, all sharpers of all kinds gather into the city” and warned that “thieves, burglars, pick-pockets, and cut throats will be here in large numbers.”80 Of course, not all gamblers fit these disparaging descriptions, and Doc, remembering the previous year, surely tried his hand there.
On September 29, the Tucson Star reported, “Over two hundred people have left Tucson to attend the feast at Magdalena [in Mexico] on the 4th proximo, it being the regular annual feast of San Francisco. This includes a number of the sporting fraternity.”81 Doc was back in Tombstone only briefly at the end of September, and he left again on October 1, just before the feast opened in Magdalena. That he had been out of town in September was confirmed by the unclaimed letter for “John Hallady” listed in the Epitaph on October 1, the same day he left town again.82 Doc did not appear to have been on hand when Lou Rickabaugh reopened the refurbished Oriental Saloon on October 11, and the Daily Epitaph listed a letter for Kate in its issue of October 15, suggesting that she and Doc were still out of town. Kate also claimed that at midmonth, “Doc asked if I would like to go to see the Fiesta.” She continued, “I said, ‘I don’t mind going.’ We left that evening for Tucson. We were there about four days.”83
Her memory after so many years was confused. There was no fiesta in Tucson in October, but she placed Doc in Tucson at the right time. Doc and Kate probably attended the fiesta at Magdalena (the fiesta she remembered), coming back through Tombstone at midmonth before going on to Tucson. The Epitaph noted a quarrel in which an unnamed gambler beat his woman and then left town on October 18, but there is no reason to believe this was Doc and Kate.84 His alleged abuse of Kate, so oft written about in recent years, was not documented at the time or reported by her in her memoirs. Kate’s “four days” would put Doc in Tucson on October 19, which meant he was apparently “bucking the tiger” in Tucson about the time that Virgil returned to attend the Spence and Stilwell hearing. In fact, Kate claimed that Doc lost her last $75 in the Congress Hall Saloon during this trip to Tucson.85
Virgil and Sheriff Behan returned to Tombstone on October 21. The next day, charges against Spence were dismissed, and Stilwell was bound over for trial. On his return to Tombstone, Virgil resumed his duties as marshal and appointed Wyatt “‘a special,’ to keep the peace with the power to make arrests.”86 While Virgil was out of town, something dramatic had happened. One night while drinking and before going to Tucson, Marshall Williams had told Ike Clanton that he knew about his deal with Wyatt to betray Leonard, Head, and Crane. Enraged, Clanton found Wyatt and accused him of breaking his word by telling Williams their secret. Wyatt denied it and told Ike that Williams was just guessing. When Ike returned from Tucson, he accused Wyatt of telling Doc Holliday about the deal as well. Wyatt told Ike he would prove that Doc knew nothing when Doc returned to town. Ike then swore that Doc himself had told him that he knew about their deal, whereupon Wyatt said he would ask Doc about it when he came back.87
On October 21, Wyatt sent Morgan to Tucson to get Holliday to hurry back to Tombstone. Kate recalled what happened:
One evening at the Fiesta, Doc was bucking at faro. I was standing behind him, when Morgan Earp came and tapped Doc on the shoulder and said, “Doc, we want you in Tombstone tomorrow. Better come up this evening.” Doc said, “all right.” He cashed in his chips. Morgan Earp did not want Doc to take me back with them, although he did not say anything. Doc said to me, “You had better stay here. I will come after you tomorrow or in a day or two.” I said, “No, I am going back with you.” Then he said, “We are going back on a freight train.” I said, “If you can go on a freight, so can I.” Then he said, “We are going to Benson on a freight. Then we have to ride on an open buckboard.” I said, “If you can ride on an open buckboard, so can I.” They saw that there was no way of getting rid of me, so the three of us went back to Tombstone.88
The trio of Doc, Kate, and Morgan reached Tombstone on the evening of October 22. Doc settled Kate into his room at C. S. Fly’s and went with Morgan to find Wyatt, but by then Ike Clanton had left town for his ranch on the San Pedro River above Charleston. Nevertheless, Wyatt explained the situation to Doc. Doc denied knowledge of any deal or having discussed it with Ike, and he told Wyatt that he would speak with Clanton when he could.
That same evening, Deputy Sheriff Breakenridge arrested Milt Hicks for possession of stolen cattle. Two d
ays later, while the jailor Billy Soule was out of the office, Hicks, Charlie “Yank” Thompson, and Jim Sharp surprised Charles Mason, the assistant jailor, when he unlocked the cell to serve the prisoners dinner. After a brief struggle, they locked Mason in the cell and fled. Mason was able to raise the alarm, and soon Sheriff Behan, Breakenridge, and the three Earp brothers gave chase without finding the prisoners.89
Behan and Virgil Earp, along with Deputies Breakenridge and David Neagle, searched further without success. Behan then ordered Breakenridge and Neagle to continue the pursuit. This would prove to be important because it took two more deputies out of Tombstone while Undersheriff Harry Woods was in El Paso, Texas, to take into custody suspected horse thieves who had been arrested in El Paso del Norte, Mexico, on October 18. He arrived in El Paso on October 23, started extradition proceedings, and did not take possession of the prisoners until October 26, 1881. This meant that Behan’s force was seriously reduced at what turned out to be a critical moment.90
During this period, Doc had returned to his faro bank at the Alhambra. Ike Clanton had not tarried long at his ranch, but soon left on unspecified business for three days in the Sulphur Springs Valley. On October 25, he was en route home in a light spring wagon when he encountered his younger brother, Billy, and the McLaurys, Frank and Tom. They rode together as far as Jack Chandler’s Milk Ranch, nine miles east of town, near the foot of the Dragoons, where they had breakfast together. They agreed to meet again in Tombstone in a day or two, after which Tom decided to ride with Ike into town to handle some business matters. Between ten and eleven o’clock on the morning of October 25, Ike and Tom arrived in Tombstone and put up their horses and wagon at the West End Corral, where they also checked in their weapons. They then split up to take care of business matters. At the time, Tom and Frank apparently were planning to leave Cochise County to attend their sister’s wedding back in Iowa, and they had to settle some affairs before going. Ike was mostly involved in tasting the wares of the town’s numerous saloons.91
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