2. Testimony of Julius Kelley, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 21, 1881.
3. Testimony of Virgil Earp, ibid., November 20, 1881.
4. Testimony of R. F. Hafford, ibid., November 2, 1881.
5. Arthur W. Bork and Glenn G. Boyer, eds., “The O.K. Corral Fight at Tombstone: A Footnote by Kate Elder,” Arizona and the West 19 (August 1977): 80.
6. Testimony of Virgil Earp, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 20, 1881.
7. Statement of Wyatt Earp, ibid., November 17, 1881.
8. John P. Clum, “It All Happened at Tombstone,” Arizona and the West, 1 (Autumn 1959): 233–234.
9. Testimony of Virgil Earp, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 20, 1881.
10. Statement of Wyatt Earp, ibid., November 17, 1881.
11. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, October 27, 1881.
12. Testimony of R. J. Campbell, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 24, 1881.
13. Testimony of A. Bauer, J. T. Batcher, and Thomas Keefe, ibid., November 11, 1881.
14. Statement of Wyatt Earp, ibid., November 17, 1881.
15. Testimony of Virgil Earp, ibid., November 20, 1881.
16. Testimony of William Allen, Doc. No. 94, Hayhurst transcript, 23. This characteristic still exists. A New Yorker moved south to manage a plant. When asked later by a friend how things were going, the new plant manager expressed concern. “I don’t know whether I’m going to make it or not,” he said. “You don’t know who your enemies are down here. Everybody is so damned polite.” Southern history is full of such stories.
17. Testimony of William Allen, Doc. No. 94, Hayhurst transcript.
18. Statement of Wyatt Earp, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 17, 1881.
19. Testimony of Virgil Earp, ibid., November 20, 1881.
20. Statement of Wyatt Earp, ibid., November 17, 1881; testimony of Ike Clanton, Doc. No. 94, Hayhurst transcript, 113–114.
21. Statement of Wyatt Earp, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 17, 1881.
22. Testimony of J. B. W. Gardiner, ibid., November 29, 1881.
23. Testimony of P. H. Fellehy, Doc. No. 48, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, October 30, 1881; John H. Behan, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 3–6, 1881.
24. Testimony of Virgil Earp, Doc. No. 94, ibid., November 20, 1881.
25. Ibid.
26. Testimony of H. F. Sills and Virgil Earp, ibid., November 20, 23, 24, 1881. Sills was an important and impartial witness. See Jane Matson Lee and Mark Dworkin, “H. F. Sills: Mystery Man of the O.K. Corral Shootout,” WOLA Journal 12, (Spring 2004): 4–21.
27. Testimony of West Fuller, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 8, 1881.
28. Testimony of P. H. Fellehy, Doc. No. 48, ibid., October 30, 1881; Stuart N. Lake notes in the Stuart N. Lake Collection, Huntington Library, San Marino, California; Forrestine C. Hooker, “An Arizona Vendetta (the Truth about Wyatt Earp—and Some Others),” 34–35, unpublished manuscript, circa 1920, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, California; William B. Shillingberg, Tombstone, A. T.: A History of Early Mining, Milling, and Mayhem (Spokane, WA: Clark, 1999), 254.
29. John H. Flood Jr., “Wyatt Earp, a Peace-officer of Tombstone,” 228, unpublished manuscript, 1927, C. Lee Simmons Collection.
30. Testimony of Virgil Earp, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 20, 23, 1881.
31. Ibid.
32. Statement of Wyatt Earp, ibid., November 17, 1881.
33. Testimony of James Kehoe, ibid., November 6, 1881.
34. Testimony of John Behan, Doc. No. 94, ibid., November 3–6, 1881.
35. Ibid.
36. Testimony of Ike Clanton, ibid., November 10–11, 13–15, 1881.
37. Testimony of R. F. Coleman and W. A. Cuddy, Doc. No. 48, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, October 29, 30, 1881.
38. Testimony of Martha J. King, Doc. No. 94.
39. Testimony of John Behan, Doc. No. 48, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, October 29, 1881.
40. Witnesses for the prosecution testified that at the point of confrontation someone in the Earp party said, “You sons-of-bitches have been looking for a fight and now you can have it!” Considering that the Earps had relaxed after their exchange with Sheriff Behan, it seems more likely that the epithet was the result of surprise that the Cow-Boys were still armed. The conclusion is speculative but reasonable in light of the circumstances.
41. In reconstructing the street fight, I have expanded on themes first developed in my article “The Fremont Street Fiasco; or, How to Start a Legend without Really Trying,” True West 35 (July 1988): 14–20, in which I posited the thesis that the street fight was not premeditated by either side but was the consequence of a series of miscalculations. I have modified my stance since this article was first written, and I have relied heavily on the research of Jeff Morey, Casey Tefertiller, and Robert F. Palmquist. Morey’s unpublished manuscript “The Gunfight, October 26, 1881” (copy in author’s files) was extremely helpful, although Morey has refined some of his conclusions since that account was written. Morey, “Blaze Away,” True West 48 (November–December 2001): 34–40, and Morey and Tefertiller, “O.K. Corral: A Fight Shrouded in Mystery,” Wild West (October 2001): 38–44, 70, 72, are balanced and measured. Palmquist’s unpublished “Tombstone Jurisprudence: The Earp-Holliday Hearing, 1881” (copy in author’s files) was also helpful.
42. Statement of Wyatt Earp and testimony of Ike Clanton, Bill Claiborne, and Virgil Earp, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 2, 10, 11–17, 1881. The peculiar angle of the bullet that struck Morgan Earp caused Wyatt Earp to suspect that Tom McLaury may have fired a shot over his horse at Morgan or that William Allen fired the shot from across the street. Neither scenario can be confirmed. Mrs. J. C. Collier, whose family was visiting her brother-in-law, John Collier, the foreman at the Boston Mill, witnessed the shooting and noted that one of the Cow-Boys “used his horse as a barricade and shot under his neck,” providing possible support for an armed Tom McLaury. She left Tombstone without testifying and told her story in a letter to the editor of the Kansas City Star, so she was never cross-examined in court. See the Star article reprinted in the Tombstone Daily Epitaph, December 30, 1881.
43. Tombstone Daily Nugget, October 27, 1881; testimony of Thomas Keefe, Bob Hatch, H. F. Sills, and Addie Borland, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 11–12, 18, 24, 29, 1881. Matthews described only the fatal wounds in his testimony; hence, he did not describe the shot to Billy Clanton’s wrist or Doc’s shot to Frank McLaury’s chest. Wyatt claimed that Old Man Fuller told him that his son, West, had picked up Tom McLaury’s pistol in “Wyatt Earp’s Personal Diagram of the Street Fight: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, October 26, 1881, Tombstone, Arizona Territory,” Wyatt Earp’s Personal Diagrams of Prominent Historical Events (McLean, VA: United States Marshal’s Foundation, 1989), and in Lake notes.
44. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, October 27, 1881; Tombstone Daily Nugget, October 27, 1881.
45. Tombstone Daily Nugget, October 27, 29, 1881.
46. Arthur W. Bork and Glenn G. Boyer, “The O.K. Corral Fight at Tombstone: A Footnote by Kate Elder,” Arizona and the West 19 (Spring 1977): 80.
47. Testimony of W. S. Williams, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 29, 1881.
48. Testimony of John Behan and Virgil Earp, ibid., November 2–4, 20, 1881.
49. Frank Waters, “Tombstone’s Travesty,” 207, unpublished manuscript, 1934, Frank Waters Collection, University of New Mexico Library, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
50. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, October 27, 1881.
51. Tombstone Daily Nugget, October 27, 1881.
52. San Francisco Daily Report, October 27, 1881.
53. San Francisco Exchange, October 27, 1881.
54. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, October 28, 1881; Tombstone Daily Nugget, October 28, 1881.
55. Ibid.
56. Clara Spalding Brown to the editor, October 29, 1881, San Diego Union, November 3, 1881.
57. George Whitwell Parsons, The Private Journal of George W. Parsons (Tombstone, AZ: Tombstone Daily Epitaph, 1972): 189.
58. Testimony of John H. Behan, Doc. No. 48, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, October 29, 1881.
59. Testimony of John Behan, Billy Claiborne, and Ike Clanton, ibid., October 29, 30, 1881.
60. Tombstone Daily Nugget, October 30, 1880.
61. Parsons, Journal, 190.
62. Tombstone Daily Nugget, October 30, 1881.
63. Minute Book A, Common Council, Village of Tombstone, October 29, 1881, p. 131.
64. Tombstone Daily Nugget, October 30, 1881.
65. Ibid. For further information on Woods’s trip to El Paso, see the El Paso (Texas) Lone Star, October 26, 29, November 5, 1881.
66. San Francisco Daily Report, October 31, 1881.
67. Tombstone Daily Nugget, November 1, 1881.
68. Smith’s role in the proceedings generally has been ignored. During the coroner’s inquest, he was called as a witness (and potentially an important one since he had been seen speaking with Sheriff Behan and Frank McLaury just moments before the fight), but Coroner Matthews excused him without explanation. The reason was almost certainly that he was involved already with Ike Clanton in the prosecution of the Earps and Holliday. Ben Goodrich, the son of one of the founding fathers of Texas, a nephew of a defender of the Alamo, and a staunch advocate of Texans, was generally described as Ike Clanton’s personal attorney in the case. The firm of Goodrich & Goodrich was already associated with Smith and would eventually become Goodrich & Smith. Alexander Campbell and James S. Robinson, other prosecuting attorneys, were also associated with Smith. The Tombstone Daily Nugget, November 1, 1881, identified the prosecution’s legal counsel as “Messrs. Goodrich & Goodrich, Smith, Earll, Campbell & Robinson, Smith & Colby, J. M. Murphy, and District Attorney Price.” All of this demonstrates that Smith was intimately involved with the case even though he did not take an active role in the court proceedings. This is confirmed by the records of yet another law firm, Smith & Lisle, which show that Clanton paid the firm for services in the case. The entry in the record reads, “Nov. 1 [1881], Clanton, Ike, et al, fee for services in prosecution of Earp Bros & Holliday, charged with the murder of Wm Clanton & the McLowry [sic] boys, Dr//Cr $375.00 (Dr),” Marcus A. Smith–J. L. Lisle Account Books, 1877–1883, p. 86, MS 1192, Arizona Historical Society, Tucson, Arizona.
The date November 1, 1881, is particularly interesting because on that same date, John Behan took out a loan for $500 from the L. M. Jacobs Mercantile Company, which he would pay off December 30, 1881. Lionel M. Jacobs Collection, Vol. 122, Special Collections, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. This doubtlessly explains why the defense during cross-examination at the Spicer hearing, on November 3, 1881, asked Behan how much he had contributed to the attorneys prosecuting the case, to which Behan responded, “I have not contributed a cent, nor have I promised to.” Testimony of John H. Behan, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 4, 1881.
Interestingly, Behan and Billy Soule, his jailor, borrowed an additional $200 from Jacobs, on November 2. Two weeks later, on November 14, 1881, Ike Clanton and Behan returned to Jacobs and borrowed an additional $500 (which Clanton paid off on November 25, 1881). The circumstances make it possible that Behan acted as guarantor on a Clanton loan. In any event, Behan’s involvement with Clanton in financial transactions during the hearing makes it hard to avoid the conclusion that John Behan was actively involved in the prosecution of the Earps in a personal way beyond his role as sheriff, which makes charges of bias against him more credible.
After he arrived in Tombstone, Will McLaury assumed at least some of the expenses in the case. He wrote to his sister, “[T]o prossecute [sic] these cases I have employed Alexander Campbell late of California and Ex Judge Robinson, your husband will know these men. As criminal lawyers they have no peers in this country. Also Goodrich & Goodrich of this place. At one time I did not know but I would prossecute myself. I wrote D. D. some of the circumstances everyone was intimidated and I had to go into court myself as an atty, but things are working well now I think.” W. R. McLaury to Mrs. M. F. Appelgate, November 19, 1881, William R. McLaury Collection, New-York Historical Society, New York, New York.
John Roberts Adams, who was later hired by the family to expedite the settlement of the McLaury business in Cochise County, in a letter to Charles Appelgate, January 15, 1882, complained specifically about Smith and the Goodriches because they had refused to have anything more to do with the McLaury claims. Paul J. Johnson to the author, November 24, December 9, 2004. No references to McLaury appear in the Smith & Lisle account books, which suggests that McLaury dealt with the Goodrich firm. Steven A. Fazio, “Marcus Aurelius Smith: Arizona Delegate and Senator,” in Arizona and the West 12 (Spring 1970): 24–25, says that Smith and the Goodrich brothers were in partnership by the end of 1881.
69. Steven Lubet, Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), 79–82; Casey Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp: The Life behind the Legend (New York: Wiley, 1997), 130–131.
70. Tucson (Arizona) Weekly Star, November 3, 1881.
71. William R. McLaury to S. P. Greene, November 8, 1881; William R. McLaury to D. D. Appelgate, November 9, 1881, McLaury Papers; see also testimony of Martha J. King, Doc. No. 94.
72. Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 8, 1881; San Francisco Chronicle, November 8, 1881.
73. Testimony of West Fuller, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 6, 1881.
74. John J. Gosper to Samuel J. Kirkwood, Secretary of the Interior, November 29, 1881, Lawlessness in Parts of Arizona (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1882); McLaury to Greene, November 8, 1881; McLaury to Appelgate, November 9, 1882, McLaury Papers.
75. Testimony of William F. Claibourne, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 9, 1881.
76. Tucson Weekly Star, November 3, 1881.
77. San Francisco Examiner, November 7, 1881.
78. McLaury to Greene, November 8, 1881, McLaury Papers.
79. Mary Katharine Cummings, typescript of recollections given to Anton Mazzanovich, Kevin J. Mulkins Collection.
80. Testimony of Ike Clanton, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 10–11, 1881.
81. Tombstone Daily Nugget, November 11, 1881.
82. Testimony of Ike Clanton, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 13–16, 1881.
83. Earp proceeded under section 133 of the Compiled Statutes of Arizona Territory. See Palmquist, “Tombstone Jurisprudence,” 14–15; Lubet, Murder in Tombstone, 135–155.
84. Statement of Wyatt Earp, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 16, 1881.
85. Lubet, Murder in Tombstone, 156–164; Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp, 146–148.
86. Testimony of H. F. Sills, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 23–24, 1881.
87. Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 24, 1881.
88. Testimony of W. S. Williams, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nugget and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, November 28, 1881.
89. Testimony of Addie Borland, ibid., November 29, 1881.
90. Testimony of J. H. Lucas, ibid., November 29, 1881.
91. Testimony of Ernest Storm, ibid., November 30, 1881.
92. Decision of Wells Spicer, Doc. No. 94, Tombstone Daily Nug
get and Tombstone Daily Epitaph, December 1, 1881.
93. Ibid. For analysis of Spicer’s decision, see Lubet, Murder in Tombstone, 179–202; Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp, 151–159; and Gary L. Roberts, “The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: The Wells Spicer Decision,” Montana, the Magazine of Western History 20 (Winter 1970): 63–74.
94. Tombstone Daily Nugget, December 1, 1881.
95. San Francisco Examiner, May 11, 1882. John P. Clum to George Kelly, August 30, 1929, reprinted in Ellis T. “Butch” Badon, “An Unexpected Nugget,” NOLA Quarterly 25 (October–December 2001): 24–25.
96. McLaury to Appelgate, November 9, 1881, McLaury Papers.
8. Vengeance
1. Valdosta (Georgia) Times, June 24, 1882.
2. Thursday, December 1, 1881, George Whitwell Parsons, The Private Journal of George W. Parsons (Tombstone, AZ: Tombstone Daily Epitaph, 1972), 198.
Doc Holliday Page 61