Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell
This month, I’m looking at the wild west, and we’re rounding out this month with the most famous gunfight from that time, making this weeks book Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell by Tom Clavin. So Lets do this.
The book opens by describing the history of how the city itself came to be, treating Tombstone as a character deserving of it’s own background. Which is fair. Without Tombstone as a centralizing locus, there never would have been a reason for all the characters to have met, rubbed each other wrong, and then proceeded to kill the shit out of each other.
So Tombstone came about Edward Lawrence Schieffelin discovered silver in the southeast corner of the Arizona Territory by following float ore to it’s source. Legend has it that in camp one night, “a few soldiers saw the stones of float ore, and Schieffelin admitted that he was prospecting during his outings to scout for Indians. They told him, “The only stone you’ll find out there will be your tombstone.”” this pithy anecdote explains why Schieffelin came to call his silver strike Tombstone. And as with any ore strike in the old days, once news of it got out, prospectors came out in droves, and the town rapidly grew.
Now, the second character introduced, were the Brothers Earp, and their loyal back up John Henry “Doc” Holliday. Now, the Earp clan was quite extensive. The Earp Patriarch was Nicholas Porter Earp, who was married three times. The first marriage to Abigail Storm resulted in too children, Newton Jasper Earp and Mariah Ann Earp, neither of whom ever visited Tombstone. When Abigail died in 1839, Nicholas Earp remarried to Virginia Cooksey. These two would have the rest of the Earp clan, James, Virgil, Elizabeth, Wyatt, Morgan, Warren, Virginia, and Adelia. Of these, James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, AND Warren would all make an appearance in Tombstone. James alone would remain semi-detached. Semi because he very much cared about the fates of his brothers. But he alone did not get involved in the shootout or the subsequent vengeance.
So Virgil, I believe, was the first to end up in Arizona Territory, in Prescott with his wife Alvira “Allie” Earp. And by wife, I mean common-law. They were not married in church, they just began living together and calling each other husband and wife. This was a VERY Common practice in the 19th century. Morgan’s spouse was also common law, and of Wyatt’s four spouses, only one of them was a church wedding, that being his first, to Urilla Sutherland, who died of typhoid fever while pregnant with their child. Urilla was daughter of a Hotelier in MO. Wyatt’s remaining three wives were practitioners of the worlds oldest professions, including his last, Josephine Sarah “Sadie” Marcus.
Now, I get the sense that Clavin, much like the rest of the world, very much enjoyed Dana Delany’s portrayal of Marcus in the 1993 movie, Tombstone. And so he hints around, even says she MAY have been a prostitute. I’m saying it outright. She was DEFINITELY a prostitute at one point in her life. I know that wiih the rise of only fans there’s been a massive backlash against women who engage in any form of sex for pay. That is decidedly NOT the topic of this book. But, I think certain demographics need to get off their collective moral high horses and realize that one of the hero’s of the west, who is collectively seen as one of the greatest law men that ever lived, married not one but THREE women who sold themselves to make ends meet. And moreover, didn’t legally marry them. Merely shacked up. On the plus side, when his third wife Mattie Blaylock became hopelessly addicted to laudanum at the same time Wyatt was falling in love with Marcus, it was no big deal for him to just...stop seeing Mattie. Which is exactly what he did, leaving her to her drug induced state.
Anyways, back to the players. Morgan’s spouse was also a former prostitute. But for all that, when they picked up living with one man, they gave up the sex work. Except for Allie Earp. I believe it was her who actually operated a whore house with her husband. And yes, she worked there as well as operating it. This was not in Tombstone though. This was back east, before the move to Arizona. Once in Arizona, she became a skilled seamstress, and when the couple moved from Prescott to Tombstone, one of the items Allie insisted on bringing with her was her Singer sewing machine, which she used to supplement the couples income by sewing canvas for tents.
The move to Tombstone was a start of a new life. Virgil and Wyatt had both worked as lawmen, Virgil was the senior. Wyatt had worked under Bat Masterson in Dodge City. And for a while Masterson was in Tombstone. But he left well before the showdown due to family emergency back east.
So the Earps were searching for a new life, not necessarily NOT involved in law, but they were open to what possibilities might exist. Virgil, Wyatt, and I believe even Morgan spent time working as shotgun messengers for Wells Fargo, Virgil accepted a position as a US Marshall, and Wyatt was operating under the belief that he would be appointed or voted into the position of Sheriff of the newly formed Cochise County. He did NOT get this position and it was instead given to Johnny Behan, who was also the common law spouse of one Josephine Sarah “Sadie” Marcus. So there was professional and romantic rivalry between the two. And Behan REALLY wanted some of that recognition that Wyatt had from having worked Dodge City with Bat Masterson.
Now...the romantic rivalry was probably not as great as Clavin makes out. I don’t doubt it was there. But Josephine was a pretty smart cookie. And when she came home from a trip to visit her parents to find Behan in bed with another local prostitute, their affair was basically over. There was still Mattie, but she was definitely on her way out in Wyatt’s eyes.
Let’s see, who’s left….Doc Holliday. Holliday was born to Henry Burroughs Holliday and Alice Jane Holliday in 1851. He was called Doc because he was a dentist from Georgia. Shortly after becoming a dentist, he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis, aka Consumption. In the aforementioned movie Tombstone, he’s frequently called Lunger. This is because Consumption attacks the lungs. Back then they didn’t know what caused it, but we know now its a bacterial infection of the lungs. While it’s highly treatable now with antibiotics, back then, the most common treatment was to move away from the damp environs of the east coast. And this is what Holliday was doing. He gambled and drank his way from Kansas, Nebraska, through Texas, and New Mexico, finally landing in Arizona. He met Wyatt in Dodge City and they became friends there, and then they reconnected in Tombstone.
So there’s the short version of the good guys. Or at least, the guys who stood for law and order. How about the other side of the equation? Can’t have cops without robbers.
We’re going to start with the aforementioned John Behan. Clavin says “In many books and films about Tombstone, John Harris Behan has been presented as a corrupt lawman, a coward, a good man in a very difficult position, a political operative, a doting father, a philandering husband, a lawman with shifting loyalties, and a fool whose feckless actions led to unnecessary deaths. At various times, he was all of the above.” And that literally sums it up.
The rest of the cowboys….small C. I know the 1993 Movie made it seem like it a full gang, The Cowboys. That was Hollywood’s way of delineating who the bad guys were. In reality, it was a much looser conglomeration of cattle rustlers. Mostly, they stole from the Mexican ranchers just across the border in the Mexican state of Sonora, then drove them to the Clanton ranch for rebranding and sale in Tombstone. This group of nefarious rustlers included William “Curly Bill” Brocius, Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, and Billy Claiborne. And Behan, of course. And John Peter Ringo.
None of these guys were historically good guys, and they all spent time in and out of jail, several of them had escaped from jails in New Mexico and Texas and were hanging out in Arizona, allegedly robbing stage coaches. Allegedly because no charges ever stuck, despite multiple arrests of all of the above men BY the Earps, in their respective capacities as shotgun messengers for Wells Fargo or as marshall/deputy marshall. Virgil routinely deputized his brothers Wyatt and Morgan.
Unfortunately, the territorial judge, Wells Spicer, was an honest man. Too honest to jail anyone without absolute proof. And since none of the arrests occurred during the actual thefts or holdups, but rather after the fact as a result of the subsequent investigations, when “witnesses,” usually other cowboys, testified that the accused had been with them at the time of the robbery, Spicer really had no choice but to release them. Then, to muddy the waters, the accused started saying it wast the Earp’s doing the robberies and framing them.
So all of this is the short short version of saying there was a long history of bad blood between the law and order faction, and the anarcho-capitalism faction. I say that because anarcho-capitalists, myself included, like to believe that we would all just...be nice. Because an armed society is a polite society. Right? Well….this is one myth that is rapidly dissolved in the face of historical accuracy. Yikes!
The two groups HATED each other, with a long history of animosity. Which was briefly set aside when the Apache rampaged from the closest reservation, and all the White men in Tombstone rallied together to protect the town. The temporary truce was never destined to last, and on Tuesday, October 25, 1881, Ike Clanton and Doc Holliday began fighting at the Alhambra Saloon.
Clanton, when he would later tell his testimony during the trial, said it was the Occidental. It was not. And Clanton was entirely intoxicated when it all began, having been sampling the whiskey in Tombstone since 11am that day. Plus, Clanton had a whole lotta reason to be less than truthful in his testimony. The aforementioned animosity between the two groups of men. Clanton began accusing Doc of also being involved in a recent stage holdup. Holliday took exception to this accusation and thus, the fight was begun. Now, at this point, it was all yelling. No guns were involved, and Virgil, who had stepped into the Alhambra to check on things, broke up the argument, sending Doc back to his hotel, and Ike to wherever Ike was staying, which was no where and ultiamtely ended up being a poker game, of which Virgil was a part, at the Occidental. There, Ike made several comments about Doc and wanting to kill him, which Virgil admonished him for but, talk being still legal, and Ike being unarmed, that was all Virgil did before heading home and crawling into bed himself early in the morning of October 26, 1881.
Now, by this point in Arizona history, Tombstone was the edge of the frontier, and was working very hard on civilizing itself. Not all the women in town were former prostitutes, and there was a decent amount of lawfully married women that were pushing for more law and order. Accordingly, they had created the Tombstone Police Department, of which Virgil was the chief. Along with that, they enacted more laws, which included a law against carrying firearms in city limits.
Ike, having no place to go, since he did not reserve a room and he was so drunk no one would rent to him anyway, bunked down at the OK Corral, where is horse and firearms were being kept, and was seen shortly after wandering around Tombstone with his pistol and rifle in hand, which prompted witnesses to track down Virgil and Wyatt...Virgil because he was chief of police, and Wyatt because he was well known to be Doc’s friend. So presumably, Virgil would corral Ike, and Wyatt would ensure Doc stayed out of it. Both brothers ignored the summons and went back to sleep, basically just believing that when Ike sobered up, the problem would blow over.
It did not. Ike stumbled his way to the C.S. Fly boarding house where Doc was known to live, and where Big Nose Kate….ALSO a former prostitute and Holliday’s long time companion, dashed upstairs to alert him to the danger. Holliday, for the record, was an absolutely terrible shot. Historically. Which is why he used a shotgun during the famous fight that was about to commence. You CAN aim a shotgun. But at the close range involved, it really wasn’t necessary.
Virgil was again alerted to the drunken and armed Ike’s stumbling about town and realized this could very much Be A Thing. So he dressed and headed out, where he met up with Wyatt, who had already reached that conclusion on his own, and Morgan as well as James Earp, who had also been alerted that trouble was A Brewing.
Now, Clavin describes one scene that made it so that the famous fight almost never took place:
“In a farcical interlude, Ike spotted Wyatt, and while his eyes were fixed on him, the other brothers spotted Clanton, whose attention was so riveted on Wyatt that Virgil and Morgan simply walked up behind him. When Ike turned, Virgil snatched the Winchester from him. Ike reached for the pistol stuck in his pants. That led to a painful consequence….” As at this point, Virgil cold cocked him and arrested Clanton for carrying inside city limits, immediately taking him before the local judge, one Albert Wallace, where Clanton was found guilty and fined $25 and told his guns would be waiting for him at the Grand Hotel when he was leaving town.
As Wyatt was leaving the courthouse, he ran into Tom McLaury and said...something to him. We don’t know what, that has been lost to history. But McLaury’s response was heard loud and clear. “If you want to fight, I will fight you anywhere.” Wyatt asked if he was armed and did not believe McLaury when he said no, knocking McLaury down and pistol whipping him...Wyatt had been deputized, so he WAS allowed to have his guns with him. As he walked away, Wyatt was heard to mutter “I could kill the son of a bitch.” This statement was repeated in witness testimony during the subsequent trial.
As Wyatt was calming down at Hafford’s Saloon with a cigar, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton arrived in Tombstone, and were filled in with what had been happening. And tensions racheted up accordingly.
The cowboys...for ease of reference...were joined by Billy Claiborne. And initially looked like they were going to leave. Ike was looked at by Dr. Charles Gillingham and had asked the stableman to hitch the horses to the wagon. And then they walked over to Spangenberg’s, where they purchased ammunition. Which struck not a few people as...odd...given the previous events of the last 24 hours. The rumor mill flew and news quickly reached Virgil that the Cowboys were planning to go after him and his brothers.
At some point in the afternoon, Behan made an appearance and was advised that he should disarm the Cowboys, which he tried to get Virgil to do. But Virgil, at this point, was just pissed, so he declined. And Behan had none of his own backup, having sent his own deputies out to chase down…I think it was stage robbers, ironically enough. Behan did manage to get Virgil to go into Hafford’s Saloon to cool off, while the cowboys started making their way to various shops, on their way back to the corral.
Virgil, as reigning law man of the town, rightly decided that if the Cowboys stayed in the corral, he’d leave them be. Because if they’re in the corral, then there’s every expectation that they’re about to leave town, in which case, they are not expected to leave their guns behind. So it became a waiting game with Virgil and Wyatt on one side, and the Clantons and McLaury’s on the other. But Morgan was watching, and he went and found Doc.
Now, Behan, to be fair, actually did try to help at this time. He said he’d go down and try and disarm them, which, technically, was NOT his job, him being county sheriff, and this being within town limits. And Virgil said basically if they leave great, if they surrender their firearms great. Anything else will result in my intervention. Virgil was then approached by a John Fronck, who had worked as a police captain in Los Angeles, and offered to found up members of the vigilance committee to assist with any arrests that were needed. And Virgil said if the cowboys stay in the corral or leave the city there were no problems. And Fronck, who had just come from the OK Corral, advised that the cowboys were now on Fremont Street.
Behan was, in fact, attempting to disarm the Cowboys, and promised them that after taking their firearms, he’d take the Earps too. But when he glanced up Fremont street, it was to see the Earps and Doc walking towards him. He tried to intercept them, but was brushed aside by Virgil, who had no respect for Behan.
Now, Virgil and Wyatt both report that they heard Behan say he disarmed the cowboys. Behan denies having said that. Regardless, when they got to the Corral, it was abundantly clear that all the cowboys were still armed, and there were more of them….6 total, Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, Billy Claiborne, and now Wes Fuller.
Virgil said “Throw up your hands, boys. I intend to disarm you.”
McLaury said “we will.” While also reaching for his guns himself.
There was a reported moment of silence, so calm, where you could hear Doc pull back the double hammers of his shotgun. And then all hell broke loose, the famed thirty shots in thirty seconds. Frank McLaury was immediately gutshot by Wyatt. Billy Claiborne took off. Ike Clanton ran towards Wyatt, and Wyatt saw he was unarmed and so did not shoot. But did tell him “The fight’s commenced, go to fighting or get away.” Ike ran and kept running.
Frank McLaury, despite his wound, kept shooting, and Billy Clanton did too. Virgil was shot in the leg, Morgan was hit in the shoulder. Doc received a bullet graze across his hip. Wyatt alone was completely unscathed when the shooting stopped. Billy Clanton was hit twice, once in the chest and once in the wrist, Frank was hit again, this time in the chest, and finally in the head.
And that was it. Frank was dead, Tom joined him soon after, having taken two barrels of shotgun pellets in the chest. Billy remained conscious for a little bit before dying later that afternoon. Behan showed up and tried to arrest Wyatt, who declined. Literally just said no, and Behan left.
Ike was actually arrested later that evening. Behan did manage to arrest the all the Earp’s and Doc Holliday, although given their more serious injuries, Virgil and Morgan were basically just under house arrest. And the Vendetta began.
The Vendetta went both ways, by the by. It started with Clanton swearing out a legal complaint against the Earp’s who all stood trial for murder. And there was a trial, overseen by territorial judge Spicer. And bless his fairness, after hearing all the testimony, he admonished Virgil for lack of judgement but determined no criminal act had taken place. Virgil had acted lawfully, all parties on his side had been legally deputized, and the cowboys were in violation of the law.
And it could have ended here. SHOULD have ended here. Except for Curly Bill Brocius and Johnny Ringo, who were close friends with all the cowboys involved, and took exception to the Earps having gotten away with legalized murder. And if the Earps had considered that with the drama ended for now, they possibly should have chosen to leave Tombstone. But it went against their core beliefs to let the criminal elements run them out of town out of fear of retaliation. So they stayed.
And the Vendetta began on December 28, when Virgil was shot by ambush. Now, he survived, but no longer had use of his left arm. He didn’t lose the arm, but he could no longer use it, either. Wyatt, being the hard charging go getter that he was, reached out to the US Marshall of the territory, one Crawley Dake, and requested to be deputized, which request was immediately granted. Now, he didn’t ride out seeking immediate vengeance. Because he didn’t really know who had shot Virgil. But he wanted to be prepared for follow up when the next attack occurred. And to build his case against whoever the assailants may have been, which was almost certainly Brocius and Ringo. An opportunity that Holliday almost beat him to.
One thing I loved, and it took me by surprise, was addressing what has, weirdly, become a controversial line from the movie. Few years ago, this meme popped up.
Claiming the line was huckel bearer. Which Val Kilmer refuted when he wrote his own autobiography, I’m your Huckleberry. Which, he would know. He read the damn script. But the meme keeps popping up, and left some people wondering if the movie line itself was just a historical inaccuracy. It was not.
On January 17, Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo were addressing their own disputes over a lady, that being Big Nose Kate Elder. Ringo wanted to settle their dispute via duel. Doc’s response was...quote from history, meaning this was overheard and reported from primary sources “I’m your huckleberry. That’s just my game.”
I did get curious...because that is such an odd thing to say, from a 21st century perspective. And good luck to future historians, trying to figure out what Yeet means. But I tried to figure it out so I googled, Huckleberry Victorian Flower Language. Victorian Flower Language is very much a thing. There is actually a book about it. Which is why I thought to google it. It came back with faith and simple pleasures. So...it would be his pleasure, was his response. In the language of the day.
The duel did not happen. And there was a bit of a lull. A calm before the storm, you might call it. On March 18, 1882, Morgan was attending a local play, before going to a local Billiards hall. Where he was shot in the back in front of Wyatt, dying in his brother’s arms.
And the rest, as they say, was history. The vigilante posse created by Wyatt and Doc took off and began hunting the cowboys, joined by Warren Earp, Sherman McMasters, and Turkey Creek Jack Johnson. Behan did try to arrest them, but with no luck. Had to catch em to arrest em, and there was no catching them.
Wyatt managed to catch up with and kill almost everyone involved. He famously did not kill Johnny Ringo. The 1993 movie has it that Doc Holliday did it. That’s unlikely, given what a bad shot Holliday was. Clavin thinks it most likely that Ringo killed himself in a fit of depression. As with most things that begin with a bang, the vendetta burned itself out with a whimper, as the Earp’s dispersed from Tombstone, moving on to California and other western locals.
Mattie left with Allie and Virgil and Morgan’s widow, but I don’t believe she ever saw Wyatt again after she left Tombstone. She eventually returned to AZ and lived with Big Nose Kate. Holliday did die of Tuberculosis in Colorado. Wyatt and Josephine were together for 47 years after the gunfight, reconnecting in San Francisco.
This was a fun book, if you like the old west and they way things were. Clavin is definitely one of my favorite story tellers, bringing to life the wild west in a way that many authors try to, but not all succeed, spinning a rich tapestry of characters and events into whole cloth that’s easy to understand and follow.
