TOMBSTONES Chapter Twenty

I know what Billy Clanton (above) was thinking when the shooting stopped. When photographer C.S. Fly bent down to take the empty Colt Revolver from his hand, Billy Clanton told him, "Give me more cartridges". A few moments later, when they lifted the 19 year old's bleeding body he cried out in pain, "They have murdered me. I have been murdered." 

Inside the Harwood House, after Dr. Gibberson softened his pain with morphine, Billy was boastful again, threatening Wyatt - "If only I could get my teeth into that son-of-a-bitch's throat, I'd die happy." But when he realized he was slipping into the gentle night, Billy ordered the gawkers to, "Go away and let me die." But Billy was the appointed Hector of Tombstone, the last hero of the melodrama, and his public was not to be denied.

The funeral of Billy and the McLaury brothers was staged - and that is the right word - the very next day, a cold gray Thursday, 27 October, 1881. Andrew Jackson "Andy" Ritter propped the three caskets up in the front window of Ritter and Ream City Undertakers, behind a sign which read "Murdered on the Street of Tombstone" so they could be photographed (above). The Democratic Tombstone Nugget that day cried that “Three Men" had been "Hurled Into Eternity In the Duration of a Moment.” 

And at about 4:00pm - fashionably late - the 3 hearses, 22 carriages and 300 mourners,  all led by the volunteer firemen (above),  made their way to the Old Cemetery - it would not be called Boot Hill until the arrival of 20th century tourists. 

 Some 2,000 watched the procession, and even Cochise County Republicans were uneasy with the violence which had exploded on the streets of Tombstone..

It was lucky for the Democrats that Ike Clanton, the Paris in this Cow Boy Iliad, the man most responsible for the gun fight, ran away and lived.  Four days later Ike filed murder charges against the Earps and Holliday.  Older brother William McLaury, who was a practicing lawyer, came up from Texas to help prosecute the case. And a New York Democratic editorial cartoonist depicted wild man Virgil Earp, two guns blazing, trying to herd Arizona into statehood with violence (above).  In fact the shoot out helped delay Arizona statehood until Valentines Day, 1912 - making it the last of the 48 contiguous states to join the union.

The one clearly disinterested witness at the Earp's trial, a tuberculosis sufferer named Henry F. Sills, who was a fireman on the Atcheson, Topeka and the Sante Fe Railroad and had only arrived in Tombstone the day before, supported the Earps in all important details. The hearing judge decided the Earps had done nothing illegal. But like all violence, the shoot out did not merely end. There were aftershocks.

Half an hour before midnight, on Wednesday, 28 December, 1881, Virgil Earp (above) was shot from ambush while walking into the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Dr. Goodfellow had to remove 4 inches of Virgil's left humerus, making him a cripple for life. The suspected shooters were Phin and Ike Clanton, Cow Boys Johnny Barnes, Johnny Ringo, Hank Swilling and Pete Spence. Although arrested, all 6 were released on $1,500 bail. No trial was ever held.

Ten minutes before eleven on the evening of Saturday, 18 March, 1882,  Morgan Earp (above) was shot through the spine while playing billiards. He died soon after. A coroner's jury would conclude the assassins were Pete Spence, Frank Stillwell, Frederick Bode and Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz. Convinced the Republican Party had abandoned his family, and the local Democratic courts would never punish the Cow Boys the Earps had been sent to Tombstone to breakup, Wyatt gathered a small band of supporters, and rode out to punish those who had injured his loved ones. In true epic tradition, it would be called his vendetta ride.

It began the night of Monday, 20 March, 1882. The wounded Virgil Earp, his wife and Morgan's widow boarded a Southern Pacific train to take Morgan's body to California for burial. The next morning, between the railroad tracks, the little dandy, Frank Stillwell (above), was found so full of lead the coroner described his corpse as "the worst shot up man I ever saw." Frank was the first. 

Indian Charlie died second, on 23 March. And on 24 March, Johnny Barnes was shot to death, along with William "Curley Bill" Brocius (above)  at Iron Springs, in the Whitestone Mountains, northeast of Tombstone. All of them were presumably murdered by Wyatt Earp, in revenge.

John "Johnny Ringo" Peters, so called "King of  the Cow Boys"  evidently committed suicide in July of 1882. 

Wanted for rustling, loudmouth, alcoholic Issac "Ike" Clanton was killed while avoiding arrest in 1887.   His elder brother, Phin Clanton,  served 17 months in the Yuma Territorial prison, also for rustling. He died in 1906. 

The ex-Texas Ranger and stage robber, Pete Spence (above),  aka Elliot Larkin Ferguson,  also did 18 months in Yuma, but for manslaughter. In 1910 he married Phin Clanton's widow, and died in 1914. Thus the villains of Tombstone.

The subterranean towers of this Ilium   -  the mines of Tombstone - were drowned in 1887 after fires destroyed the pumps that kept them workable, and the price of silver plummeted. Fire also destroyed Fly's Boarding House and the Harwood house as well. 

The dawning 20th century made copper the new gold, and by 1929 the Copper Queen mine in Bisbee drew the Cochise County seat there, leaving Tombstone to fade into the Sonora desert. During the 1930's Arizona politicians tried to kill the town by using New Deal money to "improve" Fremont Street, plowing over the site of the shoot out  (above) and obliterating the history. But Tombstone refused to die.

Tuberculosis killed 36 year old John Henry "Doc" Holliday (above), in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, in November of 1887.  He died alone, in the company of a hired nurse. 

Almost all of the stories of robberies and murders attributed to Doc Holliday and the Earps originated with John Harris Behan (above), the corrupt sheriff of Cochise County. When the mines failed, Johnny moved on, leaving behind debts and missing funds. He was the brutal superintendent of the Yuma Prison for 2 years, stealing an estimated $50,000. Always a Democratic appointee and always corrupt, by the turn of the century he was in Washington, D.C., but quickly returned to the Southwest. He died in Tuscon in 1912, of heart failure brought on by 30 years of syphilis, which he had contracted in Tombstone. Like most villains, he was usually guilty of the very sins he attributed to others.

The Southern Pacific Railroad provided a California job for the handicapped Virgil Earp, and supported him until he died of his wounds on 19 October, 1905. 

Wyatt Earp died of a urinary tract infection in January of 1929, at the age of 80. 

His second common law wife, Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, died on 20 December, 1944. Neither of them suffered from syphilis. But like most gamblers "Sadie" died broke. Her funeral was paid for by silent movie cowboy William S. Hart, and Hollywood theater owner Sid Grauman. Thus the heroes of the Tombstone saga.

Between 1860, when Frederick Brunckow discovered silver ore along the banks of the San Pedro River, to 1890, when the mines drowned, something around $85 million dollars worth of silver was harvested from the black veins around Tombstone, Arizona. Figuring in the efforts of those who fed and entertained the miners, treated their wounds, physical and emotional, and buried their bodies, Tombstone's silver fulfilled thousands of dreams and millions of nightmares. Those who died in the effort in this desert would have died someplace else, at some other time. But this is where they died, and this was when, because the earth cracked here long before humans ever set eyes upon the place.

And asking why their tombstones were erected here, may not be worth the effort.

But nothing that happened in Tombstone was an accident, anymore than the way rocks crack along molecular lines is an accident, or the way greed drives humans to murder is an accident. But of the two ways to get rich, the fastest is to not bother with reason, and simply grab anything and everything you can. Reason is far slower to show a profit,  but it makes you far richer, and for far longer. As they said in the saloons and brothels along Allen Street,  "Name your poison, stranger."

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TOMBSTONES Chapter Nineteen

I think it was too late for thinking. A heartless cold wind was blowing across the Arizona Sonora desert. It was about 3:01 pm on Wednesday, 26 October 1881. And in a small corner of the mining town of Tombstone, 9 men were facing off across a 15 foot wide alley, sandwiched between the wood frame private home of William Arthur Harwood and the 15 room wood frame boarding house managed by "Mollie" Fly. In a span of approximately 30 seconds those 9 men would fire 31 shots, wounding 3 and killing 3 of them. And 2 men would escape uninjured.

Before the fight began 33 year old Wyatt Earp (above) had decided the most dangerous threat to himself and his brothers was 33 year old Frank McLaury. 

In the first second of that fight, and hearing the double click of Doc Holliday's shotgun, Wyatt drew his 3 pound Smith and Wesson New Model 3 revolver (above), aimed its 8 inch barrel dead center at Frank, and fired. 

In that same instant, 19 year old Billy Clanton pulled his 3 pound 13 inch long Colt 1876 revolver (above), and fired at Wyatt Earp.

In both guns the firing pins were driven into the primer at the back of each shell. This ignited a small quantity of mercury fulminate, briefly generating a temperature above 800 degrees Fahrenheit. This ignited a grain of black powder, a mixture of 75% potassium nitrate which provided oxygen, 10% sulfur, which lowered the mixture's combustion temperature so that the 15% softwood charcoal quickly burned. However only 45% of the black powder mass was converted into heat. Well over half did not combust, and was converted into dense white smoke. Still, the heat ignited the 239 adjoining grains of black powder, spreading within the shell casing at a rate of 30 feet per second.

This rapid increase of air pressure sent the lead and atimony bullets racing out of their respective barrels at nearly 850 feet per second, air resistance then causing them tumbling over the six to eight feet between Wyatt and Frank in less than a tenth of a second. Billy Clanton's slug had a couple of more feet to travel, but it did not matter since Billy missed his target.

Wyatt's bullet was almost broadside when it struck Frank McLaury's stomach, multiplying the damage at the point of entry, one inch to the left of his navel. First the flesh was compressed by the lead pellet, then sheered, pulling apart as the metal tore into the abdominal cavity, leaving a thin greasy lead smear on the flesh. Air, heated by friction as the bullet pushed it aside. swelled into the wound as it opened, increasing the air pressure in the cavity, and pulverizing  all the soft tissue. The elastic skin then rebounded, as the air following Newton's Third Law of Motion now rushed back out of the wound. It was still less than a second after Wyatt's gun had fired.

The protective peritoneum tissue surrounding Frank McLaury's abdomen was now perforated as the bullet ripped through the folded small intestines, scattering their bacteria about the cavity. As the bullet's speed was translated into heat, thousands of capillaries were cauterized. But on either side of the bullet track, cavitation vibrations caused even more damage to the soft tissues. Last, the one ounce lead bullet now shattered Frank McLaury's kidney, causing a massive hemorrhage of blood. As this happened, the lower parts of Frank's brain were becoming aware of the damage being suffered, and his face was beginning to distort. In the Second and Third Seconds he staggered backward a step and in the Fourth Second he doubled over.

In the Third Second, 30 year old Morgan Earp fired his pistol at Billy Clanton, who had just shot at his brother Wyatt. Less than one tenth of a second later, Morgan's bullet hit Billy near the inside of the base of his right thumb. Still traveling faster than the speed of sound the bullet shattered the delicate carpal and metacarpal bones. Then the splintered pellet tore out the back of Billy's wrist, carrying away bone, cartilage and muscle, ripping an even larger wound in his lower arm, and rendering Billy Clanton's right hand useless. Arterial blood began to spurt out of Billy's wrist. In the Fourth and Fifth Seconds Billy staggered back against the Harwood house, while struggling to grab the handle grip of his Colt with his left hand.

Also in that First Second, seeing 28 year old Tom McLaury instinctively reach for his holster, 38 year old Virgil Earp pulled his weapon from his pocket and fired at him, and missed. In the Third Second, the 5 foot 4 inch Tom, realizing his holster was empty, reached for the nearest weapon - a pistol secreted in a saddle bag on his brother's horse. Virgil fired again, and missed the moving target. In the Fourth Second the noise and the human's sudden movement caused the horse to back a step, the lead rope pulling Tom off balance. The horse was now blocking Virgil's line of fire, and in the Fifth Second the Marshal took a shot at Tom over the top of the horse, missing for the third time.

In the Third Second, 30 year old John "Doc" Holliday, cradling the 10 gauge  coach gun in his arms, moved two steps further west on Fremont, to give himself a clear view of Tom McLaury, in the alley. And in the Fifth Second Doc pulled both triggers on the Coach Gun. The twin firing pins were driven into the primer at the back of each shell. Again the mechanical and chemical reactions ignited black powder grains, sending the wax paper wad and 20 one ounce lead and atimony pellets up the two barrels at 800 feet per second.

Because of air resistance, the paper wad fell to the ground well short of Tom McLaury. But less than a second after Doc pulled the triggers, the shot reached Tom, it's 20 BB sized pellets having spread out to a circle of just 4 inches in diameter. These plowed into Tom under his raised right arm, peppering and penetrating the flesh between the 3rd and 5th ribs. Absorbing the energy caused his ribs to crack. Those which missed the bone punctured the upper lobe of his right lung, producing a pulmonary laceration. Air was forced out of his mouth. Most of the pellets ran out of energy just before reaching Tom McLaury's heart. In the Sixth Second, Tom, his hand finally gripping the secreted gun, staggered into Fremont Street, dragging the frightened horse behind him - between himself and Doc Holliday.

In the Sixth Second, as Wyatt Earp was taking aim for a second shot at Frank McLaury, Ike Clanton ran forward, pressing himself against the lawman, and spoiling his shot. Ike cried out that he was unarmed. In the Seventh and Eighth Second, Wyatt told Ike to "Get heeled", adding, "Go to fighting or get away!" In the Ninth Second Wyatt pushed Ike to his right and rear, out of the line of fire. And during the Tenth through Thirteenth Seconds, Ike stumbled east on Fremont, up the steps of Fly's Boarding House, and through the front door - out of the fight. There was now a 2 second pause while the wind cleared enough smoke so the combatants could see each other.

In the Eighth through the Thirteenth Seconds, Tom Mclaury staggered east across Fremont Street, and Doc Holliday dropped the coach gun, pulled his Nickel plated .41 caliber "Long" Colt Thunderer revolver from his shoulder holster and stepped forward to face his enemy. About the Fourteenth Second the horse pulled free from Tom's hand and loped west on Fremont. In the Fifteenth Second Tom McLaury reached the south side of Fremont Street.

In the Sixteenth Second Billy Clanton (above) got a firm grip on the pistol in his left hand by bracing it with his leg. Tom McLaury fired his Colt in blind anger at Virgil Earp. The bullet hit Virgil in the calf. In the Seventeenth Second the big lawman fell. During the Eighteenth through Twenty-first Seconds Virgil staggered to his feet and stumbled back against Fly's Boarding House.

During the Nineteenth Second, Morgan Earp (above) and Billy Clanton exchanged shots. Morgan's bullet hit two inches below Billy's left nipple. The bullet clipped a rib and penetrated his lung. Billy's shot clipped Morgan's right scapula, and went spinning across his back, burning across his left shoulder blade as well. In the Twentieth through Twenty-third Seconds Morgan fell. He then tried to stand, calling out "I'm hit." But he tripped over a lightly buried water line and fell again. Billy Clanton slumped to the ground, still firing but hitting no one as his sight failed for lack of blood to the vision centers of his brain.

In the Twentieth Second Wyatt Earp fired his last shot at Frank McLaury (above), the bullet striking him in the abdomen beneath the 12th rib, 6 inches to the right of his naval. Frank staggered forward, away from the gunfire, and then began to jog up Fremont Street, out of the fight. Wyatt then turned to help his brother Morgan. In the Twenty-third Second, Tom McLaury stood on the South side of Fremont, telling Doc Holliday, "I have you now." In the Twenty-fourth Second Doc replied, "You're a daisy if you have." In the Twenty-fifth Second Tom fired his Colt revolver, hitting Doc, who cried out, "I'm shot through". He was not. He had suffered a flesh wound.

In the Twenty-eighth Second, braced against the boarding house, Morgan fired his last shot. It traveled the 50 feet in less than a second and struck Tom McLaury (above) just below his right ear, - the best shot in the entire fight. The lead projectile punched in an oval section of Tom's Temporal bone, converting it into a quarter inch think projectile which plowed into the 100 million neurons of Tom's brain. This was followed almost instantly by the bullet, which followed a different path through the greasy squishy white brain matter. 

Modern medicine calls what happened an ischemic cascade. In less than a tenth of a second all that was Tom McLaury, his ability to speak, to smell, to hear, to think and plan and dream, 28 years of memories, talents, skills and failings were all obliterated as if they had never existed. His heart would go on beating for some time, and he would continue to breath for a few minutes, but in truth Tom McLaury ceased to exist before his legs crumpled beneath him, and he fell to the sand of Fremont Street.

Billy Clanton (above) was slumped now against the Harwood house, his revolver empty. The 19 year old asked for more cartridges. Fifty feet up Fremont, Tom McLaury collapsed against a telegraph pole at the corner of Fremont and Third Street and died from exsanguination, less than thirty seconds after Wyatt's first bullet destroyed his kidney. In the Thirtieth Second Doc Holliday ran up to Frank McLaury's crumpled body and yelled, "That son-of-a-bitch shot me, and I mean to kill him!"

The Gunfight at the OK Corral was over.

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TOMBSTONES Chapter Eighteen

I know what Wyatt Earp was thinking as he stepped off the plank walkway in front of 44 year old Colonel Roderick Hafford's Saloon, on the corner of Fourth and Allen Streets, just before 3:00pm, Wednesday, 26 October, 1881. He was deciding on a plan of action for the coming fight, and he didn't have much time. The distance Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp and friend John Holliday had to cover was just 310 feet. At an average walking speed of 3 miles an hour, they would reach the corner of Fourth and Fremont in less than 20 seconds, and 312 Fremont Street, Mollie Fry's boarding house, in another 30 seconds. Fifty seconds between life and death. And another 30 seconds to determine who would die and how.

Oddly, this fight which would come to symbolize the violence of the American West occurred after the crest of the wave. The peak had come in 1878, when there were 36 recorded gunfights along the frontier. The next year that dropped to 14, but in 1880 there were 25, and the one about to occur would be one of 27 in 1881. But after this bloody year, the total would never rise above 20 in any given year - at least until historians stopped counting in 1900.

In part this was a function of how few men actually made their living at least part time through gun violence. Out of the 365 documented gunmen in the American West, most had been born before the civil war - average birth year was 1853 - but most were too young to have fought in that conflict. Almost a third - 110 - worked at least part time as lawmen, like the Earps and Johnny Behan. And the badge extended their lives. Of the remaining 255, 35 were good enough to be full time professional hired guns, while another 174 could be called Cow Boys - ranchers and rustlers who used gun violence to achieve other ends. Almost all of these men ended up at the end of a rope or being shot to death, when their average age was just 35.

Waiting in the 15 foot wide alleyway (above) between the boarding house and the home of William Arthur Harwood - second mayor of Tombstone - stood 6 Cow Boys. Wesley "Wess" Fuller, was deepest in the alley. This 26 year old gambler and Cow Boy had been posted to warn of anyone approaching from the Allen Street entrance. He was now speaking to Billy Claiborne. To Billy's left stood Ike Clanton. To his left stood Robert Findley "Frank" McLaury, holding in his left hand the bridle of his brother's horse . Frank had abandoned his guard post south of Fourth and Allen to deliver with Johnny Behan a warning that the Earps were alert. To his left was his brother, Thomas Clark "Tom" McLaury. To Tom's left stood 19 year old Billy Clanton. The odds are the six were arguing about what to do next - leave town at once or go inside the boarding house and murder Doc Holliday in his bed, and then leave town.

Because of their arrests, Ike Clanton (above) and Frank McLaury were still unarmed. Ike had tried to buy a pistol in the hardware store, but the manager took one look at his bandaged head and refused to take Ike's cash. There is no indication any of the Cow Boys protested this "violation" of his Second Amendment rights. And once again not having access to a gun, saved Ike's life.

It is important to note who might have been in the alley that afternoon. Pete Spence and Frank Stillwell were still in jail in Tuscon, awaiting trial for the Bisbee stage robbery. Curley Bill Brocius (above),  the smartest and best shot of the Cow Boys,   was in New Mexico, trying to pick up the pieces of the Rustlers' Trail, after the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre. The gang was off balance, making it a bad time to move against the Earps. But this reflexive lashing out was just the kind of angry hot blooded assault Frank McLaury was well known and well feared for.

As the 4 lawmen reached the corner and turned onto Fremont they were accosted by Cochise County Marshal Johnny Behan.  Johnny assured Virgil he had already disarmed the Cow Boys. 

 In fact,  Behan and Frank McLaury had walked south on Allen, before passing through the alley, drawing Wes Fuller with them, to a conference between Fly's Boarding House and the Harwood House.  There the  Cochise County Marshal warned the Cow Boys that the Earps were alarmed and ready for a fight.  Frank McLaury, Billy Clanton, Wess Fuller and Billy "The Kid" Claiborn still wore their guns.  Behan now suggested the Cow Boys disarm or just leave town,  But the hot head Frank McLaury had insisted he would disarm only if the Earps disarmed first.  Confronted by the angry Frank, Behan had delivered a more conciliatory message to the Earps   But the McLaurys and Clantons had reneged on every promise made to the Earps over the last year. The lawmen kept walking.

The quartet walked west on Fremont, staying close to the south side store fronts. They had been told by several civilians where the Clantons and McLaury's were gathered -  in the alleyway (above).  And by hugging the packed sand walkway they would be visible to the Cow Boys only if one of them stepped out into the street. And none did that.

But Behan's lie did have an effect, and it was disastrous.. Striding west on Fremont, as they passed the rear entrance to the OK Corral,  Wyatt, VIrgil and Morgan all three pocketed their 8 inch long 3 pound Smith & Wesson 44 caliber New Model 3  hand guns.   Doc was carrying the coach gun, but also had a nickel-plated .41 caliber "Long" Colt Thunderer in a holster under his arm.  If the lawmen had kept the pistols in their hands, visible,  they would have left the Cow Boys no choice but to hand over their guns, peacefully.  But by introducing doubt into the lawmen's minds, Johnny Behan had insured there would be a gun fight.  The lie, meant to protect his allies, had driven the final nail into coffins for 3 of them.

As the 4 lawmen turned into the alley, Wyatt Earp was on the right, the furthest forward., three steps into the alley, the wall of Fly's Boarding House protecting his left flank.  To Wyatt's right stood Virgil Earp. To his right was Morgan Earp. And to his right, still armed with the Coach Gun under his coat, was Doc Holliday. The Earps had just appeared without warning, no more than 6 feet away from Ike Clanton and Frank McLaury.  Doc Holliday was no more than 10 feet away from 19 year old Billy Clanton. In a breath the Earps had gotten "the drop" on the Cow Boys, just as  a year earlier when the Earps were looking for the stolen Army mules. If their guns had been in their hands, the odds are the Clantons and McLaury's would have surrendered at once.

Before anyone Cow Boy had time to react, Virgil Earp called out, "Throw your hands up, I want you guns." Shocked,  "Wess" Fuller and Billy Claiborne bolted,  running north, into the rear of Fly's boarding house. That left  4 Cow Boys facing 4 lawmen. But only 2 of the Cow Boys were armed.

Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton put their hands on their holsters, containing their 3 pound, 13 inch long Colt 1873 revolvers. Virgil immediately yells either, "Hold! I don't mean that!" or "I don't want that!" But he shifts the cane to his left hand, freeing his right to draw his weapon. Wyatt and Morgan put their hands on their own pocketed weapons as well.

And in the next breath, just at that instant, Doc Holliday swings the  7 pound 37 inch long Coach Gun out from under his coat and cocked both barrels. The sound of that metallic double click ignited the tension. What happened next is best described as chaos.

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