by John Mason Glen, Ph.D. for the Western Heritage Foundation
Last month we recounted the famous firefight in October 1881 in Tombstone. Now, as famed newscaster Paul Harvey, used to say, “The rest of the story.”
Shortly after the gunfight, Virgil Earp was wounded from an ambush and Morgan Earp murdered while he played pool. Wyatt, vowing “an eye for an eye,” organized a posse of his brothers James and Warren, together with friend and former Texas Ranger Sherman McMaster, “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson, a friend of Wyatt’s from their buffalo hunting days, “Texas Jack” Vermillion, a companion of Holliday’s, plus Holliday.
They learned from the inquest into Morgan’s death that the wife of Frank Stillwell admitted to her that he was involved in Morgan Earp’s death. The judge ruled the testimony hearsay; Stillwell was released.
As Wyatt and part of the posse escorted Virgil and his wife Allie to Tucson to begin a rail journey to Colton, California, where the Earp parents lived, witnesses noticed two heavily armed men — later identified as Ike Clanton and Frank Stillwell — lurking around the train depot. As Virgil’s train pulled out, several gunshots were heard. Stillwell’s lifeless body was found the next morning.
Earp’s group then rode to the wood-cutting camp of Pete Spence. But Spence had turned himself into Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, preferring the safety of jail to the wrath of the Earps. The posse did find the bullet-riddled corpse of “Indian Charlie” Cruz.
Earp’s men next tracked “Curly Bill” Brocius to a campsite near Iron Springs in the Dragoon Mountains. Two scoundrels — including Brocius — were killed.
Wyatt’s coat was shot to ribbons, his boot heel and saddle horn shot off, but he was uninjured. Holliday pulled Vermillion to safety after the latter’s horse was killed.
Sheriff Behan and a 25-man posse never got close enough to the Earps to make an arrest. Now wanted, the men fled to New Mexico Territory in mid-April 1882 where they split up. Wyatt and Holliday landed in Colorado where the latter died of tuberculosis in November 1887.
Wyatt and his common-law wife Josie spent their final years in Los Angles where Wyatt worked on some early Western films. He died in 1929 at age 80. Film stars Tom Mix and William S. Hart were among the pallbearers.
Visit the Western Heritage Center, 156 S. Montezuma, for more on Arizona history and the West. Admission is free.
