Speaker 1: You are listening to History on Trial, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. Listener discretion advised. In the summer of eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty one, Wyatt Irp lawmen approached Ike Clanton outlaw with
Speaker 1: a proposition. This was highly unusual. Ike Clanton was affiliated
Speaker 1: with the Cowboys, a group of cattle wrestlers and stagecoach
Speaker 1: robbers who operated in the dusty reaches of southeastern Arizona.
Speaker 1: Wyatt Ierp, on the other hand, was a former Pima
Speaker 1: County deputy sheriff. His brother, Virgil, was city marshall for Tombstone,
Speaker 1: the mining boomtown situated in the heart of Cowboy country.
Speaker 1: The ERPs were sworn enemies of the Cowboys. So what
Speaker 1: did Wyatt want with Ike? As Wyatt would later explain it,
Speaker 1: he thought Ike could help make him sheriff. Earlier that year, too,
Speaker 1: Ummestone had split off from Pima County to become the
Speaker 1: seat of the newly formed Coachees County. Wyatt had hoped
Speaker 1: to be appointed sheriff of Cochees County, but that honor
Speaker 1: had gone to Johnny Beehn instead. Bee Hann was thought
Speaker 1: to be sympathetic to the Cowboys. Many in Tombstone were
Speaker 1: for various reasons, but having a sheriff with connections to
Speaker 1: outlaws seemed wrong to many other Tombstoners, including Wyatt Earp.
Speaker 1: Since there would be a real election held for the
Speaker 1: sheriff position soon enough, Wyatt decided to run. He had
Speaker 1: an unorthodox campaign strategy. A few months earlier, in March
Speaker 1: of eighteen eighty one, a stagecoach carrying a Wells Bargo
Speaker 1: money box was attacked by a group of bandits outside
Speaker 1: of Tombstone. In the course of the attempted robbery, the
Speaker 1: stagecoach driver and a passenger were killed. Wyatt and Virgil
Speaker 1: Earp had tracked down one of the robbers, a man
Speaker 1: named Luther King. King, in turn had identified his accomplices
Speaker 1: William Leonard, Harry Head and James Crane, all known cowboy affiliates.
Speaker 1: The RT Posse turned the King over to Sheriff be
Speaker 1: Hand so they could pursue the missing men, but they
Speaker 1: never found Leonard, Head or Crane. Soon after, King managed
Speaker 1: to escape custody. The circumstances of his escape were very suspect.
Speaker 1: One of Behan's deputies left the prisoner unattended with the
Speaker 1: door unlocked, allowing King to slip out and mount the
Speaker 1: fresh horse that had very conveniently been left behind the jail.
Speaker 1: Many Tombstoners suspected that Behan had looked the other way,
Speaker 1: or maybe had even helped. King George Parsons, a Tombstone resident,
Speaker 1: wrote in his diary quote, some of our officials should
Speaker 1: be hanged. They're a bad lot. Wyatt wanted to play
Speaker 1: off these bad feelings in his own campaign for sheriff.
Speaker 1: And wouldn't it be even better if he managed to
Speaker 1: capture the missing robbers life head and crane too. That
Speaker 1: would show just how useless Beehn was. But to do that,
Speaker 1: Whyatt needed intel on the cowboys, and where better to
Speaker 1: get that intel than from another cowboy. Ike Clanton came
Speaker 1: from a cowboy family. His little brother Billy and his
Speaker 1: father Newman, who everyone called Old Man, took part in
Speaker 1: cowboy raids. Two. Ike might know where to find the
Speaker 1: missing robbers, So Whyatt came to him with an idea.
Speaker 1: Wells Fargo was offering a five thousand dollars reward for
Speaker 1: the robbers capture. If Ike helped him find the men,
Speaker 1: Wyatt said he'd give Ike the reward money, Ike demonstrating
Speaker 1: that there's no honor amongst cowboys. Had just one question.
Speaker 1: Was the reward only good if the men were captured?
Speaker 1: What if they were killed? Wyatt telegraphed the Wells Fargo
Speaker 1: office to ask dead or alive. Wells Faro confirmed, so
Speaker 1: Ike and Wyatt struck a deal. Unfortunately for Wyatt's campaign
Speaker 1: ambitions and Ike's financial dreams, Leonard, Head and Crane all
Speaker 1: soon died in unrelated gun battles, but the deal the
Speaker 1: two men had struck that summer would only months later
Speaker 1: lead them both to a dusty lot behind the Ok Corral,
Speaker 1: where an escalating IRP cowboy conflict erupted into one of
Speaker 1: the wild West's most infamous gunfights. The twenty sixth of
Speaker 1: October eighteen eighty one, wrote reporter Richard Rule in the
Speaker 1: Tombstone Daily Nugget. The next day will always be marked
Speaker 1: as one of the crimson days in the annals of Tombstone,
Speaker 1: A day when blood flowed as water and human life
Speaker 1: was held as a shuttlecock. A day always to be
Speaker 1: remembered as witnessing the bloodiest and deadliest street fight that
Speaker 1: has ever occurred in this place, or probably in the territories.
Speaker 1: Rule was right, we remember the gunfight at the Oka, CA.
Speaker 1: We can picture it, the long black coats, the drooping mustaches,
Speaker 1: the fingers resting on triggers. The gunfight at the OK
Speaker 1: Corral has become a symbol of the wild West, an
Speaker 1: illustration of how hard men administered justice on the lawless frontier.
Speaker 1: But here's the funny thing about the gunfight at the
Speaker 1: OK Corral. It might have started in the streets, but
Speaker 1: it ended up in a courtroom. Welcome to history on trial.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week the Irp Holiday Case.
Speaker 1: The legend of the Earths began in July eighteen forty
Speaker 1: when Nicholas Irp married Virginia Cooksey in Hartford, Kentucky. The
Speaker 1: couple would have eight children, including the three that we
Speaker 1: know best today, Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan. Nicholas was a
Speaker 1: short tempered, ill mannered, but energetic man. He moved to
Speaker 1: family frequently. Virgil was born in Kentucky in eighteen forty three,
Speaker 1: Wyatt in Illinois in eighteen forty eight, and Morgan in
Speaker 1: Iowa in eighteen fifty one. This unsteady childhood bonded the
Speaker 1: Ert brothers as adults, they often traveled and lived together.
Speaker 1: Throughout the eighteen sixties and seventies. The brothers bounced across
Speaker 1: the West and Midwest, taking whatever jobs they could get,
Speaker 1: like driving stage coaches, dealing in casinos, and building train tracks.
Speaker 1: Contrary to our idea of them today, law enforcement was
Speaker 1: not always the rp's passion. When they did take police jobs,
Speaker 1: like when Wyatt and Morgan served as deputy town marshals
Speaker 1: in Wichita, it was usually only because of the steady
Speaker 1: paycheck provided. In fact, Wyatt, for most of his young
Speaker 1: adult life, had more of a penchant for breaking the
Speaker 1: law than for enforcing it. After the tragic death of
Speaker 1: his pregnant wife Urilla in eighteen seventy, Wyatt went through
Speaker 1: a bit of a dark period. He was at various
Speaker 1: times arrested for horse theft, charged with running a floating brothel,
Speaker 1: and sued for keeping taxes he had collected for local
Speaker 1: schools for himself. But by the late eighteen seventies Wyatt
Speaker 1: had settled down, as had his brothers. Virgil and his
Speaker 1: common law wife Ali were living in Prescott, Arizona, where
Speaker 1: he was serving as town constable, a job that mainly
Speaker 1: required him to serve subpoenas. Virgil encouraged Morgan, who was
Speaker 1: then mining in Montana, and Wyatt, a deputy marshal in
Speaker 1: Dodge City, Kansas, to join him in Arizona. Wyatt and
Speaker 1: Morgan were in Wyatt's good friend John Holliday decided to
Speaker 1: come to Doc. Holiday, as he's better known, was a
Speaker 1: hard drinking dentist with a quick temper and a bad
Speaker 1: case of tuberculosis. Most people didn't like him, but Doc
Speaker 1: had once saved Wyatt's life during a standoff, and the
Speaker 1: two had been fast friends ever since. On November first,
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine, I met up with Virgil and Ali
Speaker 1: in Prescott. The party then made their way to Tombstone,
Speaker 1: arriving on December first. Morgan came eight months later in
Speaker 1: July eighteen eighty, and Doc several months after that. The
Speaker 1: RPS had chosen Tombstone because of its legendary mines. In
Speaker 1: August eighteen seventy seven, a man named Ed Schifflin had
Speaker 1: found a vein of silver in the area. In a
Speaker 1: cheeky nod to a doubter who'd once told him he'd
Speaker 1: only find his death out there, Schifflin dubbed his claim Tombstone.
Speaker 1: In November eighteen seventy nine, a month before Virgil and
Speaker 1: Wyatt arrived, Tombstone elected its first mayor and city council.
Speaker 1: Like many Western mining towns, Tombstone was a rough place.
Speaker 1: Saloons and gambling halls lined the streets. After too many drinks,
Speaker 1: fights broke out over card games. The town's location, only
Speaker 1: thirty miles from the Mexican border made it a popular
Speaker 1: spot for bandits and cattle wrestlers who stole goods in
Speaker 1: one country and sold them in another. People called such
Speaker 1: criminals cowboys. The men who we'd call cowboys today were
Speaker 1: then called stockmen or cow hans. By the late eighteen seventies,
Speaker 1: people had started calling the wrestlers and robbers who lived
Speaker 1: in southeastern Arizona the capital c cowboys. The cowboys weren't
Speaker 1: an official gang. They were a loose group of outlaws
Speaker 1: who collaborated to part cattle from ranchers and money from
Speaker 1: stage coaches. Many of them came to Arizona from the
Speaker 1: former Confederacy, drawn to the territory by the promise of
Speaker 1: less government oversight. Though the cowboys could be violent, sometimes
Speaker 1: killing victims during their robberies, not everyone in Tombstone minded
Speaker 1: their presence. Legal historian Stephen Lubet, in his book Murder
Speaker 1: in Tombstone calls the relationship between the cowboys in the
Speaker 1: town quote symbiotic, not flatly antagonistic. The cowboys had many
Speaker 1: friends and supporters both in and around Tombstone, and other
Speaker 1: local merchants depended on cowboys for cheap provisions, and saloon
Speaker 1: keepers enjoyed their freewheeling spending habits. Ranchers living outside of town,
Speaker 1: many of whom were ex Confederate Democrats, also got on
Speaker 1: well with the cowboys, who shared their political beliefs and backgrounds.
Speaker 1: Some of these ranchers even acted as middlemen for cattle
Speaker 1: the cowboys stole in Mexico. But not everyone was so
Speaker 1: tolerant of the cowboys. Many involved in the mining business.
Speaker 1: Mine owners and engineers, as well as other businessmen, were
Speaker 1: concerned about the economic impact the cowboys crime could have.
Speaker 1: These people mainly came from Northern States and were Republicans.
Speaker 1: They had less in common politically and socioeconomically with the cowboys.
Speaker 1: This latter group included the Ert Brothers, who were now
Speaker 1: firmly invested in helping maintain law and order They did
Speaker 1: so in both private employment, guarding wells, fargo stage coaches
Speaker 1: and acting as bouncers and saloons, and also in public roles.
Speaker 1: Before arriving in Tombstone, Virgil had been appointed a Deputy
Speaker 1: U s Marshal, making him the only federal authority in
Speaker 1: the region. In the summer of eighteen eighty, an Army
Speaker 1: lieutenant reached out to Virgil with a request. Six mules
Speaker 1: had been stolen from the army's base at Camp Rucker.
Speaker 1: Could Virgil track them down. Virgil agreed to look into
Speaker 1: the matter, taking Wyatt and Morgan along with him. The
Speaker 1: IRPs got a tip to search the mcclowry ranch outside
Speaker 1: of Tombstone. Two of the mcloary brothers, Frank and Tom,
Speaker 1: were known to collaborate with the cowboys hiding russelled livestock
Speaker 1: on their ranch. Sure enough, there were the mules. The mcloarys, unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: were never big IRP fans After that. Besides a little
Speaker 1: mule wrustling, relative peace reigned in Tombstone for much of
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty. Wyatt was appointed a deputy sheriff in Pima County,
Speaker 1: and he and Virgil collaborated with Tombstone's Town Marshal Fred
Speaker 1: White direct present federal, county and local law enforcement. Then,
Speaker 1: on October twenty eighth, a group of drunken cowboys took
Speaker 1: to the streets of Tombstone and began firing their guns
Speaker 1: for fun. Town Marshal Fred White intervened and got shot
Speaker 1: in the groin. White died four days later, and Virgil
Speaker 1: was appointed acting town Marshal. In response to this violence,
Speaker 1: the Tombstone Town Council passed a new ordinance forbidding people
Speaker 1: from carrying weapons with in city limits. They hoped this
Speaker 1: would restore peace, but the violence was only beginning. Eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty one saw a number of upheavals for the town. First,
Speaker 1: Tombstone and its surroundings split off from Pima County to
Speaker 1: form Cochees County. If this is sounding familiar, I talked
Speaker 1: about this in the prologue, but that was ages ago,
Speaker 1: so as a quick refresher. In February, Democrat and alleged
Speaker 1: cowboy sympathizer Johnny Behn becomes Coachee's County Sheriff, much to
Speaker 1: Wyatt Irp's chagrin. In March, the fatal stagecoach robbery takes place.
Speaker 1: After the IRPs apprehend one of the robbers, he miraculously
Speaker 1: manages to slip out of bee Han's custody. Wyatt IRP,
Speaker 1: fed up with bee Hand's incompetence, decides to run for sheriff.
Speaker 1: He makes a deal with Eike Clanton Cowboy to get
Speaker 1: intel on the other stagecoach robbers. Ike says yes because
Speaker 1: a five thousand dollars reward is hard to refuse. The
Speaker 1: other robbers end up dying in unrelated gunfights, as outlaws
Speaker 1: tend to do. So nothing happens except that the animosity
Speaker 1: between the IRPs and Sheriff bee Han grows and grows
Speaker 1: and grows. I should mention here that at some point
Speaker 1: be hands fiance Josephine Marcus leaves him and eventually ends
Speaker 1: up with Wyatt Irp, So that also doesn't help relationships
Speaker 1: between the men. That takes us to September eighteen eighty one.
Speaker 1: That month, Acting Arizona Territory Guns John Gosper hears about
Speaker 1: the dysfunctional law enforcement situation in Tombstone and decides to
Speaker 1: see for himself. His report to Secretary of State James Blaine,
Speaker 1: written on September twentieth, is concerning in conversations with Johnny
Speaker 1: b Han and Virgil Irp, Gosper wrote both men had
Speaker 1: accused the other of enabling the cowboys. Without cooperation between
Speaker 1: the sheriff and the Marshall, Gosper said there was little
Speaker 1: chance of cracking down on crime in the region. Gosper
Speaker 1: ended his report on an ominous note, quote something must
Speaker 1: be done and that right early or very grave results
Speaker 1: will follow. Only a month later, his worst fears came true.
Speaker 1: Late on the evening of October twenty fifth, eighteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: Ike Clinton and Tom mccloughy arrived in Tombstone with a
Speaker 1: wagonload of beef to sell. Around midnight, Ike stopped by
Speaker 1: the Alhambra Saloon, where he ran into Doc Holliday. This
Speaker 1: meeting was no coincidence. Wyatt Irp had engineered it. In
Speaker 1: the months since Wyatt and Ike had made their deal,
Speaker 1: Ike had gotten increasingly nervous about word of his betrayal
Speaker 1: getting out. For some reason, Ike believed that Wyatt had
Speaker 1: told Doc Holliday about their discussions. Wyatt thought a conversation
Speaker 1: with Doc might reassure Ike. Why he thought this is
Speaker 1: a mystery. Doc Holliday was many things, but a soothing presence,
Speaker 1: not one of them. He and Ike were both known
Speaker 1: for their quick tempers. Plus, there's nothing that says I
Speaker 1: don't know about your secret business like telling someone I
Speaker 1: don't know about your secret business. The meeting quickly devolved,
Speaker 1: and Ike and Doc began threatening each other. Morgan irp
Speaker 1: intervened and broke up the fight out on the street.
Speaker 1: Ike briefly got into it with Wyatt. Tempers eventually cooled
Speaker 1: enough for someone to suggest a poker game, so Ike,
Speaker 1: Tom Virgil, Sheriff b Han and maybe Morgan, Wyatt and
Speaker 1: Doc two all sat down for a casual five hour
Speaker 1: game at the Occidental Saloon. Unfortunately, if unsurprisingly, hours of
Speaker 1: drinking and gambling did nothing to cool Ike off. Throughout
Speaker 1: the next morning, October twenty sixth Ike was seen drunkenly
Speaker 1: wandering through the streets of Tombstone, waving a rifle and
Speaker 1: threatening the RBS and Doc holiday. The gossip network in
Speaker 1: Tombstone worked fast, soon enough, word of Ike's behavior reached
Speaker 1: Virgil and Morgan. When they found Ike, Virgil seized Ike's
Speaker 1: rifle and then employed a Western lawman's favorite technique for
Speaker 1: subduing a troublemaker. He clubbed Ike in the head with
Speaker 1: the butt of his revolver. This was called buffaloing, and
Speaker 1: though we'd probably call it police brutality today, buffaloing was
Speaker 1: looked upon as a sign of an officer's restraint, better
Speaker 1: than just shooting someone. Then, Virgil charged Ike with carrying
Speaker 1: a firearm within city limit, the ordinance that had been
Speaker 1: passed a year before in response to the shooting death
Speaker 1: of town Marshal Fred White. After paying a twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars fine and surrendering his weapons, Ike was released. Virgil
Speaker 1: deposited Ike's rifle and revolver at the Grand Hotel for
Speaker 1: Ike to pick up. When he left town. In the street,
Speaker 1: Wyatt ran into Tom mclowry, who was looking for Ike.
Speaker 1: Wyatt would later claim that Tom had a gun, but
Speaker 1: by most other accounts, Tom was unarmed. Exactly what happened
Speaker 1: then between Wyatt and Tom is unknown, but Wyatt ended
Speaker 1: up buffaloing Tom. Just then, Ike's younger brother Billy and
Speaker 1: Tom's older brother Frank arrived in town, both armed. Billy
Speaker 1: and Frank were furious about what had happened to their brothers,
Speaker 1: whose heads were both bleeding from their buffaloings. Not long after,
Speaker 1: the Clinton's and mcclowrys were seen in Spangenberg's gun shop,
Speaker 1: where they bought ammunition. Ike also tried to buy another gun,
Speaker 1: but mister Spangenberg refused. The group then headed to the
Speaker 1: Ok Corral for unknown reasons. The ERPs heard about the
Speaker 1: gunshot visit and grew concerned. Virgil went to the Wells
Speaker 1: Fargo office and borrowed a shotgun, but he left the
Speaker 1: cowboys alone for now, hoping they would leave town of
Speaker 1: their own accord. Meanwhile, Sheriff be Hann, having just woken
Speaker 1: up from his post poker nap, was apprized of the situation.
Speaker 1: Bee Hann decided to approach the cowboys and, per his
Speaker 1: later testimony, get them to disarm. He found the group
Speaker 1: in an alley that connected the back of the Ok
Speaker 1: Corral to Fremont Street. Unfortunately, Frank mclowerry refused to give
Speaker 1: up his gun unless the ERPs and Holiday also agreed
Speaker 1: to disarm. Billy Clinton also refused, saying he was planning
Speaker 1: to leave town. Ike Clinton and Tom mcclowry both appeared
Speaker 1: to be unarmed. Bee Hand padded Ike down and found nothing,
Speaker 1: but did not search Tom Apparently satisfied with his own work,
Speaker 1: bee Hann went to update the ERPs, but bee Han's
Speaker 1: efforts were too little, too late. While he'd been talking
Speaker 1: to the cowboys, the ERPs had learned that the Clintons
Speaker 1: and mclarry's had left the Ok Corral and had been
Speaker 1: spotted on Fremont Street. In stepping on to a public street,
Speaker 1: Billy and Frank had broken the ordinance against carrying weapons
Speaker 1: in town. In Virgil ERP's mind, this crossed the line.
Speaker 1: He decided that he needed to disarm the cowboys. Doc
Speaker 1: Holliday then showed up and offered to come along. Wyatt
Speaker 1: brushed him off, saying this is our fight, to which
Speaker 1: Doc replied, that's the hell of a thing for you
Speaker 1: to say to me. So Virgil decided to deputize Doc
Speaker 1: along with his brothers, and gave Doc the shotgun he'd
Speaker 1: borrowed before they set off. Part Way down Fremont Street,
Speaker 1: the ERPs and Holiday ran into Sheriff bee Hann. He
Speaker 1: tried to stop them, saying, I am the sheriff of
Speaker 1: this county and I am not going to allow any
Speaker 1: trouble if I can help it. When this was ignored,
Speaker 1: bee Hand pleaded, for God's sake, don't go down there,
Speaker 1: or you will get murdered, and then, for some reason
Speaker 1: be hand inaccurately said I have disarmed them all. A
Speaker 1: minute later, the ERPs and Holiday arrived at the vacant
Speaker 1: lot bordering Fremont Street where the cowboys were. Besides the
Speaker 1: Clintons and mclowry's, another cowboy named Billy Claiborne was hanging around,
Speaker 1: but he quickly faded away as the lawman approached. Even
Speaker 1: from ten feet away, Virgil could see that Billy Clinton
Speaker 1: and Frank mcclowry were armed. Virgil raised the walking stick
Speaker 1: he had in his right hand and called out, boys,
Speaker 1: throw up your hands. I want your guns, and then,
Speaker 1: realizing he might be misinterpreted, he added, hold I don't
Speaker 1: want that, but it was too late. What happened next
Speaker 1: is still debated. Some said that the cowboys tried to surrender,
Speaker 1: Others said that the cowboys shot first. Either way, in seconds,
Speaker 1: shots were flying. Frank mclowry took a bullet in the side,
Speaker 1: Morgan Irp was hit in the shoulder. Tom mclowry turned
Speaker 1: towards his horse either to grab the rifle hanging off
Speaker 1: of its saddle or to run, and Doc Holliday hit
Speaker 1: him with a load of buckshot. Frank mclowry took aim
Speaker 1: at Doc and missed Morgan, and Doc shot back, killing
Speaker 1: thirty two year old Frank on the spot. Billy Clanton
Speaker 1: took shots to his chest and wrist, but still managed
Speaker 1: to shoot Virgil's leg before taking another bullet to the stomach.
Speaker 1: All of this happened in less than thirty seconds, despite
Speaker 1: all the shots fired more than thirty. Wyat and Ike
Speaker 1: emerged unhurt. Wyat by some stroke of luck, Ike because
Speaker 1: he ran away. Virgil had a nasty leg wound. Morgan
Speaker 1: had a chipped vertebra from the bullet that had passed
Speaker 1: through one shoulder and out the other. Nineteen year old
Speaker 1: Billy Clanton and twenty eight year old Tom mclowry both
Speaker 1: died within the hour. Johnny Behann, trying to assert some control,
Speaker 1: approached Wyatt and told him he was under arrest for murder.
Speaker 1: Wyatt was speechless. I won't be arrested, he said, you
Speaker 1: deceived be Johnny. You told me they were not armed.
Speaker 1: He told Bihan he would answer for what he had
Speaker 1: done and that he wouldn't leave town. But that he
Speaker 1: refused to be arrested. Behind him, the gathering crowd voiced
Speaker 1: their support, there is no hurry in arresting this man.
Speaker 1: Hotel owner Sylvester Comstock declared he done just right in
Speaker 1: killing them, and the people will uphold them. Be Hann
Speaker 1: backed off that day. It seemed that Comstock was right,
Speaker 1: the people would uphold the IRPs and Holidays actions. Newspaper
Speaker 1: accounts of the shooting, based on eyewitness accounts, all favored
Speaker 1: the lawmen. Ike Clanton and his younger brother Finn were
Speaker 1: taken into protective custody because it was rumored that people
Speaker 1: wanted to lynch them, but this support would not last long. Frank,
Speaker 1: Tom and Billie's bodies were displayed in open caskets on
Speaker 1: the street. Someone placed a sign above them that read
Speaker 1: murdered in the streets of Tombstone. Two thousand people showed
Speaker 1: up for the men's funeral. Whispers grew louder, were the
Speaker 1: killings really justified? And then on October twenty eighth, the
Speaker 1: coroner's inquest began. Arizona law only required a coroner's inquest
Speaker 1: in cases where a death was suspected to be caused
Speaker 1: by crime. A troubling sign for the RBS. Still, they
Speaker 1: likely believed that the testimony would support them, but the
Speaker 1: first witness, Sheriff be Han, dashed their hopes. Behan claimed
Speaker 1: that after Virgil asked for the cowboys guns, Billy Clanton
Speaker 1: had cried out, don't shoot me. I don't want to fight,
Speaker 1: and Tom mccloughry had said, I have got nothing, pulling
Speaker 1: his coat back to show he was unarmed. Even as
Speaker 1: the men were surrendering, be Hand said the IRP party
Speaker 1: had started shooting. Bihan also claimed that Virgil had not
Speaker 1: been quote acting in an official capacity, painting the shootout
Speaker 1: as the result of a private feud. Ike Clanton and
Speaker 1: Billy Claiborne corroborated b Hand's story. More damningly, several neutral
Speaker 1: witnesses also testified about the ERPs and holiday shooting quickly
Speaker 1: after asking the Clintons and mcclowry's to surrender. By the
Speaker 1: end of the two day inquest, many Tombstoners had become
Speaker 1: openly critical of the irp's actions, though coroner Henry Matthews
Speaker 1: released an ambiguous verdict, finding only that Billy Clinton and
Speaker 1: the mclowry's had died as a result of being shot.
Speaker 1: Everyone knew the story would not end there, and indeed,
Speaker 1: the day after the coroner's verdict, Ike Clanton filed first
Speaker 1: degree murder charges against John Doc Holliday and Virgil Wyatt
Speaker 1: and Morgan Irp. The case would now be sent before
Speaker 1: Justice of the Peace Wells Spitzer for a preliminary hearing.
Speaker 1: If Spicer found that a crime had indeed been committed
Speaker 1: and that there was sufficient cause to find the IRPs
Speaker 1: and Holiday guilty of said crime, they could find themselves
Speaker 1: on trial for their lives. Tombstone's first courthouse had burned
Speaker 1: in a fire earlier in the year, so the preliminary
Speaker 1: hearing took place in the court's temporary home in the
Speaker 1: Mining Exchange building, just down the block from the shootout site.
Speaker 1: Wells Spicer, the Justice of the Peace, presided a true
Speaker 1: multi hyphenet Westerner. The fifty year old Spizer was a lawyer, prospector,
Speaker 1: and a journalist. Preliminary hearings were usually brief affairs, consisting
Speaker 1: of a straightforward presentation of evidence to a judge who
Speaker 1: would then rule if a grand jury should hear the case,
Speaker 1: but this hearing would last for nearly a month and
Speaker 1: closely resemble a real trial. Why, while given the nomadic
Speaker 1: existence of many frontier settlers, there was no guarantee that
Speaker 1: a witness would stick around for a trial. Arizona law
Speaker 1: allowed for sworn testimony given in preliminary hearings to be
Speaker 1: read aloud at trial should the witness have moved on,
Speaker 1: so lawyers on both sides were incentivized to get testimony recorded. Now,
Speaker 1: the prosecution and defense also had their own reasons to
Speaker 1: believe a prolonged preliminary hearing could benefit their case. In
Speaker 1: the past, Tombstone prosecutors had held back evidence that they
Speaker 1: wanted to save for trial from preliminary hearings and seen
Speaker 1: their cases dismissed as a result, And the defense probably
Speaker 1: believed that they would have a better shot with Judge Spicer,
Speaker 1: a Republican, than with a Coachees County grand jury, which
Speaker 1: would likely contain many Democrats and cowboy sympathizers. Attorney Tom
Speaker 1: Fitch led the defense. Fitch was a fascinating character during
Speaker 1: his long and varied career. The forty three year old
Speaker 1: Fitch had worked as a reporter, a political organizer, and
Speaker 1: a lawyer, and had also served a term in Congress.
Speaker 1: As a representative from Nevada. Fitch technically only represented the RBS.
Speaker 1: Lawyer TJ. Drum represented Doc Holliday, but Fitch structured the
Speaker 1: defense and likely conducted most of the examinations. The prosecution
Speaker 1: had no such unifying force. District Attorney Lyttleton Price, a
Speaker 1: thirty three year old lawyer, was technically in charge, but
Speaker 1: friends of the Clintons and mcloughry's skeptical of the Republican,
Speaker 1: Price fundraised to hire another prosecutor, Ben Goodrich. Goodrich was
Speaker 1: a Confederate veteran and a staunch Democrat. He may also
Speaker 1: have helped I Clanton file the murder charges. There was
Speaker 1: a third prosecutor two who arrived on the third day
Speaker 1: of the hearing and shaped the case more than either
Speaker 1: Goodrich or Price. His name was Will mcloughy, and he
Speaker 1: was Frank and Tom mcloughry's old brother. Thirty six year
Speaker 1: old Will was an attorney in Texas. Upon hearing of
Speaker 1: his brother's deaths, he had gone immediately to Arizona and
Speaker 1: asked to join the prosecution. From the start, Will's intent
Speaker 1: was clear. He wanted the IRPs and Holiday dead. This
Speaker 1: thing has a tendency to arouse all the devil there
Speaker 1: is in me, he wrote to his law partner, I
Speaker 1: could kill them. Will made it clear to his co
Speaker 1: consuls that he was uninterested in any charge less than
Speaker 1: first degree murder and the death sentence that accompanied it.
Speaker 1: Before Will mcloughy's arrival on November fourth, the prosecution case
Speaker 1: had proceeded sedately. Coroner Henry Matthews detailed the wounds on
Speaker 1: the dead men's bodies. Billy Allen, a friend of the
Speaker 1: mcloughry's and Clanton's, testified that Frank mcloughy had told him
Speaker 1: he planned to get his brother out of town, not
Speaker 1: fight the IRPs. Sheriff Johnny B. Hann repeated his story
Speaker 1: from the inquest in which Tom mcloary and Billy Clanton
Speaker 1: had tried to surrender. Martha King, a housewife, described seeing
Speaker 1: the IRPs as they walked towards the gunfight and hearing
Speaker 1: one of the brothers tell Doc Holliday quote, let them
Speaker 1: have it. Andrew Meehan, a saloon keeper, testified that Tom
Speaker 1: mclowry had turned in his pistol per tombstone law in
Speaker 1: the early afternoon of the twenty sixth, supporting the idea
Speaker 1: that he'd been unarmed during the gun fight. Billy Clayborne,
Speaker 1: the cowboy who'd been with the mclowrys and Clinton's right
Speaker 1: before the gunfight, claimed that the ERPs and Holiday had
Speaker 1: approached with their guns drawn, ready for a fight. None
Speaker 1: of this looked good for the defendants. The prosecution's presentation
Speaker 1: made it look like they had acted hastily out of anger,
Speaker 1: that they had provoked the gunfight and shot unarmed men.
Speaker 1: But the prosecution hadn't provided much evidence for premeditation, which
Speaker 1: was needed to prove first degree murder, and that was
Speaker 1: a problem for Will mclowry, who wasn't going to be
Speaker 1: satisfied with a lesser charge. Fortunately, the prosecution's next witness,
Speaker 1: Ike Clanton, was prepared to provide the defendants with a
Speaker 1: motive for murder. It came out surprisingly during his cross
Speaker 1: examination on Saturday, November twelfth. Earlier, Ike had testified that
Speaker 1: his fight with the ERPs and Dock the night before
Speaker 1: the gunfight had been unprovoked. Tom Fitch pushed him on this,
Speaker 1: asking if it had anything to do with the deal
Speaker 1: that Ike had made with Wyatt to turn on Leonard
Speaker 1: Head and Crane. The stagecoach robbers. Ike admitted that there
Speaker 1: was a deal, but it wasn't a deal to capture
Speaker 1: the robbers. It was something much more nefarious. Wyatt erp
Speaker 1: Ike claimed, had offered him six thousand dollars to quote
Speaker 1: help put up a job to kill Crane, Leonard and head.
Speaker 1: Why would Wyatt want the men dead? Because, Ike said
Speaker 1: the ERPs and Doc Holliday had worked on the stagecoach
Speaker 1: robbery with them. Why it was afraid, Ike continued that
Speaker 1: some of them would be caught and would squeal on him.
Speaker 1: Tom Fitch was stunned. Where had the story come from?
Speaker 1: It was baffling, and it was hard for most people
Speaker 1: to believe. The prosecution, however, doubled down on redirect. The
Speaker 1: prosecutor asked Ike for more details. Ike took the invitation
Speaker 1: and ran with it, now claiming that all three Urt
Speaker 1: brothers had admitted directly to him their involvement in the robbery,
Speaker 1: and that Doc Holliday had openly confessed to firing the
Speaker 1: shot that killed the driver. Ike described his horror at
Speaker 1: what the men were telling him, saying, quote, I was
Speaker 1: not going to have anything to do with helping to
Speaker 1: capture Bill Leonard Crane and Harry Head capture them, not
Speaker 1: kill them. Ike caught his slip of the tongue and
Speaker 1: quickly corrected himself, but not quickly enough for it to
Speaker 1: escape Tom Fitch's notice. Fitch asked for a note to
Speaker 1: be made in the record, and Spicer obliged, writing quote.
Speaker 1: At the time of stating the above sentence, the witness
Speaker 1: first said capture and then corrected it to kill. But
Speaker 1: Ike wasn't deterred by this revealing mistake. As the redirect
Speaker 1: examination continued, Ike apparently with the full support of the prosecution,
Speaker 1: now tied this deal back to the gunfight, saying that
Speaker 1: after Leonard Crane and Head died, he believed that the
Speaker 1: IRPs and Holiday would kill him for what he knew.
Speaker 1: Ike thought the gunfight had actually been an attempted assassination.
Speaker 1: What prompted Ike Clanton to tell this story so blatantly
Speaker 1: an invention? Maybe alcohol when historian has suggested or cocaine,
Speaker 1: says another which Ike might have been taking headaches. Stephen
Speaker 1: Lubet believes that Will mcclowry, desperate to prove first degree murder,
Speaker 1: might have encouraged Ike to provide a motive on re cross.
Speaker 1: Tom Fitch got Ike to admit that he had shared
Speaker 1: this story with the prosecution before he told it in court.
Speaker 1: Whatever Ike's reasons, his impact on the hearing was enormous.
Speaker 1: On November sixteenth, the defense began their presentation. Tom Fitch
Speaker 1: recognized the unique dimensions of this case. In most cases,
Speaker 1: Stephen Lubet writes, it is undisputed that a crime has occurred,
Speaker 1: and the question is whether the defendant committed it. The
Speaker 1: IRPs trial, however, was very nearly the reverse. There was
Speaker 1: no doubt that the ERPs killed the three cowboys, but
Speaker 1: the question was whether it amounted to a crime. Criminality,
Speaker 1: not commission, was the ultimate issue for the court. The
Speaker 1: defense planned to answer the question of criminality by focusing
Speaker 1: on character, by defining the ERPs as law men and
Speaker 1: casting the dead men as dangerous criminals who posed a
Speaker 1: threat to Tombstone. To that end, the defense's first witness
Speaker 1: was Wyatt, Erp himself. This was sure to be a
Speaker 1: dramatic moment in the hearing, but what Tom Fitch did
Speaker 1: after calling Wyatt made it even more riveting. He declared
Speaker 1: that Wyatt would not be undergoing a direct or cross examination. Instead,
Speaker 1: he would be presenting a narrative statement. Under Arizona law,
Speaker 1: defendants were allowed to do this. This law was a
Speaker 1: remnant of the time not long gone, when defendants were
Speaker 1: not allowed to testify in their own defense, something we
Speaker 1: talked about in more depth in the Lincoln Lawyer episode. However,
Speaker 1: defendants usually spoke off the cuff, and Wyatt Earp would
Speaker 1: not be doing that. Instead, he began to read from
Speaker 1: a prepared statement. The prosecution objected, but Judge Spicer ruled
Speaker 1: that quote the statute was broad and the defendant could
Speaker 1: make any statement he pleased, whether previously prepared or not,
Speaker 1: and so Wyat read. His statement was wide ranging and
Speaker 1: suspiciously articulate, presenting a long history of the Clinton and
Speaker 1: mclowry brothers association with the Cowboys and their various criminal activities.
Speaker 1: He called Ike Clinton's testimony quote a tissue of lies
Speaker 1: from beginning to end. He said he believed Tom mclowry
Speaker 1: to have been armed, and he expressed the personal fear
Speaker 1: and responsibility he felt, saying quote, I believed then and
Speaker 1: believe now from the acts I have stated and the
Speaker 1: threats I have related made by Tom mcloughy, Frank mcloughy
Speaker 1: and Ike Clinton that these men had formed a conspiracy
Speaker 1: to murder my brothers, Doc Holliday, and myself. I believe
Speaker 1: I would have been legally and morally justified in shooting
Speaker 1: any of them on site, but I did not do so,
Speaker 1: nor attempt to do so, when as part of my
Speaker 1: duty and under the direction of my brother, the Marshal,
Speaker 1: I did not intend to fight unless it became necessary
Speaker 1: in self defense and in the performance of official duty.
Speaker 1: When Billy Clinton and Frank mclowy drew their pistols, I
Speaker 1: knew it was a fight for life, and I drew
Speaker 1: in defense of my own life and the lives of
Speaker 1: my brothers and Doc Holliday. Virgil Irp also testified. The
Speaker 1: format was the more traditional direct and cross examination, but
Speaker 1: the setting was unusual. Virgil, still recovering from his wounds,
Speaker 1: gave his testimony from his sick bed. His story aligned
Speaker 1: with Wyatts, although he focused more on the law enforcement
Speaker 1: aspects of the day, explaining that he had deputized his
Speaker 1: brothers and Doc Holliday to help him disarm the Clintons
Speaker 1: and mcloughy's. Virgil also described all the threats the cowboys
Speaker 1: had made towards him including a new piece of evidence.
Speaker 1: Not long before the gunfight, a man Virgil did not
Speaker 1: know approached him and told Virgil that he'd just seen
Speaker 1: a group of men gathered by the ok corral. All
Speaker 1: the men were armed, this man said, and he'd heard
Speaker 1: one of them say quote, be sure to get erp
Speaker 1: the marshal, and another reply, we will kill them all.
Speaker 1: The defense now produced the man who had told this story.
Speaker 1: His name was H. F. Sills. He was a railway
Speaker 1: worker visiting Tombstone on October twenty sixth when he happened
Speaker 1: to overhear the Clintons and mcclowry's talking about the ERPs.
Speaker 1: Sylls had asked someone to point him to Virgil so
Speaker 1: he could pass on what he'd heard. He did not
Speaker 1: know who the Clintons or mclowry's were at the time,
Speaker 1: but at Frank, Tom and Billie's funeral, Sills had recognized
Speaker 1: Ike Clinton as one of the men making threats before
Speaker 1: the gunfight. Sylls' status as a complete outsider to the
Speaker 1: town gave his testimony weight, and he was also not
Speaker 1: the only one to testify for the defense about threats
Speaker 1: made by Ike Clinton. Ned Boyle, a bartender described Ike
Speaker 1: Clinton saying quote, as soon as the ERP's end and
Speaker 1: Doc Hollidays showed themselves on the street, the ball would open.
Speaker 1: They would have to fight. Julius Kelly, a saloon owner,
Speaker 1: and Resid J. Campbell, the clerk of the county Board
Speaker 1: of Supervisors, also heard Ike make threats. The defense also
Speaker 1: presented several gunfight eyewitnesses who were butted the prosecution's version
Speaker 1: of events. H F. Sills claimed that the cowboys drew
Speaker 1: their guns as soon as Virgil started speaking to them.
Speaker 1: Addie Borland, a dressmaker, said that she hadn't seen any
Speaker 1: of the cowboys putting their hands up in surrender. Borland
Speaker 1: also pushed back on Sheriff bee Han's claimed that the
Speaker 1: IRPs and Holidays had fired all of the first shots,
Speaker 1: saying that everyone began shooting simultaneously. Borland wasn't the only
Speaker 1: one to raise issues with Beehn's testimony. The defense had
Speaker 1: a surprise witness, Winfield Scott Williams, an assistant district attorney
Speaker 1: under Lyttleton Price. Williams did not seem pleased to be there.
Speaker 1: It must have been awkward under my your boss's case,
Speaker 1: but he appeared nonetheless when Tom Fitch had cross examined
Speaker 1: Sheriff be Hann. He'd asked bee Hann if he had
Speaker 1: visited Virgil Irp the night after the gunfight and told
Speaker 1: Virgil that he had seen one of the mclowry boys
Speaker 1: draw his pistol immediately after Virgil asked for their surrender.
Speaker 1: Bee Hann had denied saying this, but Winfield Williams had
Speaker 1: also been at Virgil's house that night, and now on
Speaker 1: the stand he testified that bee Hann had indeed said
Speaker 1: this to Virgil. It was a serious blow to Behan's
Speaker 1: credibility and raised the question if he had lied about this,
Speaker 1: what else had he lied about. On November twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: the preliminary hearing ended. Both sides waived the right to
Speaker 1: closing arguments for unknown reasons. It was now up to
Speaker 1: Judge Wells Spicer to review the evidence and decide whether
Speaker 1: to move the case forward to a grand jury. Spicer
Speaker 1: said he would announce his decision at two pm the
Speaker 1: next day. If Spicer found there was sufficient cause a
Speaker 1: pretty low bar to believe that the ERPs and Holiday
Speaker 1: were guilty of first degree murder, he could send the
Speaker 1: case to the grand jury. If he didn't find sufficient
Speaker 1: cause for this charge, he could recommend a lesser charge,
Speaker 1: like second degree murder or manslaughter, or he could dismiss
Speaker 1: the charges altogether. At two o'clock on Wednesday, November thirtieth,
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty one, the parties met once more in the
Speaker 1: Mining Exchange Building to hear Judge Speiser's decision. Though Spicer
Speaker 1: had produced his decision quickly, that didn't mean it was short.
Speaker 1: The text ran for more than three thousand words. The
Speaker 1: length reflected the prolonged hearing. Spicer said, explaining, quote, I
Speaker 1: have given over four weeks of patient attention to the
Speaker 1: hearing of evidence in this case, and at least four
Speaker 1: fifths of my waking hours have been devoted to an
Speaker 1: earnest study of the evidence before me. Based on that study,
Speaker 1: he had found that quote, there was no sufficient cause
Speaker 1: to believe the defendants guilty of the offense mentioned within,
Speaker 1: and I order them to be released early. In his opinion,
Speaker 1: Judge Spicer declared that there was a factor in this
Speaker 1: case that quote divested the subsequent approach of the defendants
Speaker 1: toward the deceased of all presumption of malice or of illegality.
Speaker 1: That factor was the defendant's roles in law enforcement, Virgil
Speaker 1: Irb as town marshal and the rest as his deputies.
Speaker 1: When the defendants, Spicer continued, quote, marched down Fremont Street
Speaker 1: to the scene of the subsequent homicide. They were going
Speaker 1: where it was their right and duty to go. Of course,
Speaker 1: police officers can and do wrongfully kill people, but Spicer
Speaker 1: did not think that that had happened in this case.
Speaker 1: He believed that the defendants had acted from necessity to quote,
Speaker 1: save themselves from certain death. In view of all the
Speaker 1: facts and circumstances of the case, Spicer found, I cannot
Speaker 1: resist the conclusion that the defendants were fully justified in
Speaker 1: committing these homicides, that it was a necessary act done
Speaker 1: in the discharge of an official duty. What circumstances did
Speaker 1: Spicer mean? He defined them as, quote, the conditions of
Speaker 1: affairs incident to a frontier country, the lawlessness and disregard
Speaker 1: for human life, the existence of a law defying element
Speaker 1: in our midst the fear and feeling of insecurity that
Speaker 1: has existed, the supposed prevalence of bad, desperate, and reckless
Speaker 1: men who have been a terror to the country and
Speaker 1: kept away capital and enterprise, and the many threats that
Speaker 1: have been made against the ERPs. This description matches almost
Speaker 1: exactly the narrative that the defense advanced, that the ERPs
Speaker 1: were virtuous law men fighting an uphill battle against the
Speaker 1: lawlessness inherent to a frontier society. Stephen Lubitt argues that
Speaker 1: this narrative is the reason the defense emerged victorious, not
Speaker 1: necessarily because of this particular narrative's virtues, but because they
Speaker 1: had a narrative at all. In Tombstone, Lubert writes, the
Speaker 1: prosecutors lost primarily because they failed to present a coherent
Speaker 1: theory of their case. The prosecution presented many ideas that
Speaker 1: the IRPs had acted out of anger, that it was
Speaker 1: an attempted assassination, and so on, but their theories often
Speaker 1: contradicted each other and never came together. That's a problem
Speaker 1: in a trial which is, ultimately, in Lubet's words, quote,
Speaker 1: a contest of ideas in which each side tries to
Speaker 1: present a comprehensive reconstruction of past events, combining facts and
Speaker 1: law in a way that leads to a logical result.
Speaker 1: Judge Speiser's decision had not entirely let the ERPs and
Speaker 1: Holiday off the hook. He chast Virgil for enlisting Wyat
Speaker 1: and Doc to help disarm the cowboys, saying that in
Speaker 1: light of Doc and Wyatt's contentious history with Eyke Clinton,
Speaker 1: bringing them along was a quote injudicious and censurable act.
Speaker 1: He also left a thread dangling for future cases, acknowledging
Speaker 1: that the grand jury could still consider the charges if
Speaker 1: they wished. Ultimately, though the grand jury declined to pursue
Speaker 1: the case, this was certainly a relief for the ERPs
Speaker 1: and Doc Holiday, but not everyone was pleased. Clara Brown,
Speaker 1: a Tombstone resident, wrote, quote, there being two strong parties
Speaker 1: in the camp, of course this verdict is satisfactory to
Speaker 1: but one of them. The other accepts it with a
Speaker 1: very bad grace. And a smoldering fire exists which is
Speaker 1: liable to burst forth at some unexpected moment. If the
Speaker 1: ERPs were not men of great courage, they would hardly
Speaker 1: dare remain in Tombstone. It did not take long for
Speaker 1: that fire to burst forth. Late on the night of
Speaker 1: December twenty eighth, less than a month after the hearing,
Speaker 1: Virgil Irp was attacked in the streets and shot twice. Miraculously,
Speaker 1: the shotgun blasts did not kill him, but they ravaged
Speaker 1: his left arm, which he would never be able to
Speaker 1: use again. Like Clanton's hat was found at the site
Speaker 1: of the ambush. Some people also suspected that Will mclowry
Speaker 1: was involved, but he was already back in Texas, heartbroken
Speaker 1: by the hearing's outcome. The morning after the attack on Virgil,
Speaker 1: Wyatt telegraphed Arizona's Federal Marshall Crawley Dake, and asked Dake
Speaker 1: to make him a US Marshal and give him the
Speaker 1: power to appoint deputies. Local authorities are doing nothing, Wyatt wrote,
Speaker 1: the lives of other citizens are threatened. Dake agreed and
Speaker 1: made Wyatt a Marshal four months earlier, on March eighteenth,
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two, as Morgan and Wyatt EARP were playing
Speaker 1: billiards at Campbell and Hatch's saloon, two gunshots ripped through
Speaker 1: the window. One bullet skimmed over Wyatt's head and embedded
Speaker 1: harmlessly in the wall, but the second bullet hit true,
Speaker 1: slicing through Morgan Rp's spine. Morgan fell to the ground
Speaker 1: and never stood again. He lived for an hour more
Speaker 1: as Virgil and Wyatt did their best to make their
Speaker 1: little brother comfortable. At one point, they tried to help
Speaker 1: Morgan up. Don't boys, don't, I can't stand it, Morgan said,
Speaker 1: I have played my last game of pool. Shortly before midnight,
Speaker 1: Morgan IRP died, aged thirty. Virgil and his wife left
Speaker 1: Tombstone to accompany Morgan's body on the train to Colton, California,
Speaker 1: where Morgan's wife and the IRP parents lived. A coroner's
Speaker 1: jury investigated Morgan's death and identified a number of suspects,
Speaker 1: but Wyatt EARP was not interested in a courts justice.
Speaker 1: He raised a posse, using his martial status to deputize
Speaker 1: eleven men, including his brother Warren and Doc Holiday, between
Speaker 1: March twentieth and March twenty fourth. In what would come
Speaker 1: to be known as the ERP Vendetta Ride, the posse
Speaker 1: killed three cowboy affiliates, Frank Stillwell, Florentino Indian Charlie Cruz
Speaker 1: and Curly Bill Brocious. This time there was no ambiguity
Speaker 1: about Wyatt Rp's actions, though Wyatt would claim he'd been
Speaker 1: within his rights as U S Marshal. This was murder,
Speaker 1: plain and simple. Johnny Behan formed a posse of his
Speaker 1: own to chase down Wyatt and his compatriots, but they fled.
Speaker 1: Wyatt and Doc ended up in Colorado, and the governor
Speaker 1: there denied Arizona's extradition requests, but death still stalked the
Speaker 1: men of Tombstone. The first to go was Judge Wells Spicer.
Speaker 1: After the hearing, he'd received death threats, but nothing came
Speaker 1: of them. He did not run for the Justice of
Speaker 1: Peace position again and turned to prospecting. When a mine
Speaker 1: he'd invested heavily in failed in early eighteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: the now fifty six year old Spicer disappeared. It is
Speaker 1: thought that he wandered into the desert to die. Six
Speaker 1: months later, Ike Clanton ran into a detective who was
Speaker 1: investigating him in association with cattle wrestling and murder. Ever, reactive,
Speaker 1: Ike drew his gun, but the detective shot first. Ike
Speaker 1: Clanton died on June first, eighteen eighty seven, aged thirty nine.
Speaker 1: Doc Holiday was next. The tuberculosis that had driven him
Speaker 1: west in search of better air ate steadily away at him.
Speaker 1: His illness, however, didn't stop him from drinking, gambling, or shooting.
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty four, Doc shot a man named Billy
Speaker 1: Allen in Leadville, Colorado, over a five dollars day Holiday owed.
Speaker 1: Alan miraculously survived and Holiday miraculously got away with claiming
Speaker 1: self defense at trial, though Alan had been unarmed and
Speaker 1: Holiday had essentially ambushed him. Despite a talent for escaping
Speaker 1: from the law, Holiday could not escape his illness. Tuberculosis
Speaker 1: killed the thirty six year old Doc Holiday on November eighth,
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven. Virgil Irp stayed in California after delivering
Speaker 1: Morgan's body. He spent the rest of his life moving
Speaker 1: from job to job, just as he always had, including
Speaker 1: stints in law enforcement, mining, and saloon operation. On October nineteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen oh five, Virgil Irp died, aged sixty two, from pneumonia.
Speaker 1: Johnny Behan left Tombstone in eighteen eighty six. He would
Speaker 1: go on to hold a variety of other law enforcement
Speaker 1: and government positions, but usually left them under a dark cloud.
Speaker 1: Accused of embezzling money or other misconduct. Be Hand died
Speaker 1: in Tucson on June seventh, nineteen twelve, aged sixty seven.
Speaker 1: Virgil was the leader of the IRPs on that fateful
Speaker 1: day in Tombstone, but it is Wyatt whose name is
Speaker 1: best remembered. This is probably because Wyatt lived the longest
Speaker 1: and had a best selling biography written about him. Wyatt
Speaker 1: married Josephine Marcus, Johnny b Han's former fiancee, in eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight. The two stayed together until his death. Like Virgil,
Speaker 1: he worked a variety of jobs across the West before
Speaker 1: eventually settling down in Los Angeles. There he befriended many
Speaker 1: early Hollywood cowboy actors and even consulted on several westerns.
Speaker 1: Wyatt Erp died on January thirteenth, nineteen twenty nine, aged eighty.
Speaker 1: Two years before his death, Wyatt's eventual biographer, Stuart Lake,
Speaker 1: asked Wyatt about the gunfight. For my handling of the
Speaker 1: situation at Tombstone, I have no regrets Wyatt's. If the
Speaker 1: outlaws and their friends and allies imagined that they could
Speaker 1: intimidate or exterminate the IRPs by a process of murder
Speaker 1: and then hide behind alibis and the technicalities of the law,
Speaker 1: they simply missed their guests. But were the cowboys really
Speaker 1: the ones who benefited most from the technicalities of the law.
Speaker 1: In the Tombstone hearing, no lawyer more ably exploited the
Speaker 1: law than defense counsel Tom Fitch. He used an outdated
Speaker 1: but still active provision and Arizona law to allow Wyatt
Speaker 1: Earp to present a meticulously crafted statement and avoid cross examination.
Speaker 1: Fitch realized that Judge Spicer was more likely to be
Speaker 1: sympathetic to his clients than a grand or trial jury,
Speaker 1: and subsequently presented a thorough trial case at what was
Speaker 1: really just a preliminary hearing. It's not hard to imagine
Speaker 1: a scenario in which the Earths and Holiday were convicted
Speaker 1: of involuntary manslaughter. Arizona law at the time defined involuntary
Speaker 1: manslaughter as an unlawful killing committed either during an unlawful
Speaker 1: act or quote during a lawful act, without due caution
Speaker 1: or circumspection. Did Virgil Irp show due caution when he
Speaker 1: brought Wyatt and Doc, who had been fighting with the
Speaker 1: Clintons and mclowry's all day to try to disarm the cowboys?
Speaker 1: Was giving Doc Holiday a shotgun an especially circumspect move.
Speaker 1: Whatever the answer to those questions, none of them would
Speaker 1: ever be explored in a jury trial thanks to Tom
Speaker 1: Fitch's clever lawyering, Thanks most of all to the power
Speaker 1: of the story he told. Though the Tombstone Hearing has
Speaker 1: largely faded from memory, the narrative of law men verse
Speaker 1: outlaw that the defense crafted at the hearing is one
Speaker 1: that has been repeated over and over again in books
Speaker 1: and TV shows and movies, And despite at first glance
Speaker 1: seeming to be about good versus evil, it's really a
Speaker 1: narrative where the distance between lawmen and outlaw is much
Speaker 1: shorter than you'd think. That's the story of the r
Speaker 1: Holiday case. Stay with me after the break for the
Speaker 1: account of the time Wyatt Erp played judge to disastrous results.
Speaker 1: Before Tombstone, before the Ok Corral, before any of it,
Speaker 1: Wyatt Earp worked on the railroad in the late eighteen sixties.
Speaker 1: Wyatt had helped build tracks for the Union Pacific. In
Speaker 1: the railroad camps, men liked to put on boxing matches,
Speaker 1: so Wyatt learned to box, which he was good enough at,
Speaker 1: and then he learned to referee, which he was very
Speaker 1: good at. He'd officiate matches and manage the money. Wyatt
Speaker 1: was a skilled referee, but officiating a casual boxing match
Speaker 1: in a railroad camp in Wyoming is very different than
Speaker 1: officiating the heavyweight title match in front of thousands in
Speaker 1: San Francisco. That's why when organizers asked Wyatt to officiate
Speaker 1: the fight between Tom Sharky and Bob Fitzsimmons, he hesitated.
Speaker 1: The fight would be conducted under the Marquess of Queensbury rules,
Speaker 1: which Whyatt wasn't sure he was familiar enough with. It
Speaker 1: was eighteen ninety six and Wyatt, now forty eight, was
Speaker 1: managing race horses and deeply in debt. He hadn't been
Speaker 1: official's first choice, but it was now the day of
Speaker 1: the fight, December twod and Sharky and Fitzimmons teams hadn't
Speaker 1: been able to agree on anyone else. Whyatt's name came up,
Speaker 1: perhaps thanks to a journalist. With the fight only hours
Speaker 1: away and ten thousand tickets sold, the organizers pushed Wyatt
Speaker 1: to accept. Eventually he said yes. Unfortunately, Wyatt's inexperience would
Speaker 1: have dire consequences. Things got off to a shaky start
Speaker 1: even before the opening bell, when Wyatt entered the ring
Speaker 1: with a pistol under his jacket. Classic Wyat officials quickly
Speaker 1: confiscated the gun, but after that things settled down. Fitsimmons,
Speaker 1: a quick, shrewd boxer, seemed to have an edge over
Speaker 1: the stronger but slower Sharky. No surprise there, Fitzsimmons was
Speaker 1: the favorite. In the eighth round, Fitzimmons delivered a hard
Speaker 1: uppercut to Sharky's chest, sending Sharky to the ground. For
Speaker 1: a moment, it seemed that Fitzimmons had knocked Sharky out,
Speaker 1: but then Sharky began holding his groin and crying that
Speaker 1: he'd been hit below the belt. Wyatt ran over to
Speaker 1: Sharky and examined him, then called a foul and declared
Speaker 1: Sharki the winner of the match. Perhaps anticipating the controversy
Speaker 1: of this call, Wyat then made a fast exit. Allegations
Speaker 1: immediately followed that the match had been fixed. Fitzsimmons and
Speaker 1: his manager filed charges claiming that there had been a
Speaker 1: conspiracy between Sharky's team and Wyatt. After two weeks of testimony,
Speaker 1: the court dismissed the case, saying that the boxing match
Speaker 1: was illegal and thus not something they would rule on.
Speaker 1: There is no concrete evidence that Wyatt was involved in
Speaker 1: any fix, but the match would haunt him for the
Speaker 1: rest of his life. To most Americans in the early
Speaker 1: twentieth century, Wyatt Earth was better known as the man
Speaker 1: who had cost Bob Fitzimmons his title than as the
Speaker 1: man who'd cost multiple men their lives. Thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to History on Trial. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 1: please consider leaving a rating or review. It can help
Speaker 1: new listeners find the show. To see images of the
Speaker 1: people and places in this episode, check out our instagram
Speaker 1: at History on Trial. My main sources for this episode
Speaker 1: were Stephen Lubet's book Murder in Tombstone, The Forgotten Trial
Speaker 1: of Wyatt Earth, and transcripts from the hearing published on
Speaker 1: Douglas O. Linder's Wonderful Famous Trials website hosted by the
Speaker 1: University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law. For a
Speaker 1: full bibliography, as well as a transcript of this episode
Speaker 1: with citations, please visit our website History on Trial podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. History on Trial is written and hosted by
Speaker 1: me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and produced by
Speaker 1: Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and executive producers
Speaker 1: Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. Learn
Speaker 1: more about the show at History on Trial. Podcast dot
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