Wyatt Earp died just t'other day. I knew him. My name is Harley J. McClendon, and I was a cow-hand. Now that I'm gettin older, I want to put down some of my thoughts and opinions 'bout those old days on paper while I can still remember how it was. You know how that goes… you get to be eighty or so and purty soon, you cain’t remember nuthin.
I was there when the Earp brothers shot the McLowrys and Billy Clanton. Well, near-by anyways. I hear'd the gunfight. I was about as far away as a boy could hit a rabbit with a sling-shot. There been lots of arguments about what really happened, one side sayin' things, the other side disagreein' about it. I got my own opinion.
Most folks who was around then know exactly what happened and why. It warnt no mystery. Some others want to change the truth and make their friends or relations look better to folks who don’t know no better. I’ve seen it writ down lots that the McLowrys and Billy was murdered. That’s horse dung. They was killed legal and justifiable because they bumped and bully-ragged the law. Same thing would happen today, if you done the same as they did. And the Earp brothers was the law, that's a fact.
I was working on ranches around that area – I been a cowhand all my life, startin in Texas when I was just a snot-nose. I followed Texas John to this place when he moved his herd from Texas to Arizona, and then I kindy stayed around here right up until today. It’s pretty country and there was always lots of work. Texas John was a good man, but mostly I worked for Mr. Hooker up by Benson. I’m too old to work now, so I hangs out around Benson or Willcox mostly and plays cards with my buddies -- them that's still upright anyways -- and I drinks whisky sometimes.
During the summer of 1881 when I was about 30 years of age, I broke my laig and couldn’t do my usual chores around Mr. Hooker’s place. He offered me work close-in that didn’t require me to work around the stock much – so as to give my laig a chance to heal up proper, but a workin hand doesn’t get the chance to hang around town reg'lar, so I told ‘im I’d rather go work in town for a few months and maybe see what was happenin around there. Experience the wild side, so to say. Tombstone was a hoppin’ place around then, so that’s where I went. I got work at Vogan’s takin care of things behind the bar. I warn’t fast but I did OK. Nobody complained much and even those that did warnt likely to pick on a cripple much.
During those months the bad blood between the Earps and the rough bunch called “the Cowboys” just got worse and worse. The “Cowboys” wasn’t all bad folk – some of ‘em I liked pretty well and got along with mostly. Some were worse than others, but that’s about the way it is I think, pretty much always. There’s reg'lar folk and then there’s bullies, there's princes and there's skunks. Some folks would say the Earps was bullies but I’d just say they was straightforward. They wouldn’t tolerate no rudeness. At the same time, if you got in the way of a "Cowboy’s" biness, they’d come down on you pretty hard too. And that’s what the Earps done. So I reckon there was always bound to be trouble between ‘em.
I think that right off, the Earps just tried to avoid the Cowboys. They was wantin to be biness men, and stay out of the law biness. Then Virgil got into the law biness anyways by bein hired by Marshal White as a deputy and as the days went by, the Cowboys felt like the Earps was in their way. They didn’t like that and they run their mouths too much about what they was goin to do about it – and you caint threaten men like Wyatt or Virgil Earp too much. They was too accustomed to takin’ charge of things before they get too out of hand, havin been in the law biness before and bein pretty good at it too. Once they felt like they was threatened, well, that’s when hell come down the street with ‘em.
I think the Cowboys never knew what kind of men they was facin' – they kept thinkin the Earps would cut and run. They never did. It says a lot that ever' time the Earps shot a body, it was face to face and gunplay was the last thing that happened. Every time them Cowboys shot a body, it was from behind or from ambush in the dark. That’s what kind of vermin some of them was, at least those that was involved in the Tombstone fracas. That's a fact. Some of 'em just wassent decent men.
Things got worse when Curly Bill Broshus ac'dently kilt Marshall White. Most folks thinks it really was a accident – but the Earps never could see that. Even the Marshal said it warnt a'purpose before he died and he were in a position to know. Curly Bill was down around where the Bird Cage is nowdays – but then it was not built yet. He was some likkered up and was shootin off his gun in the air, just whoopin’ it up. He ain’t the only one that ever done that. But Fred White went down there to take his guns away and Curly Bill whirled one of ‘em around on his fingers to give it to him (just playin' the fool and bein' sassy, you know) and when Marshal White grabbed the biness end of it, that Colt went off and shot him below the belly.
A bunch of us had gathered around and was watchin – and it sure looked like a accident to me. Right off Curly Bill was regretful about it. He said he liked Fred White and didn’t mean to shoot him (he din't die till later). But Virgil Earp was Fred White's deputy and he took Bill to jail and kep' him there. That were a good thing. There was lots of folks that wanted to exact punishment on Curly Bill right there on the spot 'cause lots of folks around here liked Fred White. But Virgil kep' him outta sight and safe until things calmed up some -- then Judge Spicer turned him loose again after he ruled it was a accidental death.
I know some of them cowboys thought Curly Bill was treated bad by them Earps when most everbody else said Bill never meant no harm. They thought Virgil was against 'em then and they never forgot that. I ain’t sayin the Earps was bad men – but they was hard men and sometimes they made a mistake or two. But they done Bill a favor that night. He never did return it though, right up until the day he died. He never gave 'em so much as a "how do you do."
This is probly where I ought to say what I know about Ike Clanton. Not too many folks thought much of 'im. I always thought him a blowhard and a bragger from what I saw, and he were always quick to get mad about any little thing. I thought he was a bully and a coward as most bullies are. Later events proved me right in that I reckon and in the end he came to no good and it warnt very long neither.
Ike’s pappy was kilt by Mexicans he had wronged over to Skeleton Canyon, in August that year I think. The Clantons was involved in “international trade.” Most of the stock they run was acquired after dark down in Sonora, and most the time they never waited around long enough to pay or get a "bill of sale,” if you understand my meaning. This makes them outlaws, I s'pose, but in those days this warnt really considered a bad thing unless it was the Mex'cans gettin’ their cows and caballos from you that way. Them kinds of cross-border transactions was common, all along the border all the way from Texas and the Rio Bravo. After his daddy was shot dead, Ike kinda lost his good nature some. He hanged out a lot in the waterin holes around town, or over to Charleston where his pappy’s ranch was. And mostly he was just looking to start fights other folks could finish for ‘im.
Before that, back in the Spring I think, the Clantons got sideways with the Earps and some others because they had one of Wyatt’s favorite horses, stole from him in 1879 or 80 and they knowed it was a stold horse and didn’t give it back. This got under Wyatt Earp’s skin and itched him some. Then the deal with Curly Bill and Fred White come about, and pretty soon there warnt no good feeling at all between any of ‘em. Around that time, there was stage robberies and other crimes that the Cowboys din’t deny too strongly bein’ a part of, and that kind of behavior never set too well with lawmen like Wyatt Earp. So in the end neither one of 'em was inclined to give the other much rope.
On the night before the fight, Ike was hanging around at the Oriental, playing cards with Virgil Earp and John Holliday. “Doc” was in a foul mood, which was pretty normal for 'im, he warn’t ever very affable anyways. But that night he was pos'tively mean. He wasn’t well, you know, and was mostly ornery ‘cause of that, and he might never been very nice in the first place. So him and Ike was pickin at each other all night long and things got pretty tense a few times. Doc knew how to get to 'im and warnt afraid to do it.
By the first light of the mornin, the game was breakin up and Ike and Holliday got into it pretty bad and Ike stomped out talkin death to the Earps and to Doc Holliday. Doc didn’t care much about what Ike said, kep' him in front of ‘im all the time mostly, didn't get rattled too much but kep' eggin him on too. But then Virgil tried to calm Ike down some, kep' tellin him to go get some sleep. Virgil threatened to arrest both of 'em if they didn't stop it. I didn’t see any of this, but honest people I knowed did. The barman at the Oriental was a friend of mine and he saw the whole fi-esta.
The whole town was hangin around and waitin for something to happen that morning. It was a fair and sunny day, crisp in the mornin and warm in the later hours – and very clear like you only see down in this country. You never saw such a blue sky. But things was tense. Everbody knew things was goin to bust loose that day. The Earps wasn’t out early, but the Clantons was. And later the McLowrys too.
So, me and Swain Slaughter was sittin out front of Vogan’s havin a smoke and just talkin about things, when we saw the McLowrys and Billy Claiborne walk by down on 4th Street, heading toward Fremont Street. We was about a block away and we couldn’t see where they went after they crossed Allen. So, being curious we got up and moved down ter in front of the Occidental Hotel on that corner to see if we could see what was goin to happen.
Up until that day, I never heard the McLowrys say nothin about the Earps – I don’t know they had ever met until then. That morning though, they was real mouthy about what they was going to do to the Earps, and Ike Clanton was blowin around town the same way. The McLowrys was tellin the whole town that they was against the Earps and Doc and they was goin to DO something about it right then. It warnt long before the Earps and Doc Holliday got wind of it. Ike already got hisself arrested once that morning – carryin a gun in town – and got fined and released by Judge Spicer. He was probly still half-lit from the night before playin’ cards and drinkin, and Virgil finally jerked him up, beaned him and hauled him down to the court. As he was leavin’ he threatened the Earps s'more, face to face. Those cowboys din’t appreciate anyone tellin 'em that the law applied to them too – not just other folks. They even threatened the judge a few times. And the Earps din't 'preciate bein threatened.
Around that same time, I heard Frank Wolcott say that Wyatt had came across Tom McLowry in the street and hit him over the head with his pistol when Tom threatened to fight him -- or kill him. It goes without sayin' that if the Earps intended to kill those men that they coulda killed both of 'em at these times, they'd a been justified, but they din’t. The Earps was basically honest men. But a smart man won't threaten a good man -- not if he knows what's what -- not if he wants to live to be a old man. Heck, them Earps coulda kilt Ike at the gunfight -- but they dint 'cause they thought he warnt armed. Even Doc coulda kilt him then but he din't -- and he were a cold, mean son-of-a-cuss.
Tombstone’s streets started to look pretty empty about then. There was some folks out watching the goins-on, but not that many, not like usual. Folks was afraid of getting hit by wild bullets I reckon. Wyatt was sittin in Hafford’s. Me an’ Swain could see him sittin in there smokin cause it was right across the street from where we was. Virgil was standin out front with Morgan on 4th Street in front of Hafford's, watchin where Ike and Billy Clanton, Billy Claiborne and the McLowrys went ter. Doc Holliday warn’t around right then – he mighta bin over at the Can Can, we warn’t sure.
A few minutes later, a coupla folks came from over around Fly’s and said that Billy and Ike Clanton and the McLowrys was over by Fly’s yelling around and saying how they was going to kill all the Earps and Doc too. In partic'lar, Ike was still holding bad feelins against Doc Holliday. Doc had a room with Mrs. Fly and I think they figured they’d waylay him when he came home from wherever he was at, four or five against one. I don’t think they figured on all the Earp brothers comin with ‘im. Them was odds they didn't like and I think it sobered 'em up some. But it was too late by then as things turned out.
Me an’ Swain watched Wyatt come out from Hafford’s, and he and Virgil talked for a couple of minutes. It looked like they was arguin. Morgan didn’t say much, from what we could see. Then Holliday walked over – we didn’t see where he come from - din't see him until he got there. And then they talked some more, maybe a minute or two. Then we seen Virgil hand Doc a short scatter gun, Doc put it under his coat and they all walked down 4th toward Fremont.
They turned left onto Fremont, and went out of sight around the corner, all walking side by side. It was something to see, like right out of the Bible. They wasn’t moving fast, nor slow. Just steady and determined like. This only took a couple of minutes at most and me and Swain was talking about whether we should go inside or not. Next thing we heard was the shootin. There was a bunch of that; we heard the shotgun twice, we heard lots of pistol fire and we heard rifle fire. And then it was all quiet except for a bunch of yellin and screamin.
We din’t go down there right away, not knowin what was happenin. After a few minutes, curiosity got the better of us and since it was getting quieter, we cut over through the OK livery and toward the back, where we heard the shots come from. Ike was doing most of the yellin – Virgil was wounded in the laig and it looked like everbody else except Morgan and Wyatt Earp was dead. Doc was scraped up some, I think a bullet grazed him a little. Tom was a'layin out in the road, dead. Billy Clanton was crumpled up against a wall and he died pretty hard from the looks of it. Frank was shot to pieces. The Earps was takin Virgil away, and some other folks took the bodies of Billy and the McLowrys into the house there next to where the fight was, on the other side of Fly's. Later on, the undertaker came and got them and put them all in coffins.
Mrs. Fly said Ike and Sheriff Behan run from the fight into her store until the shootin was all done (aint that funny -- the big instigator wer too much a coward to even be in the fight he started!). Then he started runnin his mouth again as usual, tellin everbody around that the Earps had murdered his brother. He never told how it was his big mouth that got the whole thing to the point where it warnt to be avoided.
Henry Sills said that the Earps and Doc walked up to where they was at, and faced them one for one. Virgil said they was there to take their guns, but while they was chewin on that, Doc pulled back the hammers on that scatter gun. They all heard those two big clicks and they all knowed what they was, and right then everbody started shootin. Virgil yelled right at the last that he didn't want gunplay, tried to stop it, but it wer too late. It only took a few seconds and them lawmen was cooler and better shots in a clinch than them Cowboys was.
Johnny Behan said he was gonna arrest Wyatt on the spot, but Wyatt said he would not be arrested right then. The way he said it, it made me think he warnt never gonna let Behan arrest him, ever. He did though, in the end, but at the hearing Judge Spicer said that things happened pretty much out of the Earps' control until they had no choice and that they acted as they had to in defense of their lives and there was no possible charge after all.
So the Earps wassent charged or convicted of anything except mebbe bad judgment, and most folks around town agreed with that, 'cept the Cowboys. Some didn’t like it, of course, and Ike Clanton kept trying to stir up trouble for the Earps, but he never got anywhere with it. Most folks knew better. The ones that kep' agitatin wouldn’t have liked anything, from the very beginning, that didn’t end with all the Earps dead. But the Cowboys was still workin on that.
A couple months later, some of the Cowboys ambushed Virgil in the street at the corner of 5th and Allen, shot him from behind and he almost died. Then in the springtime, some of them shot Morgan in the back, through the back door of Campbell and Hatch’s where he was playing at billiards. He died on the billiard table there and afterwards the Doc said he was shot clear through his back bone.
After that, the fight seemed to go out of Wyatt for awhile – he mourned so for his brother. But that mournfulness turned hot purty quick. When they was takin Morgan back to California to his home to bury him, the Earps was nearly ambushed at the train depot in Tucson with all their women right there.
But Wyatt was watchin out and one of them assassins was shot on the station platform. The shooter kep' on shootin until he was sure the assassin was dead. I think it was Frank Stillwell that was shot there. Wyatt said back then he thought Stillwell was one that was responsible for Morgan's murder. He was probly right -- Pete Spence's wife said 'ol Pete and Stillwell planned how they was goin to shoot some of the Earps; planned it right there in her house.
I think Wyatt was goin to let it go up until that – but then he went right out and kilt all them skunks that he thought was in on his brother’s murder – Curly Bill, Indian Charley, John Ringo and some others. It seemed like for ever' outlaw that got killed for the next ten years, everbody said “Wyatt Earp done it.” About the only ones of 'em that didn't get kilt was Pete Spence and Ike Clanton.
Not too much later on Ike got shot and kilt by a cattle man's officer when he got caught herdin cows that warnt his. Spence probly died of old age, I don't know, I never heard for sure. Maybe he's sittin around somewheres, like me, thinkin of old times and wonderin how we got so useless.
I never saw Wyatt Earp again. He left Arizona, I heard up to Colorado with Doc. The only Earp I ever saw after that was Warren. He came to Benson a few years back and worked 'round there as a express guard for a while. Some folks say he din’t have the same good character his brothers had – was kinda a bully they said -- but I don't know about that. He finally got hisself shot in a bar scrape over to Willcox. But I wouldn't mind seeing any of them other Earps again -- they was honest men who warn't afraid of much and who din't bother anybody unless they was pushed and provoked. Men like that is good to have around. But now Wyatt is gone and I s'pose Virgil is gone too, by now.
That’s how that famous gun fight happened, the way I saw and heard it. None of them people are around any more – after the Earps went away things kindy went to hell for a while, until Texas John got elected sheriff and he cleaned things up his own way. Of course Tombstone purt'near died when the mines filled up with water, so now the county is quiet mostly.
I went back to Mr. Hooker’s place before then, once my laig was good again and worked there (and a couple other places later on) until I got too old to throw steers around much anymore. Hell, I caint even much fix a fence anymore, not that I'd want to. It's hell to git old. Things aren’t the same as they was then – I s'pose in most ways that’s a good thing.
Harley Joe and this story are nothing but fiction.
I was there when the Earp brothers shot the McLowrys and Billy Clanton. Well, near-by anyways. I hear'd the gunfight. I was about as far away as a boy could hit a rabbit with a sling-shot. There been lots of arguments about what really happened, one side sayin' things, the other side disagreein' about it. I got my own opinion.
Most folks who was around then know exactly what happened and why. It warnt no mystery. Some others want to change the truth and make their friends or relations look better to folks who don’t know no better. I’ve seen it writ down lots that the McLowrys and Billy was murdered. That’s horse dung. They was killed legal and justifiable because they bumped and bully-ragged the law. Same thing would happen today, if you done the same as they did. And the Earp brothers was the law, that's a fact.
I was working on ranches around that area – I been a cowhand all my life, startin in Texas when I was just a snot-nose. I followed Texas John to this place when he moved his herd from Texas to Arizona, and then I kindy stayed around here right up until today. It’s pretty country and there was always lots of work. Texas John was a good man, but mostly I worked for Mr. Hooker up by Benson. I’m too old to work now, so I hangs out around Benson or Willcox mostly and plays cards with my buddies -- them that's still upright anyways -- and I drinks whisky sometimes.
During the summer of 1881 when I was about 30 years of age, I broke my laig and couldn’t do my usual chores around Mr. Hooker’s place. He offered me work close-in that didn’t require me to work around the stock much – so as to give my laig a chance to heal up proper, but a workin hand doesn’t get the chance to hang around town reg'lar, so I told ‘im I’d rather go work in town for a few months and maybe see what was happenin around there. Experience the wild side, so to say. Tombstone was a hoppin’ place around then, so that’s where I went. I got work at Vogan’s takin care of things behind the bar. I warn’t fast but I did OK. Nobody complained much and even those that did warnt likely to pick on a cripple much.
During those months the bad blood between the Earps and the rough bunch called “the Cowboys” just got worse and worse. The “Cowboys” wasn’t all bad folk – some of ‘em I liked pretty well and got along with mostly. Some were worse than others, but that’s about the way it is I think, pretty much always. There’s reg'lar folk and then there’s bullies, there's princes and there's skunks. Some folks would say the Earps was bullies but I’d just say they was straightforward. They wouldn’t tolerate no rudeness. At the same time, if you got in the way of a "Cowboy’s" biness, they’d come down on you pretty hard too. And that’s what the Earps done. So I reckon there was always bound to be trouble between ‘em.
I think that right off, the Earps just tried to avoid the Cowboys. They was wantin to be biness men, and stay out of the law biness. Then Virgil got into the law biness anyways by bein hired by Marshal White as a deputy and as the days went by, the Cowboys felt like the Earps was in their way. They didn’t like that and they run their mouths too much about what they was goin to do about it – and you caint threaten men like Wyatt or Virgil Earp too much. They was too accustomed to takin’ charge of things before they get too out of hand, havin been in the law biness before and bein pretty good at it too. Once they felt like they was threatened, well, that’s when hell come down the street with ‘em.
I think the Cowboys never knew what kind of men they was facin' – they kept thinkin the Earps would cut and run. They never did. It says a lot that ever' time the Earps shot a body, it was face to face and gunplay was the last thing that happened. Every time them Cowboys shot a body, it was from behind or from ambush in the dark. That’s what kind of vermin some of them was, at least those that was involved in the Tombstone fracas. That's a fact. Some of 'em just wassent decent men.
Things got worse when Curly Bill Broshus ac'dently kilt Marshall White. Most folks thinks it really was a accident – but the Earps never could see that. Even the Marshal said it warnt a'purpose before he died and he were in a position to know. Curly Bill was down around where the Bird Cage is nowdays – but then it was not built yet. He was some likkered up and was shootin off his gun in the air, just whoopin’ it up. He ain’t the only one that ever done that. But Fred White went down there to take his guns away and Curly Bill whirled one of ‘em around on his fingers to give it to him (just playin' the fool and bein' sassy, you know) and when Marshal White grabbed the biness end of it, that Colt went off and shot him below the belly.
A bunch of us had gathered around and was watchin – and it sure looked like a accident to me. Right off Curly Bill was regretful about it. He said he liked Fred White and didn’t mean to shoot him (he din't die till later). But Virgil Earp was Fred White's deputy and he took Bill to jail and kep' him there. That were a good thing. There was lots of folks that wanted to exact punishment on Curly Bill right there on the spot 'cause lots of folks around here liked Fred White. But Virgil kep' him outta sight and safe until things calmed up some -- then Judge Spicer turned him loose again after he ruled it was a accidental death.
I know some of them cowboys thought Curly Bill was treated bad by them Earps when most everbody else said Bill never meant no harm. They thought Virgil was against 'em then and they never forgot that. I ain’t sayin the Earps was bad men – but they was hard men and sometimes they made a mistake or two. But they done Bill a favor that night. He never did return it though, right up until the day he died. He never gave 'em so much as a "how do you do."
This is probly where I ought to say what I know about Ike Clanton. Not too many folks thought much of 'im. I always thought him a blowhard and a bragger from what I saw, and he were always quick to get mad about any little thing. I thought he was a bully and a coward as most bullies are. Later events proved me right in that I reckon and in the end he came to no good and it warnt very long neither.
Ike’s pappy was kilt by Mexicans he had wronged over to Skeleton Canyon, in August that year I think. The Clantons was involved in “international trade.” Most of the stock they run was acquired after dark down in Sonora, and most the time they never waited around long enough to pay or get a "bill of sale,” if you understand my meaning. This makes them outlaws, I s'pose, but in those days this warnt really considered a bad thing unless it was the Mex'cans gettin’ their cows and caballos from you that way. Them kinds of cross-border transactions was common, all along the border all the way from Texas and the Rio Bravo. After his daddy was shot dead, Ike kinda lost his good nature some. He hanged out a lot in the waterin holes around town, or over to Charleston where his pappy’s ranch was. And mostly he was just looking to start fights other folks could finish for ‘im.
Before that, back in the Spring I think, the Clantons got sideways with the Earps and some others because they had one of Wyatt’s favorite horses, stole from him in 1879 or 80 and they knowed it was a stold horse and didn’t give it back. This got under Wyatt Earp’s skin and itched him some. Then the deal with Curly Bill and Fred White come about, and pretty soon there warnt no good feeling at all between any of ‘em. Around that time, there was stage robberies and other crimes that the Cowboys din’t deny too strongly bein’ a part of, and that kind of behavior never set too well with lawmen like Wyatt Earp. So in the end neither one of 'em was inclined to give the other much rope.
On the night before the fight, Ike was hanging around at the Oriental, playing cards with Virgil Earp and John Holliday. “Doc” was in a foul mood, which was pretty normal for 'im, he warn’t ever very affable anyways. But that night he was pos'tively mean. He wasn’t well, you know, and was mostly ornery ‘cause of that, and he might never been very nice in the first place. So him and Ike was pickin at each other all night long and things got pretty tense a few times. Doc knew how to get to 'im and warnt afraid to do it.
By the first light of the mornin, the game was breakin up and Ike and Holliday got into it pretty bad and Ike stomped out talkin death to the Earps and to Doc Holliday. Doc didn’t care much about what Ike said, kep' him in front of ‘im all the time mostly, didn't get rattled too much but kep' eggin him on too. But then Virgil tried to calm Ike down some, kep' tellin him to go get some sleep. Virgil threatened to arrest both of 'em if they didn't stop it. I didn’t see any of this, but honest people I knowed did. The barman at the Oriental was a friend of mine and he saw the whole fi-esta.
The whole town was hangin around and waitin for something to happen that morning. It was a fair and sunny day, crisp in the mornin and warm in the later hours – and very clear like you only see down in this country. You never saw such a blue sky. But things was tense. Everbody knew things was goin to bust loose that day. The Earps wasn’t out early, but the Clantons was. And later the McLowrys too.
So, me and Swain Slaughter was sittin out front of Vogan’s havin a smoke and just talkin about things, when we saw the McLowrys and Billy Claiborne walk by down on 4th Street, heading toward Fremont Street. We was about a block away and we couldn’t see where they went after they crossed Allen. So, being curious we got up and moved down ter in front of the Occidental Hotel on that corner to see if we could see what was goin to happen.
Up until that day, I never heard the McLowrys say nothin about the Earps – I don’t know they had ever met until then. That morning though, they was real mouthy about what they was going to do to the Earps, and Ike Clanton was blowin around town the same way. The McLowrys was tellin the whole town that they was against the Earps and Doc and they was goin to DO something about it right then. It warnt long before the Earps and Doc Holliday got wind of it. Ike already got hisself arrested once that morning – carryin a gun in town – and got fined and released by Judge Spicer. He was probly still half-lit from the night before playin’ cards and drinkin, and Virgil finally jerked him up, beaned him and hauled him down to the court. As he was leavin’ he threatened the Earps s'more, face to face. Those cowboys din’t appreciate anyone tellin 'em that the law applied to them too – not just other folks. They even threatened the judge a few times. And the Earps din't 'preciate bein threatened.
Around that same time, I heard Frank Wolcott say that Wyatt had came across Tom McLowry in the street and hit him over the head with his pistol when Tom threatened to fight him -- or kill him. It goes without sayin' that if the Earps intended to kill those men that they coulda killed both of 'em at these times, they'd a been justified, but they din’t. The Earps was basically honest men. But a smart man won't threaten a good man -- not if he knows what's what -- not if he wants to live to be a old man. Heck, them Earps coulda kilt Ike at the gunfight -- but they dint 'cause they thought he warnt armed. Even Doc coulda kilt him then but he din't -- and he were a cold, mean son-of-a-cuss.
Tombstone’s streets started to look pretty empty about then. There was some folks out watching the goins-on, but not that many, not like usual. Folks was afraid of getting hit by wild bullets I reckon. Wyatt was sittin in Hafford’s. Me an’ Swain could see him sittin in there smokin cause it was right across the street from where we was. Virgil was standin out front with Morgan on 4th Street in front of Hafford's, watchin where Ike and Billy Clanton, Billy Claiborne and the McLowrys went ter. Doc Holliday warn’t around right then – he mighta bin over at the Can Can, we warn’t sure.
A few minutes later, a coupla folks came from over around Fly’s and said that Billy and Ike Clanton and the McLowrys was over by Fly’s yelling around and saying how they was going to kill all the Earps and Doc too. In partic'lar, Ike was still holding bad feelins against Doc Holliday. Doc had a room with Mrs. Fly and I think they figured they’d waylay him when he came home from wherever he was at, four or five against one. I don’t think they figured on all the Earp brothers comin with ‘im. Them was odds they didn't like and I think it sobered 'em up some. But it was too late by then as things turned out.
Me an’ Swain watched Wyatt come out from Hafford’s, and he and Virgil talked for a couple of minutes. It looked like they was arguin. Morgan didn’t say much, from what we could see. Then Holliday walked over – we didn’t see where he come from - din't see him until he got there. And then they talked some more, maybe a minute or two. Then we seen Virgil hand Doc a short scatter gun, Doc put it under his coat and they all walked down 4th toward Fremont.
They turned left onto Fremont, and went out of sight around the corner, all walking side by side. It was something to see, like right out of the Bible. They wasn’t moving fast, nor slow. Just steady and determined like. This only took a couple of minutes at most and me and Swain was talking about whether we should go inside or not. Next thing we heard was the shootin. There was a bunch of that; we heard the shotgun twice, we heard lots of pistol fire and we heard rifle fire. And then it was all quiet except for a bunch of yellin and screamin.
We din’t go down there right away, not knowin what was happenin. After a few minutes, curiosity got the better of us and since it was getting quieter, we cut over through the OK livery and toward the back, where we heard the shots come from. Ike was doing most of the yellin – Virgil was wounded in the laig and it looked like everbody else except Morgan and Wyatt Earp was dead. Doc was scraped up some, I think a bullet grazed him a little. Tom was a'layin out in the road, dead. Billy Clanton was crumpled up against a wall and he died pretty hard from the looks of it. Frank was shot to pieces. The Earps was takin Virgil away, and some other folks took the bodies of Billy and the McLowrys into the house there next to where the fight was, on the other side of Fly's. Later on, the undertaker came and got them and put them all in coffins.
Mrs. Fly said Ike and Sheriff Behan run from the fight into her store until the shootin was all done (aint that funny -- the big instigator wer too much a coward to even be in the fight he started!). Then he started runnin his mouth again as usual, tellin everbody around that the Earps had murdered his brother. He never told how it was his big mouth that got the whole thing to the point where it warnt to be avoided.
Henry Sills said that the Earps and Doc walked up to where they was at, and faced them one for one. Virgil said they was there to take their guns, but while they was chewin on that, Doc pulled back the hammers on that scatter gun. They all heard those two big clicks and they all knowed what they was, and right then everbody started shootin. Virgil yelled right at the last that he didn't want gunplay, tried to stop it, but it wer too late. It only took a few seconds and them lawmen was cooler and better shots in a clinch than them Cowboys was.
Johnny Behan said he was gonna arrest Wyatt on the spot, but Wyatt said he would not be arrested right then. The way he said it, it made me think he warnt never gonna let Behan arrest him, ever. He did though, in the end, but at the hearing Judge Spicer said that things happened pretty much out of the Earps' control until they had no choice and that they acted as they had to in defense of their lives and there was no possible charge after all.
So the Earps wassent charged or convicted of anything except mebbe bad judgment, and most folks around town agreed with that, 'cept the Cowboys. Some didn’t like it, of course, and Ike Clanton kept trying to stir up trouble for the Earps, but he never got anywhere with it. Most folks knew better. The ones that kep' agitatin wouldn’t have liked anything, from the very beginning, that didn’t end with all the Earps dead. But the Cowboys was still workin on that.
A couple months later, some of the Cowboys ambushed Virgil in the street at the corner of 5th and Allen, shot him from behind and he almost died. Then in the springtime, some of them shot Morgan in the back, through the back door of Campbell and Hatch’s where he was playing at billiards. He died on the billiard table there and afterwards the Doc said he was shot clear through his back bone.
After that, the fight seemed to go out of Wyatt for awhile – he mourned so for his brother. But that mournfulness turned hot purty quick. When they was takin Morgan back to California to his home to bury him, the Earps was nearly ambushed at the train depot in Tucson with all their women right there.
But Wyatt was watchin out and one of them assassins was shot on the station platform. The shooter kep' on shootin until he was sure the assassin was dead. I think it was Frank Stillwell that was shot there. Wyatt said back then he thought Stillwell was one that was responsible for Morgan's murder. He was probly right -- Pete Spence's wife said 'ol Pete and Stillwell planned how they was goin to shoot some of the Earps; planned it right there in her house.
I think Wyatt was goin to let it go up until that – but then he went right out and kilt all them skunks that he thought was in on his brother’s murder – Curly Bill, Indian Charley, John Ringo and some others. It seemed like for ever' outlaw that got killed for the next ten years, everbody said “Wyatt Earp done it.” About the only ones of 'em that didn't get kilt was Pete Spence and Ike Clanton.
Not too much later on Ike got shot and kilt by a cattle man's officer when he got caught herdin cows that warnt his. Spence probly died of old age, I don't know, I never heard for sure. Maybe he's sittin around somewheres, like me, thinkin of old times and wonderin how we got so useless.
I never saw Wyatt Earp again. He left Arizona, I heard up to Colorado with Doc. The only Earp I ever saw after that was Warren. He came to Benson a few years back and worked 'round there as a express guard for a while. Some folks say he din’t have the same good character his brothers had – was kinda a bully they said -- but I don't know about that. He finally got hisself shot in a bar scrape over to Willcox. But I wouldn't mind seeing any of them other Earps again -- they was honest men who warn't afraid of much and who din't bother anybody unless they was pushed and provoked. Men like that is good to have around. But now Wyatt is gone and I s'pose Virgil is gone too, by now.
That’s how that famous gun fight happened, the way I saw and heard it. None of them people are around any more – after the Earps went away things kindy went to hell for a while, until Texas John got elected sheriff and he cleaned things up his own way. Of course Tombstone purt'near died when the mines filled up with water, so now the county is quiet mostly.
I went back to Mr. Hooker’s place before then, once my laig was good again and worked there (and a couple other places later on) until I got too old to throw steers around much anymore. Hell, I caint even much fix a fence anymore, not that I'd want to. It's hell to git old. Things aren’t the same as they was then – I s'pose in most ways that’s a good thing.
Harley Joe and this story are nothing but fiction.
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