Lindsey Graham (29:00)
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In the spring of 1882, Tombstone Sheriff Johnny Behance set off in pursuit of Wyatt Earp and his crew with a posse of two dozen armed men. But even with this show of force, Sheriff Behan hesitated to confront Wyatt Earp directly. Instead, Behan wanted to see whether the posse, led by Curly Bill Brocius, could track Wyatt's crew down first. And on the afternoon of March 24, 1882, the Brocius Posse got their chance. Wyatt, Doc Holliday, and four others were galloping toward a spring west of Tombstone to water their horses and rest after a few long days of riding. Suddenly, the nine cowboys and Curly Bill's posse jumped out from behind a bank of earth 30 yards away and opened fire. Most of Wyatt's posse fled, but he stayed to fight. To shield himself, he hopped off his horse and took cover behind it. The horse began bucking wildly, caught in the crossfire, but Wyatt managed to hold onto it and cock his shotgun. He took aim at Curly Bill Brocius and blasted a hole in his longtime enemy's chest. Brocius bellowed in pain, then dropped dead. The other cowboys kept firing, though. Wyatt managed to retreat a bit and tried to hop onto his horse. But his holster had slipped from his waist to around his knees. Ho him. In a rain of gunfire, one shot struck Wyatt's boot. Another blew the shoehorn off his saddle, which made mounting his horse even tougher. But nonetheless, Wyatt managed to hitch up his holster and climb back into the saddle. He galloped off to where his posse had retreated in a stand of willow trees. Once again, he had emerged miraculously unscathed from a firefight, with little more than bullet holes in his coat. Meanwhile, with their leader taken out, the cowboy posse fled and no longer posed a threat to Earp and his men. The next night, Wyatt's shaken band tried to slip back into Tombstone to resupply, but they found it impossible. Patrols of cowboys were circling the city, hunting for them, so they turned and rode away. But however exhausted he was, Wyatt refused to end his vendetta ride. He still had men to hunt down, but with supplies running low, he was desperate in enough to take a risk. Imagine it's March 27th, 1882. You're clearing away some brush on your ranch 20 miles outside Tombstone. You're working on an especially stubborn route, and it takes a dozen hard whacks with your axe to loosen it. You tear it from the dirt and then toss it aside. Your horse starts to neigh. You look up and are surprised to see your wife approaching on her horse. Sometimes she brings you sandwiches for lunch, but it's only 9am she rides up looking nervous. Hey, you all right? You look vexed. Wyatt Earp's posse just showed up at the house. You turn and squint at your home. A mile in the distance, you can just make out a gang of men on horses. Did they say what they want? A meal. They also want to hide here. Refuge from Johnny Behan's posse. Well, that puts us in a spot. I want you to send them away. I can't do that. They asked for a meal, but still I want them gone. Well, you know that's not how it works. Any man asks for a meal, we provide it do we have to also provide shelter for vigilantes? Now, Earps had two brothers shot. One kill. And then he shot an unarmed ranch hand. You read the papers. If Johnny Behan's posse comes storming in here, he could get us killed. We have twins in the crib at home. You're going to let wanted men inside? You close your eyes because your wife's right. You'd never forgive yourself if anything happened to the twins. All right, well, we'll give them a meal and fresh horses. You can't do that. But after that, I'll ask them to leave. You're right. They can't stay here. Maybe I can convince them to go to Harry Hooker's ranch instead. But he has more to offer them anyway. You grab your axe and walk over to your horse. You know your wife won't be happy with even the little hospitality you're extending. But you can live with that. You just hope Wyatt Earp and his crew won't hold it against you. Because the truth is, the way things have been going recently, Earp's men seem every bit as dangerous as the gangs of Cowboys. On March 27, after being refused a welcome at several ranches by fearful residents, Wyatt's crew took refuge at the ranch of Harry Clay Hooker, a cattle baron who supplied beef to the U.S. army and local Indian reservations. Hooker was wealthy and politically powerful enough to feel shielded from any pressure that a mere sheriff like Johnny Behan could apply. Hooker also hated outlaws, cowboys and cattle rustlers with a passion, so Wyatt knew he'd be sympathetic. During their first night at Hooker's home, the other posse members were startled to see Wyatt ask for a glass of whiskey. They'd never seen him drink before. The stress of being on the run was clearly getting to him. So before Wyatt could pursue any more of Morgan's killers, he had to shake off Johnny Behan, who had taken the lead in pursuing in the aftermath of Brocius death. But Behan's men could resupply and rest whenever they liked, which gave the sheriff's crew a decided advantage over Wyatt's. Wyatt therefore, decided that his best hope was to bring things to a head and fight it out. For this purpose, Hooker offered to let Wyatt's men use his home as a bunker. Its thick walls would provide good shelter in a firefight. But Wyatt declined the offer. He didn't want to drag Hooker into this mess and get him or his men killed. But he did take up Hooker's offer to stay on the ranch. Wyatt's men eventually assumed positions on a bluff a few miles from the ranch house, which gave them a good vantage point as well as the high ground for shooting. And a few hours after Wyatt's crew reached the bluff, Johnny Behan's posse rode up to Hooker's Hole. But the cattle baron refused to disclose any information about Wyatt's crew, even whether he'd seen them. The next few days proved tense. Wyatt's men lay in concealed positions on the bluff and watched Behin's men ride all over the ranch, searching. But they never approached the bluff, which was the obvious place for Wyatt's men to hide. Still, Behan deliberately avoided it, perhaps afraid to provoke a fight. And eventually, Behan's crew rode off and never returned. By this point, the strain had worn Wyatt down. In the past two weeks, he'd seen his brother killed, killed three men himself in revenge and ridden hundreds of miles to evade capture. He was exhausted and wrung out. So despite his initial determination to fight, Wyatt Earp decided to flee Arizona and put himself beyond the reach of Johnny Behan. His posse split up and went their separate ways, including Doc Holliday. Wyatt viewed this retreat as a temporary measure, a chance to catch his breath and plan his next move. He spent some time in New Mexico and Colorado before ultimately heading to California. He hoped to receive a federal pardon for his actions, given that he killed those three men on his Vendetta ride. Frank Stilwell, Florentino Cruz and Curly Bill Brocius while serving as a deputized U.S. marshal. He even fantasized about returning to Tombstone and running for sheriff. But no pardon ever came. After leaving Arizona in March 1882, Wyatt never laid eyes on Tombstone again. And in Wyatt's absence, city leaders in Tombstone lost interest in pursuing him due to more pressing matters. A fire gutted the city in May 1882, but worse, the silver mines near town began running low. Labor disputes between miners and mine owners further harmed the town's economy, as did the sinking price of silver, which dropped over the next few years. For the first time, Tombstone's population began dropping and memories of the Earp brothers faded. After Wyatt's posse broke up at the Hooker ranch, Doc Holliday headed straight for Colorado, where he continued drinking, gambling and shooting his mouth off. But years of hard living finally caught up with him, and his tuberculosis, which had been stable in the dry heat of Arizona, got worse. His weight dropped steadily. In 1885, Holliday had one last reunion with his old friend. When Wyatt swung through Denver, the two men talked quietly in Holliday's hotel room, likely reliving old times, then parted while Wyatt blinked away tears. They both knew they'd never see each other again. By 1887, Holliday had taken up residence in a hotel. He was too sick to get out of bed most days and had his breakfast, a bottle of whiskey, delivered to his room every morning. He slipped into a coma and died in early November that year, just 36 years old. Despite Holliday's untimely death, he did outlive Ike Clanton. After helping murder Morgan Earp, Ike and his Brother Finn moved 200 miles north of Tombstone but kept rustling cattle and robbing people. They were arrested a few times, but the charges were always conveniently dropped. But the brothers were caught during a robbery attempt in June 1887. Finn surrendered, but Ike again tried to escape. This time his luck ran out and he was gunned down. Sheriff Johnny Behan claimed credit for running off the Earp brothers, but his political career never took off. In the next election for Tombstone sheriff, he didn't even get his party's nomination. He eventually moved to El Paso, where he took a job hunting down Mexican immigrants. He served in the army for a few years, then moved to Tucson. He died in 1912 at the age of 67 of a heart attack brought on by syphilis. Virgil Earp tried various careers out in California, including running a detective agency and operating a burlesque show. Eventually he moved back to Prescott, Arizona, where his name and reputation got him appointed deputy sheriff in January 1905. He was 62 years old. But that October, a pneumonia epidemic swept through Arizona. Virgil caught it and died. Back in California, Wyatt Earv traveled to San Francisco and reunited with Johnny Behan's old fiance, the actress Josephine Marcus. They stayed together for the next 47 years, and during that time they drifted all over the west as Wyatt took jobs operating saloons and managing horses. He went bankrupt several times and once got run out of San Francisco for fixing a boxing match as the referee. But no bad deed could ever completely tarnish Earp's name in the mind of the public. The lawlessness of Tombstone had long fascinated people, and in the years after 1881, the shootout at the O.K. corral became legendary. Eventually, Wyatt decided to capitalize on his role in the incident, and he began giving long, rambling interviews to newspapers, painting himself as the incorruptible hero, often fighting off angry hordes of outlaws all by himself. Exaggerations that verged on fabrication. Nevertheless, readers gobbled up the stories, and Wyatt became a celebrity. Wyatt Earp eventually died from a chronic kidney infection in 1929 at the age of 80, the last survivor of the OK Corral shootout. Not long after, Hollywood began churning out Westerns features featuring him as a character. These films sanded off the rough edges and made him a hero of the West. Earp proved even more popular on television. At least a half dozen shows in the 1950s featured Earp like heroes, but none of them could capture the true violence and drama of frontier life in Tombstone, Arizona, and that fateful day in October 1881 when two bands of gunmen faced off for a shootout at the OK Corral. From Wondery this is episode four of our four part series on the Shootout at the OK Corral for American Historytellers. In our next season, a group of English separatists flee to Holland, then undertake a treacherous sea voyage to establish a new colony in America. Through a brutal winter, conflicts with native tribes and internal strife, these separatists, who become known as the Pilgrims, struggle to build their the Plymouth Colony. If you like American Historytellers, you can binge all episodes early and ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey@wondery.com survey if you'd like to learn more about Tombstone, we recommend the Last Gunfight by Jeff Guinn, Tombstone by Tom Clavin and Ride the Devil's Herd by John Bozenecker. American Historytellers is hosted, edited and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio editing by Mohammed Shazib Sound design by Molly Bach Music by Thrum this episode is written by Sam Keane Edited by Dorian Marina Produced by Aleda Ryazanski Managing Producer Desi Blaylock Senior Producer Annie Beckerman Executive producers are Jenny Lauer, Beckman, Marshall Louie and Aaron O' Flaherty for wondering in the 1880s, the lawless streets of Tombstone, Arizona were home to the most legendary gunfight in history. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of the podcast American Historytellers. We take you to the events, times and people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles and our dreams. In our latest series, we follow the notorious Earp brothers as they take on a band of gun slinging hooligans intent on disrupting law and order. But tensions boiled over on October 26, 1881 when the Earps confronted the Clanton and McClurry gangs near the O.K. corral in a hail of gunfire. Three cowboys were killed, setting off a cycle of violence and retribution, transforming the Earps into both heroes and outlaws. Follow American Historytellers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of American Historyteller's Shootout at the OK Corral early and ad free right now on Wondery plus.
