Lindsey Graham (3:36)
Imagine it's October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona. It's a cold, windy afternoon and you're shopping for groceries in a general store downtown with your daughter, Gerald. It's her birthday soon, so you grab sugar, flour and molasses from the shelves to make a shoo fly pie, her favorite. She doesn't much care for shopping though, so you've left her outside on the street to play. You're about to pay for your purchases when the door flies open and your friend Alice hurries inside. She looks upset as she runs up to you. Alice, what's the matter? There's trouble brewing outside across the street. Look. She points to the window. Are those the Earp brothers? Yeah, and Doc Holliday too. What's the sheriff doing with them? Oh, some of those hooligan cowboys rode in last night. Went on a rampage. They've been drinking whiskey for a day straight. One of them even tried to pick a fight with all three of the Earp brothers. Good Lord, why don't they just arrest him? Well, they did, but the judge just fined him, sent him right back onto the street. Now the Earps are on the warpath and the sheriff's trying to calm him down, I guess. Where are the cowboys now? Well, they're just down the street in an empty lot. I saw what was coming and realized I was caught right in the middle. So I came in here. A flood of others comes into the shop too, each anxious to escape whatever trouble is brewing outside. You look out the window again. The Earp brothers and Doc Holliday push past the sheriff, kicking up dust as they head down the street in the direction of the cowboys. A cold wind then blows and the dust disappears like smoke but it also flutters Holliday's long overcoat, revealing a shotgun. Oh, my God. Gerald. Geraldine. I have to go get her. Your heart pounds with panic as you push past the others, heading out into the street to find your daughter. Brawling in Tombstone is one thing that happens all the time. But today it looks like there's going to be a shootout. From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham and this is American Historytellers. Our history, your story on our show. We'll take you to the events, the times and the people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made. And we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. By the 1880s, after years of westward expansion, the American frontier was shrinking. Americans had settled most of the Midwest and West coast. And with every passing year, fewer tracts of open territory existed. One of the last pockets of the traditional Wild west lay in the Arizona Territory that bordered Mexico. It was this area, dominated by dry scrubland and desert that attracted cowboys, ranchers and miners with a strong independent streak who resented government interference in their lives. That was especially true around the now legendary city of Tombstone, a silver boom town packed with saloons, brothels and casinos. But change was coming for Tombstone. As more businesses moved in, city leaders began to push for law and order. They empowered sheriffs and marshals to get tough on crime. And the most famous of these lawmen were the Earps, a fiercely loyal tribe of brothers bound by blood and determined to clean up Tombstone. And their battle against the town's outlaws would culminate in the most famous gunfight in American history. This is episode one of our four part series on the shootout at the OK Corral. The road to Tombstone. Foreign 29 year old Wyatt Earp found himself rattling south in a train toward Texas. He was hunting for two railroad bandits who'd recently fled Dodge City in Kansas, where Earp was the assistant city marshal. But Earp knew he had his hands full tracking down these bandits. They had a head start of several days and Texas was a huge state. From the window of his train, he saw flat scrubland extending to the horizon and cowboys driving cattle along the trails amid huge clouds of dust. Earp knew he could have easily fallen into the cowboy life himself, given his family history and inclination for the wandering life. Born in 1848, Wyatt was the sixth of 10 children, including eight brothers. Though they spent their childhoods mostly in Kentucky and Iowa, the family moved Around a lot of Wyatt's father worked several jobs, including shopkeeper and bartender, and his boys would inherit his restless spirit. So most of them, Wyatt and his younger brother, Morgan included, would grow up to be fiercely independent and stubborn adults, while Virgil, the second oldest brother, had a sunnier disposition. As a 13 year old during the Civil War, Wyatt attempted to enlist in the Union army like his brothers, but he was rejected. After the war, the family moved to California for a few years and took up farming. Wyatt hated the work and rebelled against his overbearing father. He finally left home at 16 and took work driving a stagecoach and building railroads. Meanwhile, his family soon left California and moved to Lamar, Missouri. Despite being a newcomer there, Wyatt's father quickly gained influence in Lamar and was appointed constable. Soon after, he was promoted to justice of the peace Shortly after, in 1869, Wyatt rejoined the family in Lamar, and in November he took over his father's old position as town constable. First taste of being a law officer. Wyatt had never considered a career as a lawman. He was more intent on making his fortune. But he liked the prestige and respect that came with a job. Like all frontier lawmen, Wyatt carried a gun, but he rarely fired it. He was much more likely to pistol whip a criminal. Also, while in Lamar, Wyatt married a woman named Orilla, whose family ran a hotel in town. But less than a year later, she and their newborn child tragically died, either in childbirth or from disease. In his grief, Wyatt's life spiraled out of control. He had to flee Lamar after he was accused of stealing public funds. And soon after, he was accused of several more crimes, including stealing horses in Illinois and Arkansas. But Wyatt really made his living by gambling in saloons. He was an excellent card player and especially excelled at the fast paced game of Pharaoh. But unlike most of his acquaintances, Wyatt rarely drank alcohol, not even beer. He said it made him feel ill. And it was in the summer of 1873, dealing cards for a saloon in Ellsworth, Kansas, when Wyatt's life took another turn. One day, an argument broke out over a game of poker. The county sheriff intervened, but was shot dead. The town marshal refused to arrest the perpetrator out of fear for his own life, so Wyatt jumped in. He strapped on two guns and found the shooter in the street outside on his horse. Rather than open fire, though, Wyatt spoke to him firmly but calmly, cautioning him against doing anything rash. Within minutes, he talked the man into dropping his guns and submitting to arrest. Witnesses marveled at Wyatt's coolness in the face of danger. After this incident, Wyatt decided to go back to law enforcement. He yearned to make something of himself and worried that he was wasting his life gambling and running after women. He also missed the prestige that came with being a public official. So he moved to Wichita and became a police officer. There was, but Wyatt soon found that many of the duties of a police officer were far from glamorous. He collected debts, chased after stray dogs and fined people for negligent chimneys. Still, he liked wearing a badge. A newspaper in Wichita even singled him out for his honesty after he arrested a man for public drunkenness. The man had $500 in his pocket and the newspaper marveled that Wyatt didn't steal it. It seems honest lawmen were rare out West. And yet, even as Wyatt got his life together, trouble continued to dog him. He was slow to anger, but once provoked, his temper could be ferocious, as in April 1876, when Wichita held an election for marshall. The incumbent was Wyatt's boss, and during the election, the marshal's challenger said something insulting. In response, Wyatt beat the man bloody. It cost him his job, and he quickly left town. After that, Wyatt moved around to various cities including Deadwood, South Dakota, before settling in Dodge City. It was a Rough Neck, Kansas boom town that sat at the center of the cattle trade. There, Wyatt became an assistant marshal while moonlighting as a bounty hunter. Then, in the summer of 1877, two bandits robbed a train near Dodge City and fled town. Rumors filtered in placing the men in Griffin, Texas, so the railroad hired Wyatt to track them down. This pursuit would lead Wyatt to a chance encounter that would change the course of his life. While Wyatt never caught the bandits, during his investigation a bartender suggested that he question a local gambler who had recently played cards with the fugitives. The poker player's name was Doc Holliday. Holliday was born In Georgia in 1851, the son of a pharmacist. His mother came from a wealthy plantation family and she instilled in him a Southern code of gentlemanly honor. This required him to fight every supposed insult to his dignity, whether real or imagined. Unfortunately, his mother also suffered from tuberculosis and she passed along the deadly chronic disease to her son. It would afflict him the rest of his life. Holliday was frequently sick, constantly wheezing and coughing. His pale face, thick mustache and dark, hooded eyes gave him a haunted look and hopeful that a warmer climate would help his lungs. The Holliday left a promising dentistry career in Philadelphia to relocate to Texas. But before long, he quit dentistry altogether to drink and gamble. He figured that tuberculosis was going to kill him soon enough, so he might as well enjoy the time he had left. And it was there, living in Griffin, Texas, when Holliday met Wyatt Earp, who arrived in town looking for bandits. Holliday didn't prove much help with Wyatt's investigation. In fact, he was something of an outlaw himself. Still, the two men hit it off right away. And as avid card players, they had plenty to talk about. Upon parting, Wyatt told Holliday to look him up if he ever visited Dodge City. Holliday soon took up that offer a few months later when he traveled up to Kansas to gamble there. Once he arrived, the two men quickly forged a lifelong bond over cards. And when Holliday aided Earp during an ambush one night in July 1877, two drunk and belligerent Texans started shooting at the facade of a theater with a packed audience. Inside, Wyatt and another assistant marshal ran over to confront them. Wyatt had never shot his gun in the line of duty before, but he did that night, hitting one of the men who later died of his wounds. But the dead man's friends were furious and began plotting revenge. Three or four of them finally ambushed Wyatt outside a store one night and drawing their guns before he could. But Holliday happened to be playing cards next door and saw the situation unfold through a window. He turned to the dealer and asked to borrow a six. Shooter then sprang through the door, startling the ambushers and yelling in his Southern drawl, throw up your hands. In the confusion, Wyatt was able to draw his own guns. Suddenly surrounded on two sides, the Texans lost heart and Wyatt was able to arrest them. He always credited Holliday with saving his life. Still, despite the respect that usually came with his job, Wyatt was starting to have second thoughts about law enforcement. He longed to strike it rich in some business venture and was growing cynical about being a lawman. Because even when the worst sort of violence struck Dodge City, he struggled to deliver real justice. Imagine it's August 1878 in Dodge City, Kansas. You're an actress in a touring company that's putting on musicals across the west and you've stopped in Dodge City for a month long run. You're lounging around with a fellow actress after a show one night, having some cocktails. Normally on the road you stay in dingy hotels. But tonight, the city's mayor, James Kelly, has offered to let you and your roommate stay at his empty house while he's out of town. The offer was generous of him, but you suspect Kelly has an ulterior motive. He's trying to butter you up. Probably to seduce your roommate. He decided to press her on some details. So where'd you meet this Mayor James? Well, he was waiting for me after a show. He said he was a big fan. I bet he says that to all the actresses who come through. Well, maybe. But does he give them all one of these? Your roommate rummages through her bag and pulls out an emerald pendant. Even in the dim gaslight, it sparkles. Oh, my. He gave you this? He sure did. And he knows how to protect the lady. What do you mean by that? Well, last week, one of those dirty cowboys was harassing me. Some Texan. He tried to buy a night with me like I'm a common prostitute. Oh, the nerve. Anyway, when I told James, he tracked the guy down and socked him. Broke his jaw. You realize you recall hearing this story, the mayor punching a cowboy. But you didn't know your roommate was the cause of the dispute. Suddenly, you jump to hear banging at the door. Your roommate frowns. Are you expecting anyone? No. Are you? She shakes her head. Then you hear a man's voice, loud and slurred. What is he saying? I think he says he wants to see the mayor. You peek out the window through the curtains and see a scruffy cowboy at the door, swaying drunkenly. Your stomach drops and you motion for your roommate. Hey, come over here. Take a look at this guy. He's not the one that propositioned you, right? The Texan. Oh, my God, it is. What do we do? I don't know. We tell him the mayor's not here. Well, you're going to have to do it. I don't want him to know I'm here. You slowly replace the window's curtain and approach the door. The mayor's not home. You'll have to come back later. You pause and listen, hopeful in the silence that he'll leave. Instead, the man starts kicking the door. The violence shocks you. You can see the hinges straining. Then he starts shooting out the window. You throw yourself on the floor, cowering, and after 12 shots, you finally hear the cowboy running away. You wait until your breathing slows and then call out to your roommate, but she doesn't answer. You call out again and finally risk raising your head. That's when you see her sprawl on the floor, the front of her dress stained crimson. In the summer of 1878, a tragic mix up in Dodge City led to the death of an actress named Dora Hand. A belligerent cowboy tried to assassinate the mayor by shooting into his home. But he didn't realize that the mayor had left town. It was the actor's hand who caught a bullet instead. After the fugitive fled, a posse led by Wyatt Earp tracked him down. While in pursuit, Wyatt shot the horse out from beneath him before another deputy shot him in the shoulder. Wyatt then arrested the man, who stood trial two weeks later. But the cowboy had a powerful cattle baron father. As a result, no witnesses came forward to testify against the man. Not even Dora Hand's roommate, who was in the same house when she got shot. They all feared retaliation if they testified, and as a result, the judge dismissed the case. The whole incident disgusted Wyatt. Then, shortly after these events, the city council insulted Wyatt by cutting his salary. His friend Doc Holliday had moved away as well, to New Mexico. So Wyatt decided he didn't have much keeping him in Dodge City. It was time to move on. But at first he didn't know where. Then his brother Virgil came through with a golden opportunity. Derry is a beautiful place, but things do happen from time to time. A new HBO original series Folks are getting funny ideas. Keep the people you love close.
