Legends of the Old West - TOMBSTONE Ep. 5 | The Reckoning

Episode Date: September 9, 2018

Wyatt Earp takes the law into his own hands. He forms a posse that includes Doc Holliday and begins a quest to destroy the Cowboys. His pursuit becomes front page news across the country as newspapers begin to call it the "Arizona Vendetta." When it's all over, three Cowboys are dead; Wyatt and Doc are some of the most famous men in America; and they can never set foot in Arizona again. Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Curly Bill crouched behind the embankment of a waterhole called Iron Springs in the mountains northwest of Tombstone. He had eight cowboys with him on a hot spring day in 1882. They knelt in their hiding spots, waiting with their weapons clutched in their hands. Before long, they heard horses approaching. Several riders traversed the winding path down to the waterhole. The cowboys allowed the riders to get close. They waited for the horses to stop. Then Curly Bill jumped up from his spot. He fired at the riders. The eight cowboys leapt to their feet and triggered a barrage of slugs at the horsemen. One horse was hit immediately and it crashed to the ground, trapping its rider underneath. The riders quickly retreated out of the killing zone, all except one.

Wyatt Earp stepped down from his horse as bullets flew all around him. He was angry that his posse didn't stay and fight, and now he was out there all alone. That's when he spotted Curly Bill. Curly Bill and his men kept firing. They shredded Wyatt's coat, but couldn't seem to hit the man himself. Curly Bill braced himself as Wyatt brought a shotgun up to his shoulder. Bill might have seen Wyatt pull the triggers, and he might have seen smoke billow out from the barrels before he heard the roar of the shotgun. But they would have been the last things he saw before his chest exploded. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able

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From Black Barrel Media, this is season two of the Legends of the Old West podcast. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is the final episode of a five-part series on Tombstone and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. This week, Wyatt Earp hunts down the cowboys to get revenge for the murder of his brother Morgan. He assembles a loyal posse that includes Doc Holliday for a quest that would become known as the Vendetta Ride. It made headlines across the country

and was the final piece of the legend of Wyatt Earp. This is Episode 5, The Reckoning. Morgan Earp died on March 18, 1882. His wife Louisa was at the family home in Colton, California when she received the news by telegraph. She collapsed to the floor and sobbed. She had left Tombstone for her own safety, and now her fun-loving husband was dead, murdered by cowards in a nighttime ambush. loving husband was dead, murdered by cowards in a nighttime ambush. The next day, March 19th, was a Sunday, and it was Wyatt's 34th birthday. He celebrated by escorting his brother's body to

the railhead in Benson for transport to California. Family and friends in Tombstone gathered for the drive to Benson. Fire bells chimed to mark the solemn occasion. Jim Earp, the eldest of the five brothers in Tombstone, accompanied Morgan's body on the trip. They were the first two Earps to leave town for good. The next day, March 20th, Wyatt began his ride for vengeance. An armed escort formed up in the streets of Tombstone to guide Virgil and his wife Allie to the train station in contention. Wyatt was going to hunt down Morgan's killers, and Virgil was still a prime target for the cowboys. Wyatt couldn't ride with a posse and watch over his injured brother at the same time. So Doc Holliday, Warren Earp, Sherman McMasters, Turkey Creek Jack Johnson, and Texas Jack Vermillion mounted up to make the trip.

While they were en route or sometime in contention, the party learned of plans for another cowboy ambush. They heard that Ike Clanton, Frank Stilwell, and a couple more cowboys were watching every train going in and out of Tucson. Virgil's train would make its first major stop in Tucson. Wyatt adapted his plan. Instead of dropping Virgil and Allie in contention and then heading out on the trail, his posse would board the train and ride to Tucson. This was a two-for-one situation.

Wyatt needed to protect Virgil, and the first person on his vendetta list was Frank Stilwell. If Stilwell was waiting in Tucson, all the better. Doc Holliday was the first man to step off the train in Tucson. He stepped down with shotguns in both hands. The rest of the group climbed down, scanning for danger, but they didn't see the cowboys. They went to a nearby hotel for dinner and then re-boarded the train. As Virgil settled into his seat, he was told of two men hiding on the flat car near the engine. Outside, Wyatt spotted them too. He was certain one was Frank Stilwell and he thought the other was Ike Clanton. He gripped his shotgun and quietly moved toward the flat car.

The two cowboys caught sight of him and leapt down from the train. They ran away from the flat car. Wyatt broke cover and chased them. One split off and he disappeared into the darkness. Wyatt caught the other man and he spun around, frozen in his tracks. It was Frank Stilwell. Wyatt's shotgun was pointed straight at his chest. Stilwell grabbed the barrels and Wyatt squeezed both triggers.

The blasts tore open Stilwell's chest at point-blank range. He slumped to the ground, dead at Wyatt's feet. More shots rang out as Wyatt's companions raced to his side. The posse made sure Stilwell would not come back to life to ambush anyone else. The train whistle blew, and the engine choked to life. The posse made a vain search for the other cowboy, but he was impossible to find in the darkness. As the train pulled out of the station, Wyatt moved closer to the cars. Virgil looked down from his seat by the darkness. As the train pulled out of the station, Wyatt moved closer to the cars. Virgil looked down from his seat by the window. Wyatt held up a single finger, one for Morgan.

Then Virgil was gone, headed safely for the family home in California. He and Wyatt would not see each other again for almost a year. Wyatt would not see each other again for almost a year. Wyatt Earp had been a lawman in four places before he moved to Tombstone. He'd worked the three rowdiest cow towns in Kansas prior to moving to Arizona, and he'd only used his gun one time. And even then, he couldn't be sure he fired the shot that had killed a man. In Tombstone, he'd been in an honest-to-God gun battle,

but he viewed it as self-defense, and none of the victims had died right on the spot from his bullets. Now, at the train depot in Tucson, and by his own admission, he'd killed a man who was just trying to surrender. Wyatt was a deputy U.S. Marshal. He could have captured Stilwell and taken him to jail, but he'd seen men walk out of Johnny Behan's jail and disappear into the ether. He'd seen killers go free from courtrooms with no punishment. He could have gone on a rampage after the attack

on Virgil, but he didn't. He preached caution, not war. But Morgan's murder had pushed him beyond his breaking point, and now he was taking no chances with official institutions of law enforcement. This time, justice would look more like vengeance, and he was taking no prisoners. Frank Stilwell's body was found the next day. One witness said, he was the worst shot up man I ever saw. A load of buckshot diced his abdomen.

Another shattered his leg. A rifle slug hit him in the side and cut through both lungs. He had more wounds on his left arm and right leg, and his left hand was burned from grabbing Wyatt's shotgun. The people of Tucson were outraged by the cold-blooded killing. A newspaper interviewed Ike Clanton, and he spun a story about why he and Stilwell were in town, other than for a sneak attack on the Earps. A coroner's inquest was held in Tucson. The jury found the Earps responsible for Stilwell's death. At the same time in Tombstone, a coroner's inquest was being held into the death of Morgan

Earp. After several witnesses testified, the jury named Frank Stilwell and four other men as suspects in Morgan's murder. A staunch Earp supporter named George Parsons wrote in his diary about the killing of Stilwell. He said, a quick vengeance and a bad character sent to hell where he will be the chief attraction until a few more accompany him. That was exactly what Wyatt had in mind. When he returned to Tombstone, he set his sights on one of the other suspects, a man who most people knew as Indian Charlie, but whose real name was Florentine Cruz. Wyatt and his crew made it back to Tombstone on the afternoon of the inquest, Tuesday, March 21st.

They went to the Cosmopolitan to collect their belongings. They were not in town long before the telegraph wire started to buzz with an incoming message. The manager of the telegraph office scribbled out the words one by one and then stared at the full text. The Pima County Justice of the Peace instructed Sheriff Johnny Behan to arrest Wyatt Earp and his posse

for the death of Frank Stilwell. The telegraph operator was a friend of Wyatt's and he took the message directly to Wyatt instead of Behan. The operator agreed to hold the telegram until the posse was ready to leave. At about 8 p.m., the operator finally gave it to Johnny. Johnny told two deputies to run and grab their shotguns. They had to arrest Wyatt Earp and his friends.

The deputies had barely gone a block before Wyatt's posse walked out of the Cosmopolitan. Behan rushed up to arrest them by himself. Wyatt made it clear, again, that he would not be arrested by Johnny Behan. They swept past Johnny and retrieved their horses from the stable. On the way, they added two more men to their group, Charlie Smith and Dan Tipton. The posse was eight strong before it rode out of Tombstone that Tuesday night. For some of them, it would be the final time they saw the town. The posse headed for the camp of known cowboy associate Pete Spencer.

Most people in the area referred to him as Pete Spence, and he'd been suspected in a stage robbery with Frank Stilwell the previous year. In the coroner's inquest on Tuesday morning, Spence's wife and mother-in-law provided key testimony that implicated Frank Stilwell and four other men in Morgan's murder. Pete Spence was one of those four men. When the posse rode out of Tombstone Tuesday night, they had four new names on their list, and they started with Spence. The next day, Wednesday, March 22nd, they located Spence's camp in the Dragoon Mountains northeast of Tombstone. But when the posse arrived,

they found out Spence was back in Tombstone. Wyatt started asking about another man on the list, Hank Swilling. But as he questioned a worker about Swilling's location, he inadvertently flushed another man on the list. In the distance, the posse spotted a man sprinting away from the outskirts of camp. He had seen the posse and made a run for it. The posse spurred their horses and chased him over a hill. The men at the camp heard a volley of gunfire and then saw the posse trot leisurely back over the hill. When the posse was gone, the workers in camp hurried to the spot of the gunfire and found the man dead under a tree with four bullet holes in him. He was Florentine Cruz, aka Indian Charlie, one of the five men named in the coroner's inquest. That made two down,

Cruz and Frank Stilwell. Years later, Wyatt said Cruz gave up the real list of assassins before he'd been shot down, and ironically, Pete Spence was not one of them. Wyatt said he was satisfied that Pete had nothing to do with Morgan's murder, and the posse no longer went after him. But now, thanks to Cruz, they added three new names to the list, and they were heavy hitters. Curly Bill Brocious, Johnny Ringo, and Ike Clanton. According to Wyatt's account of Florentine Cruz's admission, the men who were responsible for Morgan's murder were Curly Bill, Johnny Ringo, Ike Clanton, Frank Stilwell, Hank Swilling, and Cruz. News of the killing of Florentine Cruz quickly reached Tombstone, and the rats fled a sinking ship.

Pete Spence turned himself in to Johnny Behan. A deputy brought in Hank Swilling. Another deputy brought in a German man who'd been named as a suspect in the inquest. That left three. Curly Bill, Johnny Ringo, and Ike Clinton. Back in Tombstone, George Parsons wrote in his diary, More killing by the Earp party. Hope they keep it up. The man who was charged with stopping them was the charming, likable, but inept Johnny Behan. He and his deputies had been lambasted in local and national newspapers for months,

and now the heat had been turned up again. He was supposed to have arrested Wyatt Earp, but he let him go, and now Earp's posse had taken out a second man in its quest to avenge the murder of Morgan. Johnny had to act, and this time he went big. He assembled a huge posse to chase down Wyatt's crew. Many Tombstone citizens thought Johnny had sided with the cowboys, but up until this point, he hadn't really done anything overt to prove it to them. Yes, he'd handled the events around the gunfight badly, and he'd been roasted

in the court of public opinion, but it wasn't as if he actually jumped in with the cowboys and fired on the Earps. Now, he pushed aside all pretense of impartiality. When he assembled his posse, half the men were cowboys, including Ike's older brother Finn Clanton and Johnny Ringo. Separately, Curly Bill formed a posse based out of Charleston that was made up entirely of cowboys. Now, two of the men Wyatt wanted were hunting him. As three posses played a dangerous game of cat and mouse in the mountains around Tombstone, news of their adventures was being telegraphed across the country to more outlets than ever before. The Epitaph newspaper had joined a fairly new group called the Associated Press, and now it sent daily reports on the activities of the Earps, the Cowboys, and Johnny Behan over the wires to all its members.

Before long, the papers had given Wyatt's quest a name, the Arizona Vendetta. After the killing of Florentine Cruz, Wyatt's posse needed money. Keeping eight men in the saddle 24 hours a day was costly, as the people of Cochise County would soon learn when Johnny Behan turned in his bill to pay for the massive posse that searched for Wyatt. Wyatt led his men toward Tombstone. On Thursday night, March 23rd, he sent Charlie Smith into town to find mine operator E.B. Gage and ask for a loan of $1,000.

At the same time, Curly Bill's posse of Charleston Cowboys were on the prowl only a few miles away in contention. A saloon keeper noted there were 20 men or more and they were all heavily armed and ready for business. They hadn't been able to track Wyatt up until this point, but Wyatt's choice to send Charlie Smith into Tombstone would put the two posses on a collision course. Wyatt instructed Charlie to bring the money to Iron Springs and the Whetstone Mountains the following day, but Charlie never made it.

Whetstone Mountains the following day. But Charlie never made it. Mine operator E.B. Gage willingly agreed to the loan. But before Charlie collected the money, he stopped at the Alhambra Saloon to buy a bottle of whiskey. He was caught by one of Sheriff Behan's deputies. The next day, Friday, March 24th, Gage sent the money with two other men who slipped out of town and rode northwest to the Whetstones. In the mountains, Wyatt left Warren on the trail to watch for the money messenger, while he and the rest of the posse navigated the winding path down to the springs. As they neared the waterhole, Wyatt started to feel edgy. Something was off. The spring looked fine, but his instincts warned him of danger. He unlimbered his shotgun, and almost immediately, nine cowboys jumped up from the spring and began firing. Texas Jack's horse was hit in the first volley. It crashed to

the ground, pinning Jack underneath. Wyatt leapt off his horse and wrapped the reins around one arm. The animal bucked and reared. He glanced around, expecting to see his posse jumping down to return fire. Instead, they turned and galloped away, leaving Wyatt standing there all alone with nine cowboys firing at him. At this point, Wyatt said years later, he assumed it was all over for him. Bullets punched holes in his overcoat, ripping it to shreds. It was a miracle he hadn't been hit yet, and he thought he would be at any second. Then he spotted Curly Bill amongst the cowboys. Wyatt determined at that moment, if he was going out, he was taking Curly Bill with him.

He brought the shotgun up to his shoulder and fired both barrels. The buckshot caved in Curly Bill with him. He brought the shotgun up to his shoulder and fired both barrels. The buckshot caved in Curly Bill's chest. Wyatt said he screamed like a demon. Wyatt dropped the shotgun and tried to grab his rifle off his horse, but the animal was still bucking wildly. He reached for his pistol, but after spending so much time in the saddle, he'd loosened the gun belt to make the ride more comfortable, and now it slipped down onto his legs and pinned them together. The scene turned darkly comet, as Wyatt held onto his horse with one hand and tried to pull up his gun belt with the other. But this awkward, twisting dance probably saved his life. He was an impossible target to hit. But the cowboys kept firing anyway. A bullet hit the saddle horn. Another hit the heel of his boot and knocked it off with such force that Wyatt's leg

went numb. He assumed he'd been hit, but he was finally able to reach his pistol, and he returned fire, wounding one of the cowboys. Wyatt managed to pull his gun belt up enough that he could climb into the saddle. Texas Jack had freed himself from his dead horse and he jumped up behind Wyatt. Wyatt kicked the animal and they raced away from the waterhole. When Wyatt's posse regrouped, Doc examined his friend. Wyatt's clothes were in tatters and he couldn't feel one leg. You must be shot all to pieces, Doc said. But after a quick check, Wyatt was fine.

He had survived yet another close quarters gun battle without sustaining a single scratch from a bullet. But that didn't mean he was anxious to dive back into the fire. Doc wanted to mount a charge and wipe out the cowboys. Wyatt said go for it if you want, but he'd had enough for one day. The men with Wyatt's money rode up to the springs, but they couldn't find Warren or the rest of the posse. Instead, they found the cowboys. They were able to talk their way out of trouble with the outlaws, and they returned to Tombstone. They had learned the story of the shotgun duel of Wyatt and Curly Bill, and they gave the story to the Tombstone Nugget.

Soon, it was blasted all over the country, and one of the most iconic images of the legend of Wyatt Earp was born. The posse spent Friday night in the hills, having missed its rendezvous with the money messengers. On Saturday, March 25th, they rode to the outskirts of Tombstone before continuing to a ranch owned by Hugh and Jim Percy. They hoped to rest at the ranch and find food for their horses, but the Percys were antsy and nervous. They told Wyatt and his men to move on. The posse later learned that two of Behan's deputies were waiting in the barn, ready to spring a trap when the men led their horses inside. It was becoming very dangerous to be a deputy of Johnny Behan. While the sheriff was chasing Wyatt with a posse of cowboys, his deputies were

fighting a crime wave around Tombstone. An employee of the Tombstone Mining Company had been killed in Charleston, and Chief Deputy Billy Breckenridge assembled a citizen posse to catch the killers. The posse found the murderers at a nearby ranch, and a shootout ensued. Both suspects were badly wounded. A deputy was killed, and two more deputies were injured. George Parsons wrote in his diary that 14 people had been killed in 10 days. He called the situation a regular epidemic of murder. During the epidemic, Wyatt and his team left the Percy Ranch and headed for Henry Hooker's ranch. Hooker supported Wyatt and applauded the death of Curly Bill.

He gave the men food and fresh horses and invited them to stay as long as they liked. But on Monday afternoon, March 27th, Wyatt's group spotted Johnny Behan's posse way off in the distance. Hooker told Wyatt to make his stand at the ranch, but Wyatt didn't want to put Hooker's people in harm's way. The posse mounted up and rode to a bluff three miles away. The next morning, Behan's posse arrived at Hooker's ranch and demanded the whereabouts of Wyatt's men. arrived at Hooker's ranch and demanded the whereabouts of Wyatt's men. Hooker refused to tell. Johnny Behan led his posse away in frustration, in the opposite direction of Wyatt's men. He tried to get assistance from the military at Fort Grant, but was denied. Behan tried his luck one more time at the Hooker ranch before finally giving up and returning to Tombstone. His posse had been in the saddle for

10 days and had reportedly racked up a bill of $13,000. That would be more than $300,000 today. With Behan's posse gone, Wyatt's men returned to Hooker's ranch for several days of rest. The $1,000 loan from E.B. Gage finally made its way into Wyatt's hands, along with an added bonus, another $1,000 from Wells Fargo. For the first time since Wyatt put Virgil on the train in Tucson almost two weeks earlier, the posse had sanctuary, food, fresh horses, and financial support to continue its war on the Cowboys. They left Hooker's Ranch and swept the surrounding hills for more than a week, but the cowboys had scattered. Most of them, anyway.

A posse of almost 30, led by Johnny Ringo and Ike Clinton, was out hunting Wyatt and his men. With the two groups out on the trail looking for each other, rumor and speculation ran wild in the newspapers all across the west. There were daily reports on the possible location of Wyatt's men. The papers expected a pitched battle at any time or an attack on Tombstone, but none of that happened. Wyatt's posse rode to Fort Grant and it seems they made a decision. They had accomplished their mission. Even though many people

vilified their efforts, they had all but broken the power of the Cowboys. At Fort Grant, they made preparations to leave the area, possibly for good. Wyatt's group rode east to Silver City, New Mexico and arrived on April 15, 1882. They stabled their horses, giving fake names to the livery owner, and then sold the animals the next day. It would be the last time all the members of the posse were together. Charlie Smith bid goodbye and headed back to Arizona. Wyatt, Doc, Warren, Texas Jack, Creek Johnson, Sherman McMasters, and Dan Tipton took a stage to Deming and then a train to Albuquerque. While they moved east, the story of the Vendetta Ride became the biggest event in the West. Newspapers waged a war of words over

Wyatt's war against the Cowboys, and in the process, they made Wyatt Earp a household name. He became the center of a national debate about law and order. Eye for an eye justice had been commonplace in the West and condoned in many circles. In Wyatt's mind, it was the only way to get justice for Morgan's murder. He knew the cowboys would never spend a day in jail if he arrested them, so his only choice was to simply eliminate them. But times were changing. A heated discussion raged on every level of society, from the people on the ground in Tombstone all the way up to the President of the United States, Chester A. Arthur. The posse stayed in Albuquerque for a spell, during which Wyatt and Doc had an argument.

The details will never be known with certainty, but it caused a minor rift between the two men. The group left Albuquerque and took the train to Trinidad, Colorado. It was the final stop for the posse of the Vendetta Ride. Wyatt's old friend, Bat Masterson, was the town marshal in Trinidad, and Wyatt knew he was safe in Masterson's realm. Sherman McMasters and Turkey Creek Jack Johnson departed the group. Wyatt and Warren spent some time with Bat Masterson before heading up to the mountain town of Gunnison with either Dan Tipton or Texas Jack. Doc continued north to Pueblo. Throughout April and May, while the posse laid low,

Wyatt worked back channels to arrange a pardon for his actions. The posse led by Ike Clanton and Johnny Ringo dissolved. In Tombstone, the debate over the Vendetta ride and the meaning of law and order still dominated the newspapers, but Cochise County calmed down for the first time in two years. Wyatt's posse had been mostly off the grid for weeks, but they were about to jump back into the national spotlight courtesy of Doc Holliday. While Wyatt and Warren camped in the mountains, Doc headed north from Pueblo to Denver for a big horse race. Along the way he ran into Bat Masterson who was also going to town for the event. In true Doc Holliday fashion, he got embroiled in a fiasco nearly the minute he stepped off the train.

On the night of May 15, 1882, Doc was walking along 15th Street in Denver when a man jumped out of the darkness and confronted him with two pistols. The man accused Doc of having killed his partner, and they caused such a scene that they were both taken to the police station. At the station, the man kept waving his pistols and ranting at Doc. Doc's temper grew and he began to slander the man with his colorful vocabulary. The police separated the two men and threw Doc in jail. Batmasterson caught wind of the event

and rounded up an attorney in the middle of the night to get Doc out, but the damage had already been done. Doc, Bat, and the man who confronted Doc all talked to reporters. The next day, a flurry of stories hit the press, and the Earps and Doc Holliday were back on the radar of Sheriff Johnny Behan. Now, wave after wave of telegrams flowed between Colorado and Arizona about extraditing the Earps and Doc Holliday for the killing of Frank Stilwell. The job fell to Pima County Sheriff Bob Paul to bring the men back. He supported the Earps, and he did not relish the assignment.

It would take some time to get the extradition paperwork in order, so Bob headed for Denver without the papers. When they were done, they'd meet him in Denver. Meanwhile, the newspapers went crazy with story after story that turned an already messy situation into full-blown chaos. There were so many people and so many places involved, the papers couldn't possibly comprehend all of it. And consequently, they published numerous false reports that only added to the confusion. Worst of all for Wyatt, Doc probably had no idea that he'd jeopardized a private agreement that may have been in place between the governor of Colorado and the governor of Arizona. The two men had mutual connections,

and it seems likely that the governor of Colorado was willing to grant the Earps sanctuary as long as they stayed out of trouble. The public arrest of Doc Holliday threw a very big wrench into the works. There were days of legal wrangling and constant meetings in Denver. Numerous people came to Doc's defense, claiming he'd be killed if he was sent back to Arizona. But many powerful people wanted him back just as badly. In the end, the governor of Colorado was able to refuse extradition on a technicality. It turned out the governor of Arizona had failed to sign the proper extradition paperwork. The Earps and Dock holiday would not be sent back to Arizona.

A few days later, Dock joined Wyatt and Warren in Gunnison, and for a short time, the dentist gambler was more famous than the lawman. But Dock's visit was brief. In early July, he had to return to Pueblo for yet another courtroom appearance. When the two old friends parted, it was likely the last time they saw each other, and it was the finalHow to Pronounce Tombstone'' Wyatt and Warren stayed in Colorado for several months waiting for a pardon from the governor of Arizona. When it didn't come, they gave up their last fleeting hope of ever returning to Tombstone.

Late in 1882, they headed west to San Francisco, where two happy reunions took place. First, they met Virgil, who was in town to visit a surgeon, and the three brothers saw each other for the first time in almost a year. Second, Wyatt reunited with Josephine Marcus, the one-time fiancé of Johnny Behan. After she and Johnny broke up in the summer of 1881, Wyatt and Josephine had some kind of relationship, but the depth of it was never known. Clearly there was a spark,

because when they found each other in California, they were together for the rest of their lives. Doc Holliday stayed in Colorado, making trouble as always. Tuberculosis and a life of hard drinking finally caught up to him on November 8, 1887. He died in Glenwood Springs at the age of 36. Virgil and Allie traveled the West, and Virgil became a constable in California and a deputy sheriff in Nevada, despite the use of only one arm. He died October 19, 1905. Johnny Behan lost the next sheriff's election in Tombstone and then became the warden of Yuma Prison, but his time there was

brief and marked by corruption and scandal. He passed away in Tucson, June 7, 1912. June 7, 1912. Johnny Ringo was as mysterious in death as he was in life. In the summer of 1882, his body was discovered under a tree in the Chiricahua Mountains east of Tombstone with a single gunshot wound to the head. While it was probably suicide, he was a sworn enemy of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, and reporters and authors found it impossible to resist the idea that one or both had slipped away to finish him off. Finn Clanton, eldest brother of the three Clanton boys, was convicted of cattle rustling and sent to Yuma Prison. Ike Clanton, the last surviving leader of the once-powerful Cowboys, was killed by a detective in 1887. Maddie Earp, Wyatt's second wife, also met a sad end. She had waited at the Earp family home in California for Wyatt to return, but when it became clear that he had chosen Josephine,

she moved back to Arizona. She drank heavily, fell into prostitution, and died of a laudanum overdose July 3rd, 1888. Wyatt Earp lived about as full a life as possible. He and Josephine embarked on a series of adventures for 46 years before he passed away January 13th, 1929 in Los Angeles. He was 81 years old and he was one of the few men who could genuinely say he was a legend in his own time. The town of Tombstone has had its ups and downs like any town. It went through two mining booms, but today it survives on tourism as people from all over the world walk its streets and imagine the extraordinary things that happen there. It's home to an event unlike any other in the West.

Tombstone is a living legend in its own right. Thanks for listening to Season 2 of The Legends of the Old West. Before I get to the usual wrap-up stuff, I have a couple quick notes. First, in October I'm releasing a special stand-alone limited series on one of the most infamous events in American history. It's not about the Old West, but I promise you, it's a big one. You'll hear much more about that in the next few weeks. Second, what's next on this show?

I've got some great bonus episodes coming up with experts on tombstone history. Then, later this fall, Season 3 will continue a story we began in Season 1, The Career of Jesse James. Lastly, I want to give you some book recommendations. If you liked this series and you want to know the full story, I promise you there is so much more out there. Here are some books you'll want to check out. Wyatt Earp, The Life Behind the Legend by Casey Tiefertiller.

Doc Holliday, The Life and Legend by Gary Roberts. The Last Gunfight by Jeff Gwynn. Too Tough to Die, The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Mining Camp by Lynn Bailey. Tombstone from a Woman's Point of View, The Correspondence of Clara Brown by Lynn Bailey. And A Tender Foot in Tombstone, The Private Journal of George Whitwell Parsons by Lynn Bailey. Now, as always, if you liked the show, the best way to help is to give it a rating and a review on iTunes. Sound design for this series was by Rob Valliere in Phoenix, Arizona.

Our website is oldwestpodcast.com, and that's where you can find links to source material, music, and the ways to subscribe. Finally, check out our social media pages for photos, videos, and discussions. Our Facebook page is Legends of the Old West Podcast, and our handles on Twitter and Instagram are at Old West Podcast. Thanks again. We'll see you soon. I'm going to go. the highest cash back, the most savings on your shopping. So join Rakuten and start getting cash back at Sephora, Old Navy, Expedia, and other stores you love. You can even stack sales on top of cash back. Just start your shopping with Rakuten to save money at over 750 stores. Join for free at Rakuten.ca or get the Rakuten app.

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