Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday Jailed for Murder

(L-R): Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), Virgil Earp (Sam Elliott), Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), and Morgan Earp (Bill Paxton), in "Tombstone.” (Warner Bros.)

In 1877, a prospector by the name of Ed Schieffelin discovered a massive vein of silver in Arizona and then founded the town of Tombstone. Beginning with a handful of prospectors, Tombstone blossomed into a bustling city of about 6,000 people in a few short years. Arizona, still a territory (and would remain so until 1912), was a rough-and-tumble place full of opportunity and trouble in near equal share.

Around this time, a family of brothers roamed from hard labor to questionable enterprises to the industry of law enforcement. They were the Earp brothers: James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, Warren, and their half-brother Newton. Though Wyatt Earp’s name would attain the greatest fame, Virgil, Morgan, and Warren would also go down in history as great lawmen (though some would argue vigilantes).

Wyatt Earp aged around 39, circa 1887. Heritage Auction Gallery. (Public Domain)

The Earp Brothers

Virgil fought in the Civil War as part of the 83rd Illinois Infantry from the summer of 1862 to the summer of 1865. After the war, he moved around the country, working the railroad, as well as a prospector, stagecoach driver, and eventually a lawman. His career as a law enforcement officer began in October of 1877 when he was haphazardly deputized during a street fight in Yavapai County, Arizona. He was later appointed as a U.S. Deputy Marshal on Nov. 27, 1879 for the Arizona Territory.

Wyatt had been too young to serve in the Civil War, but he nonetheless had become exceptional with guns. Indeed, he had begun his life on the opposite end of the law (some suggest the loss of his first wife and unborn child drove him to unscrupulous activities), but his success in tracking horse thieves and dispensing justice brought him back on the right side. It was during his years in Dodge City, Kansas (1876–79) that he made his name as a marshal. Although Virgil and Wyatt lived in the city at the same time, it was the younger Wyatt who would become a lawman first. He also made a couple of famous friends: Doc Holliday, a former dentist turned gambler and gunfighter, and Bat Masterson, gambler and lawman.

Morgan lived in Dodge City for a short time with Virgil and Wyatt. After marrying, he moved to Butte, Montana, and became a marshal.

Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell, L) and Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), in "Tombstone." (Warner Bros.)

The Earps Move to Tombstone

By the end of 1880, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, James, and Holliday, along with their wives (or significant others) moved to Tombstone. They were drawn to the city for the same reason thousands of others had been: silver. By the time they arrived, however, the opportunity to make a strike had practically disappeared.

Related Stories

Thomas Paine, James Monroe, and the Reign of Terror

10/28/2023

The Lasting Legacy of ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’

10/21/2023

James was a bartender at a saloon in Tombstone. Wyatt began working at the already established Oriental Saloon. Virgil became deputy marshal, and Morgan joined him as a peace officer. But peace was a hard find in Tombstone. Gunfighters, thieves, murderers, and prostitutes populated the town. Most of the trouble stemmed from local ruffians known as the “Cowboys.” Among them were the Clantons (Ike, Phineas, and Billy), the McLaurys (Frank and Tom), Curly Bill Brocius, Johnny Ringo, Frank Stillwell, and Florentino Cruz.

Tombstone, Arizona in 1881, photographed by C.S. Fly. (Public Domain)

Less than a year after the Earps’ arrival, Brocius shot and killed the town marshal Fred White. Virgil would take his place. Although he would later lose an election to Ben Sippy, Virgil would become marshal again after Sippy was found to have mismanaged funds. With Virgil as marshal, a law was established barring the carrying of guns in town. The law would result in an inevitable showdown between the Earps and the Cowboys―a showdown that would go down as the most famous gunfight in American history.

The Gunfight

Hoping to avoid a fatal conflict, Virgil requested Sheriff Johnny Behan to approach the Clanton and McLaury brothers and convince them to hand over their weapons. Behan tried, but failed. He is reported to have said, “There is to be trouble between the Clanton and the Earp boys today.” On Oct. 26, 1881, trouble came.

Hearing that the Clantons and the McLaurys, along with another man, Billy Claibourne, defied the sheriff and the law, Virgil deputized Wyatt, Morgan, and Holliday to join him in disarming the gang. They marched to a lot near the Old Kindersley (O.K.) Corral where the five men were and announced their intentions. There are differing reports on the verbal interactions, but what is for certain is that a gunfight broke out and in about 30 seconds, Virgil, Morgan, and Holliday were wounded, and three Cowboys lay dead.

Billy Clanton had shot Morgan in the leg and Virgil in the shoulders, while a bullet grazed Holliday’s hip. Clanton was then shot in the chest and the right arm, forcing him to shoot left-handed. He would die from his wounds 30 minutes later. Tom McLaury was killed by a blast from Holliday’s shotgun. Frank McLaury was first shot in the stomach by Holliday, and then shot in the head by either Holliday or Morgan. Wyatt suffered no injuries. Claibourne and Ike Clanton, both unarmed, fled when the shooting started.

Inquest and Trial

The following day, the coroner began a formal inquest into the deaths. Ike Clanton pressed charges against Holliday and the Earp brothers. Judge Wells Spicer began a preliminary hearing on Oct. 31. On Nov. 4, Will McLaury, the brother of Billy and Tom, arrived from Texas to join Ike in pressing charges. Virgil, severely injured and recovering in the Cosmopolitan Hotel, was suspended from duty. For Wyatt and Holliday, it was during this week in history, on Nov. 7, 1881, that they were arrested on murder charges and held in the Sixth Street jail for 16 days.

After testimonies, including from Ike, Wyatt, and Virgil (his testimony was taken from his hotel bed), the Earp brothers and Holliday were exonerated on Nov. 30 for their actions at the O.K. Corral. Feeling a severe injustice, the Cowboys began plotting their revenge.

Front Street, Dodge City, Kansas, 1874. (Public Domain)

The Cowboys Revenge

A month after the judge’s decision, Virgil was ambushed at night while walking along Fifth Street. He was shot in the back and his left arm was nearly ripped off by buckshot. Though he would survive the attack, he practically lost all use of his left arm. Although Ike’s hat was found near the scene, no one was able to identify the shooters, and therefore no arrests were made.

Hearing about the recent attack on Virgil, U.S. Marshal Crawley Drake appointed Wyatt as Deputy U.S. Marshal. But the Cowboys were hardly through. On the night of March 18, 1882, Morgan was shot in the back and killed while playing billiards. Morgan’s body was shipped by train from Tucson to the Earp family in California. James, Virgil and his wife, Allie, traveled with the body. Wyatt, however, knowing that Frank Stilwell worked at the train station, stayed behind, along with his brother, Warren, Holliday, and two others, Sherman McMasters and “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson. Upon discovering Stillwell at the trainyard, Wyatt shot and killed him, and so began the Earp Vendetta Ride.

‘Print the Legend’

By the time the vengeful ride was complete, four Cowboys were dead, and the five riders of the Earp Vendetta had fled to other territories. Ike Clanton was not one of the four killed, but he did die at the hands of deputy marshal Jonas V. Brighton on June 1, 1887. Claiborne barely survived a year after the famous gunfight. He was gunned down by Frank Leslie, the bartender of the Oriental Saloon, after a drunk Claiborne shot and missed Leslie.

Although Wyatt Earp’s name was more infamous during the 19th century, he became more of a folk hero and legend in the 20th, especially after Stuart Lake wrote and published “Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal” 50 years after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. He remains one of the mythical heroes of American history, who was only further immortalized in the early 1990s with the films “Tombstone” and “Wyatt Earp.” The memory of Wyatt Earp that is held in the American psyche today is reminiscent of the famous statement in John Ford’s western film “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Would you like to see other kinds of arts and culture articles? Please email us your story ideas or feedback at [email protected]