Cochise County Cowboys

Tombstone, Arizona, was one of the last frontier towns in the American Old West. Outlaws from all parts of the western territories felt the pressures of encroaching civilization and the increased presence of lawmen and the courts, backed by growing populations of farmers and citizens desiring law and order. The town had boomed in less than 18 months from about 100 miners living in tents and shacks to more than 7,000 people by , when Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp arrived in Tombstone. Virgil Earp had been appointed deputy U.S. marshal for eastern Pima County in Prescott and was directed to relocate to Tombstone to concentrate on suppressing the Cowboys' illegal activities. He arrived with his brothers Wyatt and Morgan. Wyatt looked for business opportunities. When those did not work out, he started riding shotgun for Wells, Fargo & Co., guarding their silver bullion shipments. He was appointed as a Pima County deputy sheriff from June 1880 until November of that year, and Virgil Earp was hired as Tombstone's city marshal in June 1881. Cowboys as outlaws The word cowboy did not begin to come into wider use until the 1870s. The men who drove cattle for a living were usually called cowhands, drovers, or stockmen. While cowhands were still respected in West Texas, in Cochise County the outlaws' crimes and their notoriety grew such that during the 1880s it was an insult to call a legitimate cattleman a "cowboy." Tombstone resident George Parsons wrote in his diary, "A cowboy is a rustler at times, and a rustler is a synonym for desperado—bandit, outlaw, and horse thief." The San Francisco Examiner wrote in an editorial, "Cowboys [are] the most reckless class of outlaws in that wild country ... infinitely worse than the ordinary robber." Legal cowmen were usually landowners and generally called herders or ranchers. On September 16, 1881, forty days before the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Tombstone Epitaph wrote about the "Cow-boy Nuisance" in Arizona: The notoriety and power of the Cowboys spread from coast to coast. Well-known members of the group included Ike, Billy, and Phineas Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, Curly Bill Brocius, Billy Claiborne, Calico Jones, Johnny Ringo, Frank Stilwell, Pony Diehl, Pete Spence, and Harry Head. Virgil Earp thought that some of the Cowboys had met at Charleston, Arizona, and taken "an oath over blood drawn from the arm of Ringo, the leader, that they would kill us." Three Cowboys were killed by lawmen in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881. Many modern writers consider them to be one of the first and earliest forms of organized crime syndicates in American history. ==Cowboys vs. business owners==

Many of the ranchers and cowboys who lived in the countryside were resentful of the growing power of industrialists from northern states, who increasingly influenced local politics and law in the county. The ranchers largely maintained control of the country around Tombstone, in large part because of the sympathetic support of Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, who favored the Cowboys and rural ranchers. He grew to intensely dislike the Earps. Behan tended to ignore the Earps' complaints about the McLaurys' and Clantons' horse thieving and cattle rustling. As officers of the law, the Earps were known to bend the law in their favor when it affected their gambling and saloon interests, which earned them further enmity from the Cowboy faction. Political and regional conflicts Under the surface were other tensions aggravating the simmering distrust. Most of the Cowboys were Democrats and Confederate sympathizers from southern states, especially Texas. They considered the business owners and the lawmen, especially the Earps, to be Northern Republican carpetbaggers. Economic conflicts According to Virgil Earp, the Cowboys were "saddlers", men who lived in the saddle. Their primary occupation was raiding haciendas in Sonora, Mexico, for cattle. They sold the cattle in Tombstone to cooperative butchers. When they couldn't find cattle to steal, they robbed stages and engaged "in similar enterprises". He said that as soon as they had money to spend, they roared into Tombstone to spend it freely in the saloons, brothels, and "faro banks". The Cowboys' generous spending habits earned them friends among the businessmen in town, who welcomed them. There the Cowboys freely expressed their opinions publicly, loudly, and with little opposition. When the Cowboys broke the law, the businessmen feared alienating their customers and hesitated to support lawmen when they confronted cattle thieves or stage robbers. ==Known criminal associates==

The lines were not always distinct between the outlaw element and law enforcement. Doc Holliday had a reputation as a killer. He was friends with Bill Leonard, who was implicated in a stagecoach robbery. On , 1881, three Cowboys tried to rob a Kinnear & Company stagecoach carrying US$26,000 in silver bullion (about $ in today's dollars) near Drew's Station, just outside Contention City. It was en route from Tombstone to Benson, Arizona, the nearest rail terminal. The Cowboys were later identified as Bill Leonard, Harry "The Kid" Head, and Jim Crane, assisted by Luther King. The brothers Frank and Tom McLaury had a ranch outside Tombstone, which they may have used to receive and sell stolen Mexican cattle. When six U.S. Army mules were stolen from Camp Rucker by Calico Jones and an unknown accomplice (some sources say it may have been Ike Clanton), Wyatt Earp assisted the U.S. Army in a search. They found the animals on the McLaurys' ranch on the Babacomari River. They also found the branding iron used to change the "US" brand to "D8". The Clanton family, led by Newman Haynes Clanton, had a ranch in a valley outside Tombstone that was likely used for selling stolen Mexican beef. He was assisted by his sons Ike, Billy, and Phin Clanton. Old Man Clanton was involved in the robbery, murder, and torture of a number of Mexican smugglers who were ambushed on their way to Tucson in the 1879 Skeleton Canyon Massacre. He was killed on August 13, 1881, by Mexican soldiers in a retaliatory raid along the Mexican border at Guadalupe Canyon. Ike Clanton repeatedly threatened the Earps and Doc Holliday in the days leading up to the shoot-out on at the OK Corral. Unarmed, he ran from the gunfight. ==Cowboys and the law==

Frank Stilwell had previously been accused and acquitted of two murders. He was named a deputy county sheriff by Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan in April 1881. He was dismissed four months later for "accounting irregularities" relating to the collection of taxes. Law enforcement officers who came into conflict with the Cowboys included Fred White, who was killed by Curly Bill Brocius in what was ruled an accidental shooting. Virgil Earp was at times both U.S. Deputy Marshal for the Southeast Arizona Territory and Tombstone City Marshal. Wyatt Earp had been the Pima County deputy sheriff from June to . On June 28, 1881, Virgil was appointed by Tombstone Mayor John Clum as the permanent Tombstone City Marshal and was paid $150.00 per month. He was to enforce all town ordinances, including the city's ban against carrying a deadly weapon. John J. Gosper, Secretary of State for the Arizona Territory and acting governor after John C. Frémont's virtual abandonment of his post, interviewed both Sheriff Behan and Deputy U.S. Marshal (and Town Marshal) Virgil Earp. The initial version of Ordinance No. 9, in effect in April, 1880 unintentionally allowed individuals to carry deadly weapons in plain sight, only banning concealed weapons. It had little effect and the later version was passed with the intent to prevent carrying any deadly weapons without a permit. The revised version was in effect when Virgil Earp attempted to disarm the cowboys before the Gunfight at the OK Corral. After the gunfight on October 26, 1881, in which three Cowboys died, the Earps and Holliday had to defend themselves against murder charges filed by Ike Clanton. The defendants cited the weapons ordinance during the preliminary hearing held by Justice Wells Spicer. In his ruling exonerating the lawmen of murder, Judge Spicer described Frank McLaury's insistence that he would not give up his weapons unless the marshal and his deputies also gave up their arms as a "proposition both monstrous and startling!" Earp and the Cowboys conflict Virgil Earp had been appointed the Deputy U.S. Marshal for eastern Pima County on , 1880, before he arrived in Tombstone. Wyatt Earp was appointed assistant sheriff for Pima County from to , 1880. After Town Marshal Fred White was killed on , 1880, Virgil was appointed to replace him, gaining the position permanently on , 1881. He hired his brother Morgan as a deputy town marshal and occasionally called on Wyatt for assistance. Some townspeople were particularly fond of young Tom McLaury. Virgil was hit in the back and left arm by three loads of buckshot from about . The Crystal Palace Saloon and the Eagle Brewery beyond Virgil were struck by nineteen buckshot; three passed through the window and one about a foot over the heads of some men standing by a faro-table. George Parsons wrote that he heard "four shots in quick succession." Critically wounded, Virgil staggered into the hotel. Virgil upper left arm was shattered, and a doctor removed of humerus bone and his elbow, leaving his arm useless. The Sacramento Daily Record-Union wrote that "Long ago the cowboy gang threatened the lives of Mayor Clum, Judge Spicer, Marshall Williams, agent of Wells, Fargo & Co., Earp and Holliday, and this is an attempt to carry the threats into execution." An assailant shot Morgan through the upper half of a four-pane windowed door that opened onto a dark alley. Morgan, about from the door, was struck in the right side and the bullet shattered his spine, passed through his left side, and entered the thigh of mining foreman George A. B. Berry. Another bullet lodged in the wall near the ceiling over Wyatt's head. Several men rushed into the alley but found the shooter had fled. Morgan died less than an hour after he was shot. Earp vendetta The main suspects in the ambush of Virgil Earp were Ike and Phin Clanton, and Pony Diehl. Wyatt was appointed as Deputy U.S. Marshal to replace Virgil; in turn, he deputized Sherman McMaster, "Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson, Origen Charles Smith and Daniel "Tip" Tipton. On , 1882, Wyatt Earp obtained arrest warrants for Ike and Phin Clanton and Pony Diehl and led his posse after them. The lawmen searched in Charleston but were unsuccessful. == Aftermath ==

With the deaths of several Cowboy leaders and the departure of the Earp family, the dominance of the outlaw cowboys waned. Arizona Territory Governor Frederick Tritle visited Tombstone on April 3, 1882, and put a posse of 30 men under the command of Deputy U.S. Marshal J.H. Jackson. Because Arizona was still a territory, Congress approved all of its expenditures. Tritle telegraphed President Chester A. Arthur and asked for an appropriation of $150,000 from Congress to pay for the costs of rooting out the unlawful elements. He also asked for the power to suspend local officials for six months. The U.S. Congress was unwilling to allocate the funds needed to form such a group. Unable to create a group of rangers, Tritle instead called for the formation of volunteer militia to pursue hostile groups of Apache. To combat the depredations of the outlaw cowboys, General William T. Sherman, following a tour of Arizona's eastern and southern counties, recommended suspension of the Posse Comitatus Act to allow the U.S. Army to aid in restoring order. On the basis of the recommendations of Sherman and Tritle, and following consultation with members of the U.S. Senate, President Arthur issued a decree on May 3, 1882, threatening to use military force if the criminal element did not disperse. The use of the U.S. Army to enforce the law was not necessary, as the outlaw cowboy problem diminished over the next few months. ==Further reading==