1845 Nicholas Porter Earp, Morgan’s father worked as a cooper and farmer in Warren County, Illinois, for
four years. He only owned one lot in the county seat, Monmouth, but he held the title to empty lots across the street, paying
with promissory notes. He volunteered for the Mexican War in 1847, but was invalided home after a mule kicked him in the groin.
He arrived back in Monmouth a month before the birth of his son, Wyatt, March 19,
1848. In March of 1849, as gold fever was raging in the community, he sold his property and hurried away with his
family, leaving his creditors with the impression that he was on his way to California.
However, he made it no farther than Pella, in central Iowa.
This was beautiful land, not yet settled. #1
Morgan Earp was born in Pella,
Marian County, Iowa April 24, 1851. He was the youngest of “Fighting Earps.”
Morgan and Wyatt were too young
for Civil War service, but their father and brothers, James and Virgil, and half brother, Newton,
served – all on the Union side. The 13-year-old Wyatt was left in charge of bringing in an 80-acre corn crop, with the
help of younger brothers 10-year old Morgan and Warren. #3
Nicholas Earp went to California
in the 1850s – not for gold – but to find agricultural land with an ample water supply, and decided to settle
in San Bernardino County. #4 He returned
to the Midwest to move the family to California, but
his daughter, Martha, became ill and died. Then the Civil War started, delaying the move
March 4, 1856, Nicholas and Virginia Earp were in Iowa,
most likely in Pella. On March 10 Nicholas Earp was in Monmouth,
Illinois. Later, on March 17 Noe and Webster filed their papers at the courthouse in Knoxville,
Iowa, and by June they had returned to Monmouth, quite possibly traveling with Nicholas
Earp and his family. Nicholas had sold his farm and returned to Monmouth, Illinois.
In early July of 1856 the Monmouth
Atlas reported: “Died here on the 26th ult., Mary Elizabeth, only d/o of Mr. N. P. Earp, in the eleventh
year of her age.” Morgan was five years old. Nicholas, unable to find work in his trades as a cooper and farmer, took
an appointment as one of several municipal constables, serving warrants and assisting court officers.
Three years later, Nicholas had
been convicted in the spring and fall of 1859 of selling liquor, He was further disgraced by the judge ordering the sale of
his property at public auction on November 11 to satisfy his fines, he subsequently left Monmouth. #1
November 13, 1859 The Earps left again for Pella,
Iowa. During the family’s second stay in Pella,
the American Civil War broke out. James, Virgil and Newton joined the Union Army.
Wyatt (aged 13 at war outbreak) was too young to join, but later tried on several occasions to run away and join the army,
only to have his father find him and bring him home. While Nicholas was busy recruiting and drilling local companies, Wyatt,
with the help of his two younger brothers, Morgan and Warren, was left in charge of bringing in an 80-acre corn crop. James
returned home in summer 1863 after being severely wounded in Fredricktown, Missouri.
#1
December 13th 1859, Earp was back in Monmouth, Illinois,
threatening to sue the high bidder on his property. January 11, 1860, he was in Pella, recording the purchase
he made in November, 1859. Morgan was living with his family in Pella, Iowa
#9. On March 19, 1860 Nicholas Earp was back in Monmouth to conclude the
sale of his properties there, but had hardly left town before more suits were filed against him. Being listed as a delinquent
tax payer was a minor civil crime —everyone paid late, but not everyone left town without paying anything. Eventually
one suit for $142.71 was dropped about 1864 because nobody knew where Earp was to be found. We know that he had left for California.
#1
May 12th, 1864, Nicholas Earp leads the wagon train headed
to California. They arrived in 1865 settling in Colton,
San Bernardino, California. Morgan was thirteen.
Spring 1868, Nicholas Earp decided to go back and dispose of his land in the Midwest the
Civil War having ended. The Earps moved again, this time settling in Lamar,
Missouri. Nicolas planned later to return to California
to settle permanently.
In 1870, the Earps were recorded as living in Lamar Township,
Barton County, Missouri. Nicholas gave his occupation as
a grocer. #13
February 24, 1872 Morgan and Brother Wyatt had been seized in a raid on
Jane Haspel’s bagnio (a building where prostitutes are available), in the city’s red-light district, close by
the train yards, transient boarding houses and hotels catering to commercial travelers. At a hearing shortly afterward, a
prostitute nabbed with the Earps cinched their guilt, giving testimony to the effect that they had not been entrapped but
had knowingly consorted with her, and each man paid a fine of $20 and costs.
The raid was part of a campaign
launched by the new mayor and his superintendent police Samuel Gill, to placate the “moral element” among his
constituents by putting well-publicized pressure on the flesh trade. The amount of the fine suggests the Earps were convicted
of being nothing more than “johns.” However, Root’s Peoria City Directory for 1872-73 lists Wyatt Earp living
at the same address as Jane Haspel; Washington Street near the corner
of Hamilton. Since the city directory went to press on March 1, 1872, and canvassing for it would have taken at least several months, it is probable Wyatt
was residing in the Haspel brothel, not merely patronizing it, at the time of his arrest.
May 9, 1872 Morgan and Wyatt Earp were again jailed by, as reported in
the May 11, 1872, issue of the Daily Transcript: “That hotbed of
iniquity, the McClellan Institute on Main Street near Water was pulled
on Thursday night [May 9], and as usual quite a number of inmates transient and otherwise were found therein. Wyatt [sic]
Earp and his brother Morgan Earp were each fined $44.55 and as they had not the money and would not work, they languish in
the cold and silent calaboose....” “It does seem strange that the
owner of the house in question can not find a more respectable lot of tenants than he usually has there. Complaints arise
from the whole neighborhood, and some of the merchants nearby there are annoyed by the inmates even during the day.”
The madam of the McClellan Institute
was Jennie Green; whose previous residence had been a hovel situated in an alley near the corner of Washington
and Hamilton streets, a short distance form Jane Haspel’s backdoor. The
amount of the fines levied against Morgan and Wyatt suggests that they were pimps and charged them as such.
June 16, 1872 It may be that after serving their sentences, Morgan and
Wyatt left Peoria—Wyatt temporarily and Morgan for good. In a memoir, their
sister Adelia recounts how on her 11th birthday, June 16, 1872,
they visited her at the family farm in Missouri and gave her “a whole
package of pretty clothes.” By Adelia’s account, Morgan and Wyatt had returned from buffalo hunting with “quite
a heap of money.” #2
April 1875 Wyatt Earp became deputy marshal at Wichita, Kansas.
He had many run-ins with criminals there, one of them the notorious John Wesley Hardin. After that, he became deputy marshal
of Dodge City, Kansas. Once deputized, Earp hired several
other deputies including his brothers Morgan and Virgil, Bat and Jim Masterson, Joe Mason, and Neal Brown to help him keep
order.
Later in 1875 Morgan
met and “Settled with” Luisa Houston in Dodge City, Kansas,
which was then the largest shipping point in the North for the immense herds of Texas
cattle that were annually driven from to the northern markets. His lovely mistress
Louisa’s (who became his common-law wife), father according to family tradition being an illegitimate son of famed Sam
Houston of Texas and a Cherokee woman. Louisa “Lou” Houston was born Jan 24, 1855 in Wisconsin. Morgan Earp served as Deputy Sheriff of Ford County, KS
1876 Morgan returned to Dodge and was appointed a deputy there. (See Deadwood)During the winter of 1876-1877 Allie
Earp first met Morgan for the first time. “She recounted that at first meeting, she playfully stuck out her foot, and
Morgan pinched her toes and laughed.” “Clearly, she warmed to Morgan at once while she found Wyatt strangely cold
and distant.” #8
September 9, 1876 Morgan and Wyatt left Dodge heading
for the Deadwood Boom. As winter set Morgan returned to Dodge leaving Wyatt in Deadwood, Dakota Territory
where Wyatt variously made money hauling wood and riding shotgun.
Adelia said that James always owned
several guns. People tend to think only of Wyatt. He could have got the gun from a brother. It’s possible the Colt SAA
1873 came down from Montana with Morg. He spent most of two years constantly
around General Miles’ troops and could have easily obtained a pistol off one of them. The only problem with that theory
is the military in Montana heavily favored the S&W revolver by Kenny t. K. in Lawmen, Outlaws, & Assorted Miscreants
Board Colt SAA 1873 Fri May 12, 2006 .
December 18, 1879 Morgan was appointed a City Marshal in Butte,
Montana and held that position until March 10,
1880. During his tinier as City Marshal Morgan killed a former Kansas Marshal #20. Morgan continued living with
his common law wife Louisa.
March 10, 1880 Morgan has
resigned from the Butte police force.
Morgan and his wife, Louisa, are
show in the 1880 census for San Bernardino County, California
residing with his father, Nicholas Earp in Temescal. Eventually Morgan
Earp and Warren Earp head for Tombstone as well.
January 1880 Morgan arrived in Tombstone, Arizona
having left Luisa behind. Morgan rode as a Wells Fargo shotgun messenger on the coach that ran between Tombstone
and Benson, which was the nearest railroad point. Morgan’s duty was to protect the Wells Fargo coach from the stage
robbers with which the country at that time was infested.
August
15, 1880 — On the basis of a newly presented deathbed statement by the victim, Morgan Earp re-arrested
George Perine near the town of Richmond for the murder of Mike Killeen on June
22nd.
October
27, 1880 Marshal Fred White is shot.
The cowboys were in town carousing,
drinking too much, and getting out of hand. Soon, shots rang out amid loud shouting and yelling. Several cowboys, including
Curly Bill (Brocius), were out in the street banging away at the moon or stars. Unaware that Town Marshal Fred White was watching
them. He went up to Curly Bill and said, “I am an officer; give me your pistol.” Meanwhile, Wyatt Earp, deputy
sheriff of Pima County, had been in Owen’s
Saloon a block away and heard the shots. Wyatt ran out of the saloon, saw Morgan and asked him for a pistol. Morgan did not
have one but pointed to Fred Dodge a few steps ahead. With Dodge’s pistol in hand, Wyatt ran to the scene of the ruckus
just as Curly Bill had drawn his pistol out of his holster. Marshal White grabbed the barrel, but Curly Bill wouldn’t
let go. Wyatt threw his arms around Curly Bill, and Marshal White, encouraged by the help yelled; “Now you God damn
son of a bitch give up that pistol.” Unfortunately, White jerked the pistol further, and it went off, blasting Marshal
White in the stomach. Wyatt “buffaloed” Curly Bill, that is, cracked him over the skull with his pistol, threw
him to the ground, and placed him under arrest. Marshal White, fatally wounded, lasted until the next day. Before he died
he gave some details of the encounter, exonerated Curly Bill from any serious crime, saying the shooting was accidental. #14
October 28, 1880 Virgil was
appointed City Marshal of Tombstone after Fred White had been shot; Virgil became the first City Marshal of Tombstone, AT
Over the next few months the Earp
family came into conflict with two families, the Clantons and the McLaurys when they came to town to sell livestock. The Earp
brothers believed that some of these animals had been stolen from farmers in Mexico.
Wyatt Earp was also convinced that the Clanton brothers had stolen one of his horses
April 1881 Tombstones’ population was 7,000 and there were 110 active Liquor licenses.
September 10, 1881
Stage Robbery - The Bisbee Stage Robbed by Three Masked Men.
Thursday night, about 10 o’clock,
as the stage was nearing Bisbee, being some four miles or five miles this side in the broken ground, it was stopped by three
(some say four) masked men, who, with pistols leveled at the driver and passengers, demanded Wells, Fargo & Co’s
treasure box. The box was thrown out when they went through the passengers, getting eight dollars and a gold watch from one
and about six hundred dollars from another. From the treasure box they got a fat haul, there being $2,500 in it. The report
is that they also went through all the baggage and the mail sacks, but this is rather doubtful. About 9:30 yesterday morning two messengers rode into Tombstone
with their horses upon a lope, halting in front of the Wells, Fargo & Co’s office, dismounted and went in. Those
seeing the men come in such hot haste, at once surmised something wrong, and in a short time the robbery was the talk of the
street. Marshal Williams, agent for W., F. & Co., immediately notified the Sheriff’s office, and in a few hours
himself, Deputy Billy Breakenridge, Wyatt and Morgan Earp were in the saddle
or on the way to the place of the robbery, from whence they will take up the trail and do their best to overhaul the robbers.
This, we fear, is a hopeless task, as so much valuable time was lost by the messengers riding from Charleston
into Tombstone, when they might better have telegraphed and had the whole thing
managed in secrecy. #16
September 13, 1881
Important Capture - A Deputy Sheriff Arrested on a Charge of Robbing
the Bisbee Stage.
Wyatt and Morgan Earp, Marshall
Williams and Deputy Sheriff Breakenridge, who went to Bisbee to arrest
the stage robbers, on Sunday evening, brought in Deputy Sheriff T. C. Stillwell and P. Spencer, whom the evidence strongly
points out as the robbers. They were examined before Wells Spicer, Esq., yesterday, and were admitted to bail in the sum of
$7000 each--$5,000 for robbing the mail and $2,000 for robbing D. B. Rea. The evidence against Deputy Sheriff Stillwell is
circumstantial, and rests principally upon the tracks made by his boot heels in the mud, which corresponded with those he
had removed by a shoemaker upon his return to Bisbee. The Epitaph has no desire to pre-judge the case, but if it turns out
as now anticipated, that the officers of the law are implicated in this nefarious business, it would seem to be in order for
Sheriff Behan to appoint another deputy. #17
October 5, 1881 Mayor John Clum gathers a posse and sets off to recapture
Geronimo and his band of escaped Apaches. Among those in the posse were City Marshal Virgil Earp, Sheriff Johnny Behan, Deputy
Sheriff Billy Breckenridge, Wells Fargo Agent Marshal Williams and George Parsons. They did not return with Geronimo. #10
Oct 15, 1881 Virgil recruited Morgan and Wyatt as special deputy Marshals.
Allie Earp, Virgil’s wife
was intimidated by Nicholas Porter Earp, the boy’s father, and seemed to love their mother ~Virginia Cooksey Earp. She
found the boy’s half brother, Newton, and especially Newton’s
wife, Jennie, a bit stuffy and overly religious. She did not say much about James, except that he was a “square gambler”
and managed to stay out of’ fusses” in contrast to Wyatt and Virgil. Morgan was her favorite brother-in-law, from
the moment she met him in Dodge, right up to the night he was murdered. #8
Allie said in the manuscript, “So
Wyatt’s wife Mattie, Morg’s wife Lou’ and myself, we never realized what things were comin’ to. The
men didn’t talk much about it at home for fear of scarin’ us I guess.” All the Earp wives knew was that
Virge was ‘nervous,” and Wyatt was “so mean and crusty there was no bein’ around him.” Morgan
reassured the women that Wyatt had a lot on his mind, but he did not specify what. #8
October 1881 Before the shootout near the Coral incident, in, Morgan did not have a job and he and Lou were living
with the brothers.
October 25, 1881 Big Nose Kate Elder recalled that she and Holliday were
in Tucson. “Doc was bucking at faro, I was standing behind him, when Morgan
Earp came and tapped Doc on the shoulder and said, ‘Doc, we want you in Tombstone
tomorrow. Better come up this evening.’ “Elder said she accompanied Holliday and Morgan back to the mining camp.”
Doc left me at his room and went with Morgan at 10:30 P. M. when we got back.”
Two and one-half hours later, Doc Holliday, backed by Morgan, allegedly commenced to verbally abuse Ike Clanton. #11
As the night wore on, Ike blustered more
and more that the Earps and Holliday were spreading lies about him. About one o’clock
in the morning Clanton’s and Holliday’s path finally crossed. With Morgan at his back, Holliday confronted Clanton
about misusing his good name around town and challenged him to make a fight of it. Clanton demurred, claiming he was unarmed.
According to Ike testimony, “Doc Holliday said, as I walked out, ‘You son of a bitch, you ain’t heeled,
go heel yourself.’ Just at that time, Morgan Earp stepped up and said, ‘Yes, you son of a bitch, you can have
all the fight you want now.’ I thanked him and told him I did not want any of it. I am not heeled.”#15
Ike then claimed, as Virgil also
looked on, he politely asked them not to shoot him in the back as he left.
October 26, 1881 A.M. After a couple warnings, Virgil finally roused himself
from bed and with the aid of Morgan, made a round about town. Easily locating the drunken stock raiser, Virgil came up behind
Ike Clanton and buffaloed up-side the head with his six-shooter. The bloodied and dazed Ike was then easily disarmed and brought
before court.
Before the judge arrived in court,
a heated argument ensued between the three Earp brothers (Wyatt arriving after Virgil had apprehended Ike). Threats of bloodshed
were passed back and forth, at one point, Morgan offering a sixshooter to Ike before deputy sheriff Dave Campbell stepped
between them. After some tense moments, the judge arrived and laconically fined Ike $25.00 plus court fees and released him.
Ike was told he could pick up his firearms from the Grand Hotel on his way out of town.
October
26, 1881 P.M
How did the Gunfight near the
O. K. Corral transpired
The Earps rounded the corner onto
Fremont at a steady stride. Behan rushed back to the Earps claiming he had disarmed
the cowboys, only to be brushed aside from the Earp’s path. Behan judiciously ducked into Fly’s Gallery for cover.
As the Earp’s passed the
Union Market, a witness heard Morgan say, “Let them have it.” To which Doc Holliday replied, “Alright.”
The lot’s entrance on Fremont
Street was only about 15 feet wide. Inside were six men and two horses and The Earps crowded the
entrance. By the time the Earps stopped, they were probably less than two paces from the cowboys.
Virgil and Wyatt Earp entered the
vacant lot, Morgan and Doc Holliday remained out on Fremont Street. Holding
Holliday’s cane in his right hand, Virgil Earp surveyed the scene. Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury wore six-shooters
at their sides. Seeing Tom McLaury resting a hand on a rifle housed in a scabbard on Billy Clanton’s horse, Doc Holliday
stepped up, threw back his overcoat and leveled his shotgun. The City Marshal spoke. “Throw up your hands boys, I intend
to disarm you!”
Frank McLaury replied, “We
will.” But, instead of reaching for the sky, he grabbed his pistol, causing Wyatt Earp to draw his own revolver from
his overcoat pocket. Blind to Frank McLaury’s move and believing his party to be under attack, Billy Clanton reacted
by jerking his shooter, cross-draw style, with his right hand from his left hip.
With two cowboys clearing leather,
a frantic Virgil Earp flung both arms up and bellowed, “Hold on, I don’t want that!” Two shots exploded
nearly as one. Wyatt’s shot busted into Frank McLaury’s gut, just left of the navel. Billy’s shot went wide
of the mark, passing between Wyatt and Morgan. Virgil switched Holliday’s cane to his left hand and reached across his
body to retrieve the pistol from his waistband on his left hip. As Virgil’s weapon appeared, Frank fired his first shot,
hitting the City Marshal in the right calf and dropping him. Stunned by the sudden shooting, Ike Clanton sprang at Wyatt,
grabbing Earp’s pistol hand with his own left hand and wrapping his right arm around Wyatt’s shoulder. With Ike
and Wyatt wrestling, Billy Clanton couldn’t get another clear shot off at Wyatt before Morgan fired, hitting Billy two
inches beneath the left nipple, collapsing his lung.
Virgil was back up on his feet
now, firing his first shot at Frank, the man who had wounded him. Under fire, Frank staggered toward Fremont
Street. Johnny Behan testified, “Frank McLaury shot twice towards Fly’s building, and
he started across the street.” One of McLaury’s shots cut through Wyatt Earp’s coat and lodged into the
side of Fly’s building. Behan described Frank’s second shot: “I saw him shoot at Morgan Earp, and from the
direction of the pistol, I should say he hit the ground.” At long last Wyatt pushed Ike off, saying, “The fight
has commenced. Go to fighting or get away.”
Shots popped all about as Morgan
screamed, “I’ve got it, Wyatt!” and keeled over. A bullet had gouged through one of Morg’s shoulder
blades, skimmed across his back, and exited out the other shoulder. Taking advantage of the distraction, Ike scooted behind
Wyatt and clambered through Fly’s front door.
Through all this, Doc Holliday
had been waiting, trying to get a clear bead on Tom McLaury. Billy Clanton’s horse had bolted forward at the first shot
and blocked a clean shot. Reading the situation and believing it was Tom who had wounded Morg, Wyatt fired a shot, and hitting
Billy’s horse and making it break away. As McLaury reached out toward the animal, Doc pumped twelve buckshot under the
right armpit of the cowboy. McLaury spun around and bound away toward the corner of Third Street,
where he crumpled down in a heap. Thinking he had missed a sure shot, Holliday threw the scattergun down in disgust, yanked
his pistol and fired two quick rounds at Billy Clanton who was leaning against the corner of the small building just west
of Fly’s.
By now, Morgan Earp was back up
and also shooting at Billy. Inside the lot, Virgil and Wyatt joined in making young Billy Clanton their primary target. Out
on Fremont Street, Frank McLaury still held the lines of his horse. The
effects of Wyatt’s shot were readily apparent. Butcher James Kehoe saw McLaury through his store window and later recalled,
“During the engagement, he seemed (to) stagger and shoot wild and act dizzy.” Finally, Frank’s horse pulled
away and ran off.
But all of the Earps were focused
on Billy Clanton. Hit in his right arm, Billy switched his shooter to his left hand and continued to shoot. Hit again, six
inches right of his navel, Billy squatted down on the ground, braced his revolver across his knee, and fired again and again.
It seemed as if his pistol was firing itself. As Wyatt edged out of the lot, on to the street, he heard what he took to be
a gunshot coming from behind him, apparently from the alleyway east of Fly’s.
“Look out Morg, you’re
getting it in the back!” Wyatt yelled. Twisting quickly, Morgan tripped and fell over a mound of earth covering a recently
installed water pipe. Looking up he was surprised to see Frank McLaury facing off against Doc Holliday. After Holliday had
fired at Billy, he noticed McLaury nearly across the street. Carefully, and unnoticed, he had circled around the wobbly Frank,
covering nearly fifty feet. Having started the fight near the north-west corner of the vacant lot, Doc was now way out in
the middle of the roadway and north-east of the lot. Finally, Frank became acutely aware of Holliday. Bob Hatch watching the
confrontation from Bauer’s Market, later recalled that McLaury “stopped and stood with a pistol across his arm,
in the act of shooting; his pistol in his right hand and resting on his left arm.”
“I’ve got you now,”
McLaury challenged.
“Blaze away! You’re
a daisy if you have,” countered Holliday. (Daily Nugget, Oct 27, 1881)
Frank McLaury’s gun flashed.
Its bullet hit Doc’s pistol pocket and skinned across his hindquarters. As McLaury fired, both Holliday and Morgan,
now sitting up out in the street, also squeezed their triggers. Morg’s bullet caught the cowboy under the right ear,
pulverized his brain stem and slammed Frank’s body sideways, heel over head. Sheriff Behan heard Morgan triumphantly
yell out, “I got him!” The Nugget would report that Doc’s shot hit McLaury dead in the heart. But,
Coroner Matthews failed to indicate any such wound in his official report.
At the northwest corner of the
lot, Billy Clanton vainly sought to continue the fight. C. H. Light later reported that Billy “tried to fire...but apparently
was too weak. The shot went into the air.” A pall of smoke folded over Fremont Street
as photographer C. S. Fly sprang from his house brandishing a Henry rifle. As Billy pleaded for more cartridges, Fly snatched
the six-shooter from the dying boy’s grip. Immediate estimates said the shooting lasted a mere thirty seconds. To those
involved, it must have seemed an eternity.
The popular image of Doc Holliday
as a man racing toward death with little regard for those he takes with him isn’t borne out by his conduct at the O.K.
Corral gunfight. Instead, his actions seem measured if not restrained. Positioned out on Fremont
Street as back-up to the brothers Earp, he fully met the responsibilities of that assignment. Instead
of initiating an unprovoked and unmotivated onslaught, he patiently covered the flank of the City Marshal.
If Tom McLaury was unarmed, Doc
could not have known it. As McLaury reached out towards the fleeing animal, Doc Holliday couldn’t tell if Tom’s
intent was to maintain the horse as a shield, or to access the rifle housed on the terrified mount. Doc instinctively fired
twelve buckshot pellets into the cowboy’s right side. One thing is certain. McLaury’s fatal wound, located under
the right armpit could never have been received had he actually been facing the City Marshal and holding open the lapels of
his vest or coat as Ike Clanton testified. Tom McLaury was actively reaching out in front of his person and facing Fremont
Street when hit. His wound’s position confirms Wyatt Earp’s account of Tom’s
shooting far better than it does Ike Clanton’s.
After the shooting of Tom McLaury,
and before the final stand-off with Frank McLaury, the only shots attributed to Doc Holliday were two rounds directed at Billy
Clanton. The witness who detailed those shots was C. H. Light, who saw the shooting from the Aztec House, on the northwest
corner of Third and Fremont. Clearly, then, Doc didn’t become locked-in
on Billy. He remained alert enough to what was going on around him to take notice of the still dangerous Frank McLaury.
Finally, Doc’s careful stalking
of Frank McLaury showed remarkable patience. Doc Holliday had to have walked nearly fifty feet from his original position
at the start of the gunfight, to his final location at shooting’s end. This wasn’t the action of an out-of-control
“bullet-spitting” terror. This was the considered and deliberate approach of a cautious warrior. No doubt about
it. Doc Holliday could be a royal demon when on a rampage. However, on October 26,
1881, near the O.K. Corral, when called on to support the City Marshal, he was the right man in the right place.
#11
No account has surfaced detailing
any plan the City Marshal may have entertained as he and his men approached the cowboys. However, the initial positioning
of the Earp group suggests, if not a plan of attack, a plan of containment. Virgil Earp testified that he entered the lot
and was positioned to the “left of” his party. Wyatt Earp also said he moved into the lot, but according to Billy
Allen, Wyatt only got as far as the northwest corner of Fly’s boardinghouse. Wes Fuller said Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday
remained on the street, north of the vacant lot. Witness P.H. Fellehy confirmed this when he indicated, “after the shooting
commenced, I see Doc Holliday in the middle of the street, and the youngest one of the Earp brothers (Morg) was, I judge,
3 feet from the sidewalk. . . .” Because Virgil and Wyatt were in the lot, Fellehy could not make them out. As he put
it, “I never see [sic] the older two Earp brothers as I did not know where they were situated.”
Finally, when Addie Bourland testified
she saw the man with the long coat, whom she later identified as Doc, stick his weapon into the stomach of one of the cowboys
and then back away a few feet, it becomes clear that Doc was closest to the cowboys and positioned farthest to the west of
his group. From this positioning, it would appear the City Marshal had arranged his men with a definite rationale in mind.
While he and Wyatt directly confronted the cowboys, Morg and Doc were situated in the street as backup and also to protect
Virgil and Wyatt’s flank, should any cowboys move toward the street.
Did Doc Holliday and Morgan
Earp fire the opening shots in the street fight?
The cowboys steadfastly claimed
Doc Holliday and Morgan Earp opened fire on the Clanton/McLaury group without any provocation whatsoever. Ike Clanton said
when the Earps and Doc Holliday reached the cowboys, “They pulled their pistols as soon as they got there. . . .”
Virgil Earp ordered the cowboys to “Throw up your hands!” With this, someone, possibly Wyatt, yelled out, “You
sons-of-bitches have been looking for a fight and now you can have it!” To this, Billy Clanton replied, “Don’t
shoot me. I don’t want to fight!” and “Tom McLaury threw open his coat saying, ‘I haven’t got
anything, boys, I am disarmed’”(testimony of William Claibourne). Ike claimed both he and Frank McLaury held up
their hands in complete and immediate submission in response to the Marshal’s order.
At this moment, Sheriff Behan became
preoccupied with a nickel-plated pistol held, he believed, by Doc Holliday. He later recalled, “My attention was directed
to the nickel-plated pistol for a couple of seconds. The nickel-plated pistol was the first to fire. . . .” Another
observer, Billy Allen, was standing out on Fremont Street. He supported
the Sheriff’s pronouncement. “I think it was Doc Holliday who fired first. Their backs were to me. I was behind
them. The smoke came from him.”
Standing in the vacant lot, as
the shooting erupted, William Claiborne contended, “the shooting commenced, right then, in an instant, by Doc Holliday
and Morgan Earp—the two shots were fired so close together it was hard to distinguish them.” When the shooting
started, Wes Fuller was deeper in the lot than Claiborne. He agreed that “Morg Earp and Doc Holliday fired the first
two shots. . . .” Finally, Ike Clanton, himself, unequivocally declared, “The first shots were fired by Holliday
and Morgan Earp.”
While the four prosecution witnesses
all agreed that Doc fired one of the opening shots, they contradicted each other on who Holliday actually shot at. Behan said,
“the nickel-plated pistol was pointed at one of the party. I think at Billy Clanton.” Yet, Claiborne claimed,
“Doc Holliday shot at Tom McLaury and Morgan Earp shot at Billy Clanton.” Finally, Ike asserted, “Morgan
Earp shot William Clanton, and I don’t know which one of the McLaury boys Holliday shot at. He shot at one of them.”
Third, Ike claimed that while trying
to enlist Clanton’s services, Wyatt freely admitted his part in the aborted stage heist. Then, seemingly out of the
blue, Doc Holliday confided to Ike that it was he (Holliday) who had killed the stage driver. Then, on yet another occasion,
Morgan Earp advised Clanton about the previous “piping off” of money from that particular stagecoach. Finally,
Virgil Earp conveniently admitted how he had thrown the posse pursuing the would be robbers off the real trail. #11
When the Earps and Holliday passed Bauer’s Market, did Morgan tell Doc to “Let
them have it?”
Martha J. King said that while she was
in the market, and as the City Marshal’s party passed, she heard one of the Earps say, “Let them have it!”
and that Doc replied “All right.” However, Mrs. King didn’t know one Earp from another and couldn’t
specifically identify the initial speaker. It was Glenn G. Boyer, in his book, I Married Wyatt Earp (1976), who identified
Morgan Earp as the speaker. Boyer has “Josephine” say: “A woman in a butcher shop testified that as the
Earps approached she overheard one say to the other: ‘Let ‘em have it!’ She said the other replied, ‘All
right!’ This is probably discounted by some as not likely, after reading all the Earp-heroizing fiction in recent years.
Nevertheless, these truly are the words that passed between Doc and Morg, unheard by either Wyatt or Virge, who were both
walking ahead, still hoping to simply make an arrest. If they had heard that exchange, they would have tried to calm the two
hotheads, and there may have been a different outcome.” #11
October
30, 1881 Their Condition Morgan Earp, while not in dangerous
condition, yesterday, suffered much pain from his wound. It is thought that some cloth was carried in with the bullet, and
it will be necessary to open the wound and extract all foreign matter in which case it may require more time to heal, but
will not be more painful. Virgil Earp experiences some pain but the wound is doing well and in no matter dangerous. #18
December, 1881 Judge Wells Spicer,
statement at the trial of Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday
When we consider the condition of
affairs incidental to a frontier country, the lawlessness and disregard for human life; the existence of a law-defying element
in our midst; the fear and feeling of insecurity that has existed; the supposed prevalence of bad, desperate and reckless
men who have been a terror to the country, and kept away capital and enterprise, and considering the many threats that have
been made against the Earps. I can attach no criminality to his unwise act.
March
18, 1882 Morgan went to a one-night showing of the play
Stolen Kisses staged at the Turnverein Hall, north of Schieffelin Hall. It has been two-and-a-half months since Virgil Earp
was shot, and, after a flurry of posses, raids, charges and counter-charges over the cow-boy killings, things had returned
to quiet in Tombstone, AT.
Wyatt reluctantly accompanied Morgan,
even though the previous night, a local, Briggs Goodrich (whose lawyer brother Ben represents many cow-boys), warned Wyatt
that there are “some strangers here that I think are after you.” Goodrich also had a message from one cow-boy
in particular: “By the way, John Ringo wanted me to say to you, that if any fight came up between you all that he wanted
you to understand that he would have nothing to do with it; that he was going to take care of himself, and everybody else
could do the same.”
After the play, Morgan insisted on a
game of pool. Wyatt and Morgan joined by Dan Tipton and Sherm McMasters; went to Campbell
and Hatch’s saloon for a game.
Ten minutes to 11 p.m., Morgan walked around the pool table to line up a shot. As he leaned over, a pane of glass in
the back door exploded as a bullet struck Morgan in the middle of the back, going through his body shattered his spine and
lodged in the leg of a bystander. As Morgan fell against the table, a second shot was fired through the door. The bullet logged
in the far wall, near the ceiling, just above Wyatt’s head. As patrons dove for cover, Morgan slid off the table and
collapses in a pool of blood. Wyatt, McMasters and Tipton lifted Morgan and move him about 10 feet away from the rear door
and near a door to the card room. Doctors Mathews, Goodfellow and Millar we sent for. After a brief consultation, they pronounced
the wound mortal.
Morgan’s brother and friends
then moved him into the card room and place him on a lounge. Morgan’s other brothers Virgil, James and Warren were summoned,
along with Virgil’s wife Allie and James’ wife Bessie.
The Tombstone Epitaph reported,
“Notwithstanding the intensity of his mortal agony, not a word of complaint escaped his lips, and all that was heard,
except those whispered into the ears of his brother and known only to him were, “Don’t, I can’t stand it.
This is the last game of pool I’ll every play.”
With his relatives and his most
intimate friends gathered around, Morgan lived “about an hour.”
The heart of the business district
in Tombstone was on Allen Street,
between Fourth and Fifth Streets. By the time of Morgan’s assassination, the Earps were living in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.
George Parsons was staying in Dr. Goodfellow’s office upstairs in the Golden Eagle Brewery building. #12
March
19, 1882: Another assassin-ation last night about eleven o’clock.
I heard the shots, two in number, but hear-ing so many after dark was not particularly startled, though I remarked to [Joseph
L.] Redfern about it. Poor Morgan Earp was shot through by an unknown party—probably 2 or 3 in number in Campbell and
Hatch’s [billiard parlor], while playing pool with [Bob] Hatch. The shots, 2, came through the ground window leading
into alley running to Fremont St—on east side of Otis & Co’s
store. Geo Berry received the spent ball in his thigh, sustaining a flesh wound.
The second shot was fired apparently at Wyatt Earp. Murderers got away of course, but it was and is quite evident who committed
the deed. The man was Stilwell in all probability. For two cowardly, sneaking attempts at murder, this and the shots at Virgil
E when I came nearly getting a dose, rank at the head. Morg lived about 40 minutes after being shot and died without a murmur.
Bad times ahead now. Parson’s Diary #21
References:
#1 “Nicholas Earp’s Iowa Land” by William Urban
#2
The Peoria Banner June 16, 1872
#3 “Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal”, by Stuart N. Lake. New York: Pocket Books, (reprint) 1993,
p. 7.
#4 ibid., pp. 6-7.
#5 Census extract by Clare Peden-Midgley: 1870 Barton County,
Missouri, Lamar Township, NARS M593, Roll 757, page 830B, family numbers
212, 213 and 214.
#8
“Allie’s Story” Mrs. Virgil Earp and The “Tombstone Travesty” by Gary L. Roberts
#9
Deadwood
#10
“Morgan Earp: Brother in the Shadow”, by G. Boyer.
#11
“Blaze Away!” By Jeff Morey
#12
“Morgan Earp vs. Frank Stilwell, Pete Spence & Others” BY BOB BOZE BELL
#13
Wyatt Earp genealogy” by Myra Vanderpool Gormley
#14
Virgil Earp: Western Peace Officer by Don Chaput
#15
“The O.K. Corral Inquest” Edited by Alford E. Turner, Creative Publishing Co., 1981. ALSO: “Transcripts
from the Earp-Holliday Trial” State of Arizona Dept. of Library, Archives
and Public Records (ph.# 602-542-4402).
#16 Tombstone
Daily Epitaph, September 10, 1881
#17 Tombstone
Daily Epitaph, September 13, 1881
#18 The Tombstone
Daily Nugget, October 30, 1881
#20 “Montana
Historical Law and Order Timeline” City Department Helena Montana. From
“The History of Law Enforcement” by Police Chaplain Fr. T.L. Tyler, DD State Coordinator and Historian, Montana
Law Enforcement Museum.
#21 March 19, 1882: Parson’s Diary
