I have no idea why the mere words Wild West and Old West conjure up such images of adventure, but they do. When I was a young boy we played cowboys and Indians and fought who got to be sheriff. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were practically household names to us. I read German author Karl May’s books about the Wild West and relished the adventures of Old Shatterhand and his friend, the noble Indian chief Winnetou. although may, who had written his cowboy and western adventures in the late 1800s, never ventured farther West than Buffalo, his books felt real and we loved them. later, I watched the television series Bonanza and many others like it, fascinated by all those stories of the old west and how people lived in those pioneering days.

As a young adult I still loved Westerns and was a big fan of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western films like the Man with no Name trilogy, once upon a Time in the West with Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson and Jason Robards, and, of course, movies with the incomparable John Wayne. I enjoyed the hilarious humor and drama in Westerns with Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill. later I fell in love with movies like Tombstone with Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer and, especially, Sam Elliott. All of them showed the old West in the same way. Cowboys, Indians, the Cavalry, old West clothes, old West outlaws, old West lawmen, old West guns, and the towns it all took place in.

When I moved to California and drove through the country I passed through Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming and those two places, together with several other Western towns, personified the Wild West to me, like Dodge, Santa Fe, and so on. it was almost magical. I saw the Cartwright family’s recreated Ponderosa ranch near Incline Village on Lake Tahoe and that brought back memories of Bonanza, and then Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento, close to where the California Gold rush began in 1848, another part of Wild West lore.

There is only one problem with all this. much of what I had seen in all those movies was a romanticized, glorified and rather one-sided Hollywood version of the Old West. there were, of course, cowboys and Indians and tents and guns and the cavalry. but it wasn’t all gun-toting cowboys and tomahawk-throwing Indians. the real Old West was quite different and much more down-to-earth. it was an exceptionally turbulent period of time when the Western part of the United States was settled between the Civil War and the end of the century. much has been written about the Old West, but it was mostly by writers who did not actually have first-hand experience. those who actually partook of the Old West experience were usually too busy to write about it.

I still love Westerns, but these days I am much more interested in reading how the Old West really was. I have a small library of books describing life back then, including all the adventure and hardship – the good, the bad, and the ugly. many of those books are painstakingly compiled from various newspaper and eyewitness accounts. some are a bit dry. but occasionally you come across a real memoir, the story of a real lawman of the Old West, one of those rugged characters who was chasing outlaws and trying to keep the peace. this is when it all becomes more than just history, when the Old West comes alive with cattlemen’s associations, hired guns, horseback cowboys, cowboy action shootouts, gunfighters, stampedes. it all took place, and it’s terrific reading about it in the words of someone who was actually there.

The Reality of the Old West

WEST 2011: Gunfight at the OK Corral- KPower

Several lawmakers defiantly vowed Tuesday to arm themselves after the shooting rampage in Arizona despite the Senate’s top law enforcement officer’s admonition that more guns would not be the answer. “It’s not that I’m going to be like Wyatt Earp,” declared Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., who said he was re-applying for a state permit to carry a concealed weapon even if he didn’t necessarily plan to carry the pistol to public events.

In a Capitol already ringed by concrete stanchions and armed guards, members of Congress struggled to come up with new ways to ensure their safety in a democracy suddenly shaken by an assassin’s bullets. Republican and Democratic leaders signaled that closer coordination with local law enforcement was a practical first step after the Arizona shootings that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded.

Beyond that, talk centered on legislation that would make it a crime to carry a weapon within 1,000 feet of elected or high-ranking federal officials at publicly announced events and a proposal to install a Plexiglas enclosure to protect the House floor from gallery spectators – two ideas unlikely to get much traction in the new Congress. Democrats also called for rolling back a 5 percent, GOP-engineered cut in congressional spending and redirecting the money to security.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, seemed cool to the idea. “We will rely on the recommendations of the sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol police,” he said.

A security briefing for lawmakers was scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Questioned about lawmakers taking matters into their own hands by carrying concealed weapons, Terrance Gainer, the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms and former Washington, D.C., police chief, said it wouldn’t solve the problem.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Gainer told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I don’t think introducing more guns into the situation is going to be helpful.”

Gainer said threats to members of the Senate had increased over the past year – to 49. but he said he considered the number small given all the interactions that lawmakers have with the public.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, still plans to carry his handgun at public events, his office said, despite Gainer’s remarks. “It’s a personal choice,” said Chaffetz spokeswoman Alisia Essig.

Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., also said he plans to carry a concealed handgun more often. He obtained a permit after an angry constituent threatened his life in 2009.

Several other lawmakers questioned whether sweeping changes to congressional security are logistically or politically possible.

“The body is just too large. I don’t think democracy ever anticipated that there would be problems like this,” said Rep. John Larson, D-Conn.

Threats against lawmakers are not uncommon, but actual violence is quite rare. Rep. Leo Ryan, D-Calif., was murdered in Guyana by cult members just before the massive suicide in Jonestown in 1978.

In 1954, several Puerto Rican nationalists fired about 30 pistol shots in the House of Representatives chamber, wounding five lawmakers, and in 1983 a bomb, planted by people protesting the U.S. military presence in Lebanon and Grenada, did minor damage in a hallway outside the Senate chamber.

Security in the Capitol became considerably tighter after a July 1998 incident in which a man fatally shot two Capitol Police officers.

Republican Rep. Peter King of New York plans to introduce a bill that would make it a crime to carry a weapon within 1,000 feet of elected or high-ranking federal officials at publicly announced events.

King, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said the measure would give local police another tool to check and possibly question people approaching members of Congress, the Cabinet, the CIA director and people attending their public events.

Winning congressional approval of such a bill won’t be easy, King said. “There’s a good number of members in Congress who instinctively oppose gun legislation,” he said.

In the wake of the attack on Giffords, longtime Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., is reviving his legislation to install a Plexiglas shield enclosing the visitors’ gallery in the House chamber, which he argues would protect lawmakers. the proceedings of the House could still be seen and would be clearly audible to the general public.

Just last week, during a reading of the Constitution in the House, a woman in the visitors gallery was removed by Capitol police after she interrupted lawmakers with shouts.

Burton has pushed for the measure in previous sessions of Congress, but it’s never gotten out of the House Administration Committee. He planned to propose a version of the bill next week, his press secretary, Josh Gillespie, said Tuesday.

“I think you’ll see a lot of legislation that pours forth, but you’ve got to sift through it all,” Rep. Larson said. “Anytime in the immediate aftermath of something, there’s usually not a silver bullet. the more you listen, the more you synthesize, perhaps you come up with some common sense ideas.”

Protecting lawmakers: Arm them? Install shields?

TOMBSTONE, Ariz. — A billboard just outside this old West town promises “Gunfights Daily!” and tourists line up each afternoon to watch costumed cowboys and lawmen re-enact the bloody Gunfight at the O.K. Corral with blazing six-shooters.

But as with much of the Wild West, myth has replaced history. the 1881 shootout took place in a narrow alley, not at the corral. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday weren’t seen as heroic until later; they were initially charged with murder.

And one fact is usually ignored: Back then, Tombstone had far stricter gun control than it does today. indeed, the American West’s most infamous gun battle erupted when the marshal tried to enforce a local ordinance that barred carrying firearms in public. A judge had fined one of the victims $25 earlier that day for packing a pistol.

“You could wear your gun into town, but you had to check it at the sheriff’s office or the Grand Hotel, and you couldn’t pick it up again until you were leaving town,” said Bob Boze Bell, executive editor of true West Magazine, which celebrates the old West. “It was an effort to control the violence.”

A national debate over gun control has flared since a gunman killed six people and wounded 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a few weeks ago in Tucson, Ariz. the suspect, Jared Loughner, is accused of firing 31 shots from a Glock semi-automatic pistol with a high-capacity ammunition clip.

Hours after the rampage, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik appeared to partly blame Arizona’s lax gun laws for the violence, saying he opposed “letting everybody in the state carry weapons under any circumstances that they want, and that’s almost where we are.”

“I think we’re the Tombstone of the United States of America,” he declared.

Dupnik’s dig didn’t go down well here.

Deep in the desert southeast of Tucson, Tombstone is tucked in a sere landscape of gullies and gulches, sagebrush and sorrel. About 1,500 people call it home, though the population swells each day as tourists clomp down wooden sidewalks, munch buffalo burgers and shop for cowboy kitsch.

Dupnik has “bank robberies and murders every week up there,” fired back Ben Traywick, 83, a Tombstone historian who keeps a pistol on his desk and a shotgun nearby. “And he’s bad-mouthing us? If you wanted to commit a crime, would you go to a town where everyone carries a gun? We have no crime.”

But that’s another Tombstone myth.

Local crime is low by big city standards. But given the size of its population, with two rapes and 10 assaults in 2009, the last year for which figures are available, the town’s violent-crime rate was higher than the state average on a statistical basis. Similarly, with 88 crimes in total, the town’s crime index per 100,000 was higher than the national average, 475.5 compared with 319.2.

Arizona’s gun laws are among the most lenient in the nation. under legislation passed last year, guns are permitted almost everywhere in the state except doctors’ offices and some businesses. it is one of three states, along with Alaska and Vermont, that allow people 21 or older to carry concealed weapons without a permit. Concealed guns may be carried into bars as long as the gun owner isn’t drinking, and guns are permitted on school grounds as long as the weapon is unloaded and the owner remains in a vehicle.

Any law-abiding citizen 18 or older may buy or possess a rifle or shotgun. To buy a handgun, federal law requires a minimum age of 21. Firearms may be sold 14 hours a day, seven days a week, except Christmas.

Arizona’s love of guns is rooted in its rugged rural history and is enshrined in the state’s constitution, drafted in 1910. “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself or the state shall not be impaired,” it reads. the state celebrates its independent spirit and a culture of individual rights and distrust of government.

Given its lurid past, Tombstone may not be a typical community. But it provides vivid evidence of what state law allows in practice.

“In this town, pretty much everyone carries a gun,” said John Wiest, 65, a storekeeper who patted a Ruger semi-automatic pistol on his side.

In its heyday, Tombstone was a rough-and-tumble silver mining town with more than its share of saloons, gambling dens and prostitutes, then known euphemistically as “soiled doves.” But so were lots of other old West settlements.

So what made it famous? on Oct. 26, 1881, the three Earp brothers and Holliday faced off against four supposed desperadoes in a 15-foot-wide alley between two buildings a block from the O.K. Corral. “We have come to disarm you,” warned Virgil Earp, the marshal, seeking to enforce the town gun ordinance. it was never clear who fired first, but when the dust cleared, three of the cowboys lay dead and their leader, Ike Clanton, had run away.

The gunfight was little known until the 1920s, when a pulp novelist dubbed it the Battle of the O.K. Corral, and Hollywood turned it into a symbol of the Wild West. that, too, was a kind of myth.

“Believe it or not, Tombstone had one of the few stand-up fights where men squared off and just shot it out,” said Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s state historian. “That kind of thing was really rare. also, it was named Tombstone. If they had fought it out in Bisbee or Benson, we might never have heard of it.”

Gun control was tougher in Wyatt Earp’s Tombstone than modern Arizona

Wyatt Earp, his two brothers Virgil and Morgan along with Wyatt’s friend, the gambler, gunfighter and ex-dentist, Doctor John Holliday were determined that Tombstones escalating crime wave must be resolved. there followed the most famous gunfight in the history of the old West. It has been said that the gunfight against Ike Clanton and “The Cowboys” was provoked by the Earp’s because of their business interests in the silver produced by local mines, the production and transportation of which was being threatened by the loose confederation of outlaws, rustlers and small ranchers called The Cowboys led by the Clanton family. after the gunfight Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were charged with murder, the only men not formally employed as officers of the law and the two least wounded. The court decided that there was not enough evidence too indict the men, they walked free.

Sturges’s 1957 version starred two of best actors of that period, my personal favourite Burt Lancaster played Wyatt Earp with a lot of conviction, the great Kirk Douglas portraying Holliday, the role only bettered by Val Kilmer in 1993’s Tombstone. The two men carry the film with their immense on screen presence and make it impossible not to get completely involved with the action. Truly a classic

Movie Ramble: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Early life

The middle child of four, Marcus moved with her family to San Francisco when she was young. her baker-father, Henry, and her mother, Sophia, were both Jewish immigrants from Prussia; it is not known when they arrived in the United States. The Marcus household also included siblings Nathan (born about 1857) and Henrietta (born about 1863).

At the age of 18, Marcus and friend Dora Hirsh ran away to join a theatrical company, where the two were hired as dancers. as members of Paulina Markham’s traveling theater company, Marcus and Hirsh travelled throughout the west, including Arizona Territory. Records show that the Markham troupe reached Tombstone in December 1879, after which they headed north to Prescott.
Johnny Behan and Tombstone, Arizona

During their trip to Prescott, Josie met Johnny Behan (above), then a Yavapai County sheriff’s deputy. at the time of the troupe’s trek to Prescott, Behan was travelling the same route, following the trails of three fugitive robbers. Marcus caused quite a stir in Behan’s heart, and he left the pursuit in order to spend time getting to know the woman with whom he had fallen in love. soon after arriving in Prescott, however, Marcus became homesick and returned to San Francisco.

Johnny Behan followed her, in order to ask her to marry him. Marcus declined, and he returned to Arizona. Marcus, however, soon returned to Tombstone, where she lived with a lawyer while working as a housekeeper for Behan and his ten year old son, Albert. this version of her return has been disputed, as some believe that she was really living with Behan all along after her return to Tombstone, while other versions indicate she was working as a prostitute with the lawyer acting as her pimp.
In the midst of their romantic relationship, Behan continued to see other women, a fact known by most, including Marcus. she wrote a letter to her father, who sent her $300 for a return to San Francisco. Rather than leaving Tombstone, Marcus was instead convinced by Behan to use the money to build a house for them. in addition to using her father’s money, Josie pawned a diamond ring in order to complete the construction.

Relationship with Wyatt Earp

In 1881, Behan became involved in a serious romantic relationship with another woman and Marcus then left him for good, becoming enamored instead with Wyatt Earp (above). Behan suffered public embarrassment because of this; in Tombstone, everyone thought that Marcus and Behan were legally married. her breakup with Behan and her arrival into Wyatt’s life were publicized by the Tombstone Epitaph, the leading local newspaper. to add to the scandal, Earp was in a common-law marriage with Mattie Blaylock since 1873. it is reported that the two women had at least two verbal altercations over the affair between Josie and Wyatt Earp.

Gunfight at the OK Corral

The embarrassment suffered by Behan was one of many factors that may have contributed to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Numerous other events between Wyatt Earp and Ike Clanton, and others of the Clanton gang, actually sparked the gunfight; the feud between Behan and Earp was little more than a side show. on October 26, 1881, Josephine Marcus was at her home when she heard the sound of gunfire. Taking a wagon in the direction of the shots, Marcus, to her relief, saw Earp uninjured.

Later life

By 1882, Marcus had adopted the name of “Josephine Earp,” although no official record of their marriage exists. following what has been dubbed as the Earp vendetta ride, Marcus and Earp travelled through various western states hunting for gold and silver. it is also said that they ran horse races in San Diego as well as operating saloons in Idaho and Alaska. Earp and Marcus became a gambling team during this period. she became friends with millionaire Lucky Baldwin, from whom she received money in return for her jewelry. Eventually, Marcus would give almost all of her jewelry to Baldwin in exchange for gambling money.

Earp biographer, Stuart Lake, learned that Wyatt and Josephine were hostile to each other during their relationship when he went to collaborate with Wyatt on his autobiography. in the course of writing the Earp biography, Lake learned some other aspects of Marcus’ life. Wyatt became critically ill in late 1928 and died on January 13, 1929. before Wyatt’s biography was released soon after his death, Josephine traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, in an attempt to convince the publisher to stop the release of the book.

Much later, in 1939, Josephine tried to stop 20th Century Fox from making a film based on the book, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. under the condition that Wyatt’s name be removed from the title, the movie was later released, as Frontier Marshal.

In Los Angeles, Marcus became friends with many celebrities, including Cecil B. DeMille and Gary Cooper. she received part of the money made by Stuart Lake’s book about her husband as well as royalties from the movie Frontier Marshal. Josephine also wrote her own book entitled I Married Wyatt Earp; The Memoirs of Josephine Sarah Earp. she approached several publishers for the book, but backed out several times due to their insistence that she be completely open and forthcoming, rather than slanting her memories to her favor. it was later printed, but many parts of the book were refuted as being fictional and inaccurate by Virgil Earp’s wife, Allie. Ownership of the book, following Josephine’s death, eventually fell to Glenn Boyer, following his obtaining rights from the relatives of Josephine Earp.[1]

Josephine Earp spent her last years in Los Angeles, where she suffered from depression and other illnesses. one of her few consolations toward the end of her life was the correspondence she kept with Johnny Behan’s son, Albert Behan, whom she had grown to love as her own son.

Josephine Sarah Marcus died on December 20, 1944 in Los Angeles, California; she was believed to be in her early 80s, perhaps 83. her body was cremated and buried next to Wyatt’s remains in Colma, California in the Marcus family plot at the Hills of Eternity Memorial Park. her parents and brother are buried nearby.

Cultural Depictions and Literature

I Married Wyatt Earp (1984) – played by Marie Osmond
Tombstone (1993)- played by Dana Delany
Wyatt Earp (1994) – played by Joanna going
I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp;(author) Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp and; (editor) Glenn W. Boyer; University of Arizona Press, 1976
She appears as ‘Sadie,’ a character in The Nightjar Women, a novella included in Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter; (author) Edward M. Erdelac; Damnation Books, 2009

References

1.^ Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp (1976-08). I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0816505837.

Sources

Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp. I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp; ed. Glenn W. Boyer; University of Arizona Press, 1976. ISBN 0-8165-0583-7.

Poe Forward’s Poe Blog: Deathday: Wyatt Earp’s Wife Josie Marcus 1944

Shootout at the OK Corral, the football version of the movie, is coming to San Antonio. There will be two teams with potent passing attacks in the Alamo Bowl this year.  In town are the Oklahoma State University Cowboys and the University of Arizona Wildcats.   

Riding their offense’s horses into town from Stillwater, Oklahoma, they wear orange and black.  You know what they say about black-wearing Cowboys…“They can ball.”  They are the favorites in the Alamo Bowl, the villains—the Clanton clan riding into Tombstone, Ariz., looking for the Earp family. 

They’ll meet up with the underdogs, the Arizona Wildcats.  the ‘Cats are the Earps.  the Clantons and the Earps, Wyatt Earp in specific, are known for their shootout in Tombstone. 

San Antonio is known for one of history’s most famous shootouts.  “Remember the Alamo.”  Being a football shootout, this big 12, Pac-10 Conference collision could indeed be called the “Battle of the Alamo.” 

A football team called the Cowboys is coming to take over the Alamo City.  It’s probably a different team, though, than the one you’re thinking of.  at 10-2 (6-2), Oklahoma State University is bringing the no. 1 offense in the nation (Football Bowl Subdivision). 

The University of Arizona Wildcats 7-5 (4-5) boast the no. 9 passing attack in the FBS.  Quarterback Nick Foles is capable of engaging in a shootout.

Nov. 26, 2010: Mike Stoops leads his team on the field in Tuscon. He’ll need heroic performances from them. Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

National Coach of the Year, Chip Kelly, gave a lot of praise to him:

“I haven’t seen a quarterback play like that in a long time,” Kelly said.  the quote came after Foles lit the Oregon Ducks up for 448 yards passing in the loss to Oregon.

Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator, Dana Holgorsen, is in his first year on the job.  is it too soon to ask for a raise after three months on a job?  I’d do it, if I was Holgorsen.  Billionaire T. Boone Pickens, the famous OSU philanthropist, can afford to pay him more than OSU.

Holgorsen oversees three of the most talented players and spread attack offenses in the world. 

The Dallas Cowboys of the NFL had a Hall of Fame big three in Troy Aikman, Michael Irving and Emmett Smith.  the OSU Cowboys have the big three of the big 12 Conference in Brandon Weeden, Justin Blackmon and Kendall Hunter.

Weeden is the first quarterback at Oklahoma State to throw for over 4,000 yards.  Setting a school record with 32 touchdowns, he was a minor league pitcher.

Playing pitch and catch quite often, Weeden and Blackmon form one of the most lethal combinations in college football.  They both suffered injuries against OU, but should be back and healthy in the Alamo Bowl.

An outstanding student, Kendall Hunter is class personified.  He’s a classy alley runner, too.  he bowled defenders over on his way to winning the big 12 rushing title for the second time.

Nov. 27, 2010: Brandon Weeden sets up in the pocket in Stillwater. He’ll need to be on target with his rifle. Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Arizona faced the best offense in the nation, perhaps, in Oregon.  the Ducks handed them a 48-29 defeat.  the University of Washington Huskies had a better Pac-10 record than the Wildcats, but Alamo Bowl officials picked Arizona.

Why? Maybe because Arizona is closer to San Antonio.  Or could it be the fact Washington lost to the ‘Cats, 44-14?  probably both.  That’s a sound whipping.

“Whopping” is one of the most overused words when it comes to large amounts of yards or scores in football.  But, whopping is totally appropriate when discussing the yardage amassed by the Oklahoma Sooners against the Cowboys this year—588.

In the Bedlam Series game, Oklahoma walloped the Midwestern Cowboys with 468 yards passing.  Ring the alarm.  the Arizona Wildcats are ninth in the nation in passing offense. 

At 8 p.m. CT on Dec. 29, on downtown’s outskirts, the Alamodome will be rocking with a bunch of Oklahomans passing through town.  Arizona will be represented as well.

Before then, I’d imagine a bunch of people will attend the functions including the Scholarship Awards Luncheon (Dec. 15) and Team Day at Sea World.  the pep rally at Arneson River Theater on Monday the 27th should be entertaining.

Although they’ve been to five straight entertaining bowl games under Gundy, OSU has lost their last two.  To Oregon in the Holiday Bowl and Mississippi in the 2010 Cotton Bowl, they faltered.

They appear to have the advantage over Arizona.  the Wildcats are 7-5.  OSU lost to big 12 behemoths—Nebraska and Oklahoma.  Gundy’s brother, Cale, started at quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners in the 1990s.  he is now OU’s running backs coach.

Preseason experts picked the Cowboys to finish somewhere in the middle of the conference.  They finished in a tie for first place with Oklahoma and Texas A&M.  Oklahoma won the tiebreaker, the big 12 Championship Game and the BCS bid.

There wasn’t any tiebreaking necessary in the Pac-10, where no. 2 Oregon dominated and faces Auburn for the national championship. the Wildcats finished fifth in the conference.

Big 12 champion Bob Stoops’ younger brother is Mike Stoops, Arizona’s head coach. 

I have a feeling Gundy has seen enough of the Stoops brothers for this season.  Bob’s Oklahoma Sooners knocked the Cowboys out of the big 12 championship race by winning in Stillwater in the last game of the regular season.

“Fatigue may have played a role in that.  It all just kind of piled up,” Gundy said about the loss.  His offense bogged down or scored quickly, and that left the defense on the field a lot.  It was a summary of the reasons for both their losses.

I could go “Reasoning on the Riverwalk” all week with both OSU and AU fans in San Antonio.  Here are my reasons, meanwhile, for picking the team I picked to win this game.

Prediction: Offensive minds like Holgerson and Gundy will be doubly dangerous to defensive coordinators with three weeks to prepare a scheme.  Gundy is looking to rebound from back-to-back bowl losses.  Advantage, Oklahoma State. 

The Cowboys are the no. 14 ranked team in the BCS; Arizona is unranked.  this will be the fifth consecutive bowl game for the Cowboys—a school record.  OSU will win it in a wild one, 45-35.

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Oklahoma State-Arizona: Could the Cowboys Make the Wildcats Remember the Alamo?

And I’m just the man to give it to her. okay, I’ll confess: the best I can give her is a plantain.

Actually, the voluptuous star of Mad Man was interviewed recently about Christmas and gift-giving. Thankfully, she celebrates the holiday, and doesn’t deride it like most of the Hollywood libtards. During the Q&A, Christina disclosed a Hendricks secret tradition. every Christmas, her family gives each other “personalized pieces of fruit.”

I wonder if anyone ever gave her Clay Aiken? What? I’m just sayin’.

The actress, who is best known for her role in Mad Men, confessed her family has a tradition of giving personalised pieces of fruit over the festive season. while some people may find the gift unusual, Christina insists she looks forward to it as it helps prepare her for a day of over-indulgence.

“My family always does a banana with your name on it in your stocking,” she told People magazine. “You carve [the name] in really lightly with a pencil, and a couple hours later it’s nice and black. It sounds so gross but I promise it’s really cute! (H/T – Mrs. Crankipants)

A banana in her stocking? Ladies and gentlemen, start your joking!

Topics: Babes | 15 Comments »

Christina Hendricks Wants A Banana

Why didnt America in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks put up wanted posters all over the streets with Bin-laydens photo and entitle it "Wanted Dead or Alive for the mass murder of 3000 people"

I mean why dont they allow bounty hunters permission to travel to Afg and find Bin-Layden and claim the reward himself?

I mean i would be willing to get some real men together and put an expedition together, wear some wild west type hats, get some horses together and saddle up and ride into the new wild west that is Afghanistan and bring that no god son of b–tch and his friends to justice?

I mean if they allowed people to put together such endevours in the wild west time whats stopping the government from seeking the peoples support and doing it in 2009?

I mean that was a time when we had real men to mention a few, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, John Wayne, Jesse James, men that knew how to use a gun and bring the baddies to justice. (oh and not be sexist we also had Clamity Jane)

Many thanks for your answer and Yehaa!

http://www.thelastbestwest.com/old_west_…

http://www.tombstone1880.com/wildbill/wa…

probably would cost more and those guys would absolutely get their asses kicked

we did put out wanted posters, but a war zone is rarely the place for Dog the Bounty Hunter to be trumping around…

the US military does not want to capture Bin Laden they would not get so much funding

if they did they would have allowed the Australian SAS who had Bin Laden and some of his followers surrounded..

and the USMC ordered the SAS out saying we are taking over and guess what

the almighty USMC lost bin laden and he has not been seen since

beacuse hes is in pakistan and we cant send a single american soldier (or any american with a gun) into pakistan, and there is a bounty on Bin ladens head i think its like 10000 or somehting

Here is the wanted poster: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitiv…

He's been wanted since before 9/11. They just upped the bounty on him to $25 million after.

alright it's time to turn off the TV and join the real world again. there has been a $25million bounty on his head since a few days after 9-11. if you think a bunch of poorly armed bounty hunters would last a day in the mountains of Afghanistan then you're an idiot.

Why doesnt America allows bounty hunters to go and find Osama?

By: Roy B. Young

Mention the names “Ike and Billy” and most students of the old west will automatically think of the two Clanton brothers who were involved in the infamous “Gunfight at the OK Corral” on October 26, 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. But, there were two other similarly named men involved in the outlaw saga that developed in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico during that same period of time. They were known as the Heslet brothers 1, Isaac and William, and their story is perhaps equally interesting to that of the more famous Clantons.

Who were the Heslet brothers? Honest ranchmen?

Heslet Ranch

John Heslet and Elizabeth Andrews

Heslet ranch title deed details

About 1869, the John Heslet family joined with John’s brother Jacob Heslet and his family and immigrated to Shawnee County, Kansas where they settled first in the Tecumseh community and later in the Silver Lake community. Here, Isaac and William grew up and attended the public schools.7 John Heslet was active in community affairs and was one of the first directors of the Silver Lake Cemetery Association.8 The boy’s mother died on January 23, 1876 in Silver Lake. Shortly, their father married Mrs. Annie M. Ward.9 No further information on the early lives of the two young men in Kansas has been found.

A letter from the Heslet boys father, on file in the Arizona State Library10 indicates that the two brothers were in New Mexico by 1877 or early 1878. With their mother dead and their father having married a widow with other children, much speculation could arise as to how these circumstances may have precipitated the desire of Ike and Billy to go west.11

In 1880, William is shown on the federal census of Grant County, New Mexico as a 25 year old “Batchelor” miner.12 Isaac does not appear with his younger brother on this enumeration and his whereabouts are unknown. However, within a year the two would become well-known as southwestern Grant County ranchers and cowmen.

The brothers purchased and settled on some ranch land in the Animas Valley, south of the community of Eureka (later to be known as Hachita or Old Hachita), which was said to be in an especially fine valley for grazing cattle. Cochise County, Arizona justice of the peace and Tombstone city councilman Michael Gray13 badly wanted that land to complement his own ranching concern in Grant County. Rumors spread that Gray, through his cowboy associates, would do whatever was necessary to acquire that land.14 He had already acquired an adjoining 320 acre ranch that had previously been claimed by John Ringo and J. Ike Clanton.15 It is believed that this is the property upon which Newman Haynes Clanton, the patriarch of the Clanton family, was residing when he was killed by Mexicans in August of 1881.24

John Plesant Gray16, son of Mike Gray, described the area in these terms:

Going eastward from Tombstone you cross the Dragoon Mountains into the Sulphur Springs Valley, thence through the Chiricahua Mountains into the San Simon Valley of New Mexico and right there under the shadow of Animas Peak was a big green meadow of about a thousand acres which was at the time covered with red top clover and watered by numerous springs…

This was the The Ringo/Clanton land described in the Grant County location notice as being “five miles west of the Animas Mountains about 28 miles north of the Gaudupar Canon.” Ringo and Clanton never actually “owned” the land as it remained in the hands of the federal government until patented to the Gray family on March 16, 1884. The two cowboys held what was called a “squatter’s claim,” which was a quasi-legal claim to which the occupants had no actual deed or patent. A “preemption law” was then in force which gave preference to the persons “squatting” in some form of structure designed as a residence. To what extent Ringo and Clanton “resided” there is open to speculation. It is commonly believed that this land was used by them as a place to secure cattle acquired by nefarious means from across the border.

Grant County New Mexico Deed Book 6, pp. 193, 194. A “land notice” was filed on November 26, 1880.

Newspaper clipping

[Text of above notice:] Isaack Grimes Territory of New Mexico County of Grant
Notice:
Know all men by these presents that we the undersigned have this day located for grazing and farming purposes 320 three hundred and twenty acres of land lying in what is called Animas Valley located about five miles west of the Animas Mountains about 28 miles north of the Gaudapar Canon at the mouth of a cienega running into the [undecipherable word] valley from the west and shall be known as the Alfalfa Ranch or Cienega this the first day of November, AD 1880.
Witness
WJ Patrick Frank Johnson
Filed for record Nov 26th 1880 at 1 pm RV Newsham, Probate Clerk By EB good [?] Deputy
John Ringo J I Clanton

Another parcel of land that came into Gray’s hands was “sold” to them by Curly Bill Brocius.
John Plesant Gray related that event:

We paid Curly Bill, the rustler, three hundred dollars for his squatter claim on the land and also had a written contract or guarantee from Bill that he would uphold our rights against all claimants. It being unsurveyed land, possession of course was the only title possible but we paid this sum to Curly Bill for the sake of peaceful possession of land in a country where law officers seldom, if ever, ventured, and self-preservation was really the only law to follow.18

The “ownership” situation of the land claimed by the Heslet brothers would have fallen under the same rules. Today, no documentary evidence of the Heslet brothers having filed a location notice is extant in Grant County records. While no record of the precise location of their ranch can be found, it would have been in the immediate vicinity of the Ringo/Clanton and Gray ranches. Nonetheless, the letter from John Heslet indicates that a sale of the land to Mike Gray was pending in the amount of $4,000. Additionally, an article in the Topeka (Kansas) Capitol indicated the sale of the boys stock and an imminent trip home to Kansas.19

The genesis of the Heslet brother’s introduction into brief notoriety and outlaw-lawman history goes back to the March 1881 attempted holdup of the Kinnear Stage near Drew’s Station in newly formed Cochise County, Arizona. Among the suspected highway robbers were William “Billy” Leonard,20 Harry “The Kid” Head,21 James “Jim” Crane,22 and Luther King,23 with the highly rumored complicity of John Henry “Doc” Holliday.

Some of the suspects were believed to claim a ranch in southern Animas Valley. It was to that area that three of them headed in an effort to avoid a Virgil Earp – Bob Paul led posse24 that had tracked the men from Cochise County to Cloverdale in the southern-most part of the New Mexico boot heel.25 Another posse, led by Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, set out to locate the outlaw’s hideout.26 At night the two posses would sometimes meet, but during the day each pursued its own purpose.

In the interim Bob Paul, working as a special officer of Wells, Fargo & Company, had issued a reward notice to “discreet and reliable persons only” detailing the attempted holdup of the Kinnear stage and the killing of driver Budd Philpot and passenger Peter Roerig. It headlined a reward in the amount of $3,600 for the arrest of “the murderers.” As a reward of this size could26 hardly be kept secret, word of it soon reached the hinterlands, including southwestern New Mexico, where the presence of Leonard, Head, and Crane had become known.

Returning to the memoirs of John Plesant Gray, we learn that the three suspects who had moved into Grant County were Billy Leonard, Harry Head, and Jim Crane. Gray wrote:

I think it was the next morning when I was out early with wagon and team to pick up a load of dry wood for camp use. About two miles west of the ranch, I met three horsemen. As soon as they came in sight I knew they must be the three hunted stage robbers who had tried to hold up the Tombstone stage a few months before – Billy Leonard, Harry Head, and Jim Crane. They were well armed, but their clothing was almost in tatters and they looked wild, wooly, and hungry.27

After giving them a good dinner, Gray related to them why his family was in the Animas Valley and told them of a problem they were having with a man named Jones who wanted their property. Jones had written the family a threatening letter.28 This led to a promise by Crane that they would take care of the matter. Gray thought the three men knew the actual identity of the writer and based on their friendship with Curly Bill, they would see that Bill’s agreement with Mike Gray was upheld.27

A few days later, John Gray was on a visit to Richard and Nellie Powers at the nearby Double Dobes ranch29 when he found it literally “alive with men.” Jim Crane stepped out from the house “in the midst of this small army” and told Gray that he would have no more problems with Jones as “he had fixed him good and plenty.”30

Gray relates in another story that Frank Leslie came to their Animas Valley ranch on a mission to arrest Jim Crane. This appears to be a different occasion than Leslie’s participation in the Behan posse that was looking for the outlaw’s hideout.31 After their return to Tombstone, Leslie had been appointed as a deputy sheriff of Cochise County and among his first assignments, Sheriff John Behan sent him on “a trip of several weeks duration to the country eastward of us.”32 Gray relates that during Leslie’s sojourn, Crane joined them for a peaceful lunch during which Leslie changed his mind about capturing Crane and left the ranch saying to Gray, “Tell Jim if they want him, someone else will have to serve the warrant.”33

Now, into the scene come the Heslet brothers. Whether intent on getting the reward (perhaps thinking it would be a tidy sum with which to purchase additional cattle or expand their ranch holdings) or defending themselves from a rumored murder plot, subsequent events would send five men “head long into eternity.”

Other than the John Heslet letter, most of what transpired has come down to us via newspaper accounts. The first such account appeared in the form of an anonymous letter from Owl City, New Mexico published in the Tombstone Epitaph on June 18, 1881 and again in the Arizona Weekly Star on June 23, 1881 (all spelling and punctuation as in original articles):

Sent to Meet His God. How Bill Leonard Climbed the Golden Stair Open Picture of a Desperate Affray.
THE NARRATIVE Well about the shooting scrape. This place is their [the cowboys] headquarters. Ike Haslett and his brother Bill have a ranch in Animas Valley, the best one in it, and old man Gray, of Tombstone fame, has one on each side of it that he bought from Curly Bill and his gang, and he wanted the one belonging to the Haslett boys, so some of the cowboys were going to run the H. boys out of the country or kill them. On Friday last [June 10], Bill Leonard and three more Cowboys, or “rustlers,” as they call them, came to camp, to a store about a quarter of a mile from the mine, that is owned by Parker;34 Joyce’s partner in the Oriental, and a man known as Baldwin.35 Well the rustlers went in there and got drunk, and told they were coming up to the mine to kill the Haslett boys, so some fellow came up and told Ike, which put him on his guard.
Revolvers and Rifles for Dinner Yesterday I went down to the store, getting there about noon, so I went in and ate my dinner:
Leonard and the others were at the table with their six-shooters along side their plates and their rifles lying in their laps [“and a fellow outside guarding,” per Epitaph]. I tell you it looked tough. Well, Bill [Leonard] said he was going to shoot the Haslett boys on sight, and we looked for them last night but they did not come, so Ike thought the best thing he could do was to catch them himself, so this morning at daybreak he went to the store and laid in wait for them.

The Fight Back of the store is a corral, and Ike and his brother got in there. The fence is three feet high [“about three and a-half feet high,” per Epitaph]. Bill Leonard and the one they call Harry the “kid” had come down the road past the corral, so when they got to within thirty [“fifty,” per Epitaph] yards Ike and his brother Bill jumped up and opened fire on them. The “kid” was on foot and Leonard was on horseback. Ike let drive and got Leonard just below the heart, when he dropped to one side of his horse, Bill thought he would get away so he plugged the horse and he fell. The “kid” pulled his gun, when Ike pulled on him and told him to stop, but he was going to pull when Bill Haslett gave it to him in the abdomen, and he started to run when both Bill and Ike commenced to pop it to him. [“They put six balls in him,” per Epitaph]. When they picked Leonard up he breathed his last breath, “kid” is still alive, but they think he will die soon. Bill Leonard said last night that he wished28 someone would shoot him in the heart and put him out of his misery, as he had two big holes in his belly that he got when he tried to rob the stage at Tombstone. They were put out of sight at sundown this evening.36

Whether the Heslet brothers were being proactive in defending their own lives or intent on collecting the reward on Leonard and Head cannot be completely determined. But, their time was growing short and before any potential reward could be claimed they would be dead themselves.

The Arizona Gazette on July 18, 1881 carried the following notice of the death of Billy Leonard:

Sheriff Paul yesterday received intelligence from Deming that Billy Leonard, the notorious cowboy, was killed in a fight at Eureka, New Mexico, a short time since. Mr. Paul says his information is entirely reliable, and he regards the statement as correct. Leonard it will be remembered was one of the party that jumped the Tombstone stage some time since and killed Budd Philpot the driver, and a passenger named Roerig. If Billy has really been killed, his death will be a relief to any community where he might otherwise have taken residence, as he was a very “hard citizen.” – Journal.37

Another anonymous letter carried in the Tombstone Epitaph on June 22, 1881 gave the following account of the murder of Ike and Billy Heslet:

END OF THE COWBOY TRAGEDY A Circumstantial Account of the Murder of the Hasletts. HOW IT OCCURRED

It was evening and the boys were playing cards for pastime in West McFadden’s saloon, when about fifteen or twenty men came down on them by surprise, and they did not have a chance to protect themselves…. I counted eight [shots], but they say there were more… never saw such a dreadful sight. The place was running in blood. Bill Haslett was shot six times in the bowels, and Ike twice through his body and his left hand all shot to pieces. [A] boy, Joe [Sigman Biertzhoff] was shot six times through the stomach and once through the ankle. The Haslett’s left a will leaving everything to their father and sister in Kansas.38

Nellie Powers, wife of Richard Powers, of the Double Dobes ranch was present when a group of cow boys rushed West McFadden’s saloon in Eureka. She said, in part:

I counted eight, but they say there were more. My husband started to run, but I caught hold of him and held him back until I heard them mount their horses and ride away like the wind. I ran and put out the light, and then we started down…. When my husband got to the saloon he said he never saw such a dreadful sight. The place was just running with blood. Bill Haslett was shot six times in his bowels, and Ike was shot through his head and his left hand was shot to pieces. The boy Joe was shot six times through his stomach and once through his ankle. He suffered the worst of any of them. They were all conscious to the last. The Haslett boys made out a will leaving everything to their father and sister in Kansas. The German boy’s people live in California – he had nothing, not even enough to pay his debts in camp, but the company gave them all as good a funeral as could be had in this country. It was a sorrowful sight to see those three coffins followed by all the men moving slowly through the camp.39

Wire reports of the incidents spanned the western newspapers. In Utah, the Ogden Standard Examiner reported to its readers:

A dispatch received this morning, from Tombstone, Arizona, says: Particulars have come in of the killing of the Hazlitt brothers, who killed Leonard and Harry Head, the stage robbers, last week, and a German, at Eureka, N.M., by the cowboys, last week. They were surprised by a party of twenty cowboys while playing cards in a saloon at Eureka. As they has [sic] no chance to defend themseves [sic], Bill Hazlitt was shot six times through the bowels, Ike twice through the stomach, and the German six times through his body. As soon as the firing ceased, the murderers mounted and rode away. There is no trace who they were.40

The Arizona Weekly Star, on June 23, 1881 commented: 29

The killing of Bill Leonard and ‘Harry the Kid’ at Eureka, N.M. by the Haslett brothers, a full account of which appeared in the STAR of Sunday morning, has been summarily avenged. It appears that a cowboy named Crane organized and got a band of congenial spirits in the work of vengeance. They followed the Haslett boys for some twenty-five miles from Eureka before they overtook them, and as soon as they came up with them the fight to the death commenced. The Haslett boys were game and made a brave fight killing two and wounding three of the Crane party but being overpowered, were finally killed.41

However, the Tombstone Nugget, the day earlier carried a slightly different story of the incident:

The boys [Heslet] were playing cards for pastime in West McFadden’s saloon, when about fifteen or twenty men came down on them by surprise, and they did not have a chance to protect themselves.

Gray’s memoirs gave the following version of the death of the Heslet boys in which a vengeful Jim Crane exacts revenge:

Jim Crane soon heard of the killing [of Leonard and Head]. He got together a bunch of rustlers, and leaving them hiding close by, rode into Hachita alone. He found the Hesletts in the saloon getting pretty drunk. Jim played friendly and the three were soon seated at a game of cards. Suddenly rising from his chair opposite the two brothers, Crane shot them both before they could make a move, and thus avenged his comrades, Leonard and Head.”42

The Epitaph followed up with this account on June 21st in which the Heslets were killed, not in a saloon, or in the open 25 miles away, but in their own home:

More Murders in San Simon
As we go to press the report is current, said to be reliable, that friends of Leonard and Harry the “Kid” have killed both the Haslett boys. They were attacked and slaughtered at their own home. The circumstances of the first killing appeared in the Epitaph on Saturday morning last. These events all transpired on the Sam Simon, that seat of the cowboy troubles. It is asserted that the Hasletts killed Leonard and Harry Head (that being the “Kid’s” real name) for the sake of the reward offered for the capture of Leonard for his participation in the Contention [sic] stage robbery. Two or three of the cowboys are reported wounded in the fight. At this rate the gang will soon be exterminated much to the joy of all law-abiding citizens.

Jim Crane (who would soon receive his just desserts) and a contingent of cowboy associates were the real culprits in the murder of the Heslet brothers and the boy, Joe. However, Wyatt Earp gave a somewhat garbled account of events in his biography by Stuart Lake, in which he identifies Ringo and Brocius as the killers of the Heslets in a fourth location –
their store. Lake wrote:

Wyatt urged [Joe] Hill to keep after Leonard and Head, and after another talk with Ike Clanton and Frank McLowery [sic], Hill started for the New Mexico hideout. Joe Hill found Bill Leonard and Harry Head, but in their coffins; he reached Huachita [sic] New Mexico, a few hours after the two bandits were killed by Ike and Bill Haslett, brothers who ran a small store which the outlaws attempted to rob. Wyatt sent Morgan to Huachita to verify Hill’s story.

Morgan learned that Leonard lived for some hours after the Hasletts shot him, and that his groin showed a festering flesh wound which Leonard admitted had been inflicted by Bob Paul’s shotgun in the attack on the Benson stage. Leonard’s dying statement identified Luther King, Jim Crane, and Harry Head as his only associates in the holdup. Crane, he declared, had fired the shot which killed Bud Philpot. Who had killed Roerig, he could not say, as Crane, Head, and he had stood in the road and shot at the back of the stage. Morgan had barely returned to Tombstone when Curly Bill and John Ringo rode up to the Haslett store, shot and killed the Hasletts without warning, in revenge for the deaths of Head and Leonard.43 30

Ringo was probably not in the area at the time of the killing of the Heslet brothers as he was known to be in Texas by May 2nd, returning to Arizona from Missouri during July 1881. Brocius was likely still in Galeyville recovering from his near death shooting through the jaw. Neither man was directly involved in these murders.44 Why would Wyatt Earp insinuate their names into this murder scene? Perhaps, through his biography, to further indemnify his own alleged killings of the two outlaws? What might have passed then, without serious questioning, will not pass among today’s more critical researchers. The brief mention that Head, Crane and King were Leonard’s “only associates” in the attempted Benson stage holdup appears to be one more attempt to eliminate Doc Holliday from collusion.45 It is interesting that Wyatt Earp did not trust Joe Hill’s report enough to simply check his story through a telegram to the Grant County sheriff or another southwestern New Mexico law enforcement official. As well, Earp ignored the widespread newspaper accounts of their deaths. Why did he feel it necessary to send his brother over that rough and rugged country to verify the deaths of Leonard and Head? Was he afraid of what they might have revealed to others in New Mexico about the participants in the holdup, as Ike Clanton intimated in his testimony in the Spicer hearing?46

An even more garbled story47 was recorded by Forrestine Cooper Hooker in her brief account of Wyatt Earp, An Arizona Vendetta:

Two brothers names Haslett [“Hessler” in her original manuscript] had established a small store in Skeleton Canyon, located in the Whetstone range. A little mining camp had opened up there, and Leonard and Head dropped in at intervals. Difficulty arose between Leonard and Head and the Hasletts, and threats made by the outlaws reached the brothers. The Hasletts started out and found the rustlers at Iron Springs, and in the fight that ensued both Leonard and Head were killed….But a week after the killing of the two rustlers, Curly Bill and John Ringo crept up to the Haslett place and fired through the window, killing both brothers, and then escaped in the darkness.48

It is interesting to note that Ike Clanton was in Grant County at the time these events were unfolding. Virgil Earp, in his testimony in document 94 of the so-called OK Corral Inquest stated:

He [Ike Clanton] said that Leonard had a fine ranch over in the Cloverdale County. He said, ‘As soon as I heard of him robbing the stage, I rounded up my cattle on the San Pedro here,49 and run them over and jumped his ranch.’ And he said, ‘Shortly after you boys gave up the chase who should come riding up but Leonard, Head and Crane.’ And he said, ‘By God, they have been stopping around there ever since, and it looks as though they are going to stay.’ He said, ‘They have already told me that I would either have to buy the ranch or get off of it. I told them that I supposed after what they had done, they would not dare to stay in the country and I supposed you would rather your friends would get your ranch than anybody else.’ He said, ‘But if they were going to stay in the country he would either get off or buy the ranch. Now you can see why I want these men either captured or killed, and I would rather have them killed.’

This may well have been part and parcel of a convoluted attempt by Wyatt Earp to enlist the aid of Ike Clanton, the McLaury brothers, and Joe Hill in rounding up Leonard, Head, and Crane and, in a “better dead” than “alive” scenario, put the outlaws away where they could not cast any further aspersions on Doc Holliday (or the Earps)50 as being involved in the foiled robbery of the Benson stage. Ostensibly, Wyatt would use their capture as a vehicle to get elected as Cochise County sheriff in 1882. What a ruse! The elections were a year and a half away, and by then who would care about the attempted Benson stage robbery? Of course, whatever the truth behind Wyatt’s plan, it all came to naught when the stage-robbing trio came to their tragic ends.31

Back in Kansas, when word of the brothers having been killed reached the Heslet family their father was ready to make an immediate trip to New Mexico to learn the particulars of his son’s deaths. The Topeka Capitol carried this mention:

Mr. Hazlett had received a letter from the boys a short time since saying that they had sold their stock and were coming home, and the next news that came was a telegram yesterday informing him of their death.51

It is unknown whether or not he actually made the trip, but a couple of months later a perplexed John Heslet wrote, through his attorney in Topeka, to the Governor of the Territory of Arizona under date of August 15, 1881:

D. Sir Mr. John Heslet of Silver Lake Shawnee County Kansas, (who requests me to write you this letter) is informed that you in behalf of the Territory of Arizona offer a reward for the capture of William Leonard and Harry Head also for Jas. Crain [sic] who on March 15th last robbed the stage between Tombstone & Benson. Mr. Heslet is an old resident of this county and had two sons William A & Isaac R Heslet who left here about 4 years ago and settled in New Mexico,, the two boys purchased a Ranch near Eureka I believe and settled on it. In the spring of this year they made arrangements to sell their Ranch to one Gray for $4000, and the money was to have been paid them on the second week in June last, but instead of paying the money over Mr Heslet is informed that Gray hired Leonard & Head to kill his two sons & that they proceeded to the Heslet Ranch for that purpose, but were met by the Heslet boys & both Leonard & Head shot & mortally wounded. Leonard dying at once & Head about one week after. An inquest was held on the bodies & they were both identified. The band of outlaws of whom Leonard and Head were a part after this occurrence, determined to avenge the death of their comrades and on June 16, 1881 at ten at night the two sons of Mr Heslet were killed on their Ranch. Mr. Heslet feels that if a reward is offered for the capture of these men he is entitled to it. Will you please at your early convenience write either Mr Heslet or myself, stating if a reward is offered for the capture of these parties, the amount of same, and what proof you require.
Very respectfully Yours, Henry J. Page52

A handwritten note on the bottom of the letter was added by the acting secretary of the territory:

Ansd. Giving copy of Proclamation explaining that the reward was for capture and conviction not for the killing of the parties he named.53

Mr. Heslet had received a telegram informing him of his sons’ deaths, but how and from whom he received the additional information revealed in his letter is unknown. It does confirm the pending sale of the Heslet ranch to Mike Gray, and Gray’s possible collusion in the eventual murder of the boys. What Mr. Heslet did not realize, or this letter does not mention, was that Wells, Fargo & Company had put up the $3,600.00 reward his sons may have been seeking. According to a June 7, 1881 wire from L. F. Rowell, Wells, Fargo & Company divisional superintendent in San Francisco, to Marshall Williams, Wells, Fargo agent in Tombstone, the reward was payable “dead or alive.”

It would have been interesting to be privy to the discussions and plan-making that was involved in the various scenarios of this story. What was the true motivation behind the Heslet brothers plan to kill Leonard and Head? Were they prepared to set a trap for Jim Crane? Was Crane exacting revenge on the Heslets for the murder of his friends? Or, was he a hired killer working on behalf of Michael Gray? As with most stories of this era and area, there are so many complicated involvements, that final conclusions must await further evidence.32

Endnotes:
1 Most contemporary accounts of the incidents recorded in this article, as well as most modern writers, refer to the brothers using the surname “Hazlitt;” the spelling “Heslet” is correct as is shown in a letter from attorney Henry Page to the Governor of the Territory of Arizona included in this article as well as various census and genealogical records. John Plesant Gray, in his memoirs, comes closest to the spelling, using “Heslett.” See reference to the Gray memoirs in note below.

2 Author, Lynn Bailey calls the Heslet brothers, “miners and stockmen of… dubious reputation;” see: Tombstone Arizona: Too Tough To Die, (Tucson: Westernlore Press, 2004) p. 132; author, Timothy W. Fattig refers to them as “outlaws;” see: Wyatt Earp, The Biography, (Honolulu: Talei Publishers, 2002) p. 296; while author William Shillingberg in his book, Tombstone, A.T., A History of Early Mining, Milling, and Mayhem (Spokane: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1999), p. 211, characterizes them as “one-time Cowboys trying to reform.”

3 An extensive search of marriage records has produced no date or location. John was still single on the 1850 federal census of Clermont County Ohio (p. 64, household 510, living in hotel). No birth or death records have been located for John; Elizabeth is buried in the Silver Lake, Kansas cemetery which records her birth as March 19, 1829 and death as January 23, 1876.

4 Information from 1860 federal census of Clinton County Ohio (p. 68, household 424). John was a well-to-do farmer with a real estate value of $5,500.00. The space to show the birthplace of William was left blank; the 1870 federal census shows him as having been born in Illinois, while the 1880 federal census of Grant County New Mexico lists his birthplace as Delaware. Often the information shown on a census record was not supplied by the enumerated persons themselves, but by just anyone the census taker might locate in the area, on the same road, or in the same hotel, who might offer information.

5 Joseph Heslet was active in community affairs in both Silver Lake and Topeka, Kansas where he later settled.

6 Per later federal census and genealogical records (via Ancestry.com).

7 Schooling information from 1870 federal census.

8 John and Annie Heslet sold the land for the Silver Lake Cemetery on June 19, 1880 (Shawnee County Register of Deeds, book 63, page 602).

9 John Heslet married Mrs. Annie M. Ward on July 22, 1879 (Shawnee County Marriage Record Book 2, page 654).

10 Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, History and Archives Division, Record group 6, Secretary of the Territory, August 15, 1881.

11 Anna M. Ward Heslet was born October 8, 1829 and died January 10, 1883 per gravestone in Silver Lake Cemetery.

12 1880 federal census Grant County, New Mexico (p. 362, household 7)

13 Michael “Mike” Gray was born in Tennessee in 1827. He had been a Texas Ranger and later an acting sheriff of Yuba County, California. He was active in mining in the region of Sonora, Mexico where his son Dixie Lee Gray was born. In 1879, he located and filed on the 320 acre townsite which became Tombstone, Arizona. He was one of the five original owners of the Tombstone Townsite Company; was a partner in the real estate firm of Clark, Gray & Company. He owned another ranch that included old Camp Rucker and stocked it with a herd he purchased from John Chisum. Gray was said by many to have been a silent leader of “Cow Boys.” See author’s Cochise County Cowboy War (Apache, Oklahoma: Young & Sons Enterprises, 1999) p. 55.

14 Author Karen Holliday Tanner writes that, “…Mike Gray… had strong connections with the lawless cowboy faction…. With Gray controlling the three adjoining ranches, the cow boys would have plenty of room to hide either themselves or their ‘hot stock.’” See: Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), pp. 153, 154.

15 The Ringo/Clanton claim is in Grant County Deed Book 6, pp. 193, 194. A “land notice” was filed on November 26, 1880. Gray in his “memoirs” and George Hilliard in his book, A Hundred Years of Horse Tracks: The Story of the Gray Ranch (Silver City, New Mexico: High-Lonesome Press, 1996) pp. 11,

16, refer to the Ringo/Clanton property as a “squatter’s claim.”

17 John Plesant Gray wrote his memoirs entitled “When All Roads Led to Tombstone” in 1940; the original manuscript is owned by the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson. It has been transcribed, edited, annotated and published under the same title by two authors, W. Lane Rogers, (Boise, Idaho: Tamarack Books, 1998) and Neil Carmony, Tombstone’s Violent Years, 1880-1882, As Remembered by John Plesant Gray, (Tucson: Trail to Yesterday Books, 1999). Page numbers in this article refer to the Rogers version. John Plesant was born on February 29, 1860 in Sacramento, California. He was an 1880 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. This writer agrees with author Don Chaput who has written, “As a raconteur, Gray is considerably more reliable than Charles Mauk or Billy King, so we can assume most of the above report is correct.” See: Don Chaput, “Buckskin” Frank Leslie, (Tucson: Westernlore Press, 1999) p. 44. For further information on the Gray family, see author’s CCCW, p. 55. 17 Hilliard, loc.cit. p. 10; Rogers, p. 47.

18 Rogers, p. 48.

19 See: Ed Bartholomew, Wyatt Earp, 1879 to 1882, The Man and the Myth (Toyahvale, Texas: Frontier Book Co., 1963) p. 165.

20 For further information on Leonard, see author’s CCCW, p. 79.

21 For further information on Head, see author’s CCCW, p. 61.

22 For further information on Crane, see author’s CCCW, p. 31. 23 For further information on King, see author’s CCCW, p. 75.

23 WOLA Journal

24 Other members of this posse included Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, and Bat Masterson.

25 Luther King had been captured and taken to Tombstone where he subsequently escaped. See: The Evening Gossip, Tombstone, Arizona, March 29, 1881, p. 3, column 1.

26 Among the posse members were Deputy William Breakenridge and former government scout Frank Leslie.

27 Rogers, p. 48.

28 John Gray intimates that Jones was actually one of the Heslet brothers; see: Rogers, p. 51.

29 The Double Dobes was also known as the “Flying Cloud;” see: Rogers, p. 51.

30 Rogers, p. 50.

31 For an account of Leslie’s involvement in the Behan-Breakenridge posse, see: William Breakenridge, Helldorado, Bringing the Law to the Mesquite, (Glorietta, New Mexico: Rio Grande Press, 1970) pp. 122, 123.

32 Tombstone Daily Nugget, July 3, 1881. See also: Chaput, ibid, p. 43, 44.

33 Rogers, p. 36.

34 William Crownover Parker, Jr. See: author’s CCCW, p. 99.

35 Possibly Charles Baldwin, another Tombstone saloon owner. See: author’s CCCW, p. 8.

36 The Epitaph article appeared in the San Francisco Examiner June 22, 1881, per Casey Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp, the Life Behind the Legend ( New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997) pp. 84, 85.

37 Article located by Troy Kelley and reproduced in his book, From Tombstone to Their Tombstones, Volume I, The Palmy Days 1879-1900 (Phoenix: Troy Kelley, 2002) p. 16. The “Miner” is the Arizona Miner of Prescott, the territorial capitol.

38 The “will” was apparently never filed as a legal document; nothing is on file in either Grant County or Hidalgo County (of which Eureka – now Hachita – is a part).

39 Tombstone Epitaph, June 22, 1881. The author scoured the area in 2004 for the possibility of marked graves; nothing was located. On the possibility that the father had the bodies shipped back to Kansas, the author checked all available cemetery records of Shawnee County and found that there are no marked graves for Isaac or William Heslet.

40 Ogden Standard Examiner, June 22, 1881.

41 No information has been located on the identities of the two members of the Crane contingent who were allegedly killed.

42 Rogers, p. 50.

43 Stuart N. Lake, Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal, (New York: Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1994), pp. 275, 276.

44 Ringo was arrested in Austin, Texas on May 2, 1881 by Ben Thompson, per Austin Daily Statesman, May 3, 1881. See: Steve Gatto, Curly Bill, Tombstone’s Most Famous Outlaw, (Lansing, Michigan: Protar House, 2003) pp. 80, 155. Ringo biographer Jack Burrows believes that Ringo was “likely involved in the killing of the Haslett brothers in June, in retaliation for their killing of outlaws Bill Leonard and Harry Head….” See: Jack Burrows, John Ringo, the Gunfighter Who Never Was, (Tucson: University of Arizona, 1987) pp. 145, 199.

45 Wyatt Earp continually tried to keep Doc Holliday from “Harm’s Way,” and often defended his innocence in the Benson stage holdup. For example, see: Document 94, Testimony of Wyatt S. Earp, Alford E. Turner, editor, The O.K. Corral Inquest, (College Station, Texas: The Early West, 1981), p. 167.

46 Turner, p. 107.

47 It would be impossible to recount all of the garbled accounts of the killings of Leonard, Head, and the Heslets. The Earp/Lake and Earp/Hooker versions are but two. A recent work by R. Michael Wilson, Encyclopedia of Stagecoach Robbery in Arizona (Las Vegas, Nevada: Stagecoach Books, 2003) pp. 36-38, may have the most absurd account when he says that “Curly Bill Brocius… gathered a small army of gang members which may have included Frank Stillwell [sic], Pony Deal, Pete Spence, Jim Crane and at least five other men, to assist in killing the storekeeper-brothers.”

48 Forrestine Cooper Hooker, An Arizona Vendetta, The Truth About Wyatt Earp (Riverside, California: Earl Chafin, 1998) p. 30. One would think that Hooker surely was the “garbler” of this account; it is hard to imagine that Wyatt Earp would have told such a mishmash of a story.

49 Ike’s ranch, at that time, was fourteen miles south of Tombstone and four miles from Charleston, on the San Pedro River.

50 Numerous Earp/Tombstone writers have tried to place the Earps into the stage robbing business. While the evidence is circums tantial, it is this writer’s opinion that it should not be completely discounted.

51 Via, Paula Mitchell Marks, And Die in the West, (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1989), p. 153.

52 Henry J. Page, who later became a respected attorney in Topeka, is listed in the 1879 Radages Topeka City Directory, page 144, as a clerk in the United States Circuit Court. 53 Letter, loc.cit, Secretary of the Territory, record group 6, August 1881.