Volume 17 , Issue 23

Death of Virgil Earp, 22 July 1900

In a 1900 newspaper, The Seattle Post Intelligencer, dated Sunday, 22 July 1900, page 5, we find this mention of Virgil Earp's death, the third of the brothers that came to a violent end.

Wyatt Earp, the surviving brother, conducted a saloon and gambling house at Nome, formerly lived in Seattle. Virgil was a stage robber and afterwards U. S. Marshall. All Earps died with boots on.

In 1900, news had come that Virgil Earp of the Earp brothers, was killed in a saloon at Wilcox, Arizona, July 7, 1900, making the third of the famous or rather notorious quartette to meet death in his ordinary foot gear, after the traditional manner of the Western bad man. And a bad man was Virgil Earp. So were all the other Earps.

It was their chosen profession and they were all living exemplifications of the old adage that informs the ambitious youth that there was room at the top. For the top rung of the ladder of this chosen profession of theirs they held full possession. Not always undisputed possession, it was true, but those who were disposed to argue the point usually came to grieve in the form of the manner of death above mentioned.

There were seven of the Earps, the best known of whom were Virgil, Wyatt, Warren and Julian, forming the quartette referred to. All of them were gunfighters and men prompt and bitter courage. Wyatt Earp was credited with ten men, one of them his own brother-in-law. Every one of the eArs had killed his men, not man, and were famed in Tombstone, Arizona, and the Cochise country round about as qualified to pull and make a center shot in less than one-tenth of a second. They all filed the sights from their guns and shot by instinct rather than by aim. Triggers were a superfluous piece of mechanism and all were addicted tot he process, in a fight, technically known as "fanning" their guns. By this means a man with a brace of Colts six-shooters becomes for the moment an animated machine gun.

The one of the Earps best known in Seattle was Wyatt who refereed the Fitzsimmons-Sharkey fight. His connection with Seattle centers in the fact that not long ago he was the proprietor of the gambling house at 111 South Second. He was carried along by the Nome rush, however, and was now engaged in similar pursuits in that city.

In the early eighties the Earp family abode at Tombstone, Arizona, and did much toward making that hamlet a thrilling place of residence.

There were then two factions at Tombstone, Virgil and Wyatt Earp led one, the stage robbers; Johnny Behan, Ike Clauton and Jack Ringo, led the other, the rustlers. The rustlers were Democrats, and devoted themselves to cattle stealing, murder, whisky and faro bank as steady pursuits. In these days Johnny Behan was sheriff of Cochise county and Virgil Earp was the marshal of Tombstone. Bethan, as stated, belonged to the cow-thief Democracy party, while Earp robbed stages and voted with the Republicans.

Brachial Williams was then Wells G+Fargo agent at Tombstone, and when big money went out on the stage he tipped it off to Earp. The hold-ups were then planted in a convenient canyon. When the stage came along, at the word "hands up!" Warren Earp, who was a stage company guard, meekly put his hands over his head. Then the hold-ups went through the express pouches and boxed like the grace of heaven through a camp meeting.

But it all came out in them. Williams, the Wells Fargo agent, confessed. It happened thus: It was a gala occasion int he Bird Cage opera house, in Tombstone, Sheriff Jimmy Behan, Ike Clauton, Ringo and others of the cow thieves had boxes on one side. The Earps, Curley Bill, Doc Holiday, Nixon and others of the stage robbers, had boxes opposite. When one side cheered a performer the others hissed, and as whisky flowed the spirits of both gangs mounted.

At last Ike Clauton took umbrage because Nixon, opposite, reposed his boot on the rail of his box. Clauton was too far away for conversation, so in testimony of his condemnation of Nixon's action he pulled his gun and put a bullet through Nixon's offensive foot. It came off the box rail.

Much good and enthusiastic shooting ensued. Twelve men were killed and wounded; none of the Earps,, however. Williams, the confederate of Virgil and Wyatt Earp in the stage robbing, was badly shot up. He expected to die, and confessed. At this Wyatt Earp and his three brothers, with others of their gang, fortified themselves in an old dob house on the edge of Tombstone. Bethan and the cow thieves put in what time they could spare from faro bank and theft to besieging them. The siege was a stand-off. At last Warren Earp, the foolhardy one, heeled himself and came down from the dob fortress to play faro bank. He had just set a stack of blues on the king open when a cow thief listlessly put a bullet through his head.

Thus died the first of the Earps. There was more fighting then, and at last the Earps were driven out of Tombstone and into the Gunnison. Their sister Jessy went with them. Ike Clauton, one of the Democrats and cow thieves, followed them to Colorado and helped with Jessy. This was too much for the Republican stage robbing blood of Wyatt Earp and his brothers. They pursued. They ran Clauton and his bride into a mine tunnel. The miners interfered. There must be fair play. Ike Clauton offered to fight Virgil, Wyatt or Julian Earp for their sister. Julian took it up. The two shot it out with pistols, and Julian was killed.

Thus died the second Earp. Ike Clauton and Jessy, nee Earp, lived in peace two years. Then Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp and Curley Bill crossed up with Clauton, and there was another feast of guns. Clauton was killed, and took with him Curley Bill to the happy hunting grounds. Wyatt Earp, when the smoke blew away, was also full of well made bullet holes, but he got well.

And now the third Earp has passed in his checks, and in accordance with family traditions the coroner pulled off his boots. John Boyett, a cowboy, evened a grudge of long standing over old rustler days by getting the drop on him and filling him full of lead.

It was only a few days before this that Earp met Boyett and, pressing a sixshooter against his stomach, took occasion to make insulting remarks about his ancestry, his daily occupation and his future prospects. Boys had to take it, but later his turn came and he added the fourth notch to his gun by killing Earp in a saloon as stated.

Wyatt Earp, the survivor of the quartette, was not 50 years old. He was grim, game and deadly. He never took water. But he didn't kill as he used to. Age had cooled his blood, many wounds had brought him caution. Moreover, the communities he honored with his presence wouldn't stand those gayeties which marked Wyatt Earp's earlier career. And Wyatt had grown to like a quiet life. As a result he had not taken a scalp for years.

At one time when arrested for carrying a gun, Wyatt made this naive confession to the justice: "Please your honor, force of habit is hard to overcome. I would as soon think of going without my shoes or my trousers as without my gun."

But while it was true that Mr. Wyatt Earp had not taken a scalp for years, those who knew him best say that it is only for lack of sufficient provocation. During his residence in Seattle he ws one of the most quiet citizens, but it was not of record that any bluff was put up against him that went uncalled. It was known that in an unpretentious manner he promptly and severely rebuked the few attempts made to hand him what was technically known as the "con," and his manner ws always such as to instill a wholesome respect in the minds of his immediate associates.
  |  View or Add Comments (2 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---