Wyatt Earp's Cow-boy Campaign: The Bloody Restoration of Law and Order Along the Mexican Border, 1882

by Chuck Hornung

Overview

What can be learned from another retelling of the Tombstone saga? Recent revelations challenge the traditional view of Wyatt Earp's campaign against the Cow-boy confederation as a bloody personal feud a la western fiction. It was a seek and destroy mission sanctioned by the United States attorney general, the U.S. marshal and the Arizona Territory governor, following a year of corrupt law enforcement in league with the Cow-boys' livestock raids, stagecoach holdups and other atrocities.

Presented in three sections, this book establishes the major players involved in the convergence on Tombstone, provides an account of Earp's activities during the 18 months prior to the final action and discusses the provenance and credibility of the "Otero Letter." Discovered in 2001, the letter--believed to be written by New Mexico Territory Governor Miguel Otero--offers evidence that Earp's party was given government aid.

The author examines the details of the letter, including the shotgun dual between Earp and Curly Bill, the split between Earp and Doc Holliday, sanctuary for the Earp posse in Colorado and Holliday's extradition fight, Earp's covert assault resulting in Johnny Ringo's death, and the controversial courtship and marriage of Earp and Josephine Marcus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476624655
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	04/27/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	316
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Chuck Hornung was a member of the founding board of directors and vice president of the Wild West History Association. He is past president of the Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association and president of the New Mexico Mounted Police Historical Society.
Chuck Hornung was a member of the founding board of directors and vice president of the Wild West History Association. He is past president of the Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association and president of the New Mexico Mounted Police Historical Society.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Frontier Paladins and Some Jokers
1. Wyatt Earp: The Man, the Legend, the Myth
2. John Henry Holliday, DDS
3. A Man Called Bat
4. Some ­First-Class Paladins
5. Some ­First-Class Jokers
Part Two: “The Lion of Tombstone”
6. The Earp Brothers, Tombstone Businessmen
7. The Earp Brothers, Law Enforcement Officers
8. The Cochise County ­Cow-boy War
9. One for Morg ... Another for Morg … and Another …
10. Good-Bye, Tombstone
Part Three: The “Otero Letter”
11. New Mexico’s Campaign Against the ­Cow-Boys
12. Ockham’s Razor: The “Otero Letter,” Fact or Fiction?
13. The Otero Family of New Mexico
14. Ten Days in New Albuquerque
15. Destination: Colorado
16. The Legal Fight to Save Doc Holliday
17. Wyatt Earp vs. Johnny Ringo
18. Wyatt Earp and Josephine Marcus
19. Final Observations
Epilogue by Jeffrey Wheat
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

All Earp publication collectors will want this book.... It is a book that is hard to lay down; one that researchers will return to once and again”—Wild West History Association Journal.

From the Publisher