Shoot Me Ill Let You Know Man
November 13-fourteen, 1881
Sheriff John Behan
On this thirteenth solar day of November, 1881, on the hearing of the above entitled cause of the examination of Wyatt Earp and J. H. Holliday; John H. Behan, a witness of lawful age, being produced and sworn, deposes and says as follows:
My name is John H. Behan. I reside in Tombstone. I am Sheriff of Cochise County. I know the defendants, Wyatt Earp and John H. Holliday. I know the defendants, Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp. In their lifetime I knew Thomas McLaury, Frank McLaury, and William Clanton. I know Isaac Clanton. I was here in Tombstone on the 26th of October, when a difficulty took identify and a shooting occurred between the parties mentioned.
(Q) Volition you state what y'all know well-nigh this difficulty?
(A) The start that I knew that there was likely to be any trouble; I was sitting in the barber'due south chair, getting shaved-Barron'south Barber Store. It was about half-by one, I think. It might accept been later. I saw a crowd gathering on the comer of Allen and Fourth Streets. Someone in the barber store said there was liable to be problem between the Earps and Clantons. There was considerable said virtually information technology by parties sitting around. I asked the barber to bustle up, that I was broken-hearted to leave and disarm and abort the parties. I so went over to Hafford's Comer. I saw Align Earp standing there and asked him what was the excitement. This was Virgil Earp, the marshal. He said in that location were, "a lot of sons-of-bitches in boondocks looking for a fight." I don't call up he mentioned any names.
I said to him, "You had better disarm the crowd." He said he would non, that he would give them a chance to make a fight. I said to him, "It is your duty every bit a peace officer instead of encouraging a fight to disarm the parties." I don't remember that I said exactly, "cowboys," just I meant, "the boys," I meant the parties to the fight; I meant whatsoever parties connected with the cowboys who had arms.
Marshal Earp and Doc Holliday were continuing out at the middle of the intersection of the streets-Allen and Fourth Streets. I only saw Virgil Earp and Physician Holliday in the middle of the streets, between Smith's Corner and Hafford'southward.
Virgil Earp had a shotgun, with the muzzle touching the doorsill, down by the side. I did not encounter any arms on the others at the fourth dimension. I left Hafford's Comer and walked downward on the due east side of Fourth Street and crossed over to the southwest comer of Fremont and Fourth where I met Frank McLaury holding a equus caballus and talking to someone? I greeted him and said to him. . . [Defense force makes objection to any conversation of Frank McLaury being related. Overruled] I told McLaury I would have to disarm him; that there was likely to be some problem and I proposed to disarm everybody having arms. He said that he would not give up his guns; that he did not intend to have any problem. I told him he would take to requite [up] his gun however, or his pistol. [The following ii lines were illegible in the manus-written original.] Almost that time I saw Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury down below Fly'due south building. I said to Frank McLaury, "Come up along with me." We went to where Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury were continuing. I said to them, "Boys, you lot must give up your arms." [Defense objects. Overruled.]
When I arrived there, I institute Ike Clanton, Tom McLaury, William Clanton, and William Claiborne at that place. Frank McLaury went along with me. I said to the boys, "You have got to surrender your arms." Frank McLaury demurred. He did non seem inclined at first to be disarmed. Ike Clanton told me that he had zippo, that he was not armed. I put my arm around his waist to see if he was. I establish that he was not. Tom McLaury showed me by pulling his glaze open that he was non armed. I saw v standing there. I asked them how many there were of their political party. They said, "Four." Claiborne said he was non 1 of the political party that he was there wanting them to exit town. I and then said, "Boys, you must get up to the Sheriff's Office and layoff your artillery, and stay there until I get dorsum." I told them I was going to disarm the other party.
At that fourth dimension I saw [the] Earps and Holliday coming down the sidewalk on the south side of Fremont Street. They were between the Mail service Office and Bauer'southward Butcher Shop. I mean Morgan Earp, Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, and Physician Holliday. I said to the Clanton party, "Wait here. I encounter them coming down. I will go up and stop them." I walked up the street most 22 or 23 steps. I met them at Bauer'due south Butcher Shop, and told them non to go any further, that I was down in that location for the purpose of convincing the Clantons and McLaurys. They wouldn't heed me, paid no attention. And I said, "Gentleman, I am Sheriff of this County, and I am not going to permit any trouble if I tin assistance information technology." They brushed past me. I turned and went with them. I was probably a step or two in the rear as nosotros went down the street. I was expostulating with them all this time.
When they arrived within a very few feet of the Clan tons and McLaurys I heard one of them say-I call back it was Wyatt Earp-"Y'all sons of-bitches, you have been looking for a fight, and now you tin take it!" Also, about this time I heard a voice say, "Throw up your easily!"
During this time, pistols were pointed. I saw a nickel-plated pistol in particular [which] was pointed at one of the party. I think at Baton Clanton. My impression at the time was that Holliday had the nickel plated pistol. I will not say for sure that Holliday had it. These pistols I speak of were in the hands of the Earp party.
When the order was [given] to "Throw up your hands!" I heard Baton Clanton say, "Don't shoot me. I don't want to fight!" Tom McLaury at the same fourth dimension threw open his coat and said, "I have nothing," or "I'grand not armed," or something like that. He made the same remark and the aforementioned gesture he made to me when he showed me he was non armed, by catching hold of his coat on both sides and throwing information technology out that way [illustrating]. When Billy Clanton made the remark about non wanting to fight, I did not meet the position of his easily. My attending was directed to the nickel-plated pistol for a couple of seconds. The nickel-plated pistol was the commencement to fire, and instantaneously a second shot3-two shots correct together simultaneously-these two shots couldn't take been from the same pistol-they were too near together. The nickel-plated pistol was fired past the 2nd homo from the right; the third human from the right fired the second shot, if it tin can be called a second shot. Then the fight became general. Subsequently the get-go two shots, there were two or three shots fired very rapidly-I couldn't tell by whom. The kickoff two shots were fired by the Earp party. I tin can't swear by whom the shots immediately afterwards the first two shots were fired. My impression at the fourth dimension was that the next three shots came from the aforementioned side as the start 2 shots-that is, the Earp party. [Defence force counsel objects to witness stating his impressions. [Overruled] This was my impression at the time, from beingness on the ground and seeing it.
After the remark, "Throw up your hands!" was made; the nickel plated pistol went off. I think it was V. [Virgil] W. Earp who said, "Throw upwards your hands!" There was a proficient deal of fighting and shooting going on. The adjacent [a few words here are illegible] that I saw, Frank McLaury [was] staggering on the street, with one hand to [his] belly and his pistol in his right. I saw him shoot at Morgan Earp, and from the direction of the pistol, I should say he hit the ground. Frank McLaury shot twice towards Fly'due south building, and [as] he started across the street, he was shooting at Morgan Earp at the time. I heard a couple of shots from that management. I didn't encounter him afterwards he got about halfway beyond the street. My attention was directed in another direction. I looked then in that direction and saw Frank McLaury running and a shot was fired and he cruel on his caput, and I heard Morgan Earp say, "I got him!"
That'south well-nigh the end of the fight. There might have been a couple of shots later, but I don't remember. I can't say that I saw the effect of the beginning two shots. The only parties I saw autumn in the fight were Morgan Earp and Frank McLaury. I saw Morgan Earp fall and recover himself. I did not come across any movement of whatever person that indicated whatever effect from the beginning 2 shots. I didn't discover any indication [illegible].
The first man I was satisfied was hitting was Frank McLaury. I saw him staggering and bewildered and I knew he was hit. This was shortly afterward the first five shots. I never saw whatever artillery in the hands of anyone of the McLaury party, excepting Frank McLaury and Baton Clanton. I saw Frank McLaury on the sidewalk, within a very few feet of the lil1e of the fronts of the lots opposite the vacant lot betwixt Fly'due south building and the boarding firm below it.
I suppose there was as many equally eight or 10 shots before I saw arms in the hands of whatever of the McLaury or Clanton party. Frank McLaury is the starting time man of that party in whose hands I saw a pistol. Ike Clanton broke and run after the starting time five shots were fired. I saw him at the back corner of Wing's house, the last I saw of him in that location. I should judge he ran into an improver on the back of Fly'southward building.
[COURT ADJOURNED UNTIL TOMORROW MORNING AT 9 O'CLOCK]
[EXAMINATION OF JOHN H. BEHAN RESUMED]
I couldn't tell where he [Ike Clanton] was going to. I found him on Toughnut Street, at Judge Lucas' old office. I saw him at the comer of the Photo Gallery. I never saw him subsequently he passed the comer of the gallery. He seemed to be trying to get away. I should judge he went through the firm. I saw a shotgun before the fight commenced. Doctor Holliday had it. He had it under his coat. I do not know of my noesis that information technology was fired, as I did non come across it go off. I could not distinguish information technology from the other shots. I did not discover information technology afterward. I practice not know what became of information technology. I saw the bodies of the deceased after they were expressionless. Clanton was not quite dead. I saw Clanton lying on the sidewalk. I heard him say, "Go away and permit me die." He said it afterward beingness taken in the house. I saw him lying on the sidewalk, and I saw him when he shot at Morgan Earp, while lying downwardly. Quite a number was in the room. I do not know who they were. I saw Dr. Giberson in the room. He said zip would do him, Clanton, any skillful he was dying. I was not in the business firm when he died. I left before he died. Tom McLaury was in the same room. Clanton's feet were toward the door. I do not remember McLaury's position.
Cross-EXAMINATION
(Q) Did you receive the get-go information of the anticipated difficulty between the Earp political party and the Clanton party at the barber store, of which yous have spoken?
(A) My recollection is that I heard of it first in the hairdresser shop.
(Q) Had you previous to that time heard of a difficulty between Wyatt Earp and Tom McLaury in the neighborhood of Wallace's role?
(A) I had not.
(Q) You being in boondocks and assumedly mingling with the people, if those difficulties were a matter of common annotate, how did information technology happen that a report of it did non reach you? [Objected to by Prosecution. Sustained.]
(Q) Were yous not in Hafford's Saloon some fifteen or twenty minutes before the fight?
(A) I was in Hafford's Saloon some x or xv minutes earlier the fight.
(Q) Did you lot not cross the street in company with one Shibell?
(A) I did, with Charles A. Shibell.
(Q) Did you run across Virgil Earp?
(A) I do not recollect whether I did or not.
(Q) Did you lot non say to Virgil Earp at the time, "We are going to take a drink. Won't you join us?"
(A) I do not recall whether he took a drink or not.
(Q) Do yous not remember that while the parties were drinking, that Captain Murray came in and called Virgil Earp to the lower stop of the counter?
(A) I do not remember.
(Q) Practice yous remember that when Virgil Earp came back from Murray'south to where you were standing, y'all said to him: "What does that son-of-a-bitch stranger want?"
(A) I practice non remember, and I do not call back such words passed my lips as Captain Murray and I are on the best of terms.
(Q) Do you recollect that you then asked Virgil Earp what he was going to practise?
(A) No, I do non.
(Q) Do yous recollect Virgil Earp replying: "I am going to disarm them."?
(A) No.
(Q) Practise you lot recollect replying to that remark: "Don't undertake to do that," or: "They will kill you"-referring to the Clanton crowd. "They were simply down in my corral having a gun talk confronting you and threatening your life?"
(A) No such chat happened. I made no such reply. I had not been down in my corral.
(Q) Practise you recall further saying: "I volition become downward where they are; they won't hurt me, and I will get them to layoff their artillery"-this was said to Virgil Earp?
(A) This chat did not take place at that time.
(Q) Did you, subsequent to the fight, somewhere in the city of Tombstone, and upon the day of the fight and speaking of the fight betwixt the Earp crowd and the Clanton crowd, say to Charles Shibell that it was a dead foursquare fight and that you could not tell who shot kickoff?
(A) No sir.
(Q) Did you lot not make that remark, or [ane] of like import to Wyatt Earp later on the fight, on the comer of Fremont and Fomth Streets, and upon the day of the fight?
(A) No sir.
(Q) If annihilation, how much have you contributed or have promised to contribute to the associated attorneys who are now prosecuting this case?
(A) I take not contributed a cent, nor accept I promised to.
(Q) Were not you and Wyatt Earp applicants to Full general Fremont for the appointment of Sheriff of Cochise County, and did not Wyatt Earp withdraw his application upon your promise to divide the profits of the role and did not you subsequently reject to comply with your part of the contract? [Objected to by the Prosecution. Overruled.]
(A) In the first identify we were both applicants for the office. I was, and I understood Mr. Earp was. When I became satisfied that I would get the engagement, I went to Mr. Earp and told him that I knew I would get the date of Sheriff, and that I would like to have him in the function with me. I also told him that I did not desire him to cease his efforts to get the office if he could. I told him I was sure I could get it and that if I did, I would take him in, that in case he got the function, I did not want anything to do with information technology. He said information technology was very kind of me, that if he got the office he had his brothers to provide for, and could not return the compliment if he got information technology. I said I asked nothing if he got it, only in case I got it, and I was certain of it, I would similar to have him in the office with me. I said, "Permit this talk make no difference with y'all in your efforts to become the office." Something afterward transpired that I did non have him into the office.
(Q) Up to the time of this difficulty nether consideration, accept you not regarded Wyatt Earp equally an aspirant for the office of Sheriff of Cochise County?
(A) I have not.
(Q) [Question non written.]
(A) I did not encounter anyone have a pistol from William Clanton.
(Q) Afterward the fight was over, how soon did yous get out the battleground and where did you go?
(A) I cannot say how long; probably four or five minutes. I came up Fremont Street, thence to Hafford's Corner.
(Q) Did you run across Wyatt Earp at the corner of Fremont and Fourth Streets?
(A) I did.
(Q) Did you have whatever chat with him?
(A) We had some conversation.
(Q) After the fight, were you lot upon the stoop in the passageway between the lodging house and the photo gallery, and how long?
(A) I was on the stoop a very [few] seconds later the fight.
(Q) Did you not at the fourth dimension suppose that you were [the] only, or about the simply witness, outside of the parties concerned in the difficulty, who witnessed the difficulty? [Objected to on the ground that it is irrelevant and immaterial. Objection sustained. ]
(Q) Did you not, at the fourth dimension and place, say to one of the Fly'southward: "I'm about the only witness to that fight, am I non?"
(A) I don't remember. I told him I saw it all. He was trying to get Claiborne out of the house. I told him to permit him stay, as he was not to blame and might get killed.
(Q) After you followed or accompanied the Earps from under the canopy of the butcher store, and the fight commenced, did you occupy one position until the shooting ceased?
(A) No sir, I did not stand still. I moved effectually pretty lively.
(Q) When you heard the expression: "Y'all sons-of-bitches, etc., hold upward your hands, etc." locate on this diagram [diagram shown] the verbal position of the Clanton oversupply.
(A) [Here witness makes use of diagram marked "Exhibit A," and the witness indicates the position of the parties as follows: 1.Frank McLaury; 2. Billy Clanton; 3. Thomas McLaury; iv. Ike Clanton.] Claiborne was standing back of them, further into the lot. I cannot state exactly where. The 4 numbered were non standing in as direct a row every bit the figures on the diagram. [Here witness corrects the positions.]
(Q) How long was it after the expressions of, "You sons-of-bitches, etc.," and "throw up your hands!" was it that the firing commenced?
(A) I don't think it was more than than a second interval.
(Q) What interval of time between the expression, "You sons-of-bitches," and "Throw upwardly your hands!"?
(A) I expression followed the other-it was nigh simultaneous.
(Q) At the fourth dimension of those two expressions, I sympathize y'all to say you had your heart on a nickel-plated pistol. Did you see the nickel-plated pistol before you heard the expressions?
(A) I saw the nickel-plated pistol at the same time the expressions were fabricated.
(Q) Did you run across it in whatever interval before the expressions were made?
(A) I saw it at the same time.
(Q) Was information technology pointed, the commencement time yous saw it?
(A) Aye, information technology was pointed at Billy Clanton.
(Q) Was it the commencement of the expressions, "You sons-of-bitches, etc.," that diverted your attention from the Clanton crowd and full-bodied information technology upon the Earp crowd?
(A) My attending was on the Earp crowd.
(Q) How long had your attending been especially on the Earp crowd?
(A) From the time I turned to go with them.
(Q) Did you see a shotgun in the hands of the Earp political party, and if and so, which one of them?
(A) The concluding time I saw the shotgun [it] was in the easily of Doc Holliday-he had it under his coat.
(Q) Did you come across the shotgun employed in that difficulty?
(A) I did not.
(Q) Holliday having a shotgun just preceding the difficulty, and on the way to the difficulty, and your attention beingness particularly directed to the Earp party, how does it happen that you do non know what became of the shotgun?
(A) I do not know-it might take been used and I not know of it.
(Q) Locate Holliday at the time, equally you say, yous remember he discharged the nickel-plated pistol.
(A) [Witness marks on the diagram marked "Exhibit A", by the figure 5, the position occupied by Holliday at the fourth dimension he thinks Hollisolar day fired the shot.
(Q) And at what distance from the nearest of the Clanton Party?
(A) About five and a half or six anxiety, I should judge.
(Q) Do you still insist that the outset shot was fired from the nickel plated pistol?
(A) Yes.
(Q) Is it not a fact that at the time of the firing of the first shot, Holliday was in the street, at least 25 feet from where you have located the Clanton oversupply?
(A) No, it is was non.
(Q) Is it not a fact that the first shot fired past Holliday was from a shotgun; that he so threw the shotgun down and drew the nickel-plated pistol from his person so discharged the nickel-plated pistol: Presuming Holliday to be number five on the diagram, is it not a fact that he fired the shotgun first
(A) [Question not answered.]
[COURT Here RECESSES UNTIL i O'CLOCK] [HEARING RESUMED]
(Q) Had not the Clanton party, significant the parties named as engaged in the conflict, a reputation for courage and determination?
[Objection by the Prosecution. Overruled.]
(A) They have that reputation. That is Frank McLaury and Ike Clanton-I never heard the reputation of the other two discussed.
(Q) Have not the Earp party the aforementioned reputation every bit to backbone and decision?
(A) They take.
(Q) With your knowledge of the character of the 2 parties, were you not satisfied later the first hostile demonstration that the contact would proceed to a bitter finish, and beyond the ability of ordinary or extraordinary interference?
[Question objected to. Question overruled on the ground that it is mere opinion of the witness, upon the acts, that he has already related, and as existence such opinion, is immaterial and irrelevant.]
(Q) With Allen fleeing into an alleyway, Claiborne, or the Kid, hiding in the photograph gallery, [and] Ike Clanton running abroad, why did you hover around in that location, exposing your person and life?
[Question overruled in its nowadays course.]
(Q) What was the exterior dress of Doc Holliday at the time you saw him with a shotgun?
(A) He had on a heavy overcoat of gray color which came beneath his knees.
(Q) Did he change the overcoat from the fourth dimension you first saw him until you lot think he discharged the nickel-plated pistol?
(A) I don't think he changed it. He did non have time.
(Q) Did whatsoever other of the Earp political party have a similar garment on?
(A) I call up non.
(Q) What space of fourth dimension was occupied between the commencement and terminal shot?
(A) I don't think the fight lasted over 20 or 30 seconds.
(Q) Were you satisfied when you put your arm effectually the waist of Ike Clanton, Tom McLaury threw the lapels of his coat aside, and Billy Clanton said he did not want to fight, that these parties had no arms?
(A) When I left the Clanton political party to meet the Earps, I was satisfied that Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury had no arms on them.
(Q) Could they not have had artillery and you not know it?
(A) Ike Clanton could non without my knowing it. Tom McLaury might have had a pistol and I non know it.
(Q) Equally you examined him but around the waist, could he not accept had a pistol in his pocket?
(A) He could not have had a pistol in his pocket, as I examined him very closely with my heart.
(Q) Did you see a horse in that neighborhood?
(A) Yes sir.
(Q) Where exactly-noted on the diagram.
(A) I cannot designate precisely on the diagram where the horse was.
(Q) At what fourth dimension connected with the hostilities did y'all see Frank McLaury hold that equus caballus?
(A) He had agree of the horse when the Earp political party beginning went down there.
(Q) What became of the horse when Frank McLaury occupied the position designated on the diagram as Figure I7?
(A) Every bit long as I saw him occupy that position, he was holding the horse.
(Q) Then was the equus caballus inside or exterior the vacant lot?
(A) Inside the vacant lot.
(Q) How long before the difficulty did you see the horse in that position?
(A) They were occupying that position when I left to see the Earp political party and walked 21 or 22 steps and dorsum, and the party all seemed to be in the same position.
(Q) Where was the horse immediately previous to and during the shooting?
(A) At the beginning of the shooting he was occupying that position.
(Q) Did the equus caballus intervene between the Clanton party and Physician Holliday?
(A) I think non. It is possible that Frank McLaury may have stepped back behind the horse.
(Q) Did you meet Tom McLaury discharge one or more pistol shots toward the Earp party-or, in other words, did you see Tom McLaury shoot over the equus caballus's back?
(A) No sir.
(Q) Did you lot see or hear any evidence of a shot proceeding from the alleyway between Fly's house and the building east of it?
(A) No.
(Q) Did you not know that Tom McLaury shot Morgan over the horse's back?
(A) No.
(Q) Have you always heard any threats inside the terminal few months on the office of the Clan tons and McLaurys confronting the defendants in this prosecution?
(A) I never heard any threats at any fourth dimension.
(Q) Once or twice in your direct examination, y'all spoke of cowboys. What is a cowboy?
(A) My thought of a cowboy is men who deal in cattle Stockmen.
(Q) Do yous regard the Clantons and McLaurys as cowboys?
[Question overruled on the ground that it is eliciting the opinion of the witness and is immaterial and irrelevant.]
(Q) Do you know the reputation of the Clantons and McLaurys in the section of the county in which they live and roam for turbulence? [Objected to on the ground that it is non cross-exam and is immaterial. Answer delayed. Objection sustained on the basis that it is not cross-examination and is immaterial.]
(Q) Have non the disturbances and master difficulties, breaches of the peace, and killings in this city and county been, in your opinion and noesis, or either, connected with Clan tons or their confederates? [Prosecution objects on the same grounds as to a higher place. Overruled.]
(A) I never knew the McLaurys to be in whatsoever trouble or rows. Ike Clanton I accept seen in i row here, and Billy Clanton I know nix about.
(Q) Do you know William Allen?
(A) Yes sir.
(Q) Did you lot see him that day at or most the difficulty or shooting, at or near the time of said shooting?
(A) I don't remember seeing him in that location.
(Q) Were you, during the time of the shooting, in the alleyway between Wing's Gallery and the building on the east?
(A) I was not in any alleyway during the progress of the fight. (Q) When you left the Clanton party, as you lot stated, and ascended Fremont Street to meet the Earps, did you not say, addressing Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp: "I have got them disarmed." Or words to that consequence?
(A) No sir.
(Q) Did not the Earp political party, after some remark fabricated by you lot to them, put their pistols farther back in their pants and did not Holliday pull his glaze over his gun?
(A) No sir. Holliday pulled his coat over his gun before I spoke to him.
(Q) Take you, since the difficulty, had any interview with William Allen, to compare your recollections with him in regard to the difficulty?
(A) I had no interview with Allen about the matter; have met him and talked about it on the street. [Verbatim as in original.]
(Q) During the progress of the fight, did you run into Ike Clanton take hold of Wyatt Earp's left arm and hear Wyatt Earp say to him, "This fight has commenced either fight or become abroad!"?
(A) No sir.
(Q) Indicate on the diagram the position of the Earp party at the time of the firing of the first shot.
(A) I tin locate the party but cannot give the position of each particular ane [here witness marks on diagram "A"]. [The figures] vi, 7, and viii represent three of the Earp party, and number 5 represents the ane with the nickel-plated pistol. The Earp party was facing the Clanton party.
(Q) To the all-time of your belief, how far apart were the ii parties?
(A) About five and a half or 6 feet; very close together.
(Q) Which represents [number] eight, to the all-time of your noesis?
(A) I can't tell exactly; my impression is that number 8 represents Virgil Earp.
(Q) What party is number 7, to the all-time of your knowledge?
(A) I don't know.
(Q) Mark the position of the equus caballus every bit number 9.
(A) Number 1, Frank McLaury was holding the horse. I cannot designate on the diagram the position of the equus caballus, for I take forgotton; there may accept been 2 horses in that location for all I know.
(Q) If i or two horses, were they inside of the vacant lot?
(A) They were inside of the vacant lot.
RE-Directly EXAMINATION
(Q) When you first saw the Clanton and McLaurys on the day of the difficulty were they, or either of them, making whatsoever dissonance or disturbance?
(A) No sir. They were not.
(Q) When you saw the Earp party going downwards Fremont Street towards the Clanton political party, what noise or disturbance were they making, if any?
(A) They were making no noise or disturbance.
(Q) Did you personally know Billy Clanton, and if so, how long, and well-nigh how old was he, if you knew him?
(A) I knew him, take known him about three or four months. He was a male child; I should not have him to be of age.
(Q) During the time you knew him; did you know or hear of his being in whatever difficulty?
(A) I never knew or heard of his being in any rows. I knew very little about him.
(Q) In your cross-examination you land that Isaac Clanton had been in some difficulties. Please land the number, with whom, and where, and when.
(A) The but difficulty that I know of his being in, was with Danny McCann, in Tombstone, well-nigh a month or two agone.
(Q) In your cross-exam you were asked if y'all know of Isaac Clanton beingness in whatever difficulties, please state if you heard of his being in any difficulties; if so, with whom, and where?
(A) I heard he had a difficulty with the Deputy Sheriff at Charleston some months ago, and and then once more I heard he had some trouble with Holliday the night before the shooting. I can't phone call to mind any other.
(Q) Did you lot hear of whatsoever difficulty on the morning of the 26th of Oct?
(A) I heard of a difficulty on the forenoon of the 26th, with Morgan and Virgil Earp.
[Courtroom ADJOURNED UNTIL Fri, NOVEMBER 14, 1881, AT 9 O'CLOCK A.M.]
[FRIDAY, NOVEMBER fourteen, 1881, EXAMINATION RESUMED]
[On motion of Fifty. [yttleton] Price, District Chaser, W. R. McLaury was admitted equally associate counsel on the political party of the prosecution.]
[All answers of witness Behan touching [the] character of the deceased were stricken out, on the ground that they were non proper matters of cross-examination.] [The following question [was] asked witness Behan by the defence, by consent.]
(Q) Did you visit Virgil Earp at his residence the evening later the fight?
(A) I did.
(Q) Did non some discussion ensue betwixt y'all and Virgil Earp almost the fight?
(A) There was some.
(Q) Did you non brand use of this language: "I went to encounter the Clanton crowd and told them to disarm? They would not practice it. I went back and met y'all and spoke to yous and you did not cease. I heard you say, 'Boys, throw upward your easily, I have come to disarm you.' When one of the McLaury boys said, 'We will,' and drew his gun, and the shooting commenced. I am your friend, and y'all did perfectly right. "Or language of such substance or similar import.
(A) I went downward that evening and when I got in the house, Virgil Earp said, "You amend go dull, Behan, and not push this matter too far." I told him I did not come in that location to have any words-which I intended to do my duty as an officer. Then he said he heard I tried to become the vigilance committee to hang them. I told him I did nothing of the kind that I never called for them. He said nearly the same matter that Wyatt Earp did, almost me deceiving them or throwing them off. So is when I explained to him about stopping him and telling them to end. In the chat he told me he was my friend. I told him I had always been his friend. That seemed to settle the matter about the vigilance committee. I suppose I told him that I heard him say, "Throw up your hands!" I never told him I heard McLaury say anything or that I saw him draw a pistol.
RE-EXAMINATION
(Q) On your cantankerous-examination you stated that you promised Wyatt Earp a position in your office, and that something later on occurred that caused you non to do information technology. Delight state what that something was.
(A) Information technology was this: Shortly later I had the conversation with Wyatt Earp, I received a telegram from Charles A. Shibell, Sheriff of Pima County to subpoena Ike Clanton. I was Deputy Sheriff [in Tombstone, before Cochise County was formed] nether Shibell. I didn't know where Clanton lived at the time. I went to Virgil Earp and asked him. He told me where [Ike] lived. I hitched upwardly a team and started to Charleston. I had gotten about halfway to Charleston, and a homo dashed by me on horseback, on the run; and virtually 5 minutes afterwards another passed me on the run. I got to Charleston and constitute a man going out to Clanton'south place. I gave him the dispatch and told him to manus it to Ike Clanton, and stayed around Charleston an hour or so and met Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. I call back I asked them what they were doing or what they were on. Wyatt Earp told me he was downwardly after a horse that had been stolen from him former earlier.
Nothing more was said and I returned to Tombstone. I went over to Tucson a few days afterwards and was told by Clanton that I came virtually getting myself in a hell of a scrape-[Defense counsel objects to the witness testifying to verbal statements of Clanton not continued [with] or a part of the circumstances of the homicide. Objection overruled and objected to.] He, Ike, said Earp sent him word that I had taken a posse of nine men downwardly there to arrest him and send him to Tucson, and then he told me he had armed his crowd and was not going to stand it, and they got out [a word hither is illegible] guns and was not going to Tucson.
(Q) Who was the first and the second homo that passed you on the [Charleston] route of whom yous spoke?
(A) It was dark, and my impression was that it was Virgil Earp, I did non know, but thought it his class, and the side by side [man] I thought was Holliday. When I got to Charleston, I saw Wyatt Earp instead of Virgil, and concluded I had made a mistake.
(Q) Who was with you, if whatever person?
(A) Les Blackburn and a man named Laurence Geary.
(Q) Who did you send the dispatch by, from Charleston to Ike Clanton?
(A) I recall past a man named Oates.
(Q) Tin can you tell anywhere nigh about the time of month information technology was, or what case the subpoena was in?
(A) No, I cannot tell the fourth dimension; [information technology was] in [the] case of Paul vs. Shibell.
(Q) Was at that place any conversation between you and Wyatt Earp immediately later on the difficulty as to your deceiving him well-nigh the McLaurys and Clantons being armed, and if and so, what was the conversation?
(A) There was a conversation on Fremont Street about the Butcher Shop on the sidewalk. Wyatt Earp said, "Behan, y'all deceived me," or, "threw me off. You said you had disarmed them." I told him he was mistaken, I did non say anything of the kind. Then I related to him what I had said. I said, "Earp, I told you I was there for the purpose of arresting and disarming them." He said he idea I had said I had disarmed them.
(Q) What was the distance you lot were from the Clanton and McLaury party, and how near the Earp party when you told the Earps to finish, and that y'all were in that location for the purpose of disarming and absorbing the Clanton political party?
(A) I was within ix or 10 feet of the Earp political party when I commanded them to stop, and about 19 or 20 yards from the Clantons and McLaurys.
(Q) Where did this difficulty occur?
(A) In Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Territory.
(Q) [No written question appears.]
(A) The [man] named, spoken of equally Captain Murray is known every bit Baton Murray and is a partner of F. A. Tritle.
(Q) At the time yous demanded [his arms] of Frank McLaury, at the comer of Fremont and Fourth Streets, and he demurred to giving them up, was the demurrer a provisional 1 or an absolute refusal?
(A) He did non want to requite up his arms unless the other party was disarmed.
[The defendants reserved the right to farther cross-examine the witness after they opened their case for the defense.]
[Signed] John H. Behan
Source: https://www.famous-trials.com/earp/510-behantestimony
0 Response to "Shoot Me Ill Let You Know Man"
Enregistrer un commentaire