Earp Historical Timeline Page 5

The Aftermath

• 1881, October 29 - Virgil Earp is temporarily suspended as Chief of Police pending investigation of the gunfight. Ike Clanton files murder charges against the Earps and Holliday with Judge Spicer.
• 1881, October 31 - Judge Wells Spicer opens up a hearing to determine if Holliday and the Earps should be held over for a murder hearing. Meanwhile, after a mysterious visitor, the Earps move to the Cosmopolitan Hotel to be safe from assassins.
• 1881, November 4 - Brother of the dead McLaury's, Will R. McLaury arrives in Tombstone. He's from Fort Worth. He immediately joins the fight to get the Earps tried for murder. First getting them remanded in jail without bail. This only applies to Wyatt and Doc since Virgil and Morgan are wounded.
• 1881, November 7 - Wyatt and Doc are arrested by H. M. Woods. They are held in a makeshift jail on Sixth Street for sixteen days. Their friends take turns guarding them from assassination attempts.
• 1881, November 29 - Judge Spicer's hearing is completed, all testimony heard. Spicer's decision exonerates the Earps and Holliday of any wrong doing.
• 1881, December 14 - Unknown assailants attack the Tombstone to Benson stage and John Clum escapes by fleeing into the night. Life is generally tense in Tombstone with hatred running rife on both sides, and the town's newspapers battling it out. President Arthur warns Cochise County to clean up it's lawlessness or face martial law.
• 1881, December 17 - Spicer receives a death threat in his mail, and Doc Holliday receives a pretty package containing a forty-five calibre bullet.
• 1881, December 21 - The Bird Cage Variety Theater opens in Tombstone. Regardless of tensions it is an immediate success with both sides of the question.
• 1881, December 28 - Virgil Earp is bushwhacked at night by unknown assailants with shotguns. Two shots completely cripple Virgil's arm. He will never have full use of it again, but he is fortunate to escape with his life. It's just before midnight and Earp was making his rounds.

  Death in the Pool Hall ...

  Back in time ...

  Historians : Found an error? Please feel free to email me at wyatt@panhistoria.com with corrections.

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  Sources:
  The Illustrated Life and Times of Wyatt Earp by Bob Boze Bell, Boze Books, 1993
  Wyatt Earp and the Coeur d'Alene Gold!: Stampede to Idaho Territory, by Jerry Dolph and Arthur Randall, Eagle City Publishing, 1999
  Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend, by Casey Tefertiller, John Wiley & Sons, 1999
  Wyatt Earp: The Missing Years, San Diego in the 1880's, by Kenneth R. Cilch and Kenneth R. Cilch, Jr., Gaslamp Books, 1998
  The Earp Papers : In a Brother's Image by Don Chaput
  The Truth About Wyatt Earp by Richard E. Erwin