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| THE TRUTH ABOUT WYATT EARP |
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| Richard E. Erwin (Richard E. Erwin and the O.K. Press, 1992) |
Overall: |  +3 Branding Irons |
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| McLaury: |  +2 Branding Irons |
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| Legend: |  Deputy Sheriff |
| Overall: A book that picks through Wyatt's and Tombstone's history in order to prove or disprove the validity of each story. It would be a good book to read only after reading one or two of the biographies. It's a very structured book... which usually means it's a slow reader at times. I thought the explanation of Tombstone politics was very well laid out. McLaury: Aside from the hearing minutes, most of the McLaury data comes from Lake and Breakenridge books. Legend: The book earns the highest rating for being very specific and open to where the source came from. Unfortunately, he relied a little too much on other author's accounts, rather than the source documentation. In some cases the book doesn't reveal the truth as much as it reaffirm the speculation. But, overall, it's a good primer for the genre. |
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| WYATT EARP'S TOMBSTONE VENDETTA |
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| Collected & Edited by Glenn G. Boyer (Glenn G. Boyer, 1993) |
Overall: | +3 Branding Irons |
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| "From then on the McLaurys were our enemies, though we didn't know it yet. Virg wrote off Frank as a blow hard, though he set himself up to be a good shot." | McLaury: |  -1 Tombstone |
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| "That bastard Will McLaury could have been in on Morg's murder too. If he wasn't, he put up money." | Legend: |  Buntline Special |
| Overall: Much (if not all) of the new information revealed has been placed under suspicion. Still, as a historical novel, it's a fun book to read. McLaury: While reading this book, I can't help but wonder how much of the McLaury brothers profiles were made up by the author. Legend: The memoirs of Theodore Ten Eyck, the close, personal buddy of Wyatt Earp. Only one problem... Old Ten Eyck never seemed to have existed. Glenn Boyer continues his "just gonna have to trust me" documentation with this book. Like his 1976 work I Married Wyatt Earp, the historical validity of this book has wilted under the intense scrutiny of historians and researchers. As long as the truth is coveted by one person then it can only be considered as conjecture. |
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| VIRGIL EARP, WESTERN PEACE OFFICER |
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| Don Chaput (Encampment: Affiliated Writers of America, Inc. 1994) |
Overall: | +3 Branding Irons |
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| "The hearings did not bring the result Will McLaury wanted, and it appears that his anger and bitterness led him to pay off certain cowboys to shoot at Mayor Clum, Marshall Earp, and Morgan Earp." | McLaury: | +3 Branding Irons |
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| "Ike and Tom boozed and gambled for hours..." | Legend: | Deputy Sheriff |
| Overall: A well done biography on the eldest of the "Fightin' Earps". Not as glamorous as any of Wyatt's biographies but helps to straighten some areas. McLaury: Aside from the general incidents, nothing of note on the McLaury's. Legend: Uses the predictable sources. Well documented. |
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| THE COWBOY CONSPIRACY TO CONVICT THE EARPS | |||
| Michael M. Hicky (Talei Publishers, Inc., HW, 1994) |
Overall: |  +3 Branding Irons |
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| McLaury: |  +5 Branding Irons |
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| Legend: | Deputy Sheriff |
| Overall: The third of Hickey's The Streetfight Trilogy (I haven't read the first two yet), walks you through the gunfight and some of the key events before and afterwards. A good forensics book. An extra branding iron for the graphics. McLaury: The book profiles the McLaury's actions and movements in great depth. I'm not convinced of the truth of all of Hickey's conclusions, but the attempt was a top rate job. Legend: While I don't agree with all of Hickey's opinions, the facts are presented very well. |
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| TOMBSTONE | (1994) | |||
| Directed by George P. Cosmatos Written by Kevin Jarre Stephen Lang as Ike Clanton Robert John Burke as Frank McLaury John Philbin as Tom McLaury |
Kirk Russell as Wyatt Earp Sam Eliot as Virgil Earp Bill Paxton as Morgan Earp |
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Overall: |  +4 Branding Irons |
| Robert Hayden Church as Billy Clanton Powers Boothe as Curly Bill Brocuis |
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday Dana Delaney as Jose Marcus |
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McLaury: |  -2 Tombstones |
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Legend: |  Deputy Sheriff |
| Overall: One Huckleberry of a movie. Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday and Powers Boothe as Curly Bill steal the show but all of the main characters are well played. I had only one major problem with it. If you watch the ending credits, the Earps and Holiday march down the roads so much they must have taken 3 laps around Tombstone! McLaury: Well, at least they got to say more than one sentence in this one. But they were still shadowy figures in the wake of Ike. Legend: This was a very good attempt at delivering a more factual version of the Tombstone story. Hopefully, Hollywood will get the hint someday. Tombstone Tidbit: In this version, Sherman McMasters is killed by the cowboys. This would have to be based on one of the Will McLaury letters mentioning the death of McMasters. This theory is contradicted by Wyatt in a letter to Stuart Lake, stating that McMasters served in the Spanish-American War. Tombstone Tidbit:The actor who played Billy Claiborne is named Wyatt Earp! |
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| WYATT EARP | (1994) | |||
| Directed by Lawrence Kasdan Written by L Kasdan & Dan Gordon Jeff Fahey as Ike Clanton Rex Linn as Frank McLaury Adam Baldwin as Tom McLaury |
Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp Michael Madsen as Virgil Earp Linden Ashby as Morgan Earp |
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Overall: | +3 Branding Irons |
| Gabriel Foise as Billy Clanton Mark Harmon as Johnny Behan |
Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday Joanna Going as Jose Marcus |
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McLaury: | -2 Tombstones |
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Legend: | Buntline Special |
| Overall: z-z-z-z-z-z*... Is he dancing with wolves yet?? This movie was far too long and should have ended before Earp had gone to Tombstone. Too much time on Wyatt's early days and not enough on his time in Tombstone. That part was a lazy portrayal, the facts so jumbled that it seemed I was watching a 50's western. McLaury: Frank is loutish, balding and in his 40's. Tom is just background filler ...until he's shotgun fodder. Legend: Compared to Tombstone, which was released the same year, this movie was poorly done. I kept thinking that if I were to just watch the first tape, disregard the second, and instead then watch Tombstone, I could get a fairly good account of Wyatt's life and legend. |
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| A TENDERFOOT IN TOMBSTONE, THE PRIVATE | |||
| JOURNAL OF GEORGE WITWELL PARSONS: The Turbulent Years: 1880-82 George Witwell Parsons, Edited by Lynn R. Bailey (Western Lore Press: 1996) |
Overall: |  +5 Branding Irons |
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| "At McL's was Arizona's most famous outlaw at the present time, 'Curly Bill,' with two followers." | McLaury: | +5 Branding Irons |
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| "I will say that our present Marshal (Virgil) and said 'C Bill' shook each other warmly by the hand and hobknobbed together some time..." | Legend: | Deputy Sheriff |
| Overall: The Tombstone Bible! Looking to make his fortune in the Arizona hills, miner George Parson kept a journal on the daily life in and around Tombstone. Wonderfully biased in his opinions, but largely impartial when relating the facts about people and events. A little slow in places but otherwise excellent reading. McLaury: The McLaury's are mentioned three times by Parson: October 6, 1881; when the Earp / Behan posse chasing renegade Indians, stopped for breakfast at the McLaury's Sulphur Springs ranch. October 27, 1881, on the gunfight the day before. And on December 29, 1882, when he implicates Will McLaury in the assassination attempt on Virgil Earp. Legend: I believe this work is unique in the Tombstone genre, in that it's the only first-personal account of events as they took place. This was no money-making attempt or reminiscence 50 years after the fact. Parson's thoughts provide a priceless contribution to fact and legend of Tombstone. This book deserves top ratings. |
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| WYATT EARP, THE LIFE BEHIND THE LEGEND | |||
| Casey Terfitiller (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1997) | Overall: | +4 Branding Irons |
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| "The McLaury's were the fences of the frontier, taking 'hot' cows for resale at big profits." | McLaury: | +4 Branding Irons |
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| "What followed was one of the most improbable events in what was to be an incredible day as Ike settled in for an all-night poker game with Virgil Earp, Tom McLaury, John Behan, and an unknown player." | Legend: | Deputy Sheriff |
| Overall: A well documented biography. Excellent source documentation. Despite it's size, it kept me interested all the way through. McLaury: The usual sources for the brothers part of the story. Legend: Tefertiller does an outstanding job documenting source material. This is my first reference book in my Tombstone collection. Tombstone Tidbit: Out of the ashes of the Tombstone feud springs new conflicts. A noticeable omission from his bibliography is any book by Glenn Boyer. |
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| APACHE DAYS AND TOMBSTONE NIGHTS: | |||
| JOHN CLUM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1877-1887 John Clum, Edited by Neil B. Carmony. (High-Lonesome Books, NM, 1997) |
Overall: | +3 Branding Irons |
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| "'Pull your gun and fight, you yellow-livered skunk,' roared Wyatt (at Tom), 'or I'll break this six-shooter over your head.'" | McLaury: |  -3 Tombstones |
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| "Doc Holliday unlimbered his short-barrel shotgun and literally blew Tom to pieces." | Legend: |  Buntline Special |
| Overall:The first-hand accounts are always the best ones to read. Clum's flare for writing shows. His stories about his time as an Indian agent were very interesting. McLaury: "Yellow-livered skunk"?? Legend: Clum's greatest contribution to the Tombstone story was when he was editor of the Epitaph. Plenty of good info from the book's editor, but Clum's embellishments were glaring. |
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| WHEN ALL ROADS LED TO TOMBSTONE, | |||
| A MEMOIR BY JOHN PLESENT GRAY Edited and Annotated by W. Lane Rogers. (Tamarack Books Inc., ID. 1998) |
Overall: | +3 Branding Irons |
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| "These boys (the McLaury's) were plain, good-hearted, industrious fellows. They may have harbored passing rustlers at their ranch, but what rancher did not? And it would have been little of a man who would have turned away any traveler in that land of long trails and hard going." | McLaury: | +4 Branding Irons |
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| "The Earp Brothers-notorious gunmen came, and it was no time it seemed until Wyatt was deputy sheriff, Virgil was town marshall, and Morgan was shotgun messenger of the Wells Fargo Express." | Legend: | Deputy Sheriff |
| Overall: His father was Judge Mike Gray, leader of the Tombstone Townlot Company. His brother Dixie Lee, died with Old Man Clanton at the Guadelupe Canyon massacre. Rancher John P. Gray's memoirs provide some important accounts on the happenings in Tombstone and a wealth of information of life on the ranch in the Sulphur Spring Valley. McLaury: A positive account from a man who knew the McLaury brothers during their time at the Sulphur Spring Valley ranch. Legend: Gray shows some biased opinions, very pro-cowboy. But his first-hand account, along with excellent anotation by W. Lane Rogers, provides a sharp glimpse of Cochise County in the 1880's. |
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| INVENTING WYATT EARP, | |||
| HIS LIFE AND MANY LEGENDS Allen Barra (Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. 1998) |
Overall: | +3 Branding Irons |
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| "Ike liked faro; Tom thought the odds were better at poker." | McLaury: | +4 Branding Irons |
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| Legend: | Deputy Sheriff |
| "Last night! At OK Arena! The Tombstone Earp's vs. the Arizona (never been to Dallas) Cowboys! The Earps scored first but the Cowboys struck back fast. But then, BOO-YAH!! Holliday sends a frozen rope from shotgun formation to which Tom McLaury has no defense, while the rest of the Cowboys on the field moved like they were full of lead. Final score: Earps - 3, Cowboys - 0. A dejected Coach Behan said afterwards, 'Just can't explain it; Ike took himself out early in the game and Tom just had no arm today. Besides Morgan & Holiday were off sides on the first play!'" Just kidding. This is not an excerpt from sports columnist Allen Barra's book. Overall: This is an excellent thesis on the the evolution of Wyatt Earp as an American icon. I especially enjoyed the latter chapters concerning 20th century media's effect on the Tombstone story. McLaury: A relatively impartial look at the McLaury brother's. Solid documentation. But how did Barra know Tom liked poker over faro? Legend: Source documentation is well explained. One of the first books that try to deal with some of the current Tombstone controvercies. |
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| WYATT EARP'S THIRTEEN DEAD MEN | |||
| Ben T. Traywick (Red Marie's Bookstore, We Print It, Inc., 1998) |
Overall: | +4 Branding Irons |
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| McLaury: | +5 Branding Irons |
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| "Before one of the 'wannabes' gets excited and overcome by his own verbosity the author does not say that Wyatt Earp killed these 13 men." | Legend: | Deputy Sheriff |
| Overall: One of Tombstone Historian Ben Traywick's many expose's on 1880's Tombstone and following Wyatt through his violent life as a gambler and frontier lawman. Despite, more than likely, fitting in the "wannabe" category quite well, I found it an enjoyable and intriging book to read. McLaury: Bar none, this is my all-time favorite McLaury book because it provided a picture of my great, great gramps, Ebenezer McLaury that I had never seen before. Legend: Traywick lays all of his cards on the table in the beginning of the book and says that his theories are just that: his theories. As he wrote himself, "If I didn't believe it, I wouldn't write it!" There is no documentation supplied, but just enough to support his main thoughts. |
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The preceding reviews are my personal opinions, meant solely for entertainment. I have not received any financial assistance for creating this page. |