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The Clanton Gang aka The Cowboys

Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton, on view at the Ritter and Ream Funeral Parlor.
A large sign read: "MURDERED IN THE STREETS OF TOMBSTONE".

The Cowboys numbered up to 300 members. They were rustlers and outlaws around Tombstone, Arizona. The local mining companies wanted The Cowboys out of town as they thought them ‘bad for business’. The Clanton gang had "treed” the town. Firing their weapons recklessly in any and all directions, the gunmen who led the violence were Curly Bill, Tom and Frank McLaury, Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank Patterson, and Pony Deal.

Curly Bill and his outlaw cronies had two favorite hangouts ~~ Galeyville on the eastern slopes of the Chiricahua Mountains, and Charleston on the San Pedro River. Charleston, a mill town, had about 800 residents and the only law was "Justice Jim” Burnett. This worthy normally ran his office strictly for personal profit and seldom concerned himself with the Cowboys.

One Sunday, Reverend John Addison came down from Tombstone to hold services in Charleston. Ike Clanton, Curly Bill, and a few others of their ilk decided they were in dire need of some religion and showed up at the service. The moment those gun~slung desperadoes appeared most of the congregation decided that they had urgent business elsewhere. Bravely, the sky~pilot continued his sermon, omitting no detail of the awesome punishment reserved in Hell for thieves and murderers. At the end, Curly Bill brandished his weapon and demanded a hymn. The serenade was well appreciated by the gunmen and they kept him singing for over an hour. Then, those same badmen filled the collection plate to overflowing with money and solemnly and quietly departed. Reverend Addison never returned to Charleston again. Galeyville, the other outlaw hangout, had begun as a silver camp up in Turkey Creek Canyon. The silver did not last. It became a ghost town by the end of 1882, inhabited, for the most part, by outlaws.

Curly Bill learned from an informant below the border that a pack mule train of silver smugglers would be starting up from Mexico in July, 1881. The vaqueros would be moving through Skeleton Canyon, winding through the wild and desolate Peloncillo Mountains. They would come through San Luis Pass into the Animas range, across the Animas valley to San Simon, to the San Pedro, and over into the Santa Cruz Valley. In Tucson the smugglers would exchange their ‘dobe dollars for contraband merchandise to take back to Mexico. "Skeleton Canyon” was so called because of the many men and animals who had been killed there, and their bones left to bleach in the sun.

Smugglers led a line of small Andalusian mules through the canyon, never thinking that death lay in wait. Without warning, hidden rifles spouted flame and death from the rocks. The Mexicans had no chance. Heavily loaded though they were, the tiny mules stampeded. The killers raced after them and shot them down. Nine dead Mexicans were left lying at the so-called "Devil’s Kitchen” area of Skeleton Canyon. The ambushers gathered at Cave Creek and divided $4,000 in Mexican silver. Most of it was spent on women and whiskey in a saloons of Galeyville and Charleston. John Ringo and Joe Hill won the rest playing poker. The Mexican government lodged a formal protest to the United States concerning the nine dead Mexican citizens and the theft of goods and money, but no action was taken. John Ringo said he was present at the ambush along with the Clantons; "Old Man”, Ike and Billy; Frank and Tom McLaury, Jim Hughes; Rattlesnake Bill; Joe Hill; Charlie Snow; Jake Guage; and Charlie Thomas.

William F. Claiborne ("Billy the Kid")

Billy the Kid Claiborne should not be confused with Billy the Kid of Lincoln County fame. Claiborne drifted into Arizona as a teenager, arriving in Tombstone at the beginning of the mining boom. He hooked on as a ranch hand with John Slaughter's outfit, and because he was so tiny of stature, he was nicknamed "the Kid" by the crew. He later began working as a driver for a mining company and, it was rumored, became linked with the Clanton-McLaury gang. He was involved in a couple of gunfights, and he was killed by Buckskin Frank Leslie in 1882.

Joseph Isaac Clanton ("Ike")

Ike's father, N. H. Clanton, took his family from California to a cattle ranch near Fort Thomas, Arizona. He sold out in 1877 and moved one hundred miles south to another spread near Tombstone. For a time Ike and his brother Phineas ran a freight line, but mainly they were involved in "Old Man" Clanton's ranching, rustling, and stage robbing activities.

When the old man died, Ike took over the "ring" at the height of a growing feud with the Earp brothers. (Rumor and Ike's testimony after the O.K. Corral gunfight implicated the Earp brothers in various shady dealings.) On October 25 Ike and Tom McLaury drove into Tombstone to buy supplies. That night, while eating in a saloon, Ike was approached by Doc Holliday, who was backed by Virgil, Warren, and Wyatt Earp. Holliday cursed Clanton and challenged him to a fight, but Ike left the premises, pointing out that he was unarmed. Later, after a poker game with four other men, including City Marshal Virgil Earp, Ike was cursed again and pistol whipped by the lawman.

After the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Ike was probably instrumental in the retribution ambushes of Virgil and Morgan Earp. Ike continued his illegal activities until he was killed by a deputy sheriff in 1887.

William Clanton

N. H. ("Old Man") Clanton had been attracted to California by the gold rush, but eventually he led his family into Arizona. Assisted by his three sons, of whom Billy was the youngest, he operated a ranch one hundred miles north of Tombstone which he sold in 1877. He then located another ranch in the Tombstone area and was closely aided by Billy, whose older brothers, Ike and Phineas, operated a freight line.

Along with two other local ranchers, the McLaury brothers, the Clantons began raiding cattle herds in Mexico and selling them to Arizona ranchers. This lucrative racket attracted such outlaws as Curly Bill Brocius, Johnny Ringo, Buckskin Frank Leslie, Bill Leonard, Jim Crane, Harry the Kid, Billy Claiborne, and Frank Stilwell, who each dabbled in other forms of robbery and became involved in shooting scrapes from time to time.

The Clanton faction eventually came in conflict with the Earp brothers, who held various law enforcement offices in and around Tombstone and who were accused by their detractors of being just as guilty of rustling and stage robbery as the Clantons. The Earp-Clanton feud erupted violently at the O.K. Corral, and there Billy Clanton, through his death, attained his one claim to fame.

Frank McLaury

A native of Iowa, McLaury and his brother Tom came to Arizona in the late 1870's. They acquired two ranches in southern Arizona and became connected with the Clanton cattle rustling ring. Rumor suggested that the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday were associated with the Clanton-McLaury faction, but that trouble erupted between the groups over a gambling quarrel or over heated words between Doc Holliday and Frank McLaury about the quality of food in Nellie Cashman's Russ House. Mrs. Virgil Earp even hinted that the origins of the feud could be traced to a midnight rendezvous between Hattie Earp, James Earp's sixteen-year-old stepdaughter, and one of the McLaury brothers.

Whatever the cause, the growing dispute came to a head on October 25, 1881, when Tom McLaury and Ike Clanton drove a wagon into Tombstone to pick up supplies. That night and the next morning the Earp brothers and Holliday cursed and bullied the pair, continually taunting them to fight. Before noon Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury rode into town, and a short time later Frank emerged from a store to see Wyatt Earp pulling his horse by the bit. "Take your hands off my horse!" snapped McLaury. "Keep him off the sidewalk," demanded Earp piously, pulling the animal into the street. "It's against the city ordinance." McLaury, cursing under his breath, rode to the O.K. Corral and tied his horse.

After making several trips to nearby stores, Frank was approached by Sheriff John Behan, who was attempting to head off trouble by trying to disarm everyone. McLaury refused to surrender his six-gun, saying that he intended to cause no trouble. Behan walked along with Frank to the O.K. Corral, still trying to persuade him to turn over his weapon. Behan then asked the entire Clanton party to give up their guns, but Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury protested that they were unarmed, and Frank vehemently declined again. Then the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday appeared, and Behan fruitlessly tried to intervene between the two groups. Both McLaury brothers, along with Billy Clanton, were killed in the gunfight that followed.

Thomas McLaury

Tom McLaury and his older brother Frank drifted into southern Arizona in the late 1870's and began to build up a ranching enterprise. While Tom improved their spread near Tombstone, Frank hired out to neighboring ranchers to raise money, and in so doing was introduced to the Clanton family.

The Clantons and the McLaurys soon were engaged in widespread rustling activities, and eventually they came into conflict with a faction led by the Earp brothers of Tombstone. The McLaury brothers testified against a key member of the Earp group, Doc Holliday, in connection with a stage robbery in March, 1881, in which two men were killed. Although the tubercular dentist was acquitted, the McLaurys had thus earned the vengeful resentment of the Earps in general and Holliday in particular.

On October 25, 1881, Tom McLaury and Ike Clanton went into Tombstone to buy supplies. That night Clanton was roughed up by Holliday and the Earps, and the next morning Wyatt Earp approached Tom on the street, and harsh words were exchanged. Wyatt drew his foot-long Buntline Special and challenged Tom to fight. Tom refused, and Wyatt slapped him with his left hand, then clubbed him on the head with his gun, knocking him down.

Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton rode into town to help their brothers, but Tom decided he wanted no further run-ins, and early that afternoon he turned over his revolver and gun belt to Andy Mehan, a local saloon keeper. About an hour later the Clantons and McLaurys were asked by Sheriff John Behan to surrender their guns, and Tom pointed out that he was unarmed. Then the Earps and Doc Holliday approached.

Bill O'Neal. Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters Norman OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.

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