Tombstone Epitaph

06/02/2026

June 2, 1881. Wyatt Earp approaches Cowboy Ike Clanton with a proposal. If Clanton will betray the men who tried to rob the Benson stage--and allow Earp to make the arrest--Wyatt will give Ike the $3600 reward.

Wyatt hopes the capture will catapult him into the sheriff's office. But it all falls apart when the three suspects are killed that summer.

Ike accuses Wyatt of spilling the beans about the deal--endangering Clanton with his fellow Cowboys. Earp denies it. But it's another factor in the growing rift between the Earps/Holliday and the Cowboys. Nearly five months later, the guns will go off in the street fight.

06/01/2026

May 10, 1869. A golden spike is driven into the ground at Promontory Point, Utah--celebrating the finish of the first intercontinental railroad. Or was it?

We'll answer that question in the June 2026 Tombstone Epitaph.

Also--a profile of Jack Stwart, saloon man and deputy sheriff in Cochise County. And George Hindman, the Lincoln County lawman gunned down by Billy the Kid.

tombstoneepitaph.com

05/30/2026

Be sure to check out Mike Mayberry's latest podcast with John Boessenecker as they discuss the one and only Pearl Hart...

Podcast Episode · CochiseCounty_Travels - Wild West History Podcast · October 31, 2021 · 50m

05/30/2026

May 30, 1899. Pearl Hart and Joe Boot hold up a stage about 30 miles southeast of Globe, Arizona. They get more than $400--money Pearl plans to use to visit her dying mother in Kansas. But the pair are arrested less than a week later; Pearl's mom lives another 16 years.

Hart is pardoned after about 2 1/2 years in the Yuma prison. She's famous--photos of her, both in cowboy gear and dresses--have been circulated around the world. Legends and myths are created, and they last for nearly 120 years.

But then researcher and author John Boessenecker comes out with his book Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West's Most Notorious Woman Bandit. Get it--it is a must read.

05/28/2026

The Epitaph's own James B. Mills just appeared live on the Great American Western podcast to talk Billy the Kid and New Mexico frontier history...

05/27/2026

May 26, 1853. John Wesley Hardin is born near Bonham, Texas. Over the next two decades, he builds a big reputation as a shootist.

On his 21st birthday--May 26, 1874--he and friends and kin are celebrating in Comanche, Texas. Brown County Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb shows up. According to Hardin, the lawman tries to shoot him in the back; Hardin turns and kills him. And Texas turns against one of its most noted sons.

05/22/2026

May 22, 1868. Around a dozen men stop a train at a water station at Marshfield, IN. They break into the express car and come away with $97,000--a huge amount for the time.
Leader Frank Reno and his men get away with it, but only for a time. In the next seven months, vigilantes will lynch 11 members of the Reno Gang. The Marshfield robbery money is never recovered.

05/12/2026

The new Sitting Bull documentary that recently arrived on Netflix is making some waves...

05/08/2026

A shoutout from the "hottie historian"...

May’s Tombstone Epitaph is out. 😎 Good job to Bob Sobba for getting me to say out loud: “What?! No!” at the part in the Harry Orchard article when a certain verdict was issued. Before, I knew nothing. Now, I think he was The Man Too Dangerous To Die. 🤯 Also in this issue, there’s a police report about police reports, an effort to make windmills seem cool, and Erik Wright (in his element) digs into stories of old cowboy archaeologists.🦖🦬
As usual, James B. Mills curates an old writing and lets us muse again (for old time’s sake, I suppose). This issue’s letter about LDS no-gooders was a speed read until I saw the sign off line: Tchoupitoulas. How very, very intriguing. 🧐 Though I usually roll my eyes at an interview re-print, I found Robert DeArment’s final words on Bat Masterson’s lunch and ignored material to be absolute gems. Five stars. I’d subscribe if I didn’t already. ⭐️📰⭐️ Seriously - this is Wild West lit candy.

05/05/2026

May 5, 1865. About a dozen men derail and hold up an Ohio and Mississippi train at North Bend, Ohio. They rob the passengers and the express safe, but it's unclear just how much money they get. As soon as they're finished, they run down to the Ohio River and cross over into Kentucky using the same skiffs that had brought them to the holdup site.

An army unit is dispatched to go after them. Reportedly, the commanding officer is drunk and they don't even cross the Ohio before turning back. A posse does go out the next day, following a trail of bottles and money.

But the outlaws are never identified or captured. And while it's likely they were ex-Confederate soldiers, this is considered to be the first peace-time train stickup in US history