...Wayne, I think our discussion has been really worthwhile from my side and I've learned some stuff I had considered but from a slightly different angle. I am not a historian; I tend to examine things as though I am 'the man on the street,' much more elementary.

But I believe, as I have said numerous times, you can read between the lines without distorting the record. I think about what life was like in a burgeoning frontier town exploding from a rough mining camp to a more commercial Victorian little city spreading its wings, so to speak.

I see the Earps as crude thugs and pimps, too lazy to really reach out and better themselves except by means of easy money like prostitution and gambling and trying to connect with the 'best men' in town. They made those kind of friends to some degree and it cost both sides a price. Users tend to continue to be users.

The Earps cam from an even cruder background where their ideas of a cowboy was trouble on the hoof after five months of Hell on horseback. Money was to be made keeping those guys in line for a short period of time but really went nowhere. Hence the constant moving on.

They could not see the difference between cowboys fresh off the trail and the hard working ranchers trying to establish some kind of future. The frontier homesteading bred hard men, survivors; not criminals. As I have made mention before, there were no food stamps, no welfare, and no government handouts. Eating regular became an economic challenge one did not find at the gaming tables. Long ropes were common but rarely as a criminal enterprise.

Were there bad actors in the southeastern counties, saddle tramps moving in and out looking for easier opportunities? Of course, but the record shows that the men the Earps killed were not these. The story goes deeper, I am sure, and the Earps had never changed their colours.

WE may never know the provable reason for the attack on the ranchers that day, but the Earps got away with murder because of their connections to ambitious men who wanted to keep the lid on the future developments of Tombstone.

That's my view of the whole thing. The first ranch I lived on with my husband was run by a man who established the land and actually lived in a cave until he could get the time from fencing off the area to control his cattle so he could build a cabin. A hard man but honest and trustworthy. I found most of them, cowboys included, as just the same. They backed up what they said or they did didn't open their mouths. I've never men people I admired more in my lifetime and I am in my mid-eighties now. I have been very fortunate.
I believe the men the Earps killed were no different!