... Hi Bruce, back in December you had posted a question regarding the witnesses that were to have been presented in a Hearing against Holliday regarding the Benson stage debacle.

Bartholomew's info indicated the witnesses were William Porterfield (a miner), Frank Mitchel and J.S. Robinson. You were asking if anyone knew anything about them and you may already have found your answer.

There seems to be two accounts; the one you referred to which was a Hearing and was projected by John Behan and these were his witnesses. The other account was the one stated by Frank Vaughn, who claimed there was a subpoena and the witnesses were the McLaury brothers, John Slaughter, possibly Billy Clanton and one or two others.

Vaughn's account seems more accurate as he describes witnesses that were at Drew's that evening and so they claimed to hear the rifle shot and see Holliday ride away quickly though they did not claim to see him actually do the shooting.

The subpoena that Vaughn refers to does exist BUT does not have his three witness names on it though Behan's name is there. I have a copy buried somewhere and can't promise to find it as I have given up writing my unpopular books and packed everything away.

The miner, Porterfield, I could not find anywhere. Mitchel was a lawyer involved in the Defense in the Earp Hearing though we never know if he had any input in the thing. J.S. Robinson becomes more interesting. He was a very prominent corporate lawyer working for the Southern Pacific railroad.

The thing that raises my suspicious nature is that in both cases there was claimed testimony of prominent people of strong reputations. Why was the case never developed? Smells of political intrigue to me. Could the Earp group really have that much influence against the words of men like Slaughter, Vaughn, Robinson, and so on? Especially against such an unlikable and unpopular character like Holliday?

But there is some support for my idea that these lawyers, including Goodrich & Co., were all corporate lawyers and had little experience regarding criminal law cases, whereas Fitch came from back east and had some experience along changing law practice. He was rather a performer to me, but he might have out-danced the Prosecution because that should have been a slam-dunk case...in MY opinion!