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November 14, 1882 Franklin Leslie kills Billy "The Kid" Claiborne On this day, the gunslinger Franklin "Buckskin" Leslie shoots the Billy "The Kid" Claiborne dead in the streets of Tombstone, Arizona. The town of Tombstone is best known as the site of the infamous shootout at the O.K. Corral. In the 1880s, however, Tombstone was home to many gunmen who never achieved the enduring fame of Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday. Franklin "Buckskin" Leslie was one of the most notorious of these largely forgotten outlaws. There are few surviving details about Leslie's early life. At different times, he claimed to have been born in both Texas and Kentucky, to have studied medicine in Europe, and to have been an army scout in the war against the Apache Indians. No evidence has ever emerged to support or conclusively deny these claims. The first historical evidence of Leslie's life emerges in 1877, when he became a scout in Arizona. A few years later, Leslie was attracted to the moneymaking opportunities of the booming mining town of Tombstone, where he opened the Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1880. That same year he killed a man named Mike Killeen during a quarrel over Killeen's wife, and he married the woman shortly thereafter. Leslie's reputation as a cold-blooded killer brought him trouble after his drinking companion and fellow gunman John Ringo was found dead in July 1882. Some Tombstone citizens, including a young friend of Ringo's named Billy "The Kid" Claiborne, were convinced that Leslie had murdered Ringo, though they could not prove it. Probably seeking vengeance and the notoriety that would come from shooting a famous gunslinger, Claiborne unwisely decided to publicly challenge Leslie, who shot him dead. The remainder of Leslie's life was equally violent and senseless. After divorcing Killeen in 1887, he took up with a Tombstone prostitute, whom he murdered several years later during a drunken rage. Even by the loose standards of frontier law in Tombstone, the murder of an unarmed woman was unacceptable, and Leslie served nearly 10 years in prison before he was paroled in 1896. After his release, he married again and worked a variety of odd jobs around the West. He reportedly made a small fortune in the gold fields of the Klondike region before he disappeared forever from the historical record.
William Floyd "Billy"
Clayborne Can the actions of one short period of time define how one man is perceived throughout history? The answer is "yes" for a man named Billy Claiborne. A mere thirty seconds during the infamous shootout near the Ok Corral have branded Billy with such labels as coward, liar, rustler, and outlaw. Do these terms accurately describe him? Just exactly who and was Arizona's "Billy the Kid?" William Floyd Claiborne was born on October 21, 1880 in either Mississippi (1) or Alabama (2). While he was still young his family most likely packed up and moved to Texas. He’s known to have had at least one sibling named Norman Francis. Growing up in the post-Civil War atmosphere prevalent at the time, the antagonism caused by the influx of northern carpetbaggers in an area of southern ranchers couldn’t help but have an influence on young Billy. Billy left home as a teenager to work as a wrangler for his uncle on a cattle drive. It was at this time that he was introduced to John Slaughter, whose family might have known the Claibornes back in his home state of Louisiana. Slaughter decided to hire Billy for his upcoming drive from the Texas Panhandle to the San Pedro Valley in the Arizona Territory. When the drive pulled out Billy, who was just eighteen, once again left home but this time never to return. Other hands who road out with Slaughter were Billy Grimes, John Swain (Sweeny), Jeff Lewis, Tad Roland, and Tom Cochran, who later became involved in the Lincoln County War (3). (A little aside never mentioned in the article: The Claiborne family of Louisiana counts among its members a former governor named William Charles Cole Claiborne. When Louisiana became a state he was appointed as Governor of the Orleans territory and served from 1804-1812. In 1812 he was elected Governor of Louisiana and served until 1816 when he was elected to the US Senate. He died in office in 1817 after only serving a few months in the Senate.) Billy, when he’d been hired on as a cowhand and remuda rider, soon gained a reputation as a tenacious, steady, and dependable worker. Each cowboy had a saddle string (mounts) made up of seven to ten head, with each cowboy using three fresh mounts a day including the night riders. Depending on how many cowboys were on the cattle drive, there could be up to three hundred horses in the remuda, which was the responsibility of the horse wrangler. His job included letting the horses graze, keeping them watered, and helping the cowboys with a new mount. Every morning the remuda had to be fresh and available for whenever they were needed. In order to accomplish this, the remuda riders might have to forgo sleep and meals, spending some very long days in the saddle.(4) Slaughter himself was impressed with Billy’s attitude and work ethic. John Slaughter went on to be Sheriff of Cochise County, was one of those who dealt with the Apache trouble in the territory, helped found the first bank of Douglas, and even served in the state legislature.(5) In later years he and his wife Viola would remember him fondly. Authors such as Carl W. Brienan, Zachary Strong, and Walter Noble Burns all mentioned that it was Billy’s drinking buddies, specifically Curly Bill according to Strong, who were the ones to name him “The Kid”. Those authors all jumped to the conclusion that Billy then tried to live up to the legend of William “Billy the Kid” Bonney.(6) In fact, it was the other hands on the cattle drive who nicknamed the feisty red head, “The Kid” because at the start of the drive he was only about four feet tall. Eventually he shot up to a height of around six feet but the name stuck for the rest of his life.(7) According to Viola Slaughter, Billy saved John’s life during the cattle drive when a mean bull dropped John’s horse. In a frenzy to escape, the horse threw Slaughter. Afoot, John was about to be charged by the maddened steer when Billy rode right in front of him, made a flying tackle from his horse and grabbed the bull by the horns, twisting and forcing it to the ground.(8) In 1879, when Billy was just eighteen, Slaughter’s second drive to the Arizona Territory arrived in the San Pedro Valley. Slaughter had taken over one that had been started out of Texas by his brother also named Billy. Several problems developed along the way such as swimming cattle across the Rio Grande during one of the worst floods experienced in that area, a drive of about ninety miles without water and cattle getting caught in a New Mexico snowstorm.(9) Slaughter purchased a ranch on the San Pedro close to his father-in-law Amazon Howell who had a ranch near Charleston. Slaughter also opened a butcher shop in the town. Billy decided he liked the area and settled down to live, first working for Slaughter and then moving on to mining operations. Perhaps it was just a matter of economics since a top cowhand made about thirty dollars a month whereas a mineworker could make from two to four dollars a day. Regardless, Billy was young with a restless spirit that had him changing jobs fairly frequently. Some ties were still binding and Billy never strayed far from Slaughter, whom he idolized, and his ranching operations. In 1880 Billy started working for Dick Gird, a friend of John Slaughter’s, at the Tombstone Mining and Milling Company in Millville. He started out as a rock crusher working his way up to assistant amalgamator by June and eventually snagging a higher paying job as smelter operator.(10) Later that fall Billy was employed as a waiter at one of Tom Thorton’s hotels in either Tucson or Gayleville. Early the next year his wandering took him to Globe where he worked hauling supplies for one of the outfits in the area. However, the San Pedro Valley called to him and he returned for another stint working for Gird. The year 1881 also found Billy working as a buggy (slag) driver at the Neptune Mining Company, one of two mines operating in the vicinity of Bisbee and Hereford. The owner was Col. (honorary title) William Herring who would later be one of the attorneys defending Wyatt Earp after the OK Corral incident. The smelter was located a little to the west of Bisbee in Hereford near the foot of the Sacrament Mountain. It was here Billy worked as an amalgamator (13) (one who works with the process of separating precious metals from ores using mercury). On either side of the banks of the San Pedro stood the twin towns of Charleston and Millville. It was to Charleston that Billy would go to let off steam, drinking with his friends in the saloons and staying at Phin Clanton’s house in town. (11) Charleston was a mill worker/blue collar type of town where a man like Billy would have felt move comfortable than around the high stakes, white collar types in Tombstone. It was a more relaxed atmosphere and people were much less likely to be collared by the law for being drunk and disorderly. (12) Even after Billy moved to Hereford in 1881, he still found time for Charleston and its many attractions.
October 1, 1881, was a day that changed Billy’s life. He arrived in
Charleston with the idea of
Two
previously published articles speculated on the reasons Zachary
Strong, Walter Noble Burns, and Carl Breihan believed Hickey was
killed over a card came because Hickey was a card-shark (card sharp
is the 19th century term).(15) Lee Thomas speculated that Hickey was
killed because he begged Billy to let him buy him a drink of Old
Crow when Billy only drank Territory Pass.(16) Thomas also stated
that Billy had killed three men in three months. As to the last,
Thomas was clearly misinformed, as James Hickey is the only man
Billy is known to have killed. Testimony from the inquest clearly
shows that Hickey had been following Billy, with the Kid repeatedly
telling him to go away. Harry Queen stated that Hickey had come into
his saloon watching a game of cards and then decided to leave, which
happened to be the exact same time Billy entered the saloon. Upon
seeing Hickey, Billy immediately turned to leave when Hickey said he
would like to see any “Prick eating Son of a Bitch” standing in
front of him with Billy replying, “Don’t follow me. You have been
following me long enough and I won’t stand it any longer. If you
follow me any longer I will kill you.”(17) Billy was walking
backwards telling Hickey to stay away from him. Exiting the saloon,
Billy drew his pistol while repeatedly warning Hickey to stay back.
This was witnessed by James Cowan, who was sitting near the doorway
of Richards salon.(18) Apparently the sight of Billy’s pistol wasn’t
enough to deter Hickey, who had a six-shooter of his own in his
hand; instead he kept advancing with the end result being his
death.(19) The gunfight didn’t just erupt overnight; it had been brewing for quite some time. The so-called best citizens of Tombstone looked down their noses at the cowboys for a variety of reasons. Many equated the word cowboy with rustler. Both groups were typically Texas cowhands who’d migrated west to an area of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The cowboys, rustlers, and small ranchers shared a common background, including politics and a hatred of the Mexicans that could be traced back to the liberation of Texas and the trouble in the Nueces Strip. To many townsfolk, those who chose to live outside the community, being from the south and a Democrat automatically made a man and thus a rustler. As far as they were concerned, the fact that the small ranchers offered hospitality to the rustlers and sometimes dealt in stolen beef was proof enough of their alliances. The good folk of the town of Tombstone didn’t bother to consider that the demand for beef may have motivated the ranchers and that the protection of their own stock might have been another determining factor. Also the two citizens increasingly looked outside themselves and their town for the source of violence. The cowboys, rustlers, and small ranchers were a convenient target. The of Marshal Fred White at the hands of Curly Bill helped to heat things up and focus was centered square on the cowboys. The people demanded more from law enforcement but, with the bickering between the county sheriff’s office and the Earps, the results were less than promising. The Earp’s strict, rather bullying ways didn’t sit well with some people. Although the Earps worked hard to uphold the law as they interpreted it, their arrests of cowboy associates, added to their dealings with local ranchers such as the McLaurys and the Clantons, led to a situation that was close to the boiling point by October 25th. Ike Clanton’s bravado and accusations that night and the next morning were like applying a match to dry timber.
As
stated, Billy was still in town awaiting an indictment on murder
charges. Per Tombstone town law, Billy had checked his arms at
Kellogg’s saloon upon his arrival the day before.25 There’s no
evidence that Billy obtained a gun any time on the day of the
gunfight. On October 26th Billy decided to stop off and have a few
beers. It was a cold, windy day, and perhaps they were a way of
warming him up. Somehow he heard about Ike’s altercation with the
Earps and went looking for him. He caught up with Ike and took him
to Dr. Gillingham’s office to have his wound dressed. Afterward,
Billy wandered up Fourth Street where he spotted Billy Clanton and
Frank McLaury. It was apparent they’d already heard what had
happened to their brothers. Billy Clanton asked where Ike was and,
after hear the latest the youngest Clanton, said, “I want him to go
out home. I did not come to fight and no one wants to fight me.” Behan asked how many they were. Billy Claiborne said he wasn’t one of the party and just wanted the others to leave town and the boys agreed with his statement. While Behan talked to Ike, Tom, and Frank, the two Billy’s continued their conversation consequently not hearing what Behan told the others. After about fifteen minutes, Behan walked away and Billy Clanton joined his brother.
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relaxing and having a drink. That,
however, wasn’t to be. For three days a drunken blacksmith
apprentice named James Hickey, who worked for Jimmy Carr, had
terrorized the town. When Billy arrived Hickey made him the object
of his attention. Around 2:00 pm Hickey began following him from
saloon to saloon offering to buy Billy a drink, but Billy kept
turning the offers down. After awhile Billy got fed up and tried a
different tact by offering Hickey a drink. Apparently a drink wasn’t
exactly what Hickey had in mind as he turned Billy’s offer down.
They began to exit towards Ben Woods’ place when the talk became
rather argumentative with Hickey taunting Billy about his nickname
and insulting his manhood. Finally after Hickey pulled a gun and
stepped forward, it became too much for Billy, who shot Hickey in
the head killing him instantly.