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Revision as of 14:51, 22 April 2006 by Lastexit (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Earp Vendetta Ride was a three-week lawless clash between personal enemies and law enforcement parties with different juridictions in the Arizona Territory, from March 20 to April 15, 1882.
Participants in the vendetta were Wyatt and Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, and three of their associates (Sherman McMasters, Turkey Creek Jack Johnson and Texas Jack Vermillion). The vendetta killing grew immediately out of the assassination of U.S. deputy marshal Morgan Earp in a Tombstone billiard parlor on March 18, 1882. The vendetta ride was variously known in newspapers which reported it at the time as the Earp Vendetta or Arizona War. During the ride, the Earp federal "posse" was pursued by a sheriff's posse consisting of Cochise County sheriff Johnny Behan, deputies Fin Clanton, Johnny Ringo and about 20 other Arizona "Cowboys." The two posses never made contact. All known shootings during the vendetta occurred March 20-24. The ride ended April 15 as the Earps and associates rode east, which was the shortest way out of the southeast Arizona Territory, into Silver Springs. Here they would sell their horses and travel by train through New Mexico Territory, then on to Colorado.
The Earp vendetta ride is a late and rare example of a complete failure of law enforcement on the Old West frontier, and as such is considered both tragic and farcical by historians. During the ride, U.S. Deputy Marshal Wyatt Earp ostensibly led a federal posse with a warrant for "Curly Bill" (William Brocius). However, the Earp posse killed at least four men (including Brocius) and took no prisoners. At the same time, the opposing sheriff's posse, headed by Behan, consisted of many known rustlers and local outlaws, while deliberately failing to include Pima County Sheriff Bob Paul, the sheriff with jurisdiction for the Tucson killing for which the sheriff's posse sought Wyatt Earp and his compadres. The Behan posse spectacularly failed to engage the much smaller Earp posse. It did, however, end up charging Cochise County a great deal of money ($2,593.65 in 1882, or about $49,500 in 2005 dollars).