Cavalcade of Ask The Marshall

Cavalcade of Ask The Marshall

Lessons I have learned during more than a quarter century of “Ask the Marshall.”

 

What kind of poker was  Wild Bill Hickok playing
at the time he was shot?

James Summerlin
Lawrenceville, GA

Nobody seems to know what particular poker game they were playing at the Number 10 Saloon in Deadwood that day.

Joe Rosa, Hickok’s late biographer, never saw it written anywhere. The late Bob DeArment, author of Knights of the Green Cloth, said, “I’ve never seen a reference to the particular poker game Bill was playing at the time, and I don’t think anyone else has either. From things I have read by students of poker history, five-card stud and draw were the games played in the West.” So it may have been one of those. I doubt if anyone thought it was very important at the time.

 

What was the truth behind the truth behind the OK Corral shootout?

Alexander Durvin, Jr.
Washington, MD

Truth is in the eyes of the beholder. Most historians (and the court at that time) agree that Virgil Earp and his deputies were acting in the line of duty. Ike Clanton had made death threats on several occasions. The “Cow-boy” element in Cochise County, including the Clantons and McLaurys, had been involved with rustlers, either in stealing cattle or dealing in stolen livestock. These are proven facts.

Some months before the confrontation, Wyatt Earp and Ike Clanton entered into a tentative, secret agreement. Ike would rat out some of his Cow-boy cohorts who had pulled off a stage robbery. Wyatt would make the arrests, then give Ike the reward money. Earp hoped this would enhance his chances of being elected sheriff. But Ike became paranoid, afraid that Earp would reveal the secret. The deal fell through, with bad feelings on both sides.

The night before the gunfight, Ike had been making threats against the Earps and Holliday. He continued the morning of October 26. The Earps took that seriously.

And it’s also true that several of the Cow-boys—including the McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton—were armed at about 3 p.m., when they lingered in the empty lot behind the OK Corral. They may have been preparing to leave town, but they took too much time. The lawmen went to disarm them.

It’s unclear who fired the first shot(s). But after 30 seconds and 30 bullets, three Cow-boys were dead. Three of the lawmen were wounded. Ironically, Ike Clanton, whose words and actions facilitated the battle, ran away while the guns were going off and was unhurt.

Old West books indicate that there were two main reasons why cattle didn’t eat on pastures where sheep had passed: one, because sheep ate the grass to the roots, leaving nothing of it to the cows; two, that the scent of the sheep kept cattle away and prevented the cows from eating any grass. Which one is the right one? Can both be true statements?

Mario Raciti
Aci Catena, Sicily, Italy

Today it’s common to see cattle grazing with sheep flocks nearby, but a century ago that wasn’t thought possible. Historically, cattlemen believed that sheep had a gland between their hooves that exuded a substance that sterilized the ground. They also believed that sheep, with their sharply pointed hooves, cut the range grasses and made the ground stink so the cattle wouldn’t use it. Cattlemen also believed that sheep grazed the grass so close to the ground that there was nothing left for grazing.

Cattle ranchers eventually came to realize that sheep and cattle could share the grazing ranges and there were advantages to raising them. They could be sheared once a year. There is always a market for wool. But for some ranchers, the old ideas still hold sway.

Who was the gunfighter Matt Dillon shot at the opening scene
of Gunsmoke?

James Mendez
Red Rock, AZ

Arvo Ojala, an expert on guns and the quick draw, was the one gunned down during the black-and-white days. Ojala said the royalties paid for several new Cadillacs, so the money was good while it lasted.

In Season 12, 1966-1967, Gunsmoke went to color. Blackie Storm became the man in black who faced off against Matt Dillon every Saturday night. Blackie, whose real name was Kenneth Stevens, was an ex-rodeo cowboy who was “discovered” by Robert Mitchum while filming The Lusty Men. Blackie, who stood 5 feet 7 inches, used to say, “I had a heck of a time slowing my draw so Arness, who stood six feet seven, could gun me down.”