On the night of December 28, 1881, City Marshal Virgil Earp was ambushed and hit with buckshot crossing the intersection of Fifth and Allen Streets in Tombstone. His left arm was shattered and doctors had to saw off his elbow, and up his arm, sans elbow, so that his arm hung limp without a bone connection. The tough old lawman got around fine. In fact, in 1887 Virgil joined a Tombstone posse looking for train robbers. He freaked out a Mexican tracker when an early morning gallop showcased Virgil’s lack of an elbow joint, his arm flailing in all directions. Everyone had a good laugh about that one.
September 2015
In This Issue:
More In This Issue
- Younger Brothers – The Lost Interviews
- The First Sheriff of Maricopa County
- A Hardcase Confederate Soldier
- Licks and Slicks
- Tunstall Ambushed
- Salting the Mines
- The Last Train Holdup in Oklahoma
- She Dared to Wear Pants!
- Sending Geronimo Off With a Song
- A Dream Turned Ray Simpson Into a Hero
- No Hangin’ Tree ’round These Parts
- Butch and Sundance Go to the Movies
- A Serious Hualapai Insult
- Allen English
- Kit Carson Couldn’t Live up to the Legend
- Virgil’s Arm Flapping in the Breeze
- Chinatown’s Angry Angel
- The Great Escape
- Matt Kimes, Oklahoma Outlaw
- A Texas-sized Custody Battle
- Bill Standifer vs Pink Higgins
- The “Hang ’em High” Judge
- Flora Quick aka Tom King
- Wild Bill and the Englishman
- Big Alice vs Etta Clark
- Drew Barrymore’s Tie to the Old West
- Taylor’s Slicked Up ’73s
- Claw-Finger Kitty Meets Her Fate
- Doc Holliday, the True Story
- Southwest Crusader
- Remington’s Kodak Moments
- Harvey Girls in Dodge City
- Goodnight, Old Shakespeare
- Six-Shooters in the Air
- Ben Johnson Goes to Hollywood
- Bat Masterson’s Cane
- Val Kilmer As Wyatt Earp?
- Burying the Hatchet
- Abducted!
- “End of the Trail” Centennial Celebration
- Descended from Gunmen
- The Gunfight at the O.K. Barn?
- Red Cloud Remembered
- A Bank Robbery Gone Wrong
- Workin’ on the Railroad
- Saving a Piece of True West
- World’s Most Gorgeous Saddle
- The Top 10 Western Museums of 2015
- The Scandalous Boomtown Temptress
- Dust-Covered Foot Soldiers
- Fighting to Cross an Unknown America
- Rick Wallner
- What became of Hickok’s weapons?
- “The Severed Heads Campaign” (March 2015) was a most interesting story. Did some frontier bounty hunters also collect heads?
- What kind of rifle was Bull Harris using in 1966’s El Dorado?
- What’s the story behind the phrase “There’s gold in them thar hills?”
- What was life like for people living in “soddies?”
- Rough Drafts 9/15
- Rough Drafts 8/15
- California Raisins
- Museums We Love
- Bronco: Final Season
- Western Events for September 2015