The Pink Flamingo :: Repeating the LIberal Lies About Wyatt Earp

I was under the impression that Stop the ACLU was a reputable conservative site. Unfortunately today there is a post by someone named Warner Todd Huston, that is the most factually incorrect thing I've seen about Wyatt Earp and Tombstone since I wrote my book TRAVESTY: Frank Waters Earp Agenda Exposed debunking Frank Waters' (The Earp Brothers of Tombstone) that bastion of liberalness and basically anti-American icon who lied his way into fame, and New Age fame and alleged fortune. Frank Waters hated Wyatt Earp. He hated Stuart Lake, who basically wrote the book on how to market a product in Hollywood, paving the way for Lucas and Spielberg.

I've spent 15 years writing about and researching the life of Wyatt Earp. When I started out, I read two books, the Waters and Stuart Lake's Frontier Marshal. The man portrayed in the books is basically not the same person. I began a quest to discover who the real Wyatt Earp was. I started making a list of the people who liked and respected Wyatt Earp and those who detested him. I learned a lesson, a comment I repeat at the end of each Pink Flamingo post. You are known by the company you keep. In the end I learned that those who did not like Wyatt Earp and repeated the things Huston wrote today were, without exception (save for Frank Waters) all connected to the outlaw element in and around Cochise County.

"...Cosmatos had all the cowboys wearing a red sash around their waist because, he claimed, this sash was an “allegory” to today’s “gang colors” and he was trying to draw a parallel between today’s violent drug gangs and the cowboys that faced the Earps in 1881.

It was all foolishness, of course. The so-called Cowboy “gang” that really faced the Earps in 1881 was hardly anything like a gang, even as gangs existed then, much less any sort of allegory to the sort of violent street gangs that infests our society today. Cosmatos even had several historical western figures involved in the Tombstone fight that had no role at all in the real event. Figures such as Curly Bill Brocius and Johnny Ringo made unnecessary appearances in Cosmatos’ film. The movie also completely ignored the fact that Wyatt Earp was a crook, card sharp and bunko artist or that Doc Holliday was likely responsible for a stage coach robbery that was blamed on the Clantons, an event that contributed to the two camps being angry at each other...."

First, I would love to know where Huston gets his facts, which are basically 100% incorrect. Second, how on earth an Huston claim to be "conservative" and "diss" Wyatt Earp the way he is. Wyatt is one of the great American heroes. Yes, he was human, but we all are.

Before I go any farther, I also want to correct a statement in comment #1, that Wyatt had a problem with gambling. He did not. Gambling was an honest profession in his day. It wasn't until the era of Prohibition that gambling became something akin to drunkerdness. Josephine, Wyatt's wife, had a serious gambling problem. I'm not sure if it was an addiction. My current thinking is she used it as a tool 'to get even' with Wyatt after a huge argument (of which there were many). There are two very interesting periods in Josie's life where she leaves Wyatt and goes off on a gambling binge. I hae reason to believe both of those periods directly follow the death of their infant children. I now have proof that they lost 2 babies in infancy.

Getting back to friends and detractors, I soon learned that Wyatt Earp's admirers included the following:

Endicott Peabody
Theodore Roosevelt
William Hearst
George Hearst
John Ford
Tom Mix
William S. Hart
Marion Michael Morrison (John Wayne)
George Parsons
John P. Clum

To dispute Wyatt Earp's importance and his role in the American Character is to give into liberal lies and hysteria. Every nation and culture has a defining moment. Ours occurred on October 26, 1881 at approximately 2:30PM in Tombstone, Arizona on Fremont Street (Highway 80) between 4th and 3rd Streets. Not only was it the final salvo in the Civil War, but it was a major statement about the forces of good v. evil, law v. order. And - contrary to what was written at Stop the ACLU, it was law and order v. the criminal element. While Curly Bill Brocius and John Ringo may not have been involved in the shootout, they were both directly responsible for the horrible injuries Virgil Earp received on December 29, 1881 and in the murder of Morgan Earp on March 17, 1882. To say the two men were not involved is to give in to every liberal lie about the poor little criminal.

I WROTE THE FOLLOWING:

Dear Mr. Huston;

I don’t know who you are or what your background in the subject of Wyatt Earp and Tombstone is, but you obviously don’t know anything about it. Let me give you a little history lesson. My credentials are brief. I’ve authored 4 books about Tombstone and or the life of Wyatt Earp. I also happen to be friends with Jeff Morey, who was the technical advisor for the movie, Tombstone. He is probably the top expert in the field, and a very good Republican, as was Wyatt Earp.

One of the books I wrote, TRAVESTY: Frank Waters’ Earp Agenda Exposed, is based on the original manuscript of The Earp Brothers of Tombstone, which appears to be the source of your completely incorrect , liberal dis-information about Wyatt Earp. It took 517 pages and 2223 footnotes to debunk the very liberal Frank Waters, and the sort of mis-information you are penning.

Let’s start with Frank Waters. He was a liberal bastion. He never told the truth, basically lying about his whole life. He had an agenda against the Earps. I spent 10 years trying to discover what it was and have come to the conclusion he was jealous of Stuart Lake’s success with Frontier Marshal. If you are using The Earp Brothers of Tombstone for your facts, you are in deep trouble. It is basically one big shinning lie, the most inaccurate of all the books written about the Earps.

Wyatt Earp was a very good guy. He was a life-long Republican. He was a Christian. In his later life, when young writers would come to talk to him about his past, he would talk to them about “The Almighty” and their relationship with Him. Not long before his death in 1929, he and Tom Mix were making a list of the things he was going to ask The Almighty when he arrived in Heaven. I have spent the last 15 years of my life obsessed with Wyatt Earp. What I can tell you is that I suspect he was undercover Secret Service. He was a very good lawman with an excellent, world-class reputation. His reputation was not even disputed until Frank Waters lied about it in his book. His detractors all, each and every one of them, can be traced directly back to The Cowboys or their associates in Cochise County. Everything you have said about him is factually incorrect.

Doc Holiday was not involved in the stage robbery that cost Bud Philpot his life. John Behan and Milt Joyce managed to get Big Nose Kate drunk. When she was drunk she wanted to fight Doc. My nascent publishing company will be publishing a biography of Big Nose Kate in the near future. There is a possibility that she was having an affair with John Ringo at the time. The moment she was sober, she recanted the story and left town. The eye-witness Frank Waters uses to continue the story is to make up words and put them on the mouth of John Slaughter, another very bad guy. Years later, his wife, Viola, admitted the person they saw on the horse that had been rented from the stable there in Charleston, was in fact, Ike Clanton – not Doc Holiday.

The Cowboys were called The Boys in Lincoln County. The group, roughly made up of up to 300 or so outlaws was the first example of organized crime in the US. Actually, I think it is the 2nd, Quantrill being the first. In fact, a few of the Cowboys, John Ringo included, had roots that go back to Quantrill. It is as if there is this genealogical tree for outlaws. I’ve been trying to connect Old Man Clanton to Quantrill. To date, all I can come up with is antidotal evidence.

The outlaws known as The Cowboy basically had their genesis in Texas during the “Hoodoo” or Mason County War. Expediency required them to head farther west. Most gravitated to Lincoln County, where they were involved in the Lincoln County War. When John Slaughter was given the option of prison or leaving the New Mexico Territory, he chose the latter. As he left New Mexico he took with him the following drovers: Curly Bill Brocius, John Ringo, Charley Snow, Frank Stilwell, Billy Claiborn, Wes Fuller, etc. Get the picture. Outlaw activity did not really begin in Cochise County until after Slaughter arrived with these individuals.

At this time “Cowboys” were known as drovers. They were considered the lowest of the low. The only exceptions were the former Buffalo Soldiers who would be recruited to run the operations and as many former “Black African” slaves as possible. At least 60% of all drovers were Black. They were the good guys. The white drovers were some of the lowest forms of humanity in the Wild West. They were considered the lowest of the low classes. This myth of the “cowboy” comes out of Hollywood. There was a difference between drovers and ranch hands, which was an honorable profession.

Currently there are several dozen writers and researchers working on the “Cowboys”. To date we have about 150 names of men in and out of Cochise County who were involved in outlaw activity. They were aided and abetted by the corrupt Democratic political machine of which John Behan was the top cog. These men kept the outlying areas of Cochise terrorized. They stole from, bullied, and intimidated ranchers to the point where those who did not co-operate were murdered. Cochise County was in a state of armed insurrection when Wyatt wnt on his famous vendetta ride.

During the weeks leading up to the Gunfight at the OK Corral in October, 1881, there were at least 2 Secret Service agents in Tombstone. We know the name of one of them. I have evidence that the moment the Earps and Doc started “The Walk” to the OK Corral, this individual wired the President of the United States. Within five minutes following the incident he sent another wire, telling him the Earps were successful.

I have at least 100 pages of official documentation between the Mexican government, military and state department with our military and state department concerning the activities of The Cowboys. Their activities in Mexico had reached the point where Mexico was going to invade Cochise County and take them out. Wyatt was acting under orders when the eliminated most of the threat during his vendetta ride.

Cosmatos took a few historical liberties, but very few. In fact, aside from those ‘red sashes’ he did an excellent job. But then, Jeff had already done the groundwork before Cosmatos took over as the director. John Ringo and Curly Bill Bricious were integral parts of the story. I suggest you do not impugn Jeff Morey’s research or the history behind Tombstone, which is probably 95% correct. To do so is to make yourself look foolish.

SJ Reidhead
The Pink Flamingo
Author of:
TRAVESTY: Frank Waters’ Earp Agenda Exposed
A Church for Helldorado (Endicott Peabody’s 1882 Earp Era Diary)
The 2nd Mrs. Earp
Dust Devil
Numerous articles about Wyatt Earp