Ike Clanton
Joseph Isaac (Ike) Clanton (1847-1887) was born in Callaway County, Missouri, and grew up to be one of the pivotal players in The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, one of the most famous events of the American West.
Clanton was one of five brothers (four surviving to adulthood) and two daughters born to Mariah Sexton Clanton nee Kelso and Newman Haynes Clanton (Old Man Clanton, 1816-1881), a frontiersman who worked at times as a day laborer, gold miner, farmer and --by the late 1870s-- a cattleman in Arizona Territory. Ike had stayed with the family well into their move to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, and by 1878 is documented to have been running a small meal counter ("lunch counter") in town. By 1880 to 1881, however, he is known to have been involved with his father's ranch, located 20 miles east of Tombstone.
The Clantons and their ranch hands and associates were known as "Cow-boys" and also had a reputation at best for reckless behavior. At worst they were known to steal livestock (Cattle rustling) from across the U.S.-Mexico border as well as other acts of banditry. "Old Man" Clanton was killed in August, 1881 probably by Mexicans in retaliation for an earlier ambush by rustlers (perhaps other rustlers).
Ike Clanton's notoriety is based on his conflict with the Earps, especially Wyatt Earp and Wyatt's friend Doc Holliday. The Earps and the Clantons had a number of political, economic, and philosophical reasons to hate each other, and the animosity grew throughout 1881. In November 1879, shortly after arriving in Tombstone, Wyatt Earp had a horse stolen. More than a year later, probably sometime in December 1880, Wyatt was told the horse was being used near Charleson city, and Wyatt and Holliday were forced to ride to the Clanton's ranch near Charleston city, to await ownership papers in order to legally recover it. According to Wyatt's testimony later, 18 year-old Billy Clanton asked him insolently if he had any more horses to "lose," but gave the horse up without first being shown the ownership papers (demonstating to Wyatt that Billy knew all along the horse was stolen). Johnny Behan later testified that the incident had angered Ike Clanton. It certainly angered Wyatt Earp.
In March, 1881 a bungled stagecoach robbery near Benson, Arizona that killed two men on the stage divided the two factions, with the Earps believing the Cow-boys were involved, and Ike Clanton later claiming Doc Holliday was one of the robbers, and had actually fired the shot that killed the scheduled stage driver.
Wyatt would testify that both Frank McLaury and Ike Clanton had agreed to provide information on the capture of the three supposed robbers, named Leonard, Head, and Crane. Later, after the last of these men had died in separate incidents, Wyatt would claim that word of this secret deal began leaking out. Ike Clanton, in constrast would claim that word of Doc Holliday's involvement, as well as the rest of the Earps' involvement in the robbery, was what was beginning to leak out.
By October 25, 1881, Ike Clanton was reported in Tombstone, drunken and very loud, after Holliday accused him of lying about the whole matter. A fight between Ike and Holliday was averted at first only by the fact that Clanton was either not armed (Wyatt said he had a concealed pistol), or not armed to Clanton's taste with a rifle. After Morgan and Virgil threatened to arrest both Doc and Ike if they didn't stop arguing, Clanton left and Wyatt and Holliday went to bed.
Ike, however, did not go to bed, but stayed up all night in cardgame with Tom McLau;ry and Virgil Earp. After the game broke up at dawn and Virgil went to bed, Ike kept drinking, and by many reports of witnesses at trial, by noon of the next day was seen about town with a Winchester rifle and sidearm, looking for Holliday or one of the Earps. By this time, all of the Earps had gotten out of bed and started looking for Ike. Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp, as city police officers, caught Ike unaware and "buffaloed" him (knocking him unconscious with the butt or barrel of a pistol). Ike was held at the recorder's office until a judge appeared to fine him for disorderly conduct and carrying of a concealed weapon in the city.
At the courtroom on Fifth Street, Ike and the Earps traded deadly threats. Soon after, Tom McLaury arrived to get Ike, after which Wyatt and Tom had a heated exchange outside the courtroom that led to Wyatt buffaloing Tom (Wyatt thought Tom was armed with a concealed pistol). A short while later, Tom was found to have left a pistol in a nearby saloon, showing he was indeed carrying it in violation of city law.
At nearly the same time Tom was getting rid of his arms, Tom's older brother Frank and Ike's younger brother Billy arrived in town fully-armed, on horseback. They soon learned of their brothers' beatings at the hands of the Earps. That afternoon Wyatt saw the Cow-boys were loading up on ammunition, and later, witnesses reported to the Earps that the Cow-boys were gathering at a vacant lot on Fremont street (through the block and in back of the O.K. Corral). This location was next to Doc Holliday's boarding house, and between the Earps and their homes.
Hearing that, the three Earp brothers, joined by Doc Holliday, marched down the streets of Tombstone to the vacant lot for the purpose of disarming their armed opponents. A few minutes later, the most famous gunfight in American history took place (see O.K. Corral).
Based on testimony from the pro-Earp eyewitnesses, Ike Clanton had spent all day, even after his arrest and disarming, threatening to gun down the Earps. Ironically, however, when the gunfight began, Ike was unarmed and managed to flee the shooting unscathed. Ike's boasting and threats, however, had unfortunately left his younger brother Billy Clanton, and his two friends the McLaurys, dead, victims of gunfire from the Earps and Holliday.
Afterwards, Ike testified in a preliminary hearing (the Spicer Hearing) to his behavior before and during the gunfight, trying to paint the Earps and Holliday as calculating murderers. Murder charges were brought against Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp at Ike's instigation.
Unfortunately, Ike Clanton would prove a better witness for the defence than the prosecution. Ike would claim in this testimony at the Spicer Hearing that Holliday had "piped off" money from the stagecoach which was supposed to have been robbed, and had told Ike about it. Ike claimed Holliday had also directly told him of shooting the stage driver. Unfortunately for Ike's credibility, no money was reported missing from the stage, as the stage had not stopped and the robbery had not succeeded. Thus, Ike's story regarding the money could not be made to square with facts. Moreover, Ike testified that not only Doc Holliday, but also Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, and Morgan Earp had all separately confessed to him their roles in the stealing of money from Wells, Fargo to be covered-up by the stage robbery, and responsiblity for the robbery, subsequent murders, and escape of the robbers. Since the robbery-murders were hanging offenses, Clanton further hurt his credibility in claiming that the three Earps and Holliday-- none of them friends of Ike-- had all put their lives in his hands by telling him about their roles in the crime.
Later in the hearing, the Earps were able to provide a strong defense, pointing out that Ike had not been harmed in his initial confrontation with Holliday when Ike was unwilling to fight, and had not even been shot by Virgil and Morgan when he was fully-armed, the next day, and they had had a perfect opportunity and excuse to shoot him down. Finally, there was the obvious fact that, even in the middle of the final gunfight, Ike had again escaped without harm, because he was thought to be unarmed. This did not square with Ike's story of four men out to kill him at any cost, for his knowledge of their capital crimes. With these facts, along with at least two unbiased eyewitnesses to the beginning of the fight (H.F. Sills and A. Bauer) who backed up the Earp claims that the cowboys had not been shot while trying to surrender, the murder charges were dismissed.
Afterward, Ike Clanton was accused of being involved in an attempted assassination of Virgil Earp in December, 1881, which crippled the lawman for life. Though Ike's hat was found at the scene where the ambushers waited, Ike's friends provided an alibi, and the case was dismissed. This incident taught Wyatt Earp that no help would likely be coming from the law on matters where gangs could always provide alibis for any act at which they were not caught red-handed.
A second assassination attempt in March, 1882 against Wyatt and Morgan Earp left Morgan dead, and soon afterwards the Earp faction left Tombstone in order to get Virgil Earp to safety. Wyatt later said that Ike Clanton, along with Frank Stilwell and other Cow-boys, attempted another ambush, this time in Tucson, Arizona where Virgil would be passing though on the train to California. However, the Earps were prepared, and Wyatt killed Stilwell. Clanton and the others fled, and soon found themselves targetted by the Earp Vendetta Ride, led by Wyatt against those he blamed for Morgan's death. Although most likely a prime target for Wyatt's vengeance, Ike survived the vendetta, with Wyatt, Holliday and their associates leaving Arizona Territory for good by April of 1882.
Ike Clanton's run-ins with the law were not over with the Earps out of the picture, however. Charged with cattle-rustling, Ike and his brother Phineas (Fin/Phin) were cornered by sheriff Jonas V. Brighton on 1 June 1887 in Springerville, Arizona. Fin Clanton surrendered, but Ike resisted and was shot dead.
The Westerns based on the Earps and the gunfight usually depict Ike in an unfavorable light: as a braggart, drunk, prone to violence, and, when cornered, a coward. However, Ike did choose to fight at the very end--- he simply lost.
Portrayals in film
Ike Clanton is played by Stephen Lang in the 1993 movie Tombstone (1993) starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp. This movie draws heavily on the Breakenridge book Helldorado.
Ike is played by Jeff Fahey in the 1994 movie Wyatt Earp (1994) starring Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp.
External links
- Ike Clanton's biographical timeline – from a family descendant's website