Frank McLaury

Frank McLaury

Grave of Billy Clanton , Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury in Boothill Cemetery , Tombstone , Arizona .

Frank McLaury , born as Robert Findley McLaury (born March 3, 1848 in Kortright , † October 26, 1881 in Tombstone ) was an American cowboy and gunslinger in the Wild West . He was best known for participating with his brother Tom McLaury in the OK Corral shootout against Wyatt Earp , Morgan Earp , Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday , in which both were killed.

Life

Frank McLaury was born in Kortright, New York to Margaret Rowland and Robert Houston McLaury. The family had eleven children and lived in poor conditions on a farm . In 1855 they moved to another farm in Benton County , Iowa , where their father found a new job. After the death of their parents, the brothers Frank and Tom McLaury moved to southern Arizona in the late 1870s and bought two ranches there . Frank and Tom, who suffered from a notorious lack of money, got involved in the so-called Clanton gang in cattle and cattle theft. Rumors circulated around the town that the McLaury brothers were working with the Clantons in organized cattle theft and stolen goods . Due to disputes over gambling , the two parties about the McLaurys on the one hand and Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers had a heated exchange. According to another statement by Virgil Earp, a nightly rendezvous between one of the McLaury brothers and the sixteen-year-old stepdaughter Hattie Earp was the cause of the argument.

On October 25, 1881, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury drove their carriages to Tombstone to buy supplies. The same evening and the following morning there was another escalation. The Earp brothers and Doc Holliday verbally and physically provoked Frank and Tom McLaury to challenge them to a fight. On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton were riding through town and came across Frank McLaury watching Wyatt Earp lead his horse away. Then there were renewed verbal arguments. On an undeveloped area in OK Corral, at Block 17 behind a local rental stable, the local Sheriff John Behan intervened and wanted to disarm everyone involved. Frank McLaury repeatedly refused to comply, and several attempts by the sheriff to mediate between the disputed parties failed. After further verbal derailments, there was finally a shooting, in which Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton were fatally injured. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne managed to escape uninjured in time, while Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday survived injured.

literature

• The McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona: An OK Corral Obituary. University of North Texas Press, Denton 2012, ISBN 978-1-57441-450-9 . (online on: google books )
• Donald Chaput: Virgil Earp: Western Peace Officer. In: Affiliated Writers of America. Affiliated Writers of America, 1994, ISBN 1-879915-09-X .
• Bill O'Neal: Gunfighter. All gunslingers of the Wild West. Encyclopedia. Oesch-Verlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-0350-2013-2 .

Web links

• Website about the McLaurys
• Frank McLaury
• Frank McLaury's grave site

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paul Johnson: Were the McLaurys Leaving Tombstone? . Archived from the original on April 21, 2001. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
2. ↑ Steven Lubet :: Murder in Tombstone: the Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp . Yale University Press, New Haven, CT 2004, ISBN 0-300-11527-X , p. 288 (Accessed April 14, 2011).
3. ^ The Robert Houston McLaury Family . Archived from the original on February 23, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 21, 2013. 
4. ^ Douglas Linder: Testimony of Wyatt S. Earp in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp-Holliday Case . In: Famous Trials: The OK Corral Trial . 2005. Archived from the original on February 3, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 6, 2011.