True West Magazine
Ike Clanton
After the Earps had left southeast Arizona, Ike Clanton made his way northeast. He helped set up a rustling ring in Graham and Apache counties. The law was on the lookout for him. But local ranchers took things in their own hands. They hired a stock detective named Jonas “Rawhide Jake” Brighton to bring down the gang dead or alive.
Brighton and another deputy caught up with Clanton near Eagle Creek on June 2, 1887. Clanton made a run for it but Brighton gunned him down. The detective was involved in two other killings of Clanton gang members.
True West Magazine
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp approached Ike Clanton on June 2, 1881. He offered a deal: if Ike would turn over his friends who’d robbed the Benson stage six weeks earlier, Wyatt would give him the $6000 reward. Earp was hoping that a high-profile arrest would propel him into the sheriff’s office.
But the three robbers were killed within weeks of the offer. Ike accused Earp of telling others about the deal which put Clanton in danger with other Cowboys. The whole affair was another step leading to the OK Corral fight. Post Views: 33
In 1871, Wyatt Earp faced five years in prison for stealing horses in Indian Territory. …
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Ben Thompson Kills a Theater Owner – Take 1 A shooting in Austin foreshadowed a later event in San Antonio.
Gunfighter Ben Thompson is well-known for killing Jack Harris, owner of San Antonio’s Vaudeville Theater in 1882 mostly because it led to Thompson’s death in 1883. But there was a similar incident several years earlier.
Thompson and friends were partying at the Capital Theater in Austin on Christmas night in 1876. A fight broke out. Theater owner Mark Wilson opened up with a shotgun; Thompson returned fire, hitting Wilson three times, killing him. Thompson then mortally wounded a bartender who’d taken a shot at him. Thompson was acquitted on self-defense grounds.