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Johnny Behan

July 21, 2023

John Harris Behan (October 24, 1844 – June 7, 1912) was an American law enforcement officer and politician who served as Sheriff of Cochise County in the Arizona Territory, during the gunfight at the O.K. Corral and was known for his opposition to the Earps. Behan was sheriff of Yavapai County from 1871 to 1873. He was married and had two children, but his wife divorced him, accusing him of consorting with prostitutes. He was elected to the Seventh Arizona Legislative Assembly, representing Yavapai County. In 1881, Wyatt Earp served for about five months as undersheriff of the eastern half of Pima County. When Wyatt resigned, Behan was appointed to fill his place, which included the mining boomtown Tombstone. When Cochise County was formed in February 1881, Behan was appointed as its first sheriff. Tombstone became the new county seat and the location of Behan's office. Sadie Marcus was his mistress, possibly as early as 1875 in Tip Top, Arizona, and certainly from 1880 until she found him in bed with another woman and kicked him out in mid-1881.

Johnny Behan
Born
John Harris Behan

(1844-10-24)October 24, 1844
Westport, Missouri, US
DiedJune 7, 1912(1912-06-07) (aged 67)
Tucson, Arizona, US
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Sheriff, Cochise County, Arizona Territory, member of Territorial Legislature, prison warden
Known forArizona Territory legislative representative, Cochise County Undersheriff, testified against Earps and Doc Holliday during the Spicer Hearing, member of "Ten Percent Ring"
Spouses
Children2
Signature

After the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Behan testified at length against the Earps. He supported the Cowboys' statements that they had raised their hands and offered no resistance, and that the Earps and Doc Holliday had murdered three cowboys. After the Earps were exonerated, Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp was maimed in an ambush on December 28, 1881, and assistant deputy Morgan Earp was killed by assassins on March 18, 1882. The outlaw Cowboys named as suspects in both shootings were either let go on a technicality or were provided alibis by fellow Cowboys. Wyatt Earp killed one of the suspects, Frank Stilwell, in Tucson. Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt and his federal posse set out after other suspects, pursued by Behan and his county posse composed mostly of Cowboys.

Behan's posse never caught up with the much smaller federal posse. The Earps left Tombstone under a cloud of suspicion. Sadie left Tombstone for San Francisco in early 1882, and Wyatt Earp followed her to San Francisco, where they began a lifelong relationship that lasted 46 years. Behan was arrested for graft and later failed to win re-election as sheriff. He later was appointed as the warden of the Yuma Territorial Prison and had various other government jobs until his death in 1912.

Early life

Behan was born on October 24, 1844,[1][2][3][notes 1][4] in Westport, Missouri, in what is now Kansas City, the third of nine children. His parents, who had wed on March 16, 1837, in Jackson County, Missouri, were Peter Behan, a carpenter from County Kildare, Ireland,[5] and Sarah Ann Harris, a native of Madison County, Kentucky. John Harris Behan was named for his mother's family and his maternal grandfather, although the 1900 Federal census reports an 1845 date of birth for him.[notes 2]

Behan moved west to San Francisco, working as a miner and a freighter. During the American Civil War, Behan was a 19-year-old civilian employee of Carleton's Column of Union Volunteers in California. He fought in the Battle of Apache Pass on July 14–15, 1862[1] and in 1863 settled in Tucson, where he found work delivering freight to military installations.[6] In 1864, he served as a clerk to the First Arizona Legislative Assembly in Prescott, the territorial seat. This brought 19-year-old Behan into contact with some of the most influential men in the state.[7]: 108 

Moves to Arizona

In 1865, he moved to Prescott, the new capital of the Arizona Territory, where he speculated in real estate and prospected for minerals. While prospecting along the Verde River February 28, 1866, five other men and he were attacked by Indians. Behan helped fight them off and gained a reputation as a brave man.[8] He also operated a sawmill.[6] Yavapai County Sheriff John P. Bourke married German immigrant and widow Harriet Zaff in 1860. She had four children from her two prior marriages: Benjamin, Catherine, Victoria, and Louisa. Bourke hired Behan as an undersheriff in 1866, and fourteen-year-old Victoria caught Behan's eye. After two years Behan resigned to run for Yavapai County Recorder, which he won in 1868 at age 23. It was one of the most important jobs in the county as he was responsible for maintaining accurate records that were the basis for all taxes collected.[7]: 108 

Whenever he was not holding office, Behan worked in various saloons or mines.[1]

Marriage and family

 
Johnny Behan in 1871, about the time of this first marriage: Josephine Sadie Marcus a decade later would describe him as "young and darkly handsome, with merry black eyes and an engaging smile".
 
After divorcing Behan, Victoria Zaff married Charles A. Randall on September 15, 1881, in Prescott, Arizona Territory. This is probably their wedding photo.

In March 1869, Behan married Bourke's step-daughter Victoria Zaff[1][9] in San Francisco, Bourke's home town.[1][6] Victoria was already pregnant. The couple quickly returned to Prescott, Arizona Territory. Only three months later, on June 15, 1869, Victoria had her first child, Henrietta.[8] Victoria and Johnny later had a son, Albert Price Behan, born in Prescott on July 7, 1871[10][7] or 1872[1] (d. January 27, 1949).

Political office

Behan succeeded his father-in-law in office as the Yavapai County sheriff from January 1871 to December 1873.[11] He took a chance at a more important position and in 1873 successfully ran for office as Yavapai County's representative to the Seventh Arizona Legislative Assembly.[12]

The Territorial Legislature met in Tucson or Prescott for a six- to eight-week legislative session, and Behan attended his first session in January 1874 in Tucson.[1] On September 28, 1874, Behan was nominated as sheriff at the Democratic convention in Yavapai County.[13] The Prescott Miner reported on October 6, 1874, that "J.H. Behan left on an 'electioneering' tour toward Black Canyon, Wickenburg and other places" north and east of present-day Phoenix.[14] Behan was gone for 35 days campaigning for the sheriff's office.

Meets Sadie Marcus

Some accounts state that Sadie Marcus ran away from her parents' home in San Francisco in 1874 and traveled to Prescott, Arizona.[1] Her friend Dora Hurst and she, with other passengers on a stage coach, had been forced to hole up in a ranch house near Cave Creek by Apache Indians, who had escaped the Cave Creek reservation. Indian fighter Al Sieber was tracking the Apaches.[15] Sadie said the famous Indian scout led them to safety. According to Sadie, she first met "John Harris" here, whom she described as, "young and darkly handsome, with merry black eyes and an engaging smile".[16] She said, "my heart was stirred by his attentions as the heart of any girl (would) have been under such romantic circumstances. The affair was at least a diversion in my homesickness, though I cannot say I was in love with him."[14]

Divorce from Victoria Zaff

Behan returned to Prescott on November 11, 1874, but lost the election. He apparently spent considerable time away from home, either at saloons along Prescott's Whisky Row or at nearby brothels.[17] His affairs were finally too much for Victoria. On May 22, 1875,[10] Behan's fortunes took a turn for the worse when Victoria filed for divorce. While being divorced alone wasn't completely unusual, Victoria took the extra step of asserting in her divorce petition that Behan "has within two years last past at divers times and places openly and notoriously visited houses of ill-fame and prostitution at said town of Prescott."[18]: 79 

Witness Charles Goodman testified, "I saw the defendant [Behan] at a house of ill-fame … at which resided one Sada Mansfield, commonly called Sada, a woman of prostitution and ill-fame, and the said defendant did at the time and at the house spoken of, stay all night with and sleep with the said Sada Mansfield, and I know of the defendant having committed similar acts at the same place and at various times than at the particular time referred to."[19]: 48  The divorce action also cited Behan's threats of violence and unrelenting verbal abuse.[18] Victoria told the court, Behan approached her in a "threatening and menacing manner calling me names such as whore and other epithets of like character and by falsely charging me with having had criminal intercourse with other men, threatened to turn me out of the house, quarreling with, and abusing me, swearing and threatening to inflict upon me personal violence."[10]

Behan claimed their daughter Henrietta was not his, and Victoria's request for support for Henrietta was stricken from the divorce petition.[10][18]: 93 [19]: 46  He didn't contest any of her other allegations and was ordered to pay $16.16 a month in child support for Albert alone. Henrietta died on March 6, 1877, at age seven of scarlatina.[1]

Behan did not restrict his extramarital liaisons to paid arrangements. Throughout his life, he had sexual relationships with numerous women, including the wives of friends and business partners.[7]: 109 

Opens saloon in Tip Top

In April 1876, Behan became the census marshal for Yavapai County, and spent several weeks covering the district and completing his census chores. In the fall of 1876, he ran for Yavapai County sheriff and lost by 78 votes. In January 1877, he was selected as sergeant at arms for the Ninth Legislative Assembly while it met in Tucson.[7] He then moved to the northwest Arizona Territory, where he served as the Mohave County Recorder in 1877, and then deputy sheriff of Mohave County in Gillet in 1879. In October 1879 the Weekly Journal Miner reported that Behan was planning on opening a business in Tip Top, a then fast-growing silver mining town in central Arizona,[20] and in November 1879, Behan opened a saloon there.

He was elected to represent Mohave County at the Tenth Arizona Legislative Assembly, which met beginning January 6, 1879, in Prescott.[21] In the middle of 1879, he relocated to Prescott, where he opened a business providing services to local mines and exercised his skills as a lawman by joining several posses. While in Prescott, he got into a skirmish with some Chinese laundry men, and outnumbered, was clubbed and beaten by the businessmen.[7]: 110 

On June 2, 1880, Behan was counted in the 1880 census in Tip Top, Arizona as a saloon keeper.[22] His was initially the only one of six saloons without a prostitute. But 19-year-old Sadie Mansfield, whose occupation was given as "Courtesan",[23] the same person that his former wife Victoria had named in their divorce five years earlier, was also living in Tip Top.

On June 2, 1880, the U.S. census had recorded Sadie Mansfield, whose occupation was "courtesan", as living in Tip Top. On June 1 or 2, 1880, William V. Carroll, the census enumerator for the 9th ward in San Francisco, visited the Marcus home. He lived about two blocks from the family. He recorded Josephine as a member of the Marcus household, information that may have been offered by her parents. Sadie Mansfield and Sadie Marcus also were both 19 years old, born in New York, and their parents were from Prussia.[23]

According to Josephine, at some point she felt ill and returned to her parents' home in San Francisco. She said Behan followed her and persuaded her parents to approve their engagement. Some modern researchers question the likelihood that her father, a Reform Jew, would approve her union with Behan, an unemployed office-seeker, 14 years older than his daughter, a Gentile, and a divorced father.[24] Sadie later said Behan told her parents that he couldn't leave his livery stable business for a wedding in San Francisco[16][25] and Sadie said her parents approved their engagement.[14]

Moves to Tombstone

In August 1880, Behan sought the nomination as County Recorder in Yavapai County once more, but was defeated.[7] On September 15, The Epitaph noted his arrival with his eight-year-old son Albert in Tombstone.[6]: 19 [7] Albert, who had a hearing impairment, had been living with his mother, grandmother and his uncle John Bourke Jr. in Prescott in 1880.

Sadie Marcus joins him

Main article: Josephine Earp

Depending on which version of events is correct, Sadie said she first arrived in Tombstone as part of the Pauline Markham troupe on December 1, 1879, for a one-week engagement. The Pauline Markham troupe put on more than a dozen performances of H.M.S. Pinafore from December 24, 1879, through February 20, 1880. Sadie, possibly using the stage name May Bell, may have played Cousin Hebe.[26]: 62 [27] The city of Prescott, Arizona, fell in love with the troupe, and they stayed for nearly six months.[28]

Sadie reported later in life that Behan pestered her in San Francisco with letters from Tombstone, bragging about the growing town and promising to marry her. She said she thought Behan's marriage proposal was a good excuse to leave home again. She wrote, "life was dull for me in San Francisco. In spite of my bad experience of a few years ago the call to adventure still stirred my blood."[14] Josephine arrived in Tombstone in mid-October. When Behan avoided setting a wedding date, she was ready to end the relationship, but Behan persuaded her to stay. They lived together as husband and wife,[29] and Josephine signed her name as Josephine Behan for a period of time, but no marriage record has been found. Sadie later said she lived with a lawyer and his wife during this time period.[29] Considering that Josephine said she first arrived in Arizona with the Markham troupe on December 1, 1879, and she joined Behan in Tombstone in October 1880, her reference to "my bad experience of a few years ago" means she must have actually been in Arizona for some time before 1879.[14]

Based on the information Sadie provided the Earp cousins with, when correlated with other sources, Josephine may have left San Francisco for Prescott as early as October 1874,[16] when she was 13 or 14 years old.[30] Author Roger Ray thoroughly researched Josephine's story about joining the theater company and found many inconsistencies. The Markham troupe was documented as leaving San Francisco on board the Southern Pacific Railroad, not a ship nor a stagecoach, for Casa Grande, Arizona in October 1879, the end of the line. Sadie Marcus's name was never included among those on the Markham troupe's rolls in 1879.[31]

The Yuma Arizona Sentinel reported on October 25, 1879, "Tuesday arrived a Pinafore Company for Tucson, composed of Misses Pauline Markham, Mary Bell, Belle Howard, and Mrs. Pring, and Messrs. Borabeck and McMahon."[19]: 43  From Yuma, the troupe took a stagecoach to Tucson, not Prescott.[19][32] The train trip was not interrupted by Indians.[33] Ray states that Josephine didn't have a friend named Dora Hirsch. Her real name was Leah Hirschberg, whose mother was actually a music teacher. This family lived only a few blocks from where Josephine lived with her family. But Leah never left San Francisco with Josephine. She instead enjoyed some brief success as a juvenile actress on the San Francisco stage during the 1870s.[19]

Bat Masterson, a friend of Wyatt Earp's who was in Tombstone from February[34]: 41  to April 1881,[35] described Sadie to Stuart Lake as "an incredible beauty"[36] and as the "belle of the honkytonks, the prettiest dame in three hundred or so of her kind."[25] Honkytonk bars in that era often had a reputation as place for prostitution[37] and his choice of language ("three hundred or so of her kind") may have referred to Josephine's work as a prostitute.[36]

Elected Undersheriff and sheriff

Further information on political issues and election fraud: Cochise County in the Old West

When Behan first arrived in Tombstone in September 1880, he also got a job bar manager in the Grand Hotel, a favorite of the outlaw Cowboys, and a good place to make political connections.[7]: 112  He also bought part interest in the Dexter Livery Stable with John Dunbar, where local businessmen could rent horses.[38]: 76 

Wyatt Earp had been appointed undersheriff for the eastern section of Pima County by Pima County Sheriff Charles Shibell on July 29, 1880.[39] The Cowboys, mostly Southerners, supported the Democratic ticket and Shibell. Elections were held on November 2, and it was expected that Democrat Shibell would be defeated by Republican Bob Paul, who Wyatt had supported during the campaign.[40]

Shibell won the election by a 46-vote margin. Opponent Bob Paul filed suit on November 19 alleging ballot box stuffing in the San Simon Cienega precinct, since the precinct delivered a 103 to 1 vote for Shibell in a precinct estimated to contain only 15 eligible voters.[41] James Johnson later testified for Bud Paul in the election hearing and said that the ballots had been left in the care of Democrat Phin Clanton.[42] Meanwhile, a week after the election on November 9, 1880, Earp resigned.[43] The position of undersheriff was now open, and Shibell immediately selected Democrat Johnny Behan to serve as Tombstone area undersheriff.[44]

In February 1881, the San Simon results were thrown out by the election commissioners,[41] but Shibell filed an appeal. Shibell was finally removed from office in April and replaced by Bob Paul. But the election was now moot. On February 1, 1881, during the vote counting investigation, the eastern area of Pima County containing Tombstone had been split off to form the new Cochise County.

Behan's partner in the Dexter Livery, John Dunbar, through his family in their home town in Bangor, Maine, was "close family friends" of the powerful Senator James G. Blaine, one of the most powerful Republican congressmen of his time. The Dunbars used their influence to help Behan get appointed sheriff of the new Cochise County, in February 1881.[45]: 76  Behan had already served two terms in the Territorial Legislature and was more politically connected than Earp. When the state created Cochise County, Governor John C. Frémont appointed, and the territorial legislature approved, Behan as sheriff on February 10, 1881.[46]

In a back room deal with Wyatt Earp, he promised Wyatt Earp a position as Cochise County undersheriff, if Earp (the only other previous undersheriff for Tombstone) would not oppose Behan's appointment. Behan took office in the new position in April, with his offices in the county seat, Tombstone, but reneged on the deal with Earp, appointing prominent Democrat Harry Woods instead.

Later that year, Behan gave a contrived explanation of his actions during the hearings after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. He said he broke his promise to appoint Earp because of an incident shortly before his appointment. Searching for a stolen horse belonging to him, Wyatt learned in late 1880 that the horse was in nearby Charleston. Wyatt spotted Billy Clanton attempting to leave town with the horse and, hand on his gun, persuaded Billy to release it.[47] Behan was in Charleston to serve a subpoena on Ike Clanton. Billy carried the subpoena from Behan to Ike using Wyatt's horse. Ike was hopping mad when Behan finally found him, for Earp had told Clanton that Behan "had taken a posse of nine men down there to arrest him."[48] Behan took offense at Wyatt's tactics and changed his mind about appointing Wyatt. Holliday reported in an interview in 1882 that "from that time a coolness grew up between the two men."[49]: 164 

Corruption charges

As Cochise County sheriff, one of Behan's duties was collecting prostitution, gambling, liquor, and theater fees, taxes for which he received 10% of all proceeds. He developed a reputation for graft and was seen as the head of the "Ten Percent Ring."[50]: 67  Rumors of graft and corruption followed him during his tenure as sheriff.[18] On January 31, 1882, Behan was arrested for collecting bills totaling $300 twice, arraigned in front of Justice Stilwell, and discharged due to a technicality.[51] In 1882, after Southern Pacific Railroad completed laying tracks and building facilities across the northern portion of Cochise County, he assessed them $8,000,000, which they appealed. The Board of Supervisors reduced the assessment to $1,000,000, substantially reducing Behan's take by $25,000.[40]

His son Albert in Tombstone

Behan's ex-wife Victoria in 1881 and sent Albert to live with his father in Tombstone sometime afterward. Behan was already living with Sadie in 1880, and Albert grew close to her. This relationship lasted for much of the rest of their lives.[1]

Beginnings of friction with Wyatt Earp

 
Wyatt Earp in about 1870.

Wyatt Earp testified later saying that he had promised not to publicly campaign to the governor against the appointment (not election) of Behan, in return for an appointment by Behan as Behan's own undersheriff. But after being appointed, Behan appointed another man, Southern Democrat Harry Woods, to the position that Wyatt thought would go to him.

At the preliminary hearing into Ike's murder charges against the Earps after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Behan explained that he appointed Woods rather than Earp due to an incident involving a stolen horse of Virgil Earp's, which was recovered by Wyatt from Billy Clanton. This happened sometime after Behan had been appointed undersheriff in November 1880, and his move to Cochise County sheriff the next spring. At the time, Wyatt was not a law officer, but had used the threat of Behan riding out to the Clantons' ranch as a bluff to get Clanton to turn over the horse. As it happened, Behan was riding to the ranch to serve a subpoena related to the ballot-box stuffing incident, not to recover the horse, and the incident embarrassed the Cowboys and also Behan, who for a time had been made to look like he was supporting Earp against the Cowboys.

Split from Sadie

Sometime during early 1881, Sadie arrived home to find Behan in bed with the wife of a friend of theirs, and she kicked Behan out[29] of the home they had built with her father's money.[25] One version of the story is that Sadie had taken Albert, who had a hearing impairment, to San Francisco for treatment. Upon their return, they arrived late in the evening and a day earlier than expected. They found Behan in bed with another woman.[1] Behan was embarrassed by the public breakup. Most Tombstone residents thought that Marcus and Behan were legally married. Her breakup with Behan was publicized by The Tombstone Epitaph.

Tombstone diarist George W. Parsons never mentioned seeing Wyatt and Sadie together and neither did John Clum in his memoirs.[52]: 235 

Earp had been in a common-law marriage with Mattie Blaylock since about 1873 and she was listed as his wife in the 1880 census.[53]: 47 [53]: 65  It is not known when Earp and Blaylock ended their relationship, except that after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, she went to Colton, California, where the rest of the Earp family lived. She waited for Earp to come get her there and when he didn't, she resumed a life of prostitution in Pinal, Arizona, where on July 3, 1888, she took a lethal dose of laudanum together with alcohol. Her death was officially ruled as "suicide by opium poisoning".[54]

Affiliation with the Cowboys

Further information on illegal activities: The Cowboys (Cochise County)

The records show evidence that Cochise County Marshall Behan was sympathetic to the interests of and a friend to Ike Clanton, "Curly Bill" Brocius, as well as Johnny Ringo, and a group of cattle rustlers and ranchers, loosely known as "Cowboys." Some of the Cowboys were also active as rustlers in the U.S. side of the border after the Mexicans lowered tariffs and stepped up military patrols after 1882. Frank Stilwell was an assistant Deputy under Behan for several months until shortly before he was a suspect in the Bisbee stage holdup. Behan employed several of the outlaws as sheriff's deputies during their pursuit of Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp's posse after he was alleged to have killed Frank Stilwell in Tucson

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Main article: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
 
Tombstone, Arizona Territory in 1891.

In August 1881, Behan fired deputy Frank Stilwell for "accounting irregularities".[55] Stilwell was arrested by a combined federal and sheriff's posse a month later for a Bisbee stage robbery, an action that would indirectly lead to the O.K. Corral gunfight.

Behan was a key player in the events immediately preceding the shootout at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881. Behan went down to try to disarm the Cowboys carrying weapons in violation of city ordinance. Behan attempted to persuade Frank McLaury to give up his weapons, but Frank insisted that he would only give up his guns after City Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers were disarmed. While Ike Clanton was planning to leave town, Frank McLaury said he had decided to remain behind to take care of some business. A letter written afterward by their older brother, William McLaury, a judge in Fort Worth, Texas, claimed that both Frank and Tom were planning to conduct business before leaving town to visit him in Fort Worth. Billy Clanton, who had arrived on horseback with Frank, intended to go with the McLaurys to Fort Worth.[56]

After Behan talked to the Cowboys, he saw the Earps and Holliday walking down Fremont Street. He walked about "22 or 23 steps" and intercepted them at Bauer's Butcher Shop. Wyatt said he gave them conflicting information. First, he told Virgil, "For God's sake don't go down there or you will get murdered." When Virgil replied, "I am going to disarm them," Behan said, "I have disarmed them."[48] Later on Behan insisted he had said he went to see the Cowboys only "for the purpose of arresting and disarming them."[56]

Behan attempts arrest

The lawmen killed three Cowboys: Tom McLaury, Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury. Virgil, Morgan, and Doc Holliday were wounded. As the lawmen were carried to their homes, they passed in front of the Sheriff's Office, and Johnny Behan told Wyatt Earp, "I will have to arrest you." Wyatt paused two or three seconds and replied very forcibly: "I won't be arrested today. I am right here and am not going away. You have deceived me. You told me these men were disarmed; I went to disarm them."[57]: 27 

Behan testimony

As provided by territorial law, Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the four lawmen. Behan testified for the prosecution during the preliminary hearing, supporting the Clanton's version of events. According to the prosecution, the Cowboys had offered no resistance.[58] Behan gave strong testimony that the Cowboys had not resisted but had thrown up their hands and turned out their coats to show they were not armed.[58] He told the court that he heard Billy Clanton say, "Don't shoot me. I don't want to fight." He also testified that Tom McLaury threw open his coat to show that he was not armed and that the first two shots were fired by the Earp party.[56]

Behan testified that from the time the Earps passed him by to confront the Cowboys, he had watched them closely. Under cross-examination by attorney Thomas Fitch, he admitted seeing Holliday carrying the messenger shotgun towards the confrontation. All the witnesses testified that Holliday had been seen with a shotgun. Behan also testified he was concentrating on the Earps during the gun fight, but he did not see the shotgun used. He insisted that Holliday fired the first shot from a nickel-plated revolver.[56] But the coroner had already testified that Tom McLaury was killed by a shotgun blast. For Behan's "testimony to make any sense, the court would have to believe that Holliday marched down Fremont Street carrying a shotgun; put it aside in order to pull out his pistol; fired the first shot, presumably at Billy Clanton; and then picked up the shotgun in order to kill Tom McLaury—all in the space of a few seconds."[59]: 95 

Behan's sympathy to the Cowboy was well known, and documents were located in 1997 that showed Behan served as guarantor for a loan to Ike Clanton during the Spicer hearing that followed.[60]

Testimony discredited

Three defense witnesses gave key evidence that discredited Behan's testimony. One of the most notable witnesses was H. F. Sills, an AT&SF RR engineer who had just arrived in town and knew none of the parties involved. The second key witness was Addie Bourland, a dressmaker whose shop was across the street from the gunfight, and the third was Judge J.H. Lucas of the Cochise County Probate Court, who corroborated Addie Bourland's testimony. Justice Wells Spicer ruled on November 30 that there was not enough evidence to indict the men.[61]

Seeks Earps' arrest

On December 28, 1881, Virgil Earp was ambushed and maimed. On March 18, assassins shot through a window and killed Morgan Earp. The Cowboys who were identified as suspects in both cases got off on either legal technicalities or were provided alibis by men who said they were in Charleston at the time Morgan was shot. Wyatt felt he had no choice but to take the law into his own hands.[62]

On March 20, while escorting Virgil and his wife Addie through Tucson to catch a train, new Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp and Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, Johnson and Sherman McMaster shot Frank Stilwell as he was lying in wait in the train yard. Justice of the Peace Charles Meyer issued arrest warrants for the Earp posse. He sent a telegram to Tombstone telling Behan they were wanted in Tucson for killing Stilwell. The telegraph office manager was a friend to the Earps and delayed delivery long enough to allow the Earps and their associates to get ready to leave town Tuesday evening. Behan got the telegram in the early evening.[63] He found the men in the lobby of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, heavily armed. He told Wyatt he wanted to see him. Wyatt replied, "Johnny, if you're not careful, you'll see me once too often."[60][64]

In September 1882, after the Earp Vendetta Ride, Behan had a feud with his own deputy, Billy Breakenridge. An investigation found that Behan had somehow set aside $5,000 in funds while he was sheriff from unknown sources.[65] Due to public and legislative unhappiness with Behan's performance, he was last on the Democratic Party's list of nominees for sheriff, an unusual result for a seated sheriff. Behan failed to gain the nomination and thus left office at the end of his term, in November 1882.

Later life

Behan lived primarily in Tombstone through 1886. In 1887, he moved to Yuma, where he became the assistant superintendent of the Yuma Penitentiary. He killed one of several prisoners who died during a large escape attempt, saving a guard's life.[6] On April 7, 1888, he was promoted to prison superintendent, serving until July 1890.[6] His management of the prison was marked by prison disorder and mismanagement of public funds, generating complaints by the press. The Arizona Republic noted that $50,000 had passed through prison official's hands without any accounting. He faced censure for misuse of public funds and for running the prison in a "coarse and brutal manner" in 1890.[18]: 79–80  The complaint against him specifically cited the prison conditions afforded Manuela Fimbres, a woman incarcerated in the Yuma Prison. She was allowed to roam free within the prison, and she became pregnant, delivered a child, and got pregnant again while he was warden.[18]: 80  Former Tombstone resident and writer George W. Parsons commented that he thought Behan was "on the wrong side of the bars".[65]

After twenty-seven years in Arizona, Behan moved east, and in 1891 was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and by 1892 was in a commission business in Washington, D.C. He worked in various government and commissary capacities to the end of his life.[66]

On July 3, 1893, he became an Inspector at Port of Customs at El Paso, Texas. On March 12, 1894, he received a 50 percent pay increase and was elevated to the position of Chinese Exclusion Inspector. (Behan had been a founding member of the "Anti-Chinese League" in Tombstone).[67] For the next several years he traveled throughout the southwest arresting illegal Chinese immigrants. In 1897 he worked in the U.S. Patent Office, until at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Behan volunteered for and became corral-master or quartermaster at Tampa, Florida. When this conflict ended, trouble in the Far East began, and in 1900 he served overseas during the Boxer Rebellion.[6]

In 1901, he was living in Willard's Hotel at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.. The census gave his occupation as "Promoter".[40]

After the war ended, he returned to Tucson in 1901, where he became the business manager for the Tucson Citizen. He then moved to El Paso, Texas, where he worked as a purchasing agent for Texas Bitulithic, a paving company. While in El Paso during 1908, he campaigned for sheriff but lost. On December 14, 1910, the acting governor of Arizona Territory gave him a commission as a railroad policeman in Arizona. He followed that with work supervising survey parties repairing levee breaks on the lower Colorado River. During 1911–12, he was head of the commissary for the Arizona Eastern Railroad.[6]

Tombstone legacy

Long after the gunfight, Behan continued to spread rumors about the Earps. On December 7, 1897, he was quoted in a story in the Washington Post which reported that he was staying at the Riggs House, a local hotel. The story was reprinted by the San Francisco Call, which quoted Behan describing the Earp's lawbreaking behavior in Tombstone.[68]

"The Clanton brothers and the McLowrys were a tough lot of rustlers who were the main perpetrators of the rascailly rife in that region. Between them and Earps rose a bitter feud over the division of the proceeds of the looting. The Earp boys believed they had failed to get a fair divide of the booty and swore vengeance. They caught their former allies in Tombstone unarmed and shot three of them dead while their hands were uplifted." Behan went on to say, "They were hauled up before a Justice of the Peace... Warrants were issued for their arrest, and, summoning a posse, I went out to bring the Earps in. They were chased entirely out of the country and Tombstone knew them no more."

Death and burial

Behan died at St. Mary's Catholic Hospital in Tucson, Arizona, on June 7, 1912. His funeral was conducted by the Arizona Pioneers Historical Society, and their eulogy declared, "he held positions of public trust, and in all was active, faithful, and honest."[18]: 94  The cause of death was arterial sclerosis, and secondarily syphilis, which he had contracted thirty years earlier (in 1882, while sheriff in Tombstone). The source of some of the information on the death certificate was Behan's son, Albert.[69]

John Behan was buried on the day after his death in Tucson's Holy Hope Cemetery. Enthusiasts of old west history placed a commemorative plaque near the site in 1990.[70]

Popular culture

In the 1993 film Tombstone, Behan (Jon Tenney) introduces himself to Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell): "Besides sheriff, I'm also tax collector, Captain of the Fire Brigade and Chairman of the Nonpartisan Anti-Chinese League."[71]

Notes

  1. ^ John H. Behan's Arizona death certificate lists his date of birth as October 1845 in Westport, Jackson County, Missouri. However, the same certificate lists his age of death as 67, not 66, which it would have been for a birth year of 1844. The birth date of October 1844 from the 1900 census was presumably provided by Behan himself at the time, and gives a death age of 67 that agrees with the death certificate.
  2. ^ Behan was living in a boarding house at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, and is listed as a "promoter", born in Missouri in October 1844. 1900 Federal Census for Washington, D.C., Enumeration District 81, Sheet Number 3, Line 18. This is also corroborated by the 1910 Census for Tucson, Arizona, where he was enumerated in the 2nd Ward of Tucson, Pima County, Territory of Arizona; Pima County Enumeration District No. 103, Sheet 13-A, Line 31.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Riggs, Ed (July 2011). "John Harris Behan" (PDF). Sierra Valley Historical Society Newsletter. 8 (2): 3. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  2. ^ Twelfth Census of the United States, United States census, 1900; Washington, D.C.; roll ED 81, page 3, line 18.
  3. ^ Thirteenth Census of the United States, United States census, 1900; Tucson, Pima County, Territory of Arizona; roll ED 103, page 13A, line 31.
  4. ^ . Archived from the original on 29 June 2011.
  5. ^ 1850 United States Census, United States census, 1880; Kaw Township, Jackson County, Missouri; page 25A, line 36–42. Retrieved on 20 June 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Metz, Leon C. (2002). The Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters. New York: Checkmark. ISBN 978-0-8160-4544-0.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guinn, Jeff (2012). The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral and How it Changed the American West (First ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. ISBN 978-1-4391-5425-0.
  8. ^ a b Johnson, David (2008). John Ringo, King of the Cowboys: His Life and Times from the Hoo Doo War to Tombstone. Denton: University of North Texas Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-57441-243-7.
  9. ^ "Victoria Zaff Gravestone".
  10. ^ a b c d Collins, Jan MacKell (13 January 2015). . True West Magazine. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  11. ^ "Yavapai County Sheriff Office Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  12. ^ Wagoner, Jay J. (1970). Arizona Territory 1863–1912: A Political history. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 511. ISBN 0-8165-0176-9.
  13. ^ 1800 United States Census, United States census, 19800; 9th Ward, San Francisco, California; page 455C,, Family History film 1254075, National Archives film number T9-0075. Retrieved on 20 June 2011.
  14. ^ a b c d e Mitchell, Carol (February–March 2001). "Lady Sadie". True West Magazine.
  15. ^ Michno, Gregory F. (2003). Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes, 1850–1890. Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Press Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-87842-468-9.
  16. ^ a b c Mitchell, Carol. "Lady Sadie". True West Magazine. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
  17. ^ Collins, Jan Mackells (13 January 2015). "The Wife of Wyatt Earp's Sworn Enemy". True West Magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Butler, Anne M. (1987). Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutes in the American West, 1865–90 (paperback ed.). Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-01466-6.
  19. ^ a b c d e Monahan, Sherry (2013). Mrs. Earp (First ed.). TwoDot. ASIN B00I1LVKYA.
  20. ^ Mitchell, Carol. "Lady Sadie". True West magazine. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  21. ^ Wagoner, Jay J. (1970). Arizona Territory 1863–1912: A Political history. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 514. ISBN 0-8165-0176-9.
  22. ^ 1880 United States Census, United States census, 1880; Tip Top, Yavapai, Arizona Territory; page 414C,. Retrieved on 20 June 2011.
  23. ^ a b 1880 United States Census, United States census, 1880; Tip Top, Yavapai, Arizona Territory; page 413A,. Retrieved on 20 June 2011.
  24. ^ Rochlin, Harriet. "The Earps: Josie and Wyatt's 47-Year Odyssey". Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  25. ^ a b c Barra, Alan. "Who Was Wyatt Earp?". American Heritage. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  26. ^ Eppinga, Jane (2001). Tombstone. Charleston, SC: Arcadia. ISBN 978-0-7385-2096-4.
  27. ^ Tefertiller, Casey (1997). Wyatt Earp: the Life Behind the Legend. New York: J. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-18967-1. Former University of Arizona Professor Pat Ryan identified May Bell as Josephine Marcus in his article "Tombstone Theatre Tonight" without providing any sources.
  28. ^ Collins, Tom. "Stage-struck Songsters: Operetta in Territorial Prescott". Settlers in the Sun-Kissed Land: the Amateur Theatre in Territorial Prescott, 1868–1903. Prescott, Arizona: Sharlot Hall Museum.
  29. ^ a b c Rasmussen, Cecilia (4 June 2000). "LA Then and Now: Mrs. Wyatt Earp Packed Her Own Punch". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  30. ^ Morey, Jeffrey J. (October–December 1994). "The Curious Vendetta of Glenn G. Boyer". Quarterly of the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History (NOLA). XVIII (4): 22–28.
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  33. ^ Jay, Roger (19 March 2013). . Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  34. ^ Woog, Adam (2010). Wyatt Earp. Chelsea House Publications. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-60413-597-8.
  35. ^ . p. 206. Archived from the original on 18 November 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  36. ^ a b Lackmann, Ron (1997). Women of the Western Frontier in Fact, Fiction, and Film (first ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-786-40400-1.
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  38. ^ Marks, Paula Mitchell (1996). And Die in the West: The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight (Oklahoma Paperbacks ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2888-7.
  39. ^ . Archived from the original on 16 August 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
  40. ^ a b c Riggs, Ed (August 2011). (PDF). Sierra Valley Historical Society Newsletter. 8 (3). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 May 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  41. ^ a b . Archived from the original on 1 December 2004. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  42. ^ Johnson, David (1996). John Ringo (first ed.). Stillwater, OK: Barbed Wire Press. ISBN 978-0-935269-23-9.
  43. ^ "Resignation of the Office of Deputy Sheriff of Pima County". 9 November 1880. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  44. ^ . Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  45. ^ Brown, Richard Maxwell (1994). No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society (first ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2618-0.
  46. ^ . Cochise County, Arizona. Archived from the original on 13 August 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  47. ^ "The Life and Times of Billy Clanton 1862–1881". Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  48. ^ a b Douglas Linder (2005). . Famous Trials: The O. K. Corral Trial. Archived from the original on 3 February 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  49. ^ Jahns, Patricia (1998). The Frontier World of Doc Holliday. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-8032-7608-6. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  50. ^ Urban, William (2003). Wyatt Earp: The O.K. Corral and the Law of the American West. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 67. ISBN 9780823957408.
  51. ^ "Discharged from Custody Cowboys Surrendered". Sacramento Daily Union. 2 February 1882. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  52. ^ Barra, Alan (December 1998). . American Heritage Magazine. 49 (8). Archived from the original on 7 May 2006.
  53. ^ a b Eppinga, Jane (2009). Around Tombstone: Ghost Towns and Gunfights. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-7385-7127-0.
  54. ^ "Standard Certificate of Death" (PDF). State of Arizona Department of Commerce. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  55. ^ . thewildwest.org. Archived from the original on 20 September 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
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  57. ^ Dodge, Fred; Lake, Carolyn (1999). Under Cover for Wells Fargo The Unvarnished Recollections of Fred Dodge. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-8061-3106-1. from the original on 3 January 2014.
  58. ^ a b Linder, Douglas (2005). "The Earp-Holliday Trial". Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  59. ^ Lubet, Steven (2006). Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11527-7.
  60. ^ a b "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: Did Tom McLaury Have a Gun". 5 September 2006. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  61. ^ Douglas Linder (30 November 1881). . Famous Trials: The O. K. Corral Trial. Archived from the original on 11 December 2005. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
  62. ^ . 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 30 January 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  63. ^ "Grand Jury Indictment for the Killing of Frank Stilwell". 25 March 1882. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  64. ^ "Earp Vendetta Ride". Legends of America. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  65. ^ a b Weiser, Kathy. "Johnny Harris Behan – 1st Sheriff of Cochise County". LegendsofAmerica.com. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  66. ^ Roy B. Young (1999). Cochise County Cowboy War. Young and Sons Enterprises, Apache O.K. ASIN B0006R64NY.
  67. ^ Hornung, Chuck (2016). Wyatt Earp's Cow-Boy Campaign: The Bloody Restoration of Law and Order Along the Mexican Border, 1882. McFarland & Company. p. 26. ISBN 978-1476663449.
  68. ^ "Pioneer Days in Tombstone". San Francisco Call. 7 December 1897. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  69. ^ "Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates online" (PDF).
  70. ^ Wyatt Earp's Cow-boy Campaign
  71. ^ "Tombstone - 00:16". Caption Swap.

Further reading

  • Tefertiller, Casey (1997). Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-18967-7.

External links

  • Photo of Behan
  • Tombstone Gaming License Signed by Sheriff Johnny Behan Shapell Manuscript Foundation
  • Johnny Behan at Find a Grave

July 21, 2023
johnny, behan, john, harris, behan, october, 1844, june, 1912, american, enforcement, officer, politician, served, sheriff, cochise, county, arizona, territory, during, gunfight, corral, known, opposition, earps, behan, sheriff, yavapai, county, from, 1871, 18. John Harris Behan October 24 1844 June 7 1912 was an American law enforcement officer and politician who served as Sheriff of Cochise County in the Arizona Territory during the gunfight at the O K Corral and was known for his opposition to the Earps Behan was sheriff of Yavapai County from 1871 to 1873 He was married and had two children but his wife divorced him accusing him of consorting with prostitutes He was elected to the Seventh Arizona Legislative Assembly representing Yavapai County In 1881 Wyatt Earp served for about five months as undersheriff of the eastern half of Pima County When Wyatt resigned Behan was appointed to fill his place which included the mining boomtown Tombstone When Cochise County was formed in February 1881 Behan was appointed as its first sheriff Tombstone became the new county seat and the location of Behan s office Sadie Marcus was his mistress possibly as early as 1875 in Tip Top Arizona and certainly from 1880 until she found him in bed with another woman and kicked him out in mid 1881 Johnny BehanBornJohn Harris Behan 1844 10 24 October 24 1844Westport Missouri USDiedJune 7 1912 1912 06 07 aged 67 Tucson Arizona USNationalityAmericanOccupation s Sheriff Cochise County Arizona Territory member of Territorial Legislature prison wardenKnown forArizona Territory legislative representative Cochise County Undersheriff testified against Earps and Doc Holliday during the Spicer Hearing member of Ten Percent Ring SpousesVictoria Zaff divorced Josephine Marcus common law Children2SignatureAfter the Gunfight at the O K Corral Behan testified at length against the Earps He supported the Cowboys statements that they had raised their hands and offered no resistance and that the Earps and Doc Holliday had murdered three cowboys After the Earps were exonerated Deputy U S Marshal Virgil Earp was maimed in an ambush on December 28 1881 and assistant deputy Morgan Earp was killed by assassins on March 18 1882 The outlaw Cowboys named as suspects in both shootings were either let go on a technicality or were provided alibis by fellow Cowboys Wyatt Earp killed one of the suspects Frank Stilwell in Tucson Deputy U S Marshal Wyatt and his federal posse set out after other suspects pursued by Behan and his county posse composed mostly of Cowboys Behan s posse never caught up with the much smaller federal posse The Earps left Tombstone under a cloud of suspicion Sadie left Tombstone for San Francisco in early 1882 and Wyatt Earp followed her to San Francisco where they began a lifelong relationship that lasted 46 years Behan was arrested for graft and later failed to win re election as sheriff He later was appointed as the warden of the Yuma Territorial Prison and had various other government jobs until his death in 1912 Contents 1 Early life 2 Moves to Arizona 2 1 Marriage and family 2 2 Political office 2 3 Meets Sadie Marcus 2 4 Divorce from Victoria Zaff 2 5 Opens saloon in Tip Top 3 Moves to Tombstone 3 1 Sadie Marcus joins him 3 2 Elected Undersheriff and sheriff 3 3 Corruption charges 3 4 His son Albert in Tombstone 3 5 Beginnings of friction with Wyatt Earp 3 6 Split from Sadie 3 7 Affiliation with the Cowboys 3 8 Gunfight at the O K Corral 3 9 Behan attempts arrest 3 10 Behan testimony 3 11 Testimony discredited 3 12 Seeks Earps arrest 4 Later life 5 Tombstone legacy 6 Death and burial 7 Popular culture 8 Notes 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External linksEarly life EditBehan was born on October 24 1844 1 2 3 notes 1 4 in Westport Missouri in what is now Kansas City the third of nine children His parents who had wed on March 16 1837 in Jackson County Missouri were Peter Behan a carpenter from County Kildare Ireland 5 and Sarah Ann Harris a native of Madison County Kentucky John Harris Behan was named for his mother s family and his maternal grandfather although the 1900 Federal census reports an 1845 date of birth for him notes 2 Behan moved west to San Francisco working as a miner and a freighter During the American Civil War Behan was a 19 year old civilian employee of Carleton s Column of Union Volunteers in California He fought in the Battle of Apache Pass on July 14 15 1862 1 and in 1863 settled in Tucson where he found work delivering freight to military installations 6 In 1864 he served as a clerk to the First Arizona Legislative Assembly in Prescott the territorial seat This brought 19 year old Behan into contact with some of the most influential men in the state 7 108 Moves to Arizona EditIn 1865 he moved to Prescott the new capital of the Arizona Territory where he speculated in real estate and prospected for minerals While prospecting along the Verde River February 28 1866 five other men and he were attacked by Indians Behan helped fight them off and gained a reputation as a brave man 8 He also operated a sawmill 6 Yavapai County Sheriff John P Bourke married German immigrant and widow Harriet Zaff in 1860 She had four children from her two prior marriages Benjamin Catherine Victoria and Louisa Bourke hired Behan as an undersheriff in 1866 and fourteen year old Victoria caught Behan s eye After two years Behan resigned to run for Yavapai County Recorder which he won in 1868 at age 23 It was one of the most important jobs in the county as he was responsible for maintaining accurate records that were the basis for all taxes collected 7 108 Whenever he was not holding office Behan worked in various saloons or mines 1 Marriage and family Edit Johnny Behan in 1871 about the time of this first marriage Josephine Sadie Marcus a decade later would describe him as young and darkly handsome with merry black eyes and an engaging smile After divorcing Behan Victoria Zaff married Charles A Randall on September 15 1881 in Prescott Arizona Territory This is probably their wedding photo In March 1869 Behan married Bourke s step daughter Victoria Zaff 1 9 in San Francisco Bourke s home town 1 6 Victoria was already pregnant The couple quickly returned to Prescott Arizona Territory Only three months later on June 15 1869 Victoria had her first child Henrietta 8 Victoria and Johnny later had a son Albert Price Behan born in Prescott on July 7 1871 10 7 or 1872 1 d January 27 1949 Political office Edit Behan succeeded his father in law in office as the Yavapai County sheriff from January 1871 to December 1873 11 He took a chance at a more important position and in 1873 successfully ran for office as Yavapai County s representative to the Seventh Arizona Legislative Assembly 12 The Territorial Legislature met in Tucson or Prescott for a six to eight week legislative session and Behan attended his first session in January 1874 in Tucson 1 On September 28 1874 Behan was nominated as sheriff at the Democratic convention in Yavapai County 13 The Prescott Miner reported on October 6 1874 that J H Behan left on an electioneering tour toward Black Canyon Wickenburg and other places north and east of present day Phoenix 14 Behan was gone for 35 days campaigning for the sheriff s office Meets Sadie Marcus Edit Some accounts state that Sadie Marcus ran away from her parents home in San Francisco in 1874 and traveled to Prescott Arizona 1 Her friend Dora Hurst and she with other passengers on a stage coach had been forced to hole up in a ranch house near Cave Creek by Apache Indians who had escaped the Cave Creek reservation Indian fighter Al Sieber was tracking the Apaches 15 Sadie said the famous Indian scout led them to safety According to Sadie she first met John Harris here whom she described as young and darkly handsome with merry black eyes and an engaging smile 16 She said my heart was stirred by his attentions as the heart of any girl would have been under such romantic circumstances The affair was at least a diversion in my homesickness though I cannot say I was in love with him 14 Divorce from Victoria Zaff Edit Behan returned to Prescott on November 11 1874 but lost the election He apparently spent considerable time away from home either at saloons along Prescott s Whisky Row or at nearby brothels 17 His affairs were finally too much for Victoria On May 22 1875 10 Behan s fortunes took a turn for the worse when Victoria filed for divorce While being divorced alone wasn t completely unusual Victoria took the extra step of asserting in her divorce petition that Behan has within two years last past at divers times and places openly and notoriously visited houses of ill fame and prostitution at said town of Prescott 18 79 Witness Charles Goodman testified I saw the defendant Behan at a house of ill fame at which resided one Sada Mansfield commonly called Sada a woman of prostitution and ill fame and the said defendant did at the time and at the house spoken of stay all night with and sleep with the said Sada Mansfield and I know of the defendant having committed similar acts at the same place and at various times than at the particular time referred to 19 48 The divorce action also cited Behan s threats of violence and unrelenting verbal abuse 18 Victoria told the court Behan approached her in a threatening and menacing manner calling me names such as whore and other epithets of like character and by falsely charging me with having had criminal intercourse with other men threatened to turn me out of the house quarreling with and abusing me swearing and threatening to inflict upon me personal violence 10 Behan claimed their daughter Henrietta was not his and Victoria s request for support for Henrietta was stricken from the divorce petition 10 18 93 19 46 He didn t contest any of her other allegations and was ordered to pay 16 16 a month in child support for Albert alone Henrietta died on March 6 1877 at age seven of scarlatina 1 Behan did not restrict his extramarital liaisons to paid arrangements Throughout his life he had sexual relationships with numerous women including the wives of friends and business partners 7 109 Opens saloon in Tip Top Edit In April 1876 Behan became the census marshal for Yavapai County and spent several weeks covering the district and completing his census chores In the fall of 1876 he ran for Yavapai County sheriff and lost by 78 votes In January 1877 he was selected as sergeant at arms for the Ninth Legislative Assembly while it met in Tucson 7 He then moved to the northwest Arizona Territory where he served as the Mohave County Recorder in 1877 and then deputy sheriff of Mohave County in Gillet in 1879 In October 1879 the Weekly Journal Miner reported that Behan was planning on opening a business in Tip Top a then fast growing silver mining town in central Arizona 20 and in November 1879 Behan opened a saloon there He was elected to represent Mohave County at the Tenth Arizona Legislative Assembly which met beginning January 6 1879 in Prescott 21 In the middle of 1879 he relocated to Prescott where he opened a business providing services to local mines and exercised his skills as a lawman by joining several posses While in Prescott he got into a skirmish with some Chinese laundry men and outnumbered was clubbed and beaten by the businessmen 7 110 On June 2 1880 Behan was counted in the 1880 census in Tip Top Arizona as a saloon keeper 22 His was initially the only one of six saloons without a prostitute But 19 year old Sadie Mansfield whose occupation was given as Courtesan 23 the same person that his former wife Victoria had named in their divorce five years earlier was also living in Tip Top On June 2 1880 the U S census had recorded Sadie Mansfield whose occupation was courtesan as living in Tip Top On June 1 or 2 1880 William V Carroll the census enumerator for the 9th ward in San Francisco visited the Marcus home He lived about two blocks from the family He recorded Josephine as a member of the Marcus household information that may have been offered by her parents Sadie Mansfield and Sadie Marcus also were both 19 years old born in New York and their parents were from Prussia 23 According to Josephine at some point she felt ill and returned to her parents home in San Francisco She said Behan followed her and persuaded her parents to approve their engagement Some modern researchers question the likelihood that her father a Reform Jew would approve her union with Behan an unemployed office seeker 14 years older than his daughter a Gentile and a divorced father 24 Sadie later said Behan told her parents that he couldn t leave his livery stable business for a wedding in San Francisco 16 25 and Sadie said her parents approved their engagement 14 Moves to Tombstone EditIn August 1880 Behan sought the nomination as County Recorder in Yavapai County once more but was defeated 7 On September 15 The Epitaph noted his arrival with his eight year old son Albert in Tombstone 6 19 7 Albert who had a hearing impairment had been living with his mother grandmother and his uncle John Bourke Jr in Prescott in 1880 Sadie Marcus joins him Edit Main article Josephine Earp Depending on which version of events is correct Sadie said she first arrived in Tombstone as part of the Pauline Markham troupe on December 1 1879 for a one week engagement The Pauline Markham troupe put on more than a dozen performances of H M S Pinafore from December 24 1879 through February 20 1880 Sadie possibly using the stage name May Bell may have played Cousin Hebe 26 62 27 The city of Prescott Arizona fell in love with the troupe and they stayed for nearly six months 28 Sadie reported later in life that Behan pestered her in San Francisco with letters from Tombstone bragging about the growing town and promising to marry her She said she thought Behan s marriage proposal was a good excuse to leave home again She wrote life was dull for me in San Francisco In spite of my bad experience of a few years ago the call to adventure still stirred my blood 14 Josephine arrived in Tombstone in mid October When Behan avoided setting a wedding date she was ready to end the relationship but Behan persuaded her to stay They lived together as husband and wife 29 and Josephine signed her name as Josephine Behan for a period of time but no marriage record has been found Sadie later said she lived with a lawyer and his wife during this time period 29 Considering that Josephine said she first arrived in Arizona with the Markham troupe on December 1 1879 and she joined Behan in Tombstone in October 1880 her reference to my bad experience of a few years ago means she must have actually been in Arizona for some time before 1879 14 Based on the information Sadie provided the Earp cousins with when correlated with other sources Josephine may have left San Francisco for Prescott as early as October 1874 16 when she was 13 or 14 years old 30 Author Roger Ray thoroughly researched Josephine s story about joining the theater company and found many inconsistencies The Markham troupe was documented as leaving San Francisco on board the Southern Pacific Railroad not a ship nor a stagecoach for Casa Grande Arizona in October 1879 the end of the line Sadie Marcus s name was never included among those on the Markham troupe s rolls in 1879 31 The Yuma Arizona Sentinel reported on October 25 1879 Tuesday arrived a Pinafore Company for Tucson composed of Misses Pauline Markham Mary Bell Belle Howard and Mrs Pring and Messrs Borabeck and McMahon 19 43 From Yuma the troupe took a stagecoach to Tucson not Prescott 19 32 The train trip was not interrupted by Indians 33 Ray states that Josephine didn t have a friend named Dora Hirsch Her real name was Leah Hirschberg whose mother was actually a music teacher This family lived only a few blocks from where Josephine lived with her family But Leah never left San Francisco with Josephine She instead enjoyed some brief success as a juvenile actress on the San Francisco stage during the 1870s 19 Bat Masterson a friend of Wyatt Earp s who was in Tombstone from February 34 41 to April 1881 35 described Sadie to Stuart Lake as an incredible beauty 36 and as the belle of the honkytonks the prettiest dame in three hundred or so of her kind 25 Honkytonk bars in that era often had a reputation as place for prostitution 37 and his choice of language three hundred or so of her kind may have referred to Josephine s work as a prostitute 36 Elected Undersheriff and sheriff Edit Further information on political issues and election fraud Cochise County in the Old West When Behan first arrived in Tombstone in September 1880 he also got a job bar manager in the Grand Hotel a favorite of the outlaw Cowboys and a good place to make political connections 7 112 He also bought part interest in the Dexter Livery Stable with John Dunbar where local businessmen could rent horses 38 76 Wyatt Earp had been appointed undersheriff for the eastern section of Pima County by Pima County Sheriff Charles Shibell on July 29 1880 39 The Cowboys mostly Southerners supported the Democratic ticket and Shibell Elections were held on November 2 and it was expected that Democrat Shibell would be defeated by Republican Bob Paul who Wyatt had supported during the campaign 40 Shibell won the election by a 46 vote margin Opponent Bob Paul filed suit on November 19 alleging ballot box stuffing in the San Simon Cienega precinct since the precinct delivered a 103 to 1 vote for Shibell in a precinct estimated to contain only 15 eligible voters 41 James Johnson later testified for Bud Paul in the election hearing and said that the ballots had been left in the care of Democrat Phin Clanton 42 Meanwhile a week after the election on November 9 1880 Earp resigned 43 The position of undersheriff was now open and Shibell immediately selected Democrat Johnny Behan to serve as Tombstone area undersheriff 44 In February 1881 the San Simon results were thrown out by the election commissioners 41 but Shibell filed an appeal Shibell was finally removed from office in April and replaced by Bob Paul But the election was now moot On February 1 1881 during the vote counting investigation the eastern area of Pima County containing Tombstone had been split off to form the new Cochise County Behan s partner in the Dexter Livery John Dunbar through his family in their home town in Bangor Maine was close family friends of the powerful Senator James G Blaine one of the most powerful Republican congressmen of his time The Dunbars used their influence to help Behan get appointed sheriff of the new Cochise County in February 1881 45 76 Behan had already served two terms in the Territorial Legislature and was more politically connected than Earp When the state created Cochise County Governor John C Fremont appointed and the territorial legislature approved Behan as sheriff on February 10 1881 46 In a back room deal with Wyatt Earp he promised Wyatt Earp a position as Cochise County undersheriff if Earp the only other previous undersheriff for Tombstone would not oppose Behan s appointment Behan took office in the new position in April with his offices in the county seat Tombstone but reneged on the deal with Earp appointing prominent Democrat Harry Woods instead Later that year Behan gave a contrived explanation of his actions during the hearings after the gunfight at the O K Corral He said he broke his promise to appoint Earp because of an incident shortly before his appointment Searching for a stolen horse belonging to him Wyatt learned in late 1880 that the horse was in nearby Charleston Wyatt spotted Billy Clanton attempting to leave town with the horse and hand on his gun persuaded Billy to release it 47 Behan was in Charleston to serve a subpoena on Ike Clanton Billy carried the subpoena from Behan to Ike using Wyatt s horse Ike was hopping mad when Behan finally found him for Earp had told Clanton that Behan had taken a posse of nine men down there to arrest him 48 Behan took offense at Wyatt s tactics and changed his mind about appointing Wyatt Holliday reported in an interview in 1882 that from that time a coolness grew up between the two men 49 164 Corruption charges Edit As Cochise County sheriff one of Behan s duties was collecting prostitution gambling liquor and theater fees taxes for which he received 10 of all proceeds He developed a reputation for graft and was seen as the head of the Ten Percent Ring 50 67 Rumors of graft and corruption followed him during his tenure as sheriff 18 On January 31 1882 Behan was arrested for collecting bills totaling 300 twice arraigned in front of Justice Stilwell and discharged due to a technicality 51 In 1882 after Southern Pacific Railroad completed laying tracks and building facilities across the northern portion of Cochise County he assessed them 8 000 000 which they appealed The Board of Supervisors reduced the assessment to 1 000 000 substantially reducing Behan s take by 25 000 40 His son Albert in Tombstone Edit Behan s ex wife Victoria in 1881 and sent Albert to live with his father in Tombstone sometime afterward Behan was already living with Sadie in 1880 and Albert grew close to her This relationship lasted for much of the rest of their lives 1 Beginnings of friction with Wyatt Earp Edit Wyatt Earp in about 1870 Wyatt Earp testified later saying that he had promised not to publicly campaign to the governor against the appointment not election of Behan in return for an appointment by Behan as Behan s own undersheriff But after being appointed Behan appointed another man Southern Democrat Harry Woods to the position that Wyatt thought would go to him At the preliminary hearing into Ike s murder charges against the Earps after the gunfight at the O K Corral Behan explained that he appointed Woods rather than Earp due to an incident involving a stolen horse of Virgil Earp s which was recovered by Wyatt from Billy Clanton This happened sometime after Behan had been appointed undersheriff in November 1880 and his move to Cochise County sheriff the next spring At the time Wyatt was not a law officer but had used the threat of Behan riding out to the Clantons ranch as a bluff to get Clanton to turn over the horse As it happened Behan was riding to the ranch to serve a subpoena related to the ballot box stuffing incident not to recover the horse and the incident embarrassed the Cowboys and also Behan who for a time had been made to look like he was supporting Earp against the Cowboys Split from Sadie Edit Sometime during early 1881 Sadie arrived home to find Behan in bed with the wife of a friend of theirs and she kicked Behan out 29 of the home they had built with her father s money 25 One version of the story is that Sadie had taken Albert who had a hearing impairment to San Francisco for treatment Upon their return they arrived late in the evening and a day earlier than expected They found Behan in bed with another woman 1 Behan was embarrassed by the public breakup Most Tombstone residents thought that Marcus and Behan were legally married Her breakup with Behan was publicized by The Tombstone Epitaph Tombstone diarist George W Parsons never mentioned seeing Wyatt and Sadie together and neither did John Clum in his memoirs 52 235 Earp had been in a common law marriage with Mattie Blaylock since about 1873 and she was listed as his wife in the 1880 census 53 47 53 65 It is not known when Earp and Blaylock ended their relationship except that after the gunfight at the O K Corral she went to Colton California where the rest of the Earp family lived She waited for Earp to come get her there and when he didn t she resumed a life of prostitution in Pinal Arizona where on July 3 1888 she took a lethal dose of laudanum together with alcohol Her death was officially ruled as suicide by opium poisoning 54 Affiliation with the Cowboys Edit Further information on illegal activities The Cowboys Cochise County The records show evidence that Cochise County Marshall Behan was sympathetic to the interests of and a friend to Ike Clanton Curly Bill Brocius as well as Johnny Ringo and a group of cattle rustlers and ranchers loosely known as Cowboys Some of the Cowboys were also active as rustlers in the U S side of the border after the Mexicans lowered tariffs and stepped up military patrols after 1882 Frank Stilwell was an assistant Deputy under Behan for several months until shortly before he was a suspect in the Bisbee stage holdup Behan employed several of the outlaws as sheriff s deputies during their pursuit of Deputy U S Marshal Wyatt Earp s posse after he was alleged to have killed Frank Stilwell in Tucson Gunfight at the O K Corral Edit Main article Gunfight at the O K Corral Tombstone Arizona Territory in 1891 In August 1881 Behan fired deputy Frank Stilwell for accounting irregularities 55 Stilwell was arrested by a combined federal and sheriff s posse a month later for a Bisbee stage robbery an action that would indirectly lead to the O K Corral gunfight Behan was a key player in the events immediately preceding the shootout at the O K Corral on October 26 1881 Behan went down to try to disarm the Cowboys carrying weapons in violation of city ordinance Behan attempted to persuade Frank McLaury to give up his weapons but Frank insisted that he would only give up his guns after City Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers were disarmed While Ike Clanton was planning to leave town Frank McLaury said he had decided to remain behind to take care of some business A letter written afterward by their older brother William McLaury a judge in Fort Worth Texas claimed that both Frank and Tom were planning to conduct business before leaving town to visit him in Fort Worth Billy Clanton who had arrived on horseback with Frank intended to go with the McLaurys to Fort Worth 56 After Behan talked to the Cowboys he saw the Earps and Holliday walking down Fremont Street He walked about 22 or 23 steps and intercepted them at Bauer s Butcher Shop Wyatt said he gave them conflicting information First he told Virgil For God s sake don t go down there or you will get murdered When Virgil replied I am going to disarm them Behan said I have disarmed them 48 Later on Behan insisted he had said he went to see the Cowboys only for the purpose of arresting and disarming them 56 Behan attempts arrest Edit The lawmen killed three Cowboys Tom McLaury Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury Virgil Morgan and Doc Holliday were wounded As the lawmen were carried to their homes they passed in front of the Sheriff s Office and Johnny Behan told Wyatt Earp I will have to arrest you Wyatt paused two or three seconds and replied very forcibly I won t be arrested today I am right here and am not going away You have deceived me You told me these men were disarmed I went to disarm them 57 27 Behan testimony Edit As provided by territorial law Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the four lawmen Behan testified for the prosecution during the preliminary hearing supporting the Clanton s version of events According to the prosecution the Cowboys had offered no resistance 58 Behan gave strong testimony that the Cowboys had not resisted but had thrown up their hands and turned out their coats to show they were not armed 58 He told the court that he heard Billy Clanton say Don t shoot me I don t want to fight He also testified that Tom McLaury threw open his coat to show that he was not armed and that the first two shots were fired by the Earp party 56 Behan testified that from the time the Earps passed him by to confront the Cowboys he had watched them closely Under cross examination by attorney Thomas Fitch he admitted seeing Holliday carrying the messenger shotgun towards the confrontation All the witnesses testified that Holliday had been seen with a shotgun Behan also testified he was concentrating on the Earps during the gun fight but he did not see the shotgun used He insisted that Holliday fired the first shot from a nickel plated revolver 56 But the coroner had already testified that Tom McLaury was killed by a shotgun blast For Behan s testimony to make any sense the court would have to believe that Holliday marched down Fremont Street carrying a shotgun put it aside in order to pull out his pistol fired the first shot presumably at Billy Clanton and then picked up the shotgun in order to kill Tom McLaury all in the space of a few seconds 59 95 Behan s sympathy to the Cowboy was well known and documents were located in 1997 that showed Behan served as guarantor for a loan to Ike Clanton during the Spicer hearing that followed 60 Testimony discredited Edit Three defense witnesses gave key evidence that discredited Behan s testimony One of the most notable witnesses was H F Sills an AT amp SF RR engineer who had just arrived in town and knew none of the parties involved The second key witness was Addie Bourland a dressmaker whose shop was across the street from the gunfight and the third was Judge J H Lucas of the Cochise County Probate Court who corroborated Addie Bourland s testimony Justice Wells Spicer ruled on November 30 that there was not enough evidence to indict the men 61 Seeks Earps arrest Edit On December 28 1881 Virgil Earp was ambushed and maimed On March 18 assassins shot through a window and killed Morgan Earp The Cowboys who were identified as suspects in both cases got off on either legal technicalities or were provided alibis by men who said they were in Charleston at the time Morgan was shot Wyatt felt he had no choice but to take the law into his own hands 62 On March 20 while escorting Virgil and his wife Addie through Tucson to catch a train new Deputy U S Marshal Wyatt Earp and Warren Earp Doc Holliday Johnson and Sherman McMaster shot Frank Stilwell as he was lying in wait in the train yard Justice of the Peace Charles Meyer issued arrest warrants for the Earp posse He sent a telegram to Tombstone telling Behan they were wanted in Tucson for killing Stilwell The telegraph office manager was a friend to the Earps and delayed delivery long enough to allow the Earps and their associates to get ready to leave town Tuesday evening Behan got the telegram in the early evening 63 He found the men in the lobby of the Cosmopolitan Hotel heavily armed He told Wyatt he wanted to see him Wyatt replied Johnny if you re not careful you ll see me once too often 60 64 In September 1882 after the Earp Vendetta Ride Behan had a feud with his own deputy Billy Breakenridge An investigation found that Behan had somehow set aside 5 000 in funds while he was sheriff from unknown sources 65 Due to public and legislative unhappiness with Behan s performance he was last on the Democratic Party s list of nominees for sheriff an unusual result for a seated sheriff Behan failed to gain the nomination and thus left office at the end of his term in November 1882 Later life EditBehan lived primarily in Tombstone through 1886 In 1887 he moved to Yuma where he became the assistant superintendent of the Yuma Penitentiary He killed one of several prisoners who died during a large escape attempt saving a guard s life 6 On April 7 1888 he was promoted to prison superintendent serving until July 1890 6 His management of the prison was marked by prison disorder and mismanagement of public funds generating complaints by the press The Arizona Republic noted that 50 000 had passed through prison official s hands without any accounting He faced censure for misuse of public funds and for running the prison in a coarse and brutal manner in 1890 18 79 80 The complaint against him specifically cited the prison conditions afforded Manuela Fimbres a woman incarcerated in the Yuma Prison She was allowed to roam free within the prison and she became pregnant delivered a child and got pregnant again while he was warden 18 80 Former Tombstone resident and writer George W Parsons commented that he thought Behan was on the wrong side of the bars 65 After twenty seven years in Arizona Behan moved east and in 1891 was in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and by 1892 was in a commission business in Washington D C He worked in various government and commissary capacities to the end of his life 66 On July 3 1893 he became an Inspector at Port of Customs at El Paso Texas On March 12 1894 he received a 50 percent pay increase and was elevated to the position of Chinese Exclusion Inspector Behan had been a founding member of the Anti Chinese League in Tombstone 67 For the next several years he traveled throughout the southwest arresting illegal Chinese immigrants In 1897 he worked in the U S Patent Office until at the outbreak of the Spanish American War Behan volunteered for and became corral master or quartermaster at Tampa Florida When this conflict ended trouble in the Far East began and in 1900 he served overseas during the Boxer Rebellion 6 In 1901 he was living in Willard s Hotel at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D C The census gave his occupation as Promoter 40 After the war ended he returned to Tucson in 1901 where he became the business manager for the Tucson Citizen He then moved to El Paso Texas where he worked as a purchasing agent for Texas Bitulithic a paving company While in El Paso during 1908 he campaigned for sheriff but lost On December 14 1910 the acting governor of Arizona Territory gave him a commission as a railroad policeman in Arizona He followed that with work supervising survey parties repairing levee breaks on the lower Colorado River During 1911 12 he was head of the commissary for the Arizona Eastern Railroad 6 Tombstone legacy EditLong after the gunfight Behan continued to spread rumors about the Earps On December 7 1897 he was quoted in a story in the Washington Post which reported that he was staying at the Riggs House a local hotel The story was reprinted by the San Francisco Call which quoted Behan describing the Earp s lawbreaking behavior in Tombstone 68 The Clanton brothers and the McLowrys were a tough lot of rustlers who were the main perpetrators of the rascailly rife in that region Between them and Earps rose a bitter feud over the division of the proceeds of the looting The Earp boys believed they had failed to get a fair divide of the booty and swore vengeance They caught their former allies in Tombstone unarmed and shot three of them dead while their hands were uplifted Behan went on to say They were hauled up before a Justice of the Peace Warrants were issued for their arrest and summoning a posse I went out to bring the Earps in They were chased entirely out of the country and Tombstone knew them no more Death and burial EditBehan died at St Mary s Catholic Hospital in Tucson Arizona on June 7 1912 His funeral was conducted by the Arizona Pioneers Historical Society and their eulogy declared he held positions of public trust and in all was active faithful and honest 18 94 The cause of death was arterial sclerosis and secondarily syphilis which he had contracted thirty years earlier in 1882 while sheriff in Tombstone The source of some of the information on the death certificate was Behan s son Albert 69 John Behan was buried on the day after his death in Tucson s Holy Hope Cemetery Enthusiasts of old west history placed a commemorative plaque near the site in 1990 70 Popular culture EditIn the 1993 film Tombstone Behan Jon Tenney introduces himself to Wyatt Earp Kurt Russell Besides sheriff I m also tax collector Captain of the Fire Brigade and Chairman of the Nonpartisan Anti Chinese League 71 Notes Edit John H Behan s Arizona death certificate lists his date of birth as October 1845 in Westport Jackson County Missouri However the same certificate lists his age of death as 67 not 66 which it would have been for a birth year of 1844 The birth date of October 1844 from the 1900 census was presumably provided by Behan himself at the time and gives a death age of 67 that agrees with the death certificate Behan was living in a boarding house at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC and is listed as a promoter born in Missouri in October 1844 1900 Federal Census for Washington D C Enumeration District 81 Sheet Number 3 Line 18 This is also corroborated by the 1910 Census for Tucson Arizona where he was enumerated in the 2nd Ward of Tucson Pima County Territory of Arizona Pima County Enumeration District No 103 Sheet 13 A Line 31 References Edit a b c d e f g h i j k Riggs Ed July 2011 John Harris Behan PDF Sierra Valley Historical Society Newsletter 8 2 3 Retrieved 13 September 2014 Twelfth Census of the United States United States census 1900 Washington D C roll ED 81 page 3 line 18 Thirteenth Census of the United States United States census 1900 Tucson Pima County Territory of Arizona roll ED 103 page 13A line 31 John Behan Archived from the original on 29 June 2011 1850 United States Census United States census 1880 Kaw Township Jackson County Missouri page 25A line 36 42 Retrieved on 20 June 2011 a b c d e f g h Metz Leon C 2002 The Encyclopedia of Lawmen Outlaws and Gunfighters New York Checkmark ISBN 978 0 8160 4544 0 a b c d e f g h i Guinn Jeff 2012 The Last Gunfight The Real Story of the Shootout at the O K Corral and How it Changed the American West First ed New York Simon amp Schuster Paperbacks ISBN 978 1 4391 5425 0 a b Johnson David 2008 John Ringo King of the Cowboys His Life and Times from the Hoo Doo War to Tombstone Denton University of North Texas Press p 157 ISBN 978 1 57441 243 7 Victoria Zaff Gravestone a b c d Collins Jan MacKell 13 January 2015 The Wife of Wyatt Earp s Sworn Enemy True West Magazine Archived from the original on 28 April 2015 Retrieved 9 June 2015 Yavapai County Sheriff Office Annual Report PDF Retrieved 1 June 2018 Wagoner Jay J 1970 Arizona Territory 1863 1912 A Political history Tucson University of Arizona Press p 511 ISBN 0 8165 0176 9 1800 United States Census United States census 19800 9th Ward San Francisco California page 455C Family History film 1254075 National Archives film number T9 0075 Retrieved on 20 June 2011 a b c d e Mitchell Carol February March 2001 Lady Sadie True West Magazine Michno Gregory F 2003 Encyclopedia of Indian Wars Western Battles and Skirmishes 1850 1890 Missoula Mont Mountain Press Pub Co ISBN 978 0 87842 468 9 a b c Mitchell Carol Lady Sadie True West Magazine Retrieved 3 June 2011 Collins Jan Mackells 13 January 2015 The Wife of Wyatt Earp s Sworn Enemy True West Magazine Retrieved 1 June 2018 a b c d e f g Butler Anne M 1987 Daughters of Joy Sisters of Misery Prostitutes in the American West 1865 90 paperback ed Urbana Ill University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0 252 01466 6 a b c d e Monahan Sherry 2013 Mrs Earp First ed TwoDot ASIN B00I1LVKYA Mitchell Carol Lady Sadie True West magazine Retrieved 4 June 2011 Wagoner Jay J 1970 Arizona Territory 1863 1912 A Political history Tucson University of Arizona Press p 514 ISBN 0 8165 0176 9 1880 United States Census United States census 1880 Tip Top Yavapai Arizona Territory page 414C Retrieved on 20 June 2011 a b 1880 United States Census United States census 1880 Tip Top Yavapai Arizona Territory page 413A Retrieved on 20 June 2011 Rochlin Harriet The Earps Josie and Wyatt s 47 Year Odyssey Retrieved 29 June 2011 a b c Barra Alan Who Was Wyatt Earp American Heritage Retrieved 21 June 2011 Eppinga Jane 2001 Tombstone Charleston SC Arcadia ISBN 978 0 7385 2096 4 Tefertiller Casey 1997 Wyatt Earp the Life Behind the Legend New York J Wiley ISBN 978 0 471 18967 1 Former University of Arizona Professor Pat Ryan identified May Bell as Josephine Marcus in his article Tombstone Theatre Tonight without providing any sources Collins Tom Stage struck Songsters Operetta in Territorial Prescott Settlers in the Sun Kissed Land the Amateur Theatre in Territorial Prescott 1868 1903 Prescott Arizona Sharlot Hall Museum a b c Rasmussen Cecilia 4 June 2000 LA Then and Now Mrs Wyatt Earp Packed Her Own Punch Los Angeles Times Retrieved 29 June 2011 Morey Jeffrey J October December 1994 The Curious Vendetta of Glenn G Boyer Quarterly of the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History NOLA XVIII 4 22 28 Boardman Mark 30 September 2013 Sadie vs Josie TrueWestMagazine com Archived from the original on 5 October 2013 Retrieved 9 September 2014 Paula E Hyman Deborah Dash Moore ed 1997 Jewish Women in America An Historical Encyclopedia Vol 1 A L New York Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 91934 0 Jay Roger 19 March 2013 Mansfield Marcus Part One Archived from the original on 11 September 2014 Retrieved 10 September 2014 Woog Adam 2010 Wyatt Earp Chelsea House Publications p 110 ISBN 978 1 60413 597 8 Biographical Notes Bat Masterson p 206 Archived from the original on 18 November 2010 Retrieved 14 April 2011 a b Lackmann Ron 1997 Women of the Western Frontier in Fact Fiction and Film first ed Jefferson N C McFarland p 56 ISBN 978 0 786 40400 1 Melissa Hope Ditmore ed 2006 Encyclopedia of prostitution and sex work Volume 2 London Greenwood Publishing Group p 407 ISBN 0 313 32970 2 Marks Paula Mitchell 1996 And Die in the West The Story of the O K Corral Gunfight Oklahoma Paperbacks ed Norman University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 978 0 8061 2888 7 Charles A Shibell Archived from the original on 16 August 2011 Retrieved 20 September 2010 a b c Riggs Ed August 2011 John Harris Behan PDF Sierra Valley Historical Society Newsletter 8 3 Archived from the original PDF on 15 May 2015 Retrieved 13 September 2014 a b Wyatt Earp vs Curly Bill Archived from the original on 1 December 2004 Retrieved 5 May 2011 Johnson David 1996 John Ringo first ed Stillwater OK Barbed Wire Press ISBN 978 0 935269 23 9 Resignation of the Office of Deputy Sheriff of Pima County 9 November 1880 Retrieved 7 March 2011 Wyatt Earp Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 Retrieved 11 April 2011 Brown Richard Maxwell 1994 No Duty to Retreat Violence and Values in American History and Society first ed Norman University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 978 0 8061 2618 0 John Orlando Dunbar Cochise County Arizona Archived from the original on 13 August 2011 Retrieved 11 June 2011 The Life and Times of Billy Clanton 1862 1881 Retrieved 11 March 2011 a b Douglas Linder 2005 Testimony of Wyatt S Earp in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp Holliday Case Famous Trials The O K Corral Trial Archived from the original on 3 February 2011 Retrieved 6 February 2011 Jahns Patricia 1998 The Frontier World of Doc Holliday Lincoln University of Nebraska Press p 305 ISBN 978 0 8032 7608 6 Retrieved 14 April 2011 Urban William 2003 Wyatt Earp The O K Corral and the Law of the American West The Rosen Publishing Group Inc p 67 ISBN 9780823957408 Discharged from Custody Cowboys Surrendered Sacramento Daily Union 2 February 1882 Retrieved 16 October 2014 Barra Alan December 1998 Who Was Wyatt Earp American Heritage Magazine 49 8 Archived from the original on 7 May 2006 a b Eppinga Jane 2009 Around Tombstone Ghost Towns and Gunfights Charleston SC Arcadia Pub p 128 ISBN 978 0 7385 7127 0 Standard Certificate of Death PDF State of Arizona Department of Commerce Retrieved 12 May 2011 Wild West Outlaws and Lawmen Frank Stillwell thewildwest org Archived from the original on 20 September 2015 Retrieved 19 November 2015 a b c d Douglas Linder 2005 Testimony of John Behan in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp Holliday Case Famous Trials The O K Corral Trial Archived from the original on 15 December 2010 Retrieved 7 February 2011 Dodge Fred Lake Carolyn 1999 Under Cover for Wells Fargo The Unvarnished Recollections of Fred Dodge Norman University of Oklahoma Press p 336 ISBN 978 0 8061 3106 1 Archived from the original on 3 January 2014 a b Linder Douglas 2005 The Earp Holliday Trial Retrieved 25 February 2011 Lubet Steven 2006 Murder in Tombstone The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp New Haven Conn Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 11527 7 a b Gunfight at the O K Corral Did Tom McLaury Have a Gun 5 September 2006 Retrieved 7 February 2011 Douglas Linder 30 November 1881 Decision of Judge Wells Spicer after the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp Holliday Case Famous Trials The O K Corral Trial Archived from the original on 11 December 2005 Retrieved 11 February 2011 WGBH American Experience Wyatt Earp Complete Program Transcript season 22 episode 2 25 January 2010 Archived from the original on 30 January 2017 Retrieved 13 January 2014 Grand Jury Indictment for the Killing of Frank Stilwell 25 March 1882 Retrieved 26 February 2011 Earp Vendetta Ride Legends of America Retrieved 11 May 2011 a b Weiser Kathy Johnny Harris Behan 1st Sheriff of Cochise County LegendsofAmerica com Retrieved 29 May 2011 Roy B Young 1999 Cochise County Cowboy War Young and Sons Enterprises Apache O K ASIN B0006R64NY Hornung Chuck 2016 Wyatt Earp s Cow Boy Campaign The Bloody Restoration of Law and Order Along the Mexican Border 1882 McFarland amp Company p 26 ISBN 978 1476663449 Pioneer Days in Tombstone San Francisco Call 7 December 1897 Retrieved 2 October 2014 Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates online PDF Wyatt Earp s Cow boy Campaign Tombstone 00 16 Caption Swap Further reading EditTefertiller Casey 1997 Wyatt Earp The Life Behind the Legend New York John Wiley amp Sons ISBN 0 471 18967 7 External links Edit Biography portalPhoto of Behan Tombstone Gaming License Signed by Sheriff Johnny Behan Shapell Manuscript Foundation Johnny Behan at Find a Grave Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Johnny Behan amp oldid 1156967691, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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