Boothill Graveyard

The saddest markers in this wild cemetery are all the ones marked, simply “unknown.” There are a lot of those.

I found brief, fascinating notes on some of the known, identifiable residents at the tremendous website Boothill Graves.

There was:

Three Fingered Dunlap who was shot by Jeff Milton.

Jesse “3-fingered” Dunlap, was one of the members of the High Five gang. He and Wells Fargo agent Jeff Milton played cat and mouse for some time, often wounding each other at their encounters.

Jesse met his end at a railway station in Fairbank, near Tombstone, when the gang tried to rob an express car. Milton nailed him. Jesse’s partners in train robbery booked on outta there, figuring Three Fingered Dunlap was toast. Nope. He lived long enough to rat out the rest of the gang.

Dutch Annie was said to be a generous soul who gave money to miners down on their luck. She was also a prostitute and madam, known as the “Queen of the Red Light District.”

I can’t find any real info about Stinging Lizard who was offed by Cherokee Hall but….GREAT names! I totally need a nom de guerre like that!

James Hickey

1881, Shot by Wm. Clayborne
He was shot in the left temple by Clayborne for his over-insistence that they drink together.

Ah, we can’t really fault Clayborne, can we?. Haven’t we all had a radically pushy chum who just won’t take no for an answer? I mean…rilly now!

John Heath

Taken from county jail and lynched by Bisbee mob, Feb. 22, 1884.
He was called the leader of the five men who were legally hanged and was said to have planned the robbery. He was hanged from a telegraph pole a short distance west of the Court House.

Delia William

1881, Suicide
“Colored” proprietress of a lodging house on Toughnut Street.  Suicide by taking arsenic

And of course there are the most famous residents of Boothill, Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury.

Murdered on the streets of Tombstone, 1881
Tragic results of the O.K. Corral battle, which took place between the Earp Brothers with "Doc" Holliday and the cowboys. Three men were killed and three were wounded.

This took all of, it’s said, 27 seconds and yet there are nine movies (not included made for TV flicks) dedicated to the events of that day.

• Frontier Marshal (1934)
• Frontier Marshal (1939)
• Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (1942)
• My Darling Clementine (1946)
• Gunfight at the O.K.Corral( 1957)
• The Hour of the Gun (1967)
• Doc (1971)
• Tombstone (1993)
• Wyatt Earp (1994)

I’m real keen now on reading about what life was like in this part of the world, way back in the day. None of this glorified, tough guy Hollywood horseshit either. I want to know how Delia William ended up in Tombstone. What was her life like? What was she like?  I want to know about Dutch Annie. And who was “Rook" and why did a "chinaman" shoot him? Was “Teamster,” who was killed by Apaches, a Teamster or was that just his name? George Hand was killed by “injuns?” How? Why?

I wanna know!

 

 

The marker behind the beautiful cactus simply says,"10 Cowboys."