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TOMBSTONE: THE EARPS, DOC HOLLIDAY, AND THE VENDETTA RIDE FROM HELL

Written by Tom Clavin

SUMMARY:

Published in April 2020 by St. Martin’s Press, this 386-page hardcover is Tom Clavin’s account of the events and immortal characters precipitating the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  What follows is Wyatt Earp’s vengeance ride to avenge his brothers to finally end a three-year feud.  A prologue set in March 1882 has Wyatt sense that his undersized posse may be soon facing a climatic encounter with rival Sheriff John Behan’s own forces.  After the first chapter summarizes Wyatt’s stint with Bat Masterson in 1879 Dodge City, Clavin then analyzes the backstory of how Tombstone was first founded. 

Subsequent chapters explain the how’s and why’s of the various players converging in opulent Tombstone, as rustling, robberies, and murder in the Arizona desert take their toll.  Wyatt Earp’s covert effort to recruit cowardly rustler Ike Clanton to apprehend three fugitive stage robbers is only one of several twists leading up to the historic O.K. Corral showdown.  With the Earp Brothers and ‘Doc’ Holliday exonerated for the deaths of three cowboys/rustlers, a shadowy conspiracy bent on retaliation decimates Wyatt’s immediate family. 

Leading a federal posse out of Tombstone, Wyatt pursues the elusive culprits who permanently maimed one brother and brutally murdered another.  Clavin concludes his project with an epilogue revealing the fates of the various survivors.  

REVIEW:

As far as bolstering the Wyatt Earp biographical genre, Tom Clavin’s Tombstone doesn’t unearth new revelations.  Still, no matter how familiar his material is, Clavin still cranks out a high-caliber rehash.  His conversational style and occasional tidbits of wit are terrific storytelling assets — i.e. how a perpetually hung-over Ike Clanton was evidently an amateur track star, whenever it came to fleeing from/evading bullets. 

By commending Earp-friendly titles (i.e. Casey Tefertiller’s Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend), the fact that Clavin eagerly adopts the traditional viewpoint of the crusading Earps and Holliday vs. a horde of frontier mobsters isn’t a shocker.  As a result, most Old West enthusiasts won’t be disappointed.    

Giving Wyatt and, to a degree, Holliday a wide pass re: their own controversial activities, Clavin mostly aligns his detailed account with the 1993 Tombstone film.  Impressively, he avoids playing up Hollywood melodrama, as Wyatt’s mythical Buntline Special is nowhere to be found in Clavin’s book.  In a further nod to credibility, he acknowledges the socially-aspiring Earps’ various conflicts-of-interest, including a married Wyatt’s discreet affair with Behan’s enigmatic wife/ex-wife, Josephine Marcus.  Best of all, Clavin makes a convincing case re: why the ambivalent Earps felt little alternative in facing down an increasingly brazen threat from renegade cowboys – no matter the mixed perception by Tombstone’s citizenry.    

Ultimately, the author’s faith in Wyatt’s personal integrity and sense of family honor makes his Tombstone a compelling read for anyone — whether they’re armchair historians or not.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

Clavin provides an author’s note and concluding acknowledgments.  There’s also a selected bibliography and an index.  

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                             8 Stars

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BDC
October 2020