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Johnny Behan

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John H. Behan
Born
John Harris Behan

(1844-10-24)October 24, 1844
Westport, Missouri, USA
DiedJune 7, 1912(1912-06-07) (aged 67)
Tucson, Arizona
Cause of deathArterial sclerosis
NationalityUnited States
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 Spicer Hearing; member of "Ten Percent Gang"
Spouse(s)Victoria Zaff (divorced); Josephine Marcus (common-law)
ChildrenAlbert
Signature
O.K. Corral gunfight
Principal events
Lawmen
Outlaw Cowboys

John Harris Behan (October 24, 1844 – June 7, 1912) was sheriff of Cochise County, 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 Country. 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 Behan's headquarters. 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.

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 19, 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 reelection 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

Johnny H. Behan was born in 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, were carpenter Peter Behan from County Kildare, Ireland,[5] and Sarah Ann Harris, a native of Madison County, Kentucky, in Jackson County, Missouri. John Harris Behan was named for his mother's family and his maternal grandfather.[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.

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, he and a five other men were attacked by Indians. Behan helped fight them off and gained a reputation as a brave man.[7] He also operated a sawmill.[6] Yavapai County Sheriff John P. Bourke hired him as an undersheriff in 1866, and after two years Behan resigned to run for Yavapai County Recorder, which he won in 1868. Whenever he wasn't 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 1860, Bourke had married German immigrant and widow Harriet Zaff, who had four children from her two prior marriages: Benjamin, Catherine, Victoria, and Louisa. Fourteen-year-old Victoria caught Behan's eye, and three years later in March 1869, he married her[1][8] in San Francisco, her step-father's home town.[1][6] The couple returned to Prescott, Arizona Territory, where John had been working, and only three months later, on June 15, 1869, had their first child, Henrietta.[7] Victoria and Johhny had a son, Albert Price Behan, born in Prescott on July 7, 1871[9] or 1872[1] (d. January 27, 1949). Behan was elected to the 7th Arizona Territorial Legislature, which met in Tucson on January 8, 1873, for a six- to eight-week legislative session. The Territorial Legislature met in January once every two years for four to six weeks, and Behan attended his first session in January 1874 held in the territorial capital of Tucson.[1]

Political office

While living in Prescott with this wife and children, Behan served as sheriff of Yavapai County 1871 – 73. He was elected to the Seventh Arizona Legislative Assembly, representing Yavapai Country, in 1873.[10]

On September 28, 1874, Behan was nominated as Sheriff at the Democratic convention in Yavapai County.[11] 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.[12] 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 parent's home in San Francisco in 1874 and traveled to Prescott, Arizona.[1] She and her friend Dora Hurst and 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.[13] Sadie said the famous Indian scout led them to safety. According to Sadie, she first met "John Harris" here, who she described as, "young and darkly handsome, with merry black eyes and an engaging smile".[14] She said "my heart was stirred by his attentions as would 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."[12] Behan returned to Prescott on November 11, 1874 but had lost the election.

Divorce from Victoria Zaff

On May 22, 1875,[9] Behan's wife Victoria filed for divorce, complaining that Behan "at divers times and places openly and notoriously visited houses of ill-fame and prostitution at said town of Prescott."[15]: 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."[16]: 48  The divorce action also cited Behan's threats of violence and unrelenting verbal abuse.[15] 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."[9]

Johnny did not contest any of her allegations and was ordered to pay $16.16 a month in child support for Albert alone. Behan claimed their daughter Henrietta wasn't his, and a request for support for Henrietta was stricken from the divorce petition.[9][15]: 93 [16]: 46  Henrietta died on March 6, 1877 at age seven of scarletina.[1]

Behan didn't restrict his extra-marital liaisons to paid arrangements. Throughout his life, he had sexual relationships with numerous women, including the wives of friends and business partners.[17]: 109 

Opens saloon in Tip Top

In April 1876, Johnny 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.[17] 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,[18] 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.[19] 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 business men.[17]: 110 

On June 2, 1880, Behan was counted in the 1880 census in Tip Top, Arizona as a saloon keeper.[20] His was initially the only one of six saloons without a prostitute. But 19 year old Sadie Mansfield, whose occupation was given as "Courtesan",[21] 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.[21]

According to Josephine, at some point she felt ill and returned to her parent's home in San Francisco. She said Johnny 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.[22] Sadie later said Behan told her parents that he couldn't leave his livery stable business for a wedding in San Francisco[14][23] and Sadie said her parents approved their engagement.[12]

Moves to Tombstone

In August 1880, Behan sought the nomination as County Recorder in Yavapai County once more, but was defeated.[17] On September 15, The Epitaph noted his arrival with his eight-year-old son Albert in Tombstone.[6]: 19 [17] 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
Josephine or Sadie Marcus in 1881.

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.[24]: 62 [25] The city of Prescott, Arizona, fell in love with the troupe, and they stayed for nearly six months.[26]

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 Johnny’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."[12] Josephine arrived in Tombstone in mid-October. When Behan avoided setting a wedding date, she was ready to end the relationship, but Johnny persuaded her to stay. They lived together as husband and wife,[27] 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.[27] 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.[12]

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,[14] when she was 13 or 14 years old.[28] 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.[29]

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."[16]: 43  From Yuma, the troupe took a stagecoach to Tucson, not Prescott.[16][30] The train trip was not interrupted by Indians.[31] 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.[16]

Bat Masterson, a friend of Wyatt Earp's who was in Tombstone from February[32]: 41  to April 1881,[33] described Sadie to Stuart Lake as "an incredible beauty"[34] and as the “belle of the honkytonks, the prettiest dame in three hundred or so of her kind.”[23] Honkytonk bars in that era often had a reputation as place for prostitution[35] and his choice of language ("three hundred or so of her kind") may have referred to Josephine's work as a prostitute.[34]

Elected Undersheriff and sheriff

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

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.[17]: 112  He also bought part interest in the Dexter Livery Stable with John Dunbar, where local businessmen could rent horses.[36]: 76 

Wyatt Earp had been appointed undersheriff for the eastern section of Pima County by Pima County Sheriff Charles Shibell on July 29, 1880.[37] 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.[38]

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.[39] 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.[40] Meanwhile, a week after the election on November 9, 1880, Earp resigned.[41] The position of undersheriff was now open, and Shibell immediately selected Democrat Johnny Behan to serve as Tombstone area undersheriff.[42]

In February 1881, the San Simon results were thrown out by the election commissioners,[39] 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.[43]: 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.[44]

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.[45] 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."[46] 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."[47]: 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."[48]: 67  Rumors of graft and corruption followed him during his tenure as sheriff.[15] 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.[49] 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.[38]

His son Albert in Tombstone

Behan's ex-wife Victoria remarried hardware merchant Charles A. Randall in Prescott, Arizona Territory on September 15, 1881.[50][51][notes 3][notes 4] His mother 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 Country 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[27] of the home they had built with her father's money.[23] 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 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: The Cowboys (Cochise County) and illegal activities

The records show evidence that Cochise County Marshall Behan was sympathetic to the interests of and a friend to Ike Clanton, "Curly Bill" Brocius, 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.

Sometime during early 1881, Josephine arrived home in Tombstone from a trip to San Francisco.[27] One version of the story is that Sadie had taken Behan's son Albert, who was hearing impaired, to San Francisco for treatment. Upon their return, they arrived late in the evening and a day earlier than expected. She found Behan in the home they had built with her father's money and in bed with the wife of a friend of theirs, and she kicked him out.[1][23] Josie formed a close bond with Behan's 9-year-old son Albert, and remained in contact with him throughout the rest of her life. It's unknown when Josephine and Earp began a romantic relationship. They met in San Francisco after Earp left Tombstone.[1]

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

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

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 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."[46] Later on Behan insisted he had said he went to see the Cowboys only "for the purpose of arresting and disarming them."[56]

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.[57] Behan gave strong testimony that the Cowboys had not resisted but either thrown up their hands and turned out their coats to show they were not armed.[57] 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."[58]: 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.[59]

Three defense witnesses gave key evidence that discredited Behan's testimony. One of the most notable witness 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.[60]

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.[61]

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.[62] 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."[59][63]

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.[64] 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.[15]: 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.[15]: 80  Former Tombstone resident and writer George W. Parsons commented that he thought Behan was "on the wrong side of the bars".[64]

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.[65]

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).[citation needed] 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”.[38]

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 New Mexico. 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, Johnny 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.[66]

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."[15]: 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.[67]

John Behan was buried on the day after his death in Tucson's Holy Hope Cemetery, in a grave whose exact location has since been lost. Enthusiasts of old west history placed a commemorative plaque near the site in 1990.[68]

Behan has been depicted in most films involving the Earps and the OK Corral gunfight – most notably in Tombstone (1993) by Jon Tenney, and in Wyatt Earp (1994), by Mark Harmon. In the 1967 film, Hour of the Gun, a character obviously inspired by Behan[citation needed] is portrayed as a corrupt county sheriff named "Jimmy Bryan".

In 1959 and 1960, the actor Lash LaRue played Behan in five episodes of the ABC/Desilu western television series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, starring Hugh O'Brian in the starring role. Steve Brodie played Behan in nine episodes of the same series.[69]

Behan appears as a saloon owner in Tip Top, Arizona, in The Nightjar Women in the weird western anthology Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter by Edward M. Erdelac.

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. ^ Although other sources[who?] claim an 1845 date of birth for John, in the 1900 Federal census, when he was living in a boarding house at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., he is listed as a "promoter", born in Missouri in October 1844. His father is listed as born in Ireland, and his mother was born in Kentucky. 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.
  3. ^ Behan's ex-wife Victoria Zaff (April 18, 1853—May 15, 1889) married Charles A. Randall and is buried in the Bourke-Randall family plot in Citizen's Cemetery in Prescott, Arizona, as is also Henrietta Behan. Son Albert P. Behan (died Jan. 27, 1949 in Prescott) is buried in the Arizona Pioneer's Home Cemetery, (Johnny Behan at Find a Grave).
  4. ^ "Victoria Gravestone".

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ "John Behan".
  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 Johnson, David (2008). John Ringo, King of the Cowboys: His Life and Times from the Hoo Doo War to Tombstone. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-57441-243-7.
  8. ^ "Victoria Zaff Gravestone".
  9. ^ a b c d Collins, Jan MacKell (13 January 2015). "The Wife of Wyatt Earp's Sworn Enemy". True West Magazine. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  10. ^ Wagoner, Jay J. (1970). Arizona Territory 1863 – 1912: A Political history. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 511. ISBN 0-8165-0176-9.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ a b c d e Mitchell, Carol (February–March 2001). "Lady Sadie". True West Magazine.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ a b c Mitchell, Carol. "Lady Sadie". True West Magazine. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ a b c d e Monahan, Sherry (2013). Mrs. Earp (First ed.). TwoDot. ASIN B00I1LVKYA.
  17. ^ a b c d e f 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. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  18. ^ Mitchell, Carol. "Lady Sadie". True West magazine. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  19. ^ Wagoner, Jay J. (1970). Arizona Territory 1863–1912: A Political history. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 514. ISBN 0-8165-0176-9.
  20. ^ 1880 United States Census, United States census, 1880; Tip Top, Yavapai, Arizona Territory; page 414C,. Retrieved on 20 June 2011.
  21. ^ a b 1880 United States Census, United States census, 1880; Tip Top, Yavapai, Arizona Territory; page 413A,. Retrieved on 20 June 2011.
  22. ^ Rochlin, Harriet. "The Earps: Josie and Wyatt's 47-Year Odyssey". Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  23. ^ a b c d Barra, Alan. "Who Was Wyatt Earp?". American Heritage. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  24. ^ Eppinga, Jane (2001). Tombstone. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia. ISBN 978-0-7385-2096-4.
  25. ^ 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.
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ a b c d Rasmussen, Cecilia (4 June 2000). "LA Then and Now: Mrs. Wyatt Earp Packed Her Own Punch". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ Boardman, Mark (30 September 2013). "Sadie vs. Josie". TrueWestMagazine.com. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  30. ^ Paula E. Hyman, Deborah Dash Moore, ed. (5 November 1997). Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1: A-L. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-91934-0.
  31. ^ Jay, Roger (19 March 2013). "Mansfield/Marcus (Part One)". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  32. ^ Woog, Adam (28 February 2010). Wyatt Earp. Chelsea House Publications. p. 110. ISBN 1-60413-597-2.
  33. ^ "Biographical Notes Bat Masterson". p. 206. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  34. ^ 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.
  35. ^ Melissa Hope Ditmore, ed. (2006), Encyclopedia of prostitution and sex work, Volume 2, London: Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 407, ISBN 0-313-32970-2.
  36. ^ Marks, Paula Mitchell (1996). And Die in the West: The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight (Oklahoma Paperbacks ed.). Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2888-7.
  37. ^ "Charles A. Shibell". Retrieved 20 September 2010.
  38. ^ a b c Riggs, Ed (August 2011). "John Harris Behan" (PDF). Sierra Valley Historical Society Newsletter. 8 (3). Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  39. ^ a b "Wyatt Earp vs. Curly Bill". Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  40. ^ Johnson, David (1996). John Ringo (first ed.). Stillwater, OK: Barbed Wire Press. ISBN 978-0-935269-23-9.
  41. ^ "Resignation of the Office of Deputy Sheriff of Pima County". 9 November 1880. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  42. ^ "Wyatt Earp". Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  43. ^ Brown, Richard Maxwell (1994). No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society (first ed.). Norman, OK.: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2618-0.
  44. ^ "John Orlando Dunbar". Cochise County, Arizona. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  45. ^ "The Life and Times of Billy Clanton 1862–1881". Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  46. ^ 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. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  47. ^ Jahns, Patricia (1998). The Frontier World of Doc Holliday. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-8032-7608-6. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  48. ^ Urban, William. Wyatt Earp: The O.K. Corral and the Law of the American West.
  49. ^ "Discharged from Custody Cowboys Surrendered". Sacramento Daily Union. 2 February 1882. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  50. ^ Johnny Behan at Find a Grave
  51. ^ Johnny Behan at Find a Grave
  52. ^ Barra, Alan (December 1998). "Who Was Wyatt Earp?". American Heritage Magazine. 49 (8).
  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. ^ "Wild West Outlaws and Lawmen Frank Stillwell". thewildwest.org. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  56. ^ 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. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  57. ^ a b Linder, Douglas (2005). "The Earp-Holliday Trial". Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  58. ^ Lubet, Steven (2006). Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11527-7.
  59. ^ a b "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: Did Tom McLaury Have a Gun". 5 September 2006. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  60. ^ 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. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
  61. ^ WGBH American Experience: Wyatt Earp, Complete Program Transcript, season 22, episode 2. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2014. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  62. ^ "Grand Jury Indictment for the Killing of Frank Stilwell". 25 March 1882. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  63. ^ "Earp Vendetta Ride". Legends of America. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  64. ^ a b Weiser, Kathy. "Johnny Harris Behan – 1st Sheriff of Cochise County". LegendsofAmerica.com. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  65. ^ Roy B. Young (1999). Cochise County Cowboy War. Young and Sons Enterprises, Apache O.K. ASIN B0006R64NY.
  66. ^ "Pioneer Days in Tombstone". San Francisco Call. 7 December 1897. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  67. ^ "Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates online" (PDF).
  68. ^ Johnny Behan at Find a Grave
  69. ^ "Lash LaRue". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved 10 August 2013.

Additional reading

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