Murdered, Shot, Hanged and other dumb ways to die.

So Monday it was off to Tombstone to see the town that was too tough to die, or so the story goes.  Its an hours drive so we got started about 9:00.  Turned out to be a nice day with temps in the high 60s but with a cold wind.  We took a quick drive through town and decided to start off where the residents of the 1880's ended up; Boot Hill Graveyard.

Now if you are a bit squeamish at seeing gravestones or stories of the dead and departed I would suggest skipping this post.  This one, as the title suggests, is all about the tragic and bizarre ends of some of the residents of Tombstone.  My information source is a pamphlet sold for $3.00 at the souvenir shop at the entrance.
The headstones confirm the violent deaths of the current residents and thus the name of the graveyard; Boot Hill.  You will note that this was in the time before Political Correctness.

Poor Peter, just 23 and fresh off the boat from Germany, got in a fight with Thomas Doland and got hit in the back of the head with a poker.  Fatally it turns out.

Now Tom got into a disagreement with another fella about the colour of his shirt and got shot for his opinion.  Not sure if Tom or the other fella were colour blind or he just didn't like the idea of being told his shirt was Chartreuse.

Florentino, or Indian Charlie as he was known, was found dead with several bullet wounds in his body.

A well dressed man, so not a miner, found at the bottom of a 60 foot mine shaft.

 One of several to die when ambushed by Mexicans on a cattle drive.

Shot in the left temple by Wm Clayborne.  Hickey wanted to be Clayborne's drinking buddy and wouldn't take no for an answer.  In the future, if Hickey had a future, when someone carrying a firearm doesn't want to drink with you find someone else.

Frank's horse threw him and Frank's rifle discharged shooting him in the knee.  After several weeks lying in his bunk his friends finally took him to a doctor to have his leg amputated.  Too late, he died.
If only they had Obama Care back in the day, Frank may have survived.






Margarita and Gold Dollar, two dance hall girls, got to quarrelling over a man.  Gold Dollar stabbed Margarita and I assume got the man.  At least till she was arrested and most likely hanged.  

John was supposedly the leader of a gang that was arrested for a robbery in Bisbee.  The other 5 members of the gang were legally hanged and are lying in a neighbouring grave.  John didn't get his day in court.  He was taken from the jail and lynched from a telegraph pole.

 What can I say.  Those Chinaman don't all know Kung Fu

The judge's health was impaired by overwork and died in Tombstone.  See, they even had stress in those days.

A miner, originally from Germany, was found dead in his cabin with 4 bullet wounds.  His mining partner was suspected of killing him after a quarrel.  His partner and the gold were never seen again.

 Not everyone was shot, stabbed or fell down a mining shaft.  Old John committed suicide by ingesting Strychnine.

Lori posing with the most famous residents.  Billy, Tom and Frank were killed in the OK Corral shootout with the Earps and Doc Holliday.

Kearney was blowed up by a blast in a mine.

Hilly was a schoolboy who fell while walking on a pair of stilts.  Injured his back and had a spasm and was dead by morning

 Medicine was a little less sophisticated back then.  Mrs Stump died in childbirth from an overdose of chloroform administered by her doctor.

These two Teamsters were ambushed by Indians.  I didn't know the union went back that far.


OK so they weren't from the Teamsters Union.  Rather teamsters were men who drove a team of horses or mules hauling freight and pretty much everything else.  The predecessor to the truck driver.  Perhaps thats where the Union took the name from.

A 24 year old miner who died from inflammation of the bowels.

Ouch!

Billy was shot by a woman who was much older than he, who was jealously in love with him.
Those older women can be dangerous.  Perhaps thats why we call them COUGARS today.

Johnson innocently bought a stolen horse and suffered the consequences.

Couldn't have said it any better.

So was his last name Dye or did they forget the d.

 Les was a Wells Fargo agent and had a dispute with a man over a package.  Both died.
Les is famous however as he had a better writer for his tombstone

Killeen was shot by Frank Leslie after the two had a disagreement over Killeen's wife.  Leslie then married the widow.

You can't make this stuff up.

Guess a divorce lawyer wasn't available.

Dutch Annie, also known as Queen of the Red Light District.

Perhaps the earlier invention of Penicillin would have extended her reign.

 Hancock made a disparaging remark about some women and John Ringo shot him.

Who said chivalry was dead.

King and Wilson had a discussion about the fastest way to draw which I can only assume led to a competition.

King was right and Wilson was dead wrong.

I wonder where Smiley immigrated from.

These two died of Leprosy.

Mrs Lum had great influence with the Chinese residents.  She apparently had Tong (chinese mafia) affiliations in China.

Wonder if they called her Godmother.

The above information is all factual except of course for the fiction and my own speculation.  I will let you decide which is which.
There were also a number of deaths from various diseases, many of them children.  While the remaining graves in Boot Hill may not be representative of the means of death in this era it certainly does substantiate the title "Wild West"
We are heading over to the OK Corral next.  I hear some trouble may be brewing over there.
Later.