It all started with me desperately trying to NOT leave Kathy with a mess. As my partner Ken joked yesterday, "Your father's tombstone has three words: He Loved Cars. You don't want yours to say: He Left Me With A Boatload of Crap."
Cleaning and organizing my myriad of crap has been a bear of a project, but it has produced a few happy moments. I found the photo of Bob McCubbin and I shaking hands with the former owners of True West when we bought the magazine in September of 1999. That photo has been missing for at least ten years. I knew I had it, I just couldn't put my hands on it.
Another wonderful gem surfaced yesterday when I discovered a piece of paper given to me by Frederick Nolan back in 1991. it shows the Tunstall murder site and where he believes all the participants were when the shooting started.
The Tunstall Murder Site, by Fred Nolan
This morning I sent the following questions and instructions to Fred and copied The Mapinator:
In the Classic Gunfight coverage I'd like Gus Walker to produce a three-part map, showing the route from the Tunstall ranch to the death site, with the route taken by Fred Waite and the wagon and with call-out boxes showing when the Tunstall group left, and when the Dolan posse showed up at the camp, and then when they left in pursuit.
The second map would show the attacking posse members (Gus, the posse got strung out on the trail and only a few were pushing ahead to get to Tunstall: in fact they rode a couple horses to death doing so). The position of everyone when the first shots were fired.
The third map would show the rocky outcropping where virtually all of Tunstall's men fled, leaving John all alone to face his attackers. What's mind boggling to me is how the killers had the field to themselves for so long: that is, long enough to kill John's horse, put a hat under his head, etc. and NO ONE from Tunstall's group, who he was paying triple the going rate for cowboys, even lifted a finger, or fired a shot in their direction. Just crazy.
Please explain, Fred and I will quote you. Thanks.
_______
Going to be a good one. Stay tuned as we all learn the brutal truth about this brutal slaying that started the Lincoln County War. As a side note, in the recent "Gunslingers" series, they showed Sheriff Brady as the killer! This was quite a shock to all the talking heads (that would be me and my friends who appeared on the show). I know for a fact, every talking head, Johnny Boggs, Mark Lee Gardner, Drew Gomber and myself spent some time explaining what actually happened. My hunch is the directer, Chris Cassels, wanted to give Billy the Kid a more justifiable motive for later shooting Brady from ambush, but that's just a guess.
Yesterday, I also found this faded illustration:
Daily Whipout: "Ignarski at The O.K. Corral"
On October 26, 1981 on the exact spot where Wyatt Earp, his brothers and Doc Holliday squared off against the cowboys, I met Richard Ignarski, who looked like he stepped right out of a Fly tintype. So I took a photo of him, went home and whipped this out.
"Be prepared to ride the cycles and trends of life; success is never permanent and failure is never final."
—Brian Tracy