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In This Issue
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Brokeback Foothill
by John Duncklee
Is a dark secret shared by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday behind the famous OK Corral Shootout?
Inquiring minds will want to read this satire — or is it??
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The Dead-Line
by Dave Hoing
A young Union soldier's heart drives him to cross the fence and suffer the consequences. Are some fates worse than death?
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The New Balkan Empire
by Tom Sheehan
Zambaza labored tirelessly to build a new empire for his lost son. But grief turned him hard and cold as stone.
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Stoddard's Gold, Part 1 of 3
by John Putnam
Micah heeded the siren song of the glittering lake of gold, but the menacing Indians and a bloodthirsty
thief had him shaking in his boots. Will the mysterious French-woman's warning save him?
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Triangle of Desire
by Connie Vigil Platt
The sultry Flamenco dancer had vengeance on her mind — but who would pay the price for her dance of death?
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Want all of this month's western stories at once? Click here —
All the Tales
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Brokeback Foothill
by John Duncklee
Historians, writers of the West, and Earpophyles are dashing about in various states of quandary,
amazement, and downright denial. It is all about a bundle of love letters found in an old, time-hardened
leather saddle bag, discovered in one of the myriad mine shafts in Tombstone, "The Town Too Tough to Die."
The question now posed is "Was Tombstone really tough?" Another perplexing question that through the years
plagued the minds of Earpophyles is "Why did Wyatt Earp go to San Francisco when he left Tombstone?" The
letters first surfaced in 1981 and have passed through a succession of owners since that time. They may hold answers to these mysteries.
The current owner of the bundle of love letters, Bowick Treyer, refuses to reveal where he keeps them
for fear that local loyal Earpophyles might try to take possession of the letters to destroy the
valid evidence that the famous gunfighters, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were, in fact, lovers when they
both lived in Tombstone. Many would question the social lives of the famous marshal and the gunfighter dentist,
both of whom have soared to hero reputations, in spite of their roles as murderers in the now famous
"Shoot-out at the OK Corral" in Tombstone.
In some of the letters, Earp and Holliday sounded worried that after Ike Clanton found them
in a rather compromising situation in Big Nose Kate's parlor, news of their sexual preferences would get around
town. Wyatt worried that he might lose his job as marshal and Doc didn't want his reputation as a fast-draw
gunfighter diminished in any way. In several letters the two exchanged ideas about a resolution to their
dilemma. They finally concluded that a forced shoot-out would be the safest remedy because Wyatt and Doc
were confident that they were faster with guns than any of the Clantons or McLowrys.
Threats lashed out against Earp from the Clantons and McLowrys who refused to honor the Tombstone law banning firearms
within the town limits. On October 26, 1881, Wyatt summoned his brothers and Doc. They walked four abreast down
Fremont Street toward the OK Corral. John Clum, editor of the Tombstone Epitaph described the gunfight. In essence,
the Earps won . . . the Clantons lost. Wyatt and
Doc must have sighed in relief that their secret would not be revealed to the townsfolk to ruin their reputations
as hard-core gunfighters.
Shortly after the "only noteworthy event that ever happened in Tombstone" Wyatt tired of Doc's tubercular cough and
Doc tired of Tombstone. Wyatt went to California and Doc sought peace in Colorado.
The will of Bowick Treyor made no mention of the location of the love letters between Marshal Wyatt Earp and John Henry "Doc" Holliday.
The End
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