So tell us Wyatt, did the movies get this right? No, no, no, no! So you've probably seen the movie tombstone. maybe you've seen the movie Wyatt Earp There's a scene near the end of both of those a climactic gunfight where Wyatt Earp kills Curly Bill Brocius with a shotgun Mano-A-Mano, in]Tombstone he crosses a raging river to do so and in Wyatt Earp They're surprised in a canyon But in either event they go man to man walking towards one another and shoot each at each other with shotguns Didn't happen that way both movies are complete nonsense. It happened here at this desolate spring So curly bill Brocius and his party was camping here because ironically during the Vendetta right both parties were looking for one another to get the One-up on each other to kill them Curly Bill and his group wanted to kill the Earth party their party wanted to kill them This is really a bi-directional fight, so they're both wandering around all of southeast Arizona occasionally running into each other and having a fight And this is where that fight ended there are very few sources of water in this part of the country even though there was more Water at this time in the 1880s than there is now It was still a dry desolate place the Earp party had recently interrogated and killed Indian Charlie and we're coming over What is now the remnants of an old road at the saddle behind me coming to one of the well-known watering spots the spring? directly in front of Him That's when they crested on this hill and both parties surprised each other not because they actually thought they were going to find each other But they were both coming to the same water supply So, as they're approaching the spring, Earp had a little tinge of intuition, just didn't know why dismounted his horse, held the reins with his left hand and got the shotgun off the pommel he was holding in his right hand as he was approaching the Spring closer and closer suddenly he noticed and recognized the Cowboy Faction below and Curly Bill Brocius is the first thing that went through his mind He brought the shotgun to his shoulder Curly Bill jumped up at the same time Curly Bill fired and Wyatt Earp said he felt the actual fired shot transverse through his coat Realized he was just nearly missed he realized he needed to kill him Fire both barrels at the same time which he said cut him nearly in half at that point the shotgun was empty He hung it back on the pommel went to reach for his winchester as all the other cowboys were Booking for cover into the cottonwood trees could not get it because he fired the shotgun near the horses mouth Startled it, and it was bucking... couldn't get his rifle So we went to get his pistol, He had loosened his belt earlier in the ride for comfort and it had fallen... down to his groin between his legs, and he went to get where it normally would be, it wasn't there, He had to look for it. It was behind him on his leg He got it found it fished for it pulled it out and started applying cover fire with his pistol this ran dry he re-holstered it got his other one fired that dry holstered it pulled As he was trying to get back on the horse pulled his belt back up Jumped on the horse had his nose near the pommel of the saddle when he said a bullet creased it he could smell it was able to get back on the horse was able to get the Winchester out of the Scabbard and apply cover fire as he got the hell out of Dodge Earp had no idea But was wondering through his mind. What's going on? Why are my friends giving me any gunfire and when the minute they saw the Cowboy faction? They actually booked they realized they did not have the upper hand they thought this was a bad scene and they took off When the Cowboys opened up, Texas Jack Vermillions horse was fatally wounded and fell Dead Just a little ways from here with Texas Jack's leg caught under it and at that moment while this gunfights ensuing Wyatt Earp by himself He was trying to get out from under the horse Finally pulled his leg free didn't want to leave his gear behind uninstall his gear put it on like a backpack and ran Everyone else got to the what they called a Rocky escarpment a ridge there's some ridges and rocks over there got to cover and decided they were not going to re-attack because they knew they were coming at this point, and they just left the way they came, so this is the approach [of] the er party to the ridge were but notes to them the Cowboy Faction was camping below as They came [over] the ridge. They suddenly realized that those guys were there surprising both parties What the? What the? Ahhhh! So Curly Bill and his friends were surprised by the sudden presence of the Earp party coming up over the ridge Curly Bill gets mowed down with shotgun fire and the rest of the party run for the trees for some cover in their haste They forget their rifles But they have their six guns they used to be cotton with trees out here Right now because the water is less there's really just live oaks, but we're go ahead and moving in the direction They [moved] to get some cover from their party The exact location of this gunfight is contentious some people have claimed one location after another and they tried to use geographic Mountains and topo maps to prove their point, but we actually have information from an archeological Examination that was done at this site in which .44 and .45 caliber slugs were actually pulled right of that hill there And to my right and behind me There were four horseshoes found with bent nails meaning They were not pulled out manually they were probably from a dead horse with a slug Literally in the middle of them probably explaining a dead horse. That would be Texas Jack Vermillions horse Which died right on the other side of the Ridge after taking incoming fire? Given this forensics information in which wyatt earp fired not only two pistols in this direction which were 45 caliber But a winchester which was 44 caliber [and] the dead horse Seems pretty irrefutable to me it makes sense from the description that makes sense in the distances and this forensic data in my opinion nails It down [alright], so here are the facts a gun fight ensued at this location on March 24th 1882 Those are the facts. Here's what we also know Wyatt Earp the only eyewitness account from the Earp side of it says that [he] fired both barrels of his shotgun And killed Curly Bill Brocius across this ravine The Cowboy Faction says that no one was hit there was a gunfight both parties left the scene and Curly Bill Brocius evaded and moved into Mexico to never be seen again Interestingly though the Nugget which is a newspaper in Tombstone which was allied with the Cowboy faction put out $1,000 for proof of Curly Bill Brocius death The Epitaph [which] was Earps emphasis this put out $2,000 for proof of him being alive No one redeemed either one of those rewards, but Curly Bill was never heard from again I'm inclined [to] believe that he did die [here]. We'll never know this debate continues Thank you for watching another episode of old west Vanette's on in Range TV. Please subscribe tell your friends stay tuned for more you Another thing you might want to remember is I mentioned Curly Bill had an interesting sense of humor and we talked about Curly Bill in one of our earlier Old-West Vignettes about Charleston Arizona in which he was arrested for disrupting the peace at the church there and fined by Justice Jim Burnett and mentioned that he would never go to church again because it was too damn expensive Check out that video as a follow up to this
