Billy clanton biography
Home / Historical Figures / Billy clanton biography
Later this boom town would be renamed Tombstone.
Billy in the 1880 census...
June 16, 1880
Inhabitants in the village of Charleston, Pima County, State of Arizona enumerated by me on the 16th day of June, 1880. Rumors have it, that several cattle workers of "Old Man" Clantons were involved in the killings.
Billys father "Old Man" Clanton is murdered...
August 13, 1881
Newman Haynes "Old Man" Clanton was gunned down in an ambush by Mexicans in Guadalupe Canyon, Animas Valley, New Mexico.
Billy gave the horse back to Wyatt with out incident. Wyatt dropped the issue.
The conflict was the result of suspicion by Tombstone Marshal Wyatt Earp that the Clanton family and their associates were a gang engaged in rustling and then selling stolen cattle plus the belief that they had stolen one of his horses.
Billy was the youngest of three Clanton brothers born into a family of six in Hamilton County, Texas during the civil war to Newman Hayes and Mariah Kelso Clanton.
However, he was later re-interred in Boot Hill at Tombstone, Arizona.
William “Billy” Clanton (1862-1881) — Born in Hamilton County, Texas, Billy moved with his family to Fort Bowie, Arizona, in 1865. The slaughter was later known as the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre. He would survive the attack, but his left arm was crippled for life. Ike and Phin Clanton were arrested for the a.mbush but released because witnesses confirmed they were in Charleston when the attack occurred.
Wyatt and Doc are a.rrested, again...
February 9, 1882
Despite the first release of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday on m.urder charges, Ike Clanton again filed a second murder charge against them, this time in Contention City, a few miles from Tombstone.
Clanton age: 18 Occupation: Keeping dairy
(note: Brother Ike is not listed. Ike fled to Mexico and hid under an assumed name. Over 2000 people show up to show their last respects for Billy Clanton, Tom, and Frank McLaury. Clanton age: 64 Occupation: Keeping dairy
Phineas Canton age: 35 Occupation: Freighter
Wm.
They testified in Calif. Virgil and Morgan Earp were seriously wounded. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday escaped without injuries. All of the members involved became legendary due to the enormous publicity generated by books, newspapers and periodicals printing stories, most mainly fabricating mere fiction. When Holliday asked Ike if he had seen "Will" Leonard and his party, Ike told him he had.
Unsuccessful, he would stay and participate in the gunfight while witnessing his brother fleeing from the scene after starting the altercation before dying in a hail of bullets. Ike thinks about it, but declines a couple of days later.
June 23, 1881
The Arizona Daily Star of Tucson reports that Bill Leonard and Harry Head, two of the alleged stagecoach murderers have been killed in Eureka, N.M.
by the Haslett brothers.
Docs girl blows his cover...
Doc Hollidays live in girlfriend known as Big Nose Kate, signs an affidavit implicating Doc in the stagecoach murders.
Doc is arrested for M.urder...
July 5, 1881
A warrant was issued and Doc Holliday was arrested and charged with complicity in the murder of Bud Philpot and the attempted stage robbery near contention on March 15, 1881.
Over 100 persons testified, many from Tombstone, including Wyatt Earp. In July 1881, Old Man Clanton and several of his rustlers ambushed a group of Mexican cowboys driving a herd through Guadalupe Canyon, killing 19 of them. This would later be known as the Clanton Ranch.
1877
Edward Schieffelin discovers rich veins of silver in Goose Flats, about 12 miles north of Charleston.
Courageous to the end.