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176 The McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona That same Monday evening Milt Hicks broke out of jail, and with him were Charles “Yank” Thompson and Jim Sharpe. Billy Soule, the jailor, left the jail under the supervision of the keeper, Charles Mason. A “trusty” came to empty slops from the cell where they were housed, but when Mason opened the cell door, he was jumped by Sharpe and held there while Hicks and Thompson ran out. According to Mason: “As the boy went in Sharpe caught me by the coat and said: ‘We have been in here for some time, come in and try it yourself awhile.’ When I was struggling to get away from him Hicks and ‘Yank’ stepped outside the door.” Mason and Sharpe struggled some more during which time Sharpe nearly succeeded in closing the cell door. Before he could, Mason threw the large padlock at Sharpe’s face, cutting him on the cheek. The enraged Sharpe tried clamping the door on Mason’s extended arm “and would have done so, probably breaking my arm, which was between the iron door and the jam, but for the assistance of Jerry Barton, who helped me all he could.”1 Then Sharpe turned and fled. Billy Soule returned, having been told by a Chinese man that there was someone yelling at the jail. As soon as Mason told his story, it was relayed to the sheriff and a search party was organized to find the fugitives. The posse was joined by the sheriff, deputy sheriffs Breakenridge , Lance Perkins and Dave Neagle, city marshal Earp and his brothers, Wyatt and Morgan. The trio of fugitives seemed to have high-tailed it toward Watervale, but darkness came too soon to follow the trail. Even though the city marshal and the sheriff were out most of the night, nothing productive came of it. They returned to Tombstone Tuesday morning, leaving Breakenridge, Neagle and Perkins to continue the search. Early Tuesday morning, October 25, 1881, Tom and Frank McLaury were about ten miles west of their ranch house, having breakfast at the dairy ranch of Jack Chandler, near Antelope Springs below the southern ridges of the Dragoon Mountains. Chandler’s son, Clarence, had recently been at the “Throw Up Your Hands” Twenty-Two 177 An O.K. Corral Obituary McLaury ranch the day the Indians came through. The McLaurys planned to rendezvous in Tombstone to complete some business matters before making their planned trip to Fort Worth and on north to Iowa. Ike Clanton joined them for breakfast, driving a spring wagon to take himself and Tom into town. Frank was working in the Sulphur Spring Valley with a group rounding up cattle for J. R. Frink and returned eastward to work in the valley. While the Nugget reported that ranchers were moving cattle out of the Sulphur Spring Valley, according to the Fort Worth Daily Democrat, “The prices for stock cattle are higher now than they ever have been, but the Stock Journal which ought to be a good authority on such matters says they will be 25 percent higher in less than six months.”2 Tom and Ike drove the spring wagon nineteen miles west to the town of Tombstone in order to return with supplies. They brought no other horses with them. Driving west through the foothills of the Dragoons until the mining camp was in sight across the desert floor, they jogged the team of horses the last few miles, making the last mile uphill until they reached Tombstone early in the afternoon. They left the team and wagon in the care of the West End Corral at Second and Fremont Streets. Both men made deposits at the Pima County Bank, housed in P. W. Smith’s store on the corner of Fourth and Allen Streets. Ike deposited $900 in the name of his brother, Billy. The entry made under Tom’s name was in two amounts: $1,465.50 and $3,534.50, a total of $5,000. The same amount was withdrawn. Tom made a $1,000 deposit in the name of his brother, Frank. The certificate of deposit made out to Tom on the previous Thursday was in the amount of $4,984.50. On this day, Tom carried away a certificate for $2,535. Tom’s bank notes were made payable to himself. It was traveling money and there is no doubt that both he and Clanton were walking about town with money on them.3...

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