Custer was brutal at the massacre on the Washita River in Oklahoma. Murdered Cheyanne and Arapaho women and old men.

Bob, I love your videos! But I've said this before. Wyatt Earp was not a *pimp.* A pimp runs girls on the street. A man who runs a bordello, legal or illegal, is a businessman, not a pimp!

Hello Bob!! Bang! Good one sir.

The Long Riders is the best IMO.

Great story, thank you for sharing!

My great great grandfather was Billy the kid and he told me he was shot in the ass by Pat Leaf Garret.

Good stuff, Bob. Some years ago I wrote a screenplay about Doc which required a lot of research (including a trip to Tombstone), but I wasn’t aware of most of what you shared here.

You forgot he ran into the best warriors of the plains men and women.

What happened to her sister?

Bob, What is your pet lizard's name? You can see him in this video stopping by the stove at about minute 2 of the video...

Thank you BBB for the story. It was fun for me to interview Brad and hear about Docs Travels. But even you added additional info that we did not discuss.

what does this guy know

If they never killed a man. It's hard to believe one of them would shoot, and and hit the lead man. When they never had before. And if they had ran from the law before, many times. They'd let down this one time? It didn't go down like that I don't believe. They may have got caught. But I doubt any one would have just walked up on them. How would they have made it this far if they didn't know how to get away after a robbery? Incredulous because it doesn't match their behavior in mode of operation.After all they weren't stupid. Like I'm writing they may have got caught, but it was not at some cantina in Bolivia.

Did the Acting Govenour (?) mention in any Memoir about rooming with Holiday ?

It always amazes me the amount of traveling those people did

If Wyatt was so unpopular in town, why was he good friends with such luminaries as Gage, Vizina, Clum, Gird, and others? I believe Wyatt was a good lawman, but that he was human, and did plenty of unseemly things, as well. For example, he made a fortune dealing faro, and faro is almost an even money game (despite what Doc says in Tombstone.) Therefore, he ran a crooked faro table. I've been fortunate to exchange ideas with people on the extreme of both sides, such as the lovely Joyce Aros, and Ben Traywick. I really believe the truth is somewhere in the middle. As Bob said, we can all be jerks sometimes! But I disagree that Wyatt was ever a "pimp." A man who runs a legal bordello, or even an illegal one, is a businessman. A pimp runs girls in the street. Wyatt was certainly a bouncer, but prostitution was just a part of life in the Old West. Being involved didn't make you a bad man. As always, another great episode, Bob! Thanks!

I seriously love this guy and this channel. I love the old west era.

Cole Younger should be the measure for tough guys to compare themselves to. Accounts vary between 11 and 14 bullets that he carried in his body until he died at age 72. "Are ya, 'Cole Younger tough', Pilgrim" ?

An example of what I meant in my previous comments with regards to people trying to make Wyatt a hero or to make him a villain. In the 20 second long battle (yes, 20, not 30) on Fremont, Doc Holliday used a Wells Fargo shotgun and fired a fatal shot into the right side of Tom McLaury. In the days that followed, both Wyatt and Virgil would both claim that Tom had a pistol and used it in the battle. That he fired over the back/saddle of a horse and in fact, shot Morgan Earp. There wasn't one single eyewitness who stated that they conclusively saw Tom McLaury armed and shooting in the battle. Some historians, amd readers try to fit that puzzle piece into the slot that doesn't work, using testimony if eyewitnesses who say they saw a man with a horse firing at the Earp party. However, this individual is described as "the" man with "the" horse. Not "one of the men", or "a man". What this means is that, contrary to popular opinion among Earp supporters, is that there was only 1 man with a horse. There wasn't 2 horses. Only 1. And only 1 man ever had it. The testimony of butcher James Keyhoe tells us who. He says that Frank McLaury held the reins of a horse from the time he was at Keyhoe's shop until he let go of the animal and died . Then., there are the testimonies of Ham Light, Coleman and Fellehy who state that Tom was running during the fight. In fact, Fellehy's testimony makes it clear that thean with the horse and the man running were two separate individuals. He stated that both Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were firing at the man with the horse and that Holliday had already fired at a man who had run by him. With no weapon to defend himself, Tom did what Ike did. He ran. Fight or flight. No one found a gun on or around Tom. Wyatt later said that Clanton friend Wes Fullet picked it up and took it. Though no one else saw that either. Tom's wound (in his right axilla) is consistent of that with a man who is running. Finally, there is the fact that Tom McLaury was too short to fire over the back of a quarter horse. He was taller than Frank. But certainly not a 6 footer like the Earps who could casually start shooting over a horse's back. Nevermind the fact that we already have conclusive testimony that his brother Frank was the only one with a horse in the battle. Later, a Mrs JC Colyer would state she witnessed the battle from a block away while sitting in a wagon. She stated "one of the cowboys used a horse as a shield and fored under it's neck". (Note: she said one) This, of course, was Frank in Fremont firing at the Earp party. My point is, we have so much evidence to look at, that corroborates other evidence and testimony such as this, but is largely ignored because people want Tom McLaury to have been armed. And being a no good cowboy shooting an Earp in the back. And then there are those who will eagerly accept the fact that Doc shot an unarmed man running for his life, and believe that Holliday started the fight by firing nilly willy on the cowboys with Morgan Earp. Because that is what they want. Again, we have testimony of James Keyhoe who clearly tells us that after the fight started, Holliday was going out on the sidewalk with a shotgun in his hands. He never used a pistol first, and how ridiculous would it have been to have used a pistol first when he had a shotgun at his disposal and tried to hold on to it while firing with a pistol? Doc fired on and killed an unarmed man. The defense wisely left him off the stand. Wyatt later tried to cover this up, because his purpose when speaking o writers in the 1900's wasn't about making a buck or two. It was about clearing the Earp name, because people still did not like the Earps and Doc. They weren't universal heroes. Even Bob Bell here will tell you that his grandmother who knew some of the people in the area would not hesitate to call Wyatt out for being a dirty SO you know what. The cowboys were criminals. But there were others in amd around Tombstone who liked them. They supplied them with cheap beef as one example. They went into Mexico to steal cattle and sell them cheap to Arizonans. (Which is what Old Man Clanton was doing when he was killed). So we have Wyatt who later lied about Tom being armed, because he had the privilege of outliving everyone and no one was around to dispute his word. And this is the same man who was loved by men like John Clum, Bat Masterson, William S Hart and many prominent citizens of Dodge city and Tombstone. And we have Doc, who fires on amd cuts down an unarmed man in a street battle. And this is the same man, who, according to Kate, came into his room after the fight and sat on his bed and wept about what had happened. None of them were heroes or villians. They were just people capable of doing good things, and having their own individual flaws.

Great stuff. ❤❤❤

Maybe be was both. Or neither. This question highlights the biggest problem with the study iof Wyatt Earp/Tombstone/etc. You have 7 or 8 out of 10 people who go through the material and try to make everything work to glorify Wyatt. And then you have the other 2 or 3, who use everything to make him the world's biggest scumbag and victimize the cowboy faction of Tombstone. It's like when someone has a piece of a puzzle and they keep struggling to make it fit into place. When it never went there in the first place. Too many people trying to put Wyatt on a pedestal because Stuart Lake and Hugh O'Brien made them think as children that that is how it was. And others trying to curse him for everything that went wrong in Arizona. Maybe Wyatt wasnt a scumbag. But maybe he wasn't a saint either. Maybe he was just like 97% of the rest of the human race and was just trying to survive, do things he later regretted and wasn't above doing something shady if it benefitted him amd he knew he could get away with it. Did any of these guys know or even care that 150 years later people would be writing books, making movies and videos on something called the world wide web, analyzing and critiquing their every move and motives? In those days it was dog eat dog. Hard life. In Tombstone, a very modern town, and luxurious in some ways, life was very different once you left the town limits. Outlaws, who may or may not have been a Clanton or Curly Bill, Apaches, the weather, the terrain or even something so simple as a rattlesnake spooking your horse and throwing you and the result was a broken neck and an early l, unexpected death were all a very real possibility. What they didn't have were phones and cameras everywhere. And what I mean are cell phones and red light and town/business cameras. People felt a little more at ease about doing things under the table without fearing for consequences. And they were only, because they could only think about what they had to gain. Not what someone might say about almost 2 centuries later.

Stuart Lake later admitted in a letter that he embellished a large part of his book. This shouldn't surprise anyone as Wyatt was tight lipped about things. Lake was trying to create a hero in the era of the depression. A time when America needed one. Perhaps the description of the battle, the hand drawn map, was actually the work of Lake or another writer? Flood? Hooker? Is it too much of a stretch of the imagination that someone went down there, or was already familiar the area and simply placed the battle in the exact location that Bill Evans happened to find? Maybe the actual fight location was where people at the time it happened, say it happened. Iron Springs. I recall a story years ago that there was an actual eyewitness to the battle. His story was told in the Epitaph. He watched from a distance as he saw the Earp posse approach the spring. Several cowboys appeared in an ambush, but the Earp posse fought back and advanced, with 4 cowboys going down. I believe the witness described their advance as "like the hand of Jove".

The modern Wyatt Earp pictures, "Tombstone" and "Wyatt Earp," both omit the shady aspects of the Earps. Rose colored Hollywood glasses?

True

As a former resident...loved it when you came to Tombstone.....slim 2001 to 2004.

Awesome video! Thank you Bob. I love Western history so much.

I absolutely love your story telling and this one is no exception! Please do more and more often! 13:35

Great to see you back Bob.

My favorite historian.

Captured and married to a warrior - there's not so much difference between the word 'slave' or 'wife'. A wife might have been treated better, but she was still a captive, a slave with no choice.

"Killed in a wash named after him" reminds me of what a guide at a Civil War battlefield said. He says that some visitors ask "How did they fight the battles with all the monuments here?"

Love him or hate him, Billy the Kid was quite a character by anyone's standards. That is why I find it so disgusting that some people try to give an old, demented huckster like Brushy Bill Roberts the laurels rightfully belonging to Billy the Kid.

Very cool!!! I hiked back to Gillette, about 30 years ago, to find not too much of Gillette there. I'd be willing to bet there is less these days. When you first mentioned Big Nose Kate leaving Gillette for Globe, I giggled a bit, then right on cue, you hit it! You would REALLY wanted to have taken that trip back then! For those not from the area, in modern terms, my wife and I can jump in our car in the middle of downtown Phoenix, and in an hour and a half, be in Globe these days. Rock Springs, which is as close as the modern world gets to Gillette, would add 45 minutes to the trip.... The trip today, uses the same basic route they would have traveled then.

He tolerated no bulshit from the cowboys but in the Dodge City days at least he was an honorable man. Preferring to Buffalo them rather than kill them. To me however there's no doubt that they hunted up and murdered the mclaury and clanton. If they were expecting a fight they could have picked up their rifles and wiped the Earth's out before they even got into pistol range. That's not my opinion that's what's called common sense they could have watched them out without losing a man and before they ever got into pistol range. They were actually saddling up to leave town which means even if they were armed they were not buy the books breaking the law. They were ranchers they had dealings with the wrestler element as all ranchers did in that area that kept their stock safe. They would put them up let them spend the night feed them and even keep their stolen property sometimes on the ranches but Tom and Frank were not wrestlers they aided the rustlers as did any rancher that wanted to keep all his stock back then.Billy Breckenridge the only warrant officer at the time he was certainly not an office deputy as he served warrants on some of the most dangerous men in Arizona. In addition without any help he has locked up doc holliday, Johnny ringo, Wyatt earp, and buckskin Frank Leslie some of the most dangerous men in the area whenever they would get publicly intoxicated or any other crime he would be the one to lock them up. He is where I got that common Sense statement that the cowboys were not expecting a fight otherwise they would have grabbed their rifles and wiped the Earps out. And I will always wonder what they mean people that were on the earth side said they would do nothing to hurt the herbs but they believe doc Holliday started and instigated the fight and that's who I'm going to believe. Wyatt Earp modified second but not first as he stated as the first shot even from witnesses came from doc Holliday. Even neutral witnesses said they believe the man that carried the nickel-plated Gunn fired first. They never said they seen the gun they said the man that owned it fired the first shot that gun was rather famous around town. And they even the neutral witnesses on the earth side believe that holiday should have been hung. Wyatt Earp was a rather staunch somewhat bullying man in Dodge City. In Arizona they hunted up and murdered Three Men and tried to murder 5. That's why he hated Johnny Ringo bullies hate someone that bullies them and Johnny Ringo had made Wyatt Earp back down at least twice according to newspaper accounts and both times he was arrested by Breckenridge. Which means he wasn't allowed to shoot it out with any or all of his cutthroats.Wyatt Earp was running around with a band of criminals and cutthroats in pinning Federal deputies badges on them. His exact words I thought you a long Wyatt or all of your companions choose any weapon you want knives whole legs whatever just you and me what do you say. But he gave him the opportunity to use his cutthroats in ringgold said he would take them all on.

Was that your pet lizard that scampered along the left side of the screen around the 2-minute mark?

No doubt, Doc lived an interesting life.

👍

It would be a challenge to erase the Personal emotions from the event m, although they had the value of the Law behind them in oroceeding 9n to the OK Corral. Understandable how Sheriff Behan gets depicted, since the fact is "he did not have the Clantons and associates unarmed".

Ike Clanton was apparently a great deal like how he is portrayed in the movie Tombstone. (I wonder if the Clanton's are related to the Trump family?) Probably should have not said that out loud.

⭐ Bass Reeves, as interesting as any Historical figure of the West, for Fort Smith, Arkansas was absolutely considered the Wild West at the time. His persona is captivating, his works heroic, and his life a series of ups and downs, like most who pursue their desires. 3000 arrests, that has to be a record. 🏆 Beth Bartlett Sociologist/Behavioralist and Historian

Custer and his men were WIPED OUT IN 90 minutes. Thanks for a nice video, however, nothing in the video fully touched on what I think is the critical failure that killed Custer and his men. MASSIVELY OUT NUMBERED !!! Custer had the village scouted ( more like cluster of many villages ). The scouting reports given Custer should have raised caution as village size was bigger than any of the scouts had previously encountered. None of the matters raised in this video account for Custer being wiped out in 90 minutes. In the end there can only be one way to describe what happened to Custer and his men ... they were swarmed by a force massively bigger than the defenders' force. At around 3:00 pm Reno attached and was pushed back. By around 4:20 to 4:30 guns on Last Stand Hill went silent. Only one factor accounts for being wiped out in 90 minutes and that factor is the size of the attacking force. It is not grass, uniforms, guns, or anything other than one side had massively more fighters than the other.

Frank Leslie killed Johnny Ringo

BOB YOU REALLY SHOULD VISIT GRIFFIN GEORGIA. I HAD A 38 PAGE PAPER I DONE FOR RESEARCH THERE. UNFORTUNATELY I DON'T NO WHERE IT IS,.BUT IF I CAN FIND IT I'LL SEND IT TO YOU

Mr. Bell, it's great to see you put out this video. I miss seeing more from you, I really appreciate the time you gave me at the Tucson book fest. And the amazing picture you took with me, hope to meet you again sometime your work and artistry are fantastic God Bless 🎉

Outstanding!!

Sounds like we need a Doc Holliday Western

Love your stories. Lived near Williamson Rd in Prescott. Watched a young couple get chased by wild pigs in downtown Prescott, hung out at the yogurt shop. loved the history time line on library sidewalk. Had a creepy feeling that I was being watched out of the corner of Bucky O Neill's statue's eye. Now we do a Costco run every now and then. I wonder what Doc and the Earp's would think about places like that?

Niiiice! I will get the magazine. My man Doc really knew how wabder before coming to tombstone to join wyatt and his party. 🎩

Historians there is a problem to look at . This was not a Civil War battle this was Indian fighting, different rules apply. My understanding is, and if I am wrong I would like historians to chime in, that when fighting indians if you take prisoners fighting stops and negotiations can begin . Was Custer trying to make a quick raid into the village to secure prisoners to negotiate a peace ? Custer knew he was but one prong of a three prong campaign . He arrived first as he was cavalry and the fastest prong. He did not know about Rosebud, the infantry prong engagement and delay . The third prong arrived later to discover the Custer battlefield and Custers remnants of the 7th Cavalry . So the question is did Custer know what he was attempting to do but it was defeated by a better armed and large number of warriors ...

Dear Bob Bozbelle,I am a psychic.I have discovered the technology of "Re-encarnation....I have been fallowing you for more than twenty years,arond the time you did your first documentary that came out on TV......I saw right away who you had been in your previous life.....Havent you pondered why you have been spacificly interested in "Doc Holiday?Perhaps even "Obsessed "? Very simple and i can provide evidence or proof of who you had been....I know all kinds of other carecters,famous or not who they have been as well,Yes you are the re-encarnation of "Doc Holiday".....If you would like to have a conversation, contact me.God Bless you and your family and thank you for all of your works...Sinserly Guy Pouteau.