LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,,
LET ME INTRODUCE
~Tom & Frank McLaury~
Frank and Tom McLaury moved to Hereford, Arizona, in 1878 where they built a windowless, door less, shelter. It was at this time that the two McLaury brothers became close friends and business associates with the Clanton family.
Finding profit in the cattle business... Frank and Tom spent most of their time with a herd of Mexican steers they purchased with money they brought with them from Iowa. After selling off the herd for a good profit, the two McLaury brothers saw an opportunity to continue profiting from the cattle business. The brothers pre-empted land at Soldiers Holes, west of the new town of Tombstone. Here they built a an adobe house and worked long hours laying out irrigated alfalfa fields. They were the pioneers of alfalfa growing in this region.
Frank and Tom McLaury had excellent reputations, and did not go often to Tombstone. However, because they lived on a ranch outside of town, they became friends and business associates with Curly Bill Brocius, that began to tarnish their good reputations.
Frank and Tom are arrested when their friend shoots the Marshal... October 27, 1880
On this night in Tombstone, Frank and Tom McLaury were arrested at the scene of the accidental shooting of Tombstone Marshal Fred White. Frank and Tom were amongst a group "mischief seeking" cowboys that were shooting their guns at the moon and having a good time when Marshal Fred White appeared on the scene to stop the disturbance. When the Marshal tried to disarm Curly Bill Brocius, he jerked Curly Bills 45 caliber pistol barrel first, at which time Curly Bill accidentally pulled the trigger shooting Marshal White in the stomach. Before Marshal White eventually died of from these wounds, he admitted that it was an accident. Curly Bill was cleared of murder. Early in 1881 Sherman McMasters, the outlaw who had been Wyatt Earps friend in Dodge City, stole a valuable thoroughbred horse from E.B. Gage, the general manager of the Contention Mine in Tombstone. After a tip from Ike Clanton, Sheriff Billy Breakenridge recovered the stolen horse from a corral at the McLaury Ranch. It was at this time, that Sheriff Breakenridge openly accused the two McLaury brothers of hanging out with bad blood. Curly Bill Brocius and other accused outlaws were present when Breakenridge arrived at the McLaury ranch.
Frank and Tom McLaury are killed on October 26, 1881. by the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday, in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral in Tombstone. Both are buried side by side in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard next to Billy Clanton, who was also killed.
