15. The Cowboys first confrontation with the Earp brothers
The Cowboys’ refusal to return the mules led to the Army placing handbills about town, describing them as thieves and cowards. In response, Cowboy leader Frank McLaury called Army captain Joseph Hurst, who had negotiated the return of the mules, a “malicious liar” in an article published in the Tombstone Epitaph, a town newspaper. McLaury also confronted Virgil Earp on a Tombstone street and threatened him if the Earps ever followed him and his men under threat of arresting them again. The McLaury brothers, Frank and Tom, later found Virgil in nearby Charleston, and again threatened the Earp brothers should they cross the Cowboy’s path in the future.
