23. Tensions increased between the Earps and the Cowboys
In the spring of 1881, following a stage coach robbery in which two employees of the stage line were killed, the Earps organized a posse to catch the robbers. One of the alleged robbers was turned over to Behan and escorted to jail, where he promptly walked out the back door and fled. During subsequent testimony Ike Clanton claimed that the Earps had never wanted to capture anyone alive, preferring to deliver them dead and collecting the reward money. Another stagecoach robbery in September further increased the mutual enmity between Earps and Cowboys, as it became evident to the Earp brothers that the Cowboys were profiting from the robberies by sheltering their perpetrators.
