By John Brown
Arizona Daily Wildcat
December 1, 1997

The Truth About Clanton

TOMBSTONE - Wearing a black western suit, Terry "Ike" Clanton strolled into Big Nose Kate's Saloon about two weeks ago and took an empty seat at the bar.

He probably looked much like his distant cousin Ike, the Earps, and Doc Holliday when they went to the same saloon in the 1880s.

But then he ordered a Corona beer and talked about his website - no doubt it was 1997.

This distant relative of Ike Clanton, the now-dead southern Arizona cattle rustler, has been stirring up dust about his ancestor's role in the OK Corral shoot-out more than 100 years ago, calling into question historical interpretations of the famous gunfight.

Clanton wasn't packing a weapon, but he was firing shots - verbal shots - at Hollywood filmmakers whom he contends have given his family a bad rap by falsely depicting the infamous gun battle in movies and books.

Later, Clanton took his case to about 25 people gathered at the Iron Horse Ranch, about seven miles west of Tombstone.

"Hollywood has totally screwed up our American history," he said.

The gathering was part of the Fourth Annual Clanton Gang Rendezvous from Nov. 13 to 15. Clanton was accompanied by his mother Marianne and brother Larry.

Clanton alleged that movie portrayals and written accounts of the 1881 shoot-out, which pitted Clanton's ancestors against then-U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp and company, are incorrect. He said Earp and his ancestor, Ike Clanton, were "two of the same."

However, in order to make the Earps the "good guys," the Clantons had to be labeled the "bad guys," he said.

Contrary to movie portrayals, Clanton said he believes the shoot-out was a scheme, plotted by Earp and his brother Morgan, to get rid of his ancestor.

Clanton said Doc Holliday, an Earp supporter, told Ike, "next time I see you, I'm gonna kill ya," the night before the shoot-out.

"The Earp family was trying to keep his name out of that murder," Clanton said of Holliday, a Tombstone dentist with a questionable past who was also a party to the fabled gunfight.

Clanton added he believes the Earps and Holliday knew his ancestor, Ike Clanton, was unarmed when they shot him.

"Doc and Wyatt just opened fire," he said. "If people really knew truth, Wyatt killed an unarmed man."

Robert Palmquist, a Tucson attorney and OK Corral shoot-out expert, agreed with Clanton that movies are often wrong, but disagreed with his account of the incident.

"Ike brought it on, and ran when it started," Palmquist said.

Palmquist said he believes the Clantons got what was coming to them by violating the city's no weapons ordinance.

"The cowboys went into town, made threats to the city police and attempted to resist being disarmed," he said. Clanton had previously been caught with his gun inside Tombstone's weapons-free zone.

Clanton defended his relatives Nov. 14 and said his ancestors had established themselves in the area's cattle business before the Earps arrived to Tombstone.

He said although many of his ancestors took illegal actions, the Ike Clanton of yore always handled himself as a professional businessman.

"Call him a cattle rustler, he did whatever he needed to," Clanton said about his distant cousin. "But he would wear a three-piece suit, knew the laws and was a range banker for surrounding cattle ranchers."

Diana Hadley, a cattle-rustling expert at the Arizona State Museum, said it's difficult to defend the Clantons' actions, but that many didn't think of cattle rustling as severe an offense as other crimes.

Cattle rustlers were often considered "social bandits" who helped encourage change by stealing from large cattle companies that monopolized the area business, Hadley said.

Clanton, who started studying his family's history in 1979, said in movies "Ike is probably the most misunderstood character."

Clanton said the cinema often depict Ike as an uneducated man, which he said is untrue.

"The movie 'Tombstone' made him out to be a stupid guy who hadn't bathed in months and drinks himself crazy," Clanton said. "Actually he was one of the few people in town who knew how to read and write."

Clanton said the Earp people know is also a Hollywood creation.

"It's got to be a fair fight or he wouldn't be the greatest lawman of all time," Clanton said.

"There were no winners or losers at the OK Corral, really all losers in that deal," Clanton added. "We will never really know, but digging through the facts is fun."