27. Payback Begets Payback
Although brothers Wyatt and Virgil Earp had nabbed Frank Stillwell, the charges against him were eventually dropped. In addition to insufficient evidence, Stillwell had managed to rustle up alibi witnesses. The Earps, in their capacity as US Marshalls, then charged Stillwell with the federal crime of tampering with a mail carrier. That created a perception that Stillwell was being persecuted. As payback, Wyatt’s brother, Morgan Earp, was assassinated.
Witnesses reported seeing Stillwell fleeing from the scene, and a Coroner’s jury listed Stillwell among the suspects in the assassination. Out for payback, Wyatt Earp formed a posse and went after the suspects in the murder of his brother Morgan, and an earlier shooting of his other brother, Virgil. Two days after Morgan’s assassination, Wyatt Earp heard that Stillwell planned to murder his brother Virgil in Tucson when the train carrying him and Morgan’s coffin to California stopped there. The stage was set for Wyatt Earp to get his payback.