From March 20 to April 15, 1882, the federal posse searched southeast Cochise County, Arizona Territory for the men they believed were responsible for the attacks on Virgil and Morgan.

On March 20, two days after Morgan's murder, Wyatt Earp and his brothers Warren and James along with Doc Holliday, and two other deputies were escorting Virgil and his wife Allie to a California-bound train in Tucson.

Behan formed a Cochise County sheriff's posse consisting of deputies Phineas Clanton, Johnny Ringo, and about twenty other Cowboys and Arizona ranchers.

Ike Clanton filed murder charges, and after a month-long preliminary hearing, Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer found that the lawmen had acted within their duty.

[2] Jack "Turkey Creek" Johnson, whose real name according to Wyatt Earp was John William Blount, was a native of Missouri who was raised in the lead mining area near Neosho.

Dake had previously and unsuccessfully requested financial assistance from the United States Attorney General, Wayne MacVeagh, to help track down and arrest the Cowboys.

[4]: 119  In September 1881, Governor Gosper told Secretary of Interior Kirkwood that Arizona contained "a small army of outlaws well armed and fully able to cope with the ordinary civil powers of our counties.

He deposited money, variously reported as either $300[5] or $3000,[6]: 238  to an account in the Hudson & Company Bank, minus $15, for use "to arrest all parties committing crimes against the United States."

They learned that the warrant was not for armed robbery as they thought, but for "assault with intent to commit murder, the specific offense being the waylaying and shooting of Virgil Earp some weeks ago.

The coroner's jury find that Morgan Earp came to his death at the hands of Frank Stillwell, (who was killed next day in Tucson), Pete Spence, one Freis, and two half-breed Indians.

Marshal Wyatt Earp, his brother James, and a group of friends prepared to accompany Virgil and his wife, along with Morgan's body, to the rail head in Benson.

[18][19] On Monday, Wyatt received information that Frank Stilwell, Ike Clanton, Hank Swilling, and another cowboy were watching the passenger trains in Tucson intending to kill Virgil Earp.

[20] Witnesses gave differing accounts, but Frank Stilwell's body was found on the morning of March 21 about 100 yards (91 m) from the Porter Hotel alongside the tracks riddled with two buckshot and three gunshot wounds.

[25] Ike claimed in a newspaper interview afterward that he and Stilwell had been in Tucson to respond to a federal subpoena for interfering with a U.S. mail carrier when he allegedly robbed the Sandy Bob line of the Bisbee stage on September 8, 1881.

The Arizona Star reported,[28]: 62 ... without any provocation a band of four or five slayers pursued a lonely man in the dark and without a word of warning murdered him in cold blood and then hied to their stamping grounds as unconcerned as though they had when out on a hunting expedition, or like so many blood-thirsty Apaches rejoice over their crime.The Coroner's Jury in Tucson found that Stilwell had died at the hands of Wyatt and Warren Earp, Holliday, McMaster, and Johnson.

The operator agreed to delay delivering the message to Behan long enough to allow the Earps and their associates to make ready to leave town Tuesday evening.

"[33] On the morning of March 22, a portion of the Earp posse including Wyatt, Warren, Doc Holliday, Sherman McMaster and "Turkey Creek" Johnson rode about 10 miles (16 km) east to Pete Spence's ranch and woodcutting camp off the Chiricahua Road, below the South Pass of the Dragoon Mountains.

[35][39][40] According to Theodore Judah, who witnessed events at the wood camp, the Earp posse arrived around 11:00 am and asked him about the location of Pete Spence and Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz.

[47] On Friday, March 24, the Earp posse, including Wyatt, Warren, Doc Holliday, Sherman McMaster, and Texas Jack, rode west about 12 miles (19 km) from their overnight campsite about halfway between Contention and Drew's Station.

An unknown individual who claimed to be on his way to meet the Earp posse, possibly Kraker or Wright, wrote the Tombstone Nugget on March 26 that they had seen a wagon arrive and carry Curly Bill's body away.

[58]On Saturday, March 25, the Tucson Grand Jury indicted Pete Spence, Frank Stilwell, Florentino Cruz, Frederick Bode, and "John Doe" (Fries) for Morgan Earp's murder.

Cochise County Deputy Sheriff Frank Hereford was at the ranch but didn't show himself in fear of his safety, although the Earp party had only "the greatest respect" for him.

[59] Former Pima County Sheriff Bob Paul, who had been in Tombstone at the time and volunteered to ride with the Behan posse, wrote a letter to the Tucson Citizen on March 3, 1898 in response to an earlier story he said was full of errors.

[6] The Earp posse also received some money from Louis Cooley, a stage driver and an employee of Wells Fargo, who gave funds from the express company.

On about April 29, 1882, Wyatt Earp and his brother Warren, McMaster, Johnson, and Vermillion took the train from Albuquerque to Trinidad and then Gunnison, Colorado, where they set up camp on the outskirts of town.

Details varied between the different accounts, like getting his saddle pommel shot off, pulling up his loose cartridge belt, exactly when he helped "Texas Jack" Vermillion out from under his horse, the distance at which they initially encountered the Cowboys, and how far Earp dismounted from "Curly Bill".

[91] After referring to the highly controversial Fitzsimmons-Sharkey fight for which Wyatt Earp was referee, the article quoted Behan: The Clanton brothers and the McLowrys were a tough lot of rustlers who were the main perpetrators of the rascailly rife in that region.

Corral and afterward to Stuart Lake, author of the 1931 largely fictionalized biography, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal: For my handling of the situation at Tombstone, I have no regrets.

If the outlaws and their friends and allies imagined that they could intimidate or exterminate the Earps by a process of murder, and then hide behind alibis and the technicalities of the law, they simply missed their guess.

I want to call your particular attention again to one fact, which writers of Tombstone incidents and history apparently have overlooked: with the deaths of the McLowerys, the Clantons, Stillwell, Florentino Cruz, Curly Bill, and the rest, organized, politically protected crime, and depredations in Cochise County ceased.