He was a member of a gang of outlaws and cattle rustlers called the Cowboys that had ongoing conflicts with lawmen Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp.

Born Thomas McLaury in Meredith, New York,[1] he was two years old when his family moved to Belle Plaine, Iowa.

Their ranching operation was near the silver-mining boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, as its population soared due to the silver rush.

On October 27, 1880, the two brothers were briefly detained when Brocius accidentally shot and killed Tombstone Town Marshal Fred White.

Marshal Virgil Earp to assist him in tracking Cowboys who had stolen six U.S. Army mules from Camp Rucker.

Virgil requested the assistance of his brothers Wyatt and Morgan, along with Wells Fargo agent Marshall Williams, and they found the mules at the McLaurys' ranch.

Cowboy Frank Patterson "made some kind of a compromise" with Captain Hurst and persuaded the posse to withdraw with the understanding that the mules would be returned.

Hurst printed a handbill describing the theft, and specifically charged McLaury with assisting in hiding the mules.

"[3]: 28  [3] A month later Earp ran into Frank and Tom McLaury in Charleston, and they told him if he ever followed them as he had done before, they would kill him.

On March 15, 1881 at 10:00 pm, three Cowboys attempted to rob a Kinnear & Company stagecoach carrying US$26,000 in silver bullion (about $820,883 in today's dollars) near Benson, during which popular driver Eli "Budd" Philpot and passenger Peter Roerig were killed.

[4] Tensions further increased between the Earps and the McLaurys when a passenger stage on the Sandy Bob line headed for Bisbee was robbed in the Tombstone area on September 8.

[5] Released on bail, Spence and Stilwell were re-arrested by Virgil for the Bisbee robbery a month later, October 13, on the new federal charge of interfering with a mail carrier.

[7] On the morning of October 26, 1881, the McLaury brothers were in Tombstone and armed in violation of a city ordinance prohibiting carrying weapons in town.

Those loyal to one side or the other told conflicting stories and independent eyewitnesses who did not know the participants by sight were unable to say for certain who shot first.

Based on the initial testimony given by Ike Clanton during the preliminary hearing, she reported to the San Diego Union that only two of the Cowboys were armed.

[citation needed] Wyatt Earp testified that Tom McLaury fired one or two rounds at them from behind a horse, and that if he was unarmed he did not know it.

He testified that Tom's right-hand pants pocket was flat when he went in but protruded, as if it contained a pistol (so he thought), when he emerged.

[20] However, the bulge in Tom's pants pocket may have been the nearly $3,300 in cash and receipts found on his body, perhaps in payment for stolen Mexican beef purchased by the butcher.

[14] Author Paul Johnson believes that the McLaurys were about to leave for Iowa to attend the wedding of their sister, Sarah Caroline.