Comments on: Boyer vs. Tefertiller: Penslingers Face off over Wyatt Earp

By: Controversial Western Historian Dies

Controversial Western Historian Dies — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:54:04 +0000

[...] (Boyer vs. Tefertiller: Penslingers Face off over Wyatt Earp By Sierra Adare, Wild West Magazine) [...]

By: Mike M

Mike M — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:18:52 +0000

Yes, the eagerness to admit his plans to sell them (and having mentioned an estimated value shows he has put some thought into it) did not sit well with me. I am not saying his work is fact, fiction or some cocktail of the two, but as an amateur historian, I'd like to think my mind would be more centered on the useful and valuable contributions such resources could be making and far, far away from how rich I will be when I sell them.

I can appreciate the fact that if I worked my tail off to unearth many insights on a well sought-after subject like this only to have people stomping on my efforts and taking it for their own for decades, I might be sour too. However, when the few times you are part of a formal interview to help set your record straight comes up, as frustrated as I might be, I think I'd refrain from using comments like "that's none of your business".

Without hearing his responces it's hard to be certain, but he does at times seem short and bitter. If I put in all this work to "set the record straight" as he has said he wanted to do for the Earp family, then I would think having a rational conversation about the leading causes of doubt that his questioners have would be a worthwhile and necessary thing. Why spend all those years digging up facts just to respond with "that's none of your business" when asked to clarify? I like his work, but as a person who like many historians like to have definitive answers, I just want to be hearing certain things from him, and I don't. That's frustrating. It's like his interview can be summed up with:
"Well, I know I'm right, when I'm not joking, so there."

That's the general feel of the interview that I got.

By: doug hogan

doug hogan — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:23:33 +0000

that was an unbelievable interview!

boyer sure has an attitude problem – he uses the word "crap" a little too often.

his phrase, "I could have done Vendetta with footnotes and all that crap" reveals his complete lack of understanding of historical methodology.

and holding onto his supposed valuable manuscripts so that he can sell them sure is not how real historians work!

his works should be labeled "junk fiction and a pack of lies."

By: Dave Horton

Dave Horton — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:10:55 +0000

with out actually being there, how can you speculate. If someone is not truthful in there admissions nothing will be accurate. I have found this to be true in alot of so called experts in the south west on Wyatt Earp. D. Horton

By: dg

dg — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:13:08 +0000

i guess history is made of memories…and memories are embellished to a point of beautiful ornamentation, so , unless one was there at the point of an event, it's the matter of belief or belief in an ornamentation…

being a product of my environment, truth must be recorded…

ye gods….who thinks of the truth now…