Killers struck again on March 18, 1882. Wyatt was watching Morgan play pool with Bob Hatch when two shots shattered the glass in the back door of Hatch’s Saloon and Billiard Parlor on Allen Street. The first shot severed Morgan’s spine and then passed through his body and lodged in the leg of a bystander. The second shot hit the wall near Wyatt’s head. Warren was notified of the shooting and rushed to Morgan’s side. But there was nothing he could do. Warren’s dream had become a nightmare.With Warren’s help, Wyatt quickly made arrangements to send Morgan’s body, accompanied by Virgil, to Colton by train. The rest of the Earp family, including their wives, boarded the train in Contention, Arizona Territory. Feeling that the Earps were still in danger, heavily armed friends, including the ever-present Doc Holliday, also boarded to protect them.

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A coroner’s jury had named Pete Spence, Frank Stillwell, Joe Fries (real name Fredrick Bode) and a man known as Indian Charlie as Morgan’s killers. En route, the Earp party got word that Ike Clanton, Stillwell and others were awaiting them in Tucson, a regular stop for the California-bound train. Once in Tucson, Warren, Wyatt, Holliday and three other men got off the train fully armed. Stillwell was spotted by a member of the Earp group. The next morning, March 21, Stillwell’s bullet-filled body was found near the tracks. Most witnesses were a bit vague on who they saw pursuing Stillwell. The one exception was Ike Clanton. He said, ‘Frank Stillwell was walking down the track followed by Wyatt Earp, Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, [Sherman] McMasters, [Turkey Creek Jack] Johnson.’ Murder warrants were issued by Sheriff Bob Paul for the five men named by Clanton. Warren Earp was now, in the eyes of the law, a criminal.

Warren, Doc, Wyatt and their friends hurried back to Tombstone for provisions they would need to pursue the so-called Clanton gang. By the time they arrived, Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan had received the warrants and tried to arrest them. They refused arrest and rode out. Behan soon formed a posse that included Ike and Phin Clanton. According to the Tombstone Epitaph, ‘Sheriff Bob Paul refused to go after the Earps, because the posse selected by Behan was notoriously hostile to the Earps, and said that a meeting with them meant blood, with no probability of arrest.’

Three men died at hands of the Earp party. Florentino Cruz, who supposedly admitted holding the horses when Morgan was killed, was shot down at Pete Spence’s wood camp in the Dragoon Mountains on March 22. A couple days later Curly Bill Brocius and Johnny Barnes paid the ultimate price when they and others attempted an ambush on the Earp party near Iron Springs. It isn’t known for sure if Warren helped shoot any of those three men.

When the Earps learned that they were being pursued by a large posse that would surely kill them on sight, the group disbanded and left Arizona Territory. Warren, Wyatt and Doc eventually ended up in Denver, Colo. The territorial governor’s attempt to extradite them failed.

The Earps decided to go to Colton, Calif., but Doc Holliday elected to stay behind in Colorado (tuberculosis killed him in Glenwood Springs, Colo., on November 8, 1887). Wyatt and his wife, Josie, didn’t stay long in Colton. Wyatt’s post-Tombstone adventures, shared with Josie, saw him mostly prospecting and gambling as far north as Nome, Alaska. He didn’t die until 1929.

Warren Earp returned to Colton a bitter, disillusioned man. His mind was filled with pain, fear and hate. He was apparently at a loss about what to do next. The bottle became his best friend, the saloon his home. He would lash out at anyone he perceived to be an enemy. The press picked up on some of his barroom encounters, at first treating them rather lightly due in part to the fact that his father was at the time a well-respected judge. One newspaper report stated: ‘Late last night in the M & O Saloon on Third Street a Mexican named Juan Bustamante and Warren Earp engaged in the pleasant pastime of cracking each others heads – - they both gave bail.’

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