Arizona writer Glenn G. Boyer stunned Tombstone history aficionados with
the admission that he has crafted a ficticious source for his most recent
book, "Wyatt Earp's Tombstone Vendetta."
Boyer explained the book's source, Theodore Ten Eyck, who has been accepted
by some writers of Tombstone history as authentic, was his literary device.
"I am Ten Eyck," said Boyer during a telephone interview yesterday. Boyer
also published his admission in his latest pamphlet, "Curly Bill has been
Killed at Last."
Boyer said that although his source was the creation of literary license,
the body of his book, "Vendetta," is factual, accurate and not a hoax.
Boyer's Vendetta appeared in 1993, and he wrote that the book was based
on the long-hidden papers of a former Tombstone Nugget reporter who refused
to be publicly identified because his family wished to avoid embarrassment.
Boyer used the pseudonym Theodore Ten Eyck to identify the source of the
material, and has written stories for other publications identifying Ten
Eyck as a source.
Boyer had identified Ten Eyck as the source for much of his writings over
the last half-decade, including a series on Wyatt Earp that appeared in
True West magazine. By Boyer's True West accounts, Ten Eyck was the source
of such spectacular revelations as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday killing Newman
H. Clanton and of Wyatt Earp returning to Arizona to kill John Ringo, which
Boyer's Ten Eyck claimed was told to him by Josephine Earp, Wyatt's wife.
When contacted at his southeastern Arizona ranch, Boyer said, "Ten Eyck
is a literary device as I clearly indicated. He is a composite individual.
I am Ten Eyck. I am a literary artist. (And) I used the device of the non-fiction
novel."
Boyer explains that the composite voices who makeup Ten Eyck include extended
family members of Wyatt Earp. Boyer said he met William and Estelle Miller,
niece and nephew of Wyatt Earp, through Boyer's father's friendship with
Miller's father.
Boyer said that during World War II when he was stationed in California
he visited those family members at length in San Bernadino.
"I was kind of like a member of the family, you sat around and listened.
You have visitors, you have aunts, uncles, friends, and you remember basically
what was said. A lot of what I remember is by word of mouth. I'm kind of
a living link with the past," said Boyer.
In Boyer's "Vendetta," he identified the source of the material as an East
Coast newspaper reporter who came to Tombstone and accepted a job with
the Nugget. He wrote, "The core of it is the Ten Eyck papers, as I call
them. Theodore Sr. demanded never to have this true name made public, one
of the major restraints under which this book must be presented. Naturally,
the same must apply to his son, who gave me this material, or it would
have been simple to identify the father."
Boyer further printed a foreword in "Vendetta" that he identified as being
written by Theodore Ten Eyck Jr., in which Ten Eyck said that his father
had written the story but never allowed it to be published, and that he
had passed on the papers to Boyer.
Boyer further cited Ten Eyck as a source for much controversial material
in his series for True West which appeared in 1994 and '95. Among the remarkable
material he attributed to Ten Eyck is a long direct quote Boyer said was
given to Ten Eyck by Dr. John Henry Holliday in 1885 telling the details
of the famed gunfight on Fremont Street, in which he said that Wyatt Earp
fired the first two shots and hit both Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton.
This account appeared in the July, 1994, issue of True West.
While Boyer's admission comes as a shock to many Tombstone history buffs,
it was not surprising to others who have questioned the authenticity of
Boyer's work. Casey Tefertiller, author of the recently published "Wyatt
Earp: The Life Behind the Legend" (John Wiley & Sons, 1997) said, "A
critical analysis of Boyer's work has made it most doubtful. Boyer's writings
are riddled with historical errors, the type that should not be made if
indeed they were produced from authentic source material. It was also staggering
how little 'Ten Eyck' knew of what actually happened in Tombstone -- he
didn't even know about Wyatt Earp's resignation, for heaven's sake, and
he had a very poor grasp of the events of the time, which would be most
unlikely if he were really a newspaper reporter. It was hard not to suspect
that the book was of questionable provenance and that the material was
tainted."
Boyer said, "If you think Tefertiller's book is a biography you will see
that he doesn't know any of this. It's an historical treatment of a bunch
of bull. It's warmed over Stuart Lake. He (Tefertiller) has nothing (in
the book) about the ancestors of the Earps, he knows nothing about them.
He's only interested in Tombstone."
Boyer said to do a biography you need "recollections of friends, people
who knew him and loved him and hated him. Where is all this in the case
of Earp?"
Boyer also said Tefertiller used his material as a source but did not give
him credit for it.
Tefertiller said he used Boyer as source material only when he could confirm
against the original sources, as in the case of the Louisa Earp letters,
which Boyer published in his magazine story, "Morgan Earp, Brother in the
Shadow," which appeared in Old West in the Winter of 1983.
Because of his books and numerous magazine stories, Boyer has emerged as
the most prominent historian and writer on the subject of Wyatt Earp and
Tombstone history.
When Boyer was asked if he was purporting "Vendetta" to be an academic
historic document, he said, "No! This is the most interesting citation
of the truth as nearly as I could get at, as I could remember it, as I
have something to support it, put in a dramatic fashion so that the average
person reads the thing."
But Tefertiller believes that Boyer's admission to such a prank, creating
Ten Eyck, would leave Boyer with a reputation as an historical hoaxer,
not as a historian.
"I don't think anyone is enjoying this. I think we all wish Mr. Boyer had
told the truth from the outset," said Tefertiller.
Boyer does not see himself as an academic historian.
"I am a novelist. And, a damn good one. I used every art of the novelist
to make this interesting to people so instead of throwing this in the waste
basket and saying this is dull, they read the whole thing," said Boyer.
"I set out with a quest. And the quest was on behalf of Estelle Miller,
who was like my mother. I was going to set the record straight about her
uncles. That is what I did and if somebody doesn't like it, that's tough,"
Boyer said.
This is not the first hoax Boyer has crafted. In 1966 he wrote "The Illustrated
Life of Doc Holliday," which he said was a hoax and a spoof designed to
trap people who stole photographs and source information from authors and
did not give them credit.
Boyer calls his "Holliday" book an example of classic Western literary
hoaxes in the tradition of writers like Mark Twain.
However, Boyer is emphatic that "Vendetta" is accurate, biographical fact.
"'Vendetta' is not a hoax. This is serious," he said.
Boyer does not describe himself as an academic historian.
"I'm a story teller. That is all I ever wanted to be," Boyer said. "I don't
want to write history, I want to make it."
Copyright by Bob Candland, 1997
Reprinted with permission of the author
and the Tombstone Tumbleweed
"And
during a recent Internet forum, Boyer wrote that a friend's description
of the book [I Married Wyatt Earp] as '40 percent Josephine Earp
and 60 percent Boyer was untrue. The book is '100 percent Boyer,' he says."
Three were dead and three were wounded 30 seconds after Tombstone Chief
of Police, Virgil Earp said, "Boys, throw up your hands, I want your guns."
Only one of the four law enforcement officers who walked into that firefight
of swirling black powder and flying round ball stood unscathed when the
smoke cleared.
Wyatt S. Earp, the Lion of Tombstone, became the most heralded western
frontier lawman in history after the street fight occurred in a tiny dirt
lot near the corner of Third and Fremont Streets in Tombstone, Arizona
Territory, shortly after 1:00 p.m., that blustery Wednesday on October
26, 1881.
Next Friday, October 17[, 1997], nearly 116 years after the fight, a new
book that promises to rewrite the history of Tombstone, Wyatt Earp, and
his legendary life will be released in Tombstone during the city's annual
Helldorado celebration.
Casey Tefertiller, a 20-year veteran newspaperman, will be here to speak
about his new book, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. of New York.
"A naive Wyatt Earp found himself in the midst of a major political conflict
in Tombstone and became a pawn of more knowledgeable players," said Tefertiller.
"The Earps never fully understood what happened to them, but newly discovered
information shows the behind-the-scenes dealings."
But Tefertiller said the major issue of those events came after the fight.
"The Earp vendetta set off a national debate concerning the legal system
of the U.S.: how to provide order when the laws fail to protect public
safety," said Tefertiller. "The Cow-boys always had an alibi in Tombstone.
The legal system could not convict a criminal. Although this issue has
appeared again and again in the American system, it has not been related
to the Earp situation in 20th century writings; but it was hotly debated
throughout the West in the 1880s."
Then the national press called it a street fight, or the incident in Tombstone.
Decades later the misdemeanor arrest gone sour would be resurrected and
called, "The Gun Fight at the O.K. Corral."
Since then, historians, western buffs and even lawmen have dissected, analyzed
and assessed the now infamous gunfight.
Fable, fiction, hoaxes and fraud have followed the Earpanian zealots in
a greedy frenzy to cultivate money while turning under truth and accuracy
of the history as revealed by recent admissions of one writer who said
he fabricated historic documents to fool other researchers.
Tefertiller's book reveals that the Cow-boy gang had created such a national
security issue that war with Mexico was a possibility. The President of
the United States threatened martial law in southeastern Arizona. President
Arther punctuated his threat by sending General William Tecumseh Sherman
through Tombstone to visit Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Tefertiller, a veteran reporter with the San Francisco Examiner, researched
sources from both sides of the border to describe in his book an organization
of outlaws and their crimes that rival any modern day Mafia crew or motorcycle
outlaw gang.
Dr. Thomas Streed, a forensic psychologist and veteran homicide investigator
who has conducted nearly 3,000 death investigations including consulting
and investigating 1,450 police involved shootings, said that outside of
the law enforcement officers who have had to hunt those with guns hunting
them, only two men, who have produced major works about the affairs in
Tombstone, have demonstrated a clear understanding, appreciation and the
ability to describe a police shooting's dynamics, which events go beyond
the actual shooting itself.
Streed said Tefertiller is the first author to do so, while screenwrite
Kevin Jarre accomplished it with his script for the movie "Tombstone."
Unfortunately, movie moguls kept Jarre's true script from being released,
replacing it with more revised history.
"The dynamics of the shooting in Tombstone in 1881 are not uncommon from
those seen today," Streed said.
"Tefertiller's book is among the more in-depth works of pre and post phenomena
surrounding an historical event of its magnitude that has ever been done,"
said Streed. "His research demonstrates a total commitment to historical
accuracy."
Dr. Streed was one of a prestigious group of forensic scientists who investigated
the death of American explorer Merriweather Lewis. Streed's development
of a psychological protocol, known as a psychology autopsy, determined
Lewis was the victim of a homicide rather than a suicide.
As for the relevancy of Tefertiller's attention to accurate detail, Streed
said Tefertiller clarifies the record by debunking historical inaccuracy
and hoaxes.
Tefertiller's book reportedly reveals some new information, and some undisclosed
in 20th century writings: newspaper interviews of Earp from Albuquerque,
New Mexico, detailing his escape from Arizona; Wells, Fargo & Co's
public support of Earp which tends to deny the allegations of an Earp involvement
in stage coach robberies; and the reports of newspaperwoman Clara Brown
for the San Diego Union are said by Tefertiller to be "the most complete
and insightful report of the events surrounding the Earps. They have not
appeared in print since 1882."
John Wiley & Sons saw the importance of Tefertiller's work on western
and law enforcement history. They will release it in Tombstone next Friday,
during the Helldorado celebration.
Copyright by Bob Candland, 1997
Reprinted with permission of the author
and the Tombstone Tumbleweed
Return
to
Wyatt
Earp: The Life Behind the Legend
Softcover, 6½" x 9½",
45 illustrations, 403 pages
John Wiley & Sons, $17.95
More Places to Go To
If can't find it at
www.ferncanyonpress.com
then it probably wasn't that interesting anyway.