Johnny Behan

John Harris Behan (October 23, 1844–June 7, 1912 [John H. Behan's death certificate on file with the [http://genealogy.az.gov/ Arizona Department of Health and Services] lists his date of birth as October, 1845 in Westport, Jackson County, Missouri] ) was, for 21 months of a two-year term (February 1881 to November 1882), the sheriff of Cochise County in the Arizona Territory. This newly-created county, of which Behan was the first sheriff, included the mining boom city of Tombstone, which served as the new county seat and Behan's headquarters. Immediately before this, Behan had served three months as undersheriff for the southern area of Pima County, which included Tombstone, succeeding Wyatt Earp in this position. Behan is known for being county sheriff at the time of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and the Earp vendetta ride.

Early life

Behan was born in what is now Kansas City, Missouri, the third of nine children of a carpenter named Peter Behan and his wife Sarah. [1850 Federal Census for Kaw Township, Jackson County, Missouri, page 25-A, lines 36-42] Peter Behan, a native of County Kildare, Ireland, had married Sarah Ann Harris, a native of Madison County, Kentucky, in Jackson County, Missouri on March 16, 1837; their eldest son John was named for his maternal grandfather. [Although other sources claim a 1845 date of birth for John, in the 1900 Federal census, when he was living in a boarding house at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., he is listed as a "promoter," born in Missouri in October 1844, with a father, born Ireland, and a mother, born Kentucky (1900 Federal Census for Washington, D.C., Enumeration District 81, Sheet Number 3, Line 18); this is also corroborated with his listing in the 1910 Census for Tucson (1910 Federal Census for 2nd Ward of Tucson, Pima County, Territory of Arizona; Pima County Enumeration District No. 103, Sheet 13-A, Line 31)]

Behan came to the Arizona Territory from San Francisco in 1863, arriving first in Prescott, the territorial seat. He was involved in Arizona politics (serving a term in the Arizona Territorial Legislature) and law enforcement, serving as sheriff of Yavapai County. In 1869 he married Victoria Zaff and had two children (a son and daughter). Behan and his wife divorced in 1875 and Behan never remarried.

Entrance into Tombstone

Behan moved to Tombstone in September 1880, perhaps with knowledge that the area was about to be split off from Pima County as Cochise County, with Tombstone as the county seat. Behan worked for a short time as bartender in the Grand Hotel (a favorite of the cow-boys), and also bought part interest in the Dexter Corral with John Dunbar (the Dexter Corral, across Allen Street south of the O.K. Corral, would later figure as a brief stopping point for the cow-boys less than an hour before the O.K. Corral gunfight).

Wyatt Earp had been appointed undersheriff of the southern (Tombstone) section of Pima County (under Pima sheriff Charles Shibell) in July, 1880. In November, 1880, Earp resigned after allegations of ballot box stuffing by the cowboy faction in San Simon Cienega precinct. The votes were crucial in re-electing Shibell by 46-vote margin.

In the election Ike Clanton and Johnny Ringo had served as election officials for the San Simon precinct, and delivered a 103 to 1 vote for a democratic sheriff in a precinct later estimated to contain only 50 eligible voters. Eventually in April 1881 the San Simon results would be thrown out by the courts (resulting in the removal of Shibell and replacement by Bob Paul), but meanwhile Shibell had picked Johnny Behan to serve as Tombstone area undersheriff and this position had already allowed Behan to move on.

When the southern area of Pima County containing Tombstone was split off into the new Cochise County in early 1881, undersheriff Behan was appointed first Sheriff of Cochise County by Governor Fremont, and confirmed by the upper house of the Territorial Legislature, on February 10, 1881. Wyatt Earp would later say that he had promised not to campaign against the appointment (not election) of Behan, in return for an appointment by Behan as Behan's undersheriff. But after being appointed, Behan appointed another man, Southern Democrat Harry Woods, to the position.

Involvement with the "Cowboys" organization

Popular understanding of the times portrays Behan, a county lawman, as a friend of Ike Clanton, William B. Brocious, Johnny Ringo, and a group of Mexican cattle importers, dealers, rustlers and fencers, known colloquially as "cow-boys" or "Cowboys." Some of the Cowboys were also active as rustlers in the U.S. side of the border, especially after mid-1880. (Honest ranch hands and dealers of the area after this began happening tended to be called "drovers" instead). Behan did employ a number of cow-boys as sheriff's deputies and county tax assessors and collectors.

During his time of holding the office of Sheriff, Behan did have some effect on cattle rustling, but generally only took real action against those whose cattle rustling cut into the business or criminal ventures of the "Cow-boys" organization. He was a good office manager, and good at managing finances, especially to his own benefit.

Behan spent most of his term in office in personal and legal conflict with the Earps. Behan eventually lost his girlfriend, Josephine Marcus, to Wyatt Earp, although the details of this are lost, and Josephine is known to have spent time in San Francisco between leaving Behan and publicly going with Earp. She also had possibly worked as a prostitute in Tombstone prior to her involvement with Earp. Contrary to later portrayals of her, she was not a popular or well-known actress at the time, although she did work as an actress in theatre. For a time in Tombstone Josephine Marcus signed her name as Josephine Behan, but no marriage document has ever been located. However, Josie would form a close bond with Behan's 10-year-old son Albert, and stay in contact with him throughout the rest of her life (Behan's daughter had died in childhood before he moved to Tombstone).

Gunfight at the OK Corral

Behan was a witness to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral of October 26, 1881. It was claimed that he physically attempted to stop this fight, but utterly failed to influence either faction, as the Earps had no respect for him whatsoever, and the "Cow-Boys" were by then past the point of no return. In particular, Frank McLaury refused to give up his pistol to Behan, saying he would only do so when the city police chief Virgil Earp had been disarmed.

Behan testified that the Earps then ignored Behan's warning that attempting to disarm the McLaurys and Clanton would result in violence. The Earps may also have ignored Behan's probable misdirection that the Cowboys already had been disarmed by him, but Wyatt Earp would later testify this was not so, and that on hearing Behan's claim he took his hand off the pistol which he had in his pocket. Wyatt would testify later that his reaction to Behan after the fight was anger, saying "You threw us, Johnny; you said they were disarmed!" Behan would later testify that he had only said that "he had gone down to disarm the Cowboys", not ever actually claimed that he'd actually succeeded in doing so. On this fine point of understanding and misunderstanding, the fight would hang.

Less than five months after the O.K. fight, Morgan Earp was murdered. Doc Holliday, who was an extremely close friend of Morgan's, believed that Behan was in on it, and went out to find and kill him. He was unsuccessful. A few days after Morgan Earp's assassination, Wyatt Earp caught Behan's former deputy, Frank Stilwell, in the train yard with a shotgun. Stilwell had planned to kill the wounded Virgil Earp as he boarded the train in Tucson. Wyatt pointed his shotgun at Stilwell, and Stilwell called out "Morg!" (either believing he was seeing Morgan's ghost, or not knowing Morgan was dead). Wyatt shot him twice, and then he (or others in his party) continued to shoot the body. The next day, a sheriff's posse led by Behan pursued the Earp posse in the Earp Vendetta Ride, but again failed to have any effect, except to drain county funds, and never came into contact with the Earp faction. During his less than two-year term Behan somehow banked $5,000. Exactly where the money came from remains a mystery.

In September, 1882, after the Earp Vendetta Ride fiasco, Behan had a feud with his own deputy, Breakenridge. Public and legislative unhappiness with Behan resulted in his showing last on the ballot of possible sheriff nominees for his own party, an unusual result for a seated sheriff. Behan thus lost the nomination, and was forced out of office in November, 1882, at the natural end of his first term. He would never serve as a peace officer again.

Later life

Later in life, Behan served as the Deputy Superintendent (deputy warden) of the Yuma Penitentiary, causing former Tombstone resident and writer George Parsons to suggest Behan was on the wrong side of the bars. Behan also served as a soldier (quartermaster) in the Spanish-American war.

Behan died on June 7th, 1912 of Bright's disease (immune-related renal failure) in Tucson, and (as a Roman Catholic) was buried in a now-lost site in Tucson's Holy Hope Cemetery.

Popular culture

Behan has been depicted in most films involving the Earps and the OK Corral gunfight - most notably in "Tombstone" (1993) by Jon Tenney, and in "Wyatt Earp" (1994), by Mark Harmon. In the 1967 film, "Hour of the Gun", a character obviously inspired by Behan is portrayed as a corrupt county sherrif named "Jimmy Byran"

Footnotes

References

*cite book
first=Casey
last=Tefertiller
authorlink=Casey Tefertiller
title=Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend
publisher=John Wiley & Sons
location=New York
year=1997
id=ISBN 0-471-18967-7 A careful biography of Earp with many useful historical facts about Tombstone politics, including Behan's role.

External links

* [http://ferncanyonpress.com/tombston/wyatt/behan.shtml Photo of Behan]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6682341&pt=John%20Behan More biographical information]