March 19th, 2010

Making a living as an author of books about women of the Old West isn’t the most lucrative career. I’ve had to rely on private investigative work the last few months to supplement my income. Nothing big – process serving mostly for a nearby county. A week ago however, I was asked to help in the investigation of the suspicious death of an out of work comedy writer. It appears as though the writer committed suicide, but there were another pair of shoeprints at the location that appear to be walking away from the body. That’s what makes it suspicious. Given my background in historical research and writing in general, it seems as through I can be of some use. My assignment is to go through the aspiring jester’s scripts, journals, notes, comedy routines, etc., and find a reason she might have wanted to end her life prematurely. I’ll also be looking for enemies she might have had that she wrote about. On this day in western history in 1882: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday gunned down Frank Stillwell at the train station in Tucson for his alleged part in the shooting of Virgil Earp, Stillwell and Ike Clanton were both there to make yet another attempt on the Earp family. Virgil was on the train escorting Morgan’s body to California for burial. Clanton scampered off into the night when he saw Wyatt. It was the second time he fled from a fight with the Earps.