Feb 072012
February, 1881 – Former Dodge City, Kansas lawmen Bat Masterson and Luke Short joined Wyatt Earp in Tombstone. Both worked with Wyatt at the gaming tables at the Oriental Saloon.
February, 1881 – The city of Tombstone was incorporated
February 9, 1882 – Despite the first release of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday on murder charges, Ike Clanton again filed a second murder charge against them, this time in Contention City, a few miles from Tombstone. Wyatt and Doc were again taken into custody. Virgil and Morgan Earp were still confined to their beds due to the injuries they sustained in the gunfight.
February 10, 1881 – Johnny Behan becomes sheriff of Cochise County, which includes the town of Tombstone.
February 11, 1882 – The defendants (Earps and Holliday) filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus petition, stating that: Judge Smith in Contention City had no right to hold them after the grand jury and Judge Spicer had released the murder charges on November 29, 1881 in Tombstone. Judge J.H. Lucas ruled that Judge Smith did have the authority to incarcerate them. They would have to appear before Judge Smith. Charges against the Earps and Holliday are dropped, again…
February 15, 1882 – Judge Smith adjourned the trial to Tombstone and a second Writ of Habeas Corpus petition was filed by the Earps and Doc Holliday. Immediately this same day Ike Clanton filed yet a third murder charge, this time in Judge Lucas' court, but the Writ of Habeas Corpus was granted and the Earps and Doc Holliday were discharged form custody. The following is what Judge Lucas stated:"Unless new evidence or circumstances occur subsequent to the first examination, it would only duplicate the first hearing."
February 22, 1884 – John Heath, sentenced to life in Yuma prison , was taken from county jail and lynched from a telegraph pole on Toughnut Street by Bisbee Mob.
February 22, 1880 – U.S. Mail service begins in Tombstone on a daily basis.
February 25, 1881 –Luke Short got into an argument with a man named Charley Storm which resulted in a gunfight. Charley Storm soon lay dead from Short’s quick drawn six-gun.