# Tombstone — Character guide

> Key figures in Tombstone by Walter Noble Burns.

- [Wyatt Earp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/wyatt_earp.md): Earp comes to the silver boomtown in December 1879 wearing a deputy marshal's badge, a veteran of Wichita and Dodge City who has hunted buffalo, fought Indians, and gambled his way across the frontier. He is thirty, long
- [Doc Holliday](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/doc_holliday.md): Holliday is the fighting ace of the Earp faction, considered by connoisseurs in deadliness the coldest-blooded killer in Tombstone, a man who laughs with Morgan Earp in front of saloons and straps a sawed-off shotgun ben
- [Curly Bill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/curly_bill.md): Curly Bill operates on a scale of magnificence along the Mexican border, stealing cattle in such volume that his depredations reach Congress and diplomatic correspondence, while respectable stockmen quietly fatten their 
- [John Ringo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/john_ringo.md): Ringo is the outlaw who drinks hard, unlike other bad men who take their liquor sparingly to keep their trigger fingers steady, a figure of dark reputation among the Clanton and McLowery crowd that salutes the Earps plea
- [Ike Clanton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/ike_clanton.md): Ike Clanton is the rancher and Cowboy whose drunken belligerence on the day before the O.K. Corral fight turns simmering range-war tensions into open confrontation, flourishing his six-shooter in the Oriental and vowing 
- [John Slaughter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/john_slaughter.md): Slaughter is the rancher-turned-sheriff who brings order to the Tombstone region after the Earps depart, a frontiersman who reads deserts and mountains like a printed page and follows trails invisible to less keen eyes. 
- [Buckskin Frank Leslie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/buckskin_frank_leslie.md): Leslie pours drinks in a white apron at the Oriental and joins Ringo and Claibourne on a ten-day spree that winds through Antelope Springs and the Widow Patterson's place. Liquor, which he takes in great quantities, brin
- [Morgan Earp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/morgan_earp.md): Morgan is the Earp who jokes with Doc Holliday outside the saloons and trades easy hellos with the Clantons even as the feud hardens. His youth, yellow hair, and bold blue-gray eyes make him a marked man, and Indian Char
- [John Behan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/sheriff_john_behan.md): Behan moves along Allen Street with official weight, saluting the Clantons and McLowerys as neighbors while the Earps watch him with suspicion. His authority is real but porous, and the men he is meant to police ride in 
- [Billy Breakenridge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/billy_breakenridge.md): Breakenridge appears on Allen Street as one of Tombstone's well-turned-out officials, courteous amid the saloons and six-shooters. His beat carries him among the Curly Bill outlaws, and his reminiscences become one of th
- [Virgil Earp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/virgil_earp.md): Virgil walks Allen Street as the law's sober face, the counterweight to Wyatt's restless vigilance. When assassins fire from the dark at Fifth and Allen, one bullet passes through his body and another shatters his arm, l
- [Billy Claibourne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/billy_claibourne.md): Young cowboy present at the O.K. Corral who flees during the gunfight.
- [Billy Clanton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/billy_clanton.md): Younger brother of Ike, killed in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
- [Frank McLowery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/frank_mclowery.md): Cowboy and ally of the Clantons, killed at the O.K. Corral.
- [Tom McLowery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/tom_mclowery.md): Brother of Frank, also killed in the O.K. Corral shootout.
- [Ed Schieffelin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/schieffelin.md): Schieffelin's discovery of the silver lode is the origin story the book keeps returning to, the moment barren Apache country becomes a boomtown of gamblers, marshals, and gunmen. His own manuscript account, preserved in 
- [Russian Bill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/russian_bill.md): Colorful outlaw and member of the Cowboys, known for his Russian heritage.
- [Patchy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/patchy.md): A loyal dog who accompanies characters on their adventures.
- [Jeff Milton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/jeff_milton.md): Tough express agent and later lawman in Fairbank.
- [Old Man Clanton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/old_man_clanton.md): Patriarch of the Clanton family, a ruthless cattle rustler.
- [Frank Stilwell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/frank_stilwell.md): Cowboy and deputy sheriff who is killed by Wyatt Earp in revenge.
- [Dick Lloyd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/dick_lloyd.md): Stagecoach driver and friend of the Earps.
- [Burt Alvord](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/burt_alvord.md): Deputy sheriff who later turns outlaw and leads train robberies.
- [Big Nose Kate](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/big_nose_kate.md): Doc Holliday's common-law wife, a fiery saloon girl.
- [Geronimo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/geronimo.md): Famous Apache leader who appears in the narrative.
- [Warren Earp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/warren_earp.md): Youngest Earp brother who joins Wyatt later.
- [Finn Clanton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/finn_clanton.md): Member of the Clanton family.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters