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Sheriff Hollister

Clay Hollister (born 1854) was the Sheriff of Tombstone, Arizona during the 1880s.

Biography[]

Clay Hollister was the Sheriff of Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona during the Wild West era of the late 19th century. Hollister was an honest and law-abiding sheriff who - unlike other executors of frontier justice - abided by due process and attempted to keep the peace in "the town too tough to die." He often confronted the Cochise County Cowboys gang and their leader, Curly Bill Brocius, such as when he went to Galeyville at J. Homer Radcliffe's behest to collect taxes from the gang, and when he investigated Curly Bill and Red Slade's culpability in the Skeleton Canyon massacres. Hollister occasionally clashed with the town's Democratic leadership, including Mayor Fred Donolon and the saloon owner J. Homer Radcliffe; when, on 2 November 1881, the Mayor and Radcliffe called on deputy Charlie Riggs to resign to prevent Sam Brewster from attacking the town to avenge his son Tully's death at Riggs' hands, Hollister refused to fire Riggs for shooting Tully in self-defense, telling Radcliffe that a town which couldn't fight for itself would be a town not worth defending at all. In July 1881, he shot the cattle baron Hody Taylor in self-defense when the rowdy Taylor rode into Tombstone and refused to leave, and Hollister was lured to Taylor's hometown of Galeno by Taylor's allies to face trial by Mayor Norwood Y. Melroy and Judge Nestor Giraldez for "murder". Hollister was given a day to make his defense, during which time he met Taylor's widow Blanche Taylor; the whole town treated him with hostility for his shooting of the philanthropic Taylor. However, Hollister obtained telegrams from several other towns to prove Taylor's murderous criminal record, and even his wife was convinced of his guilt, leading to her telling the courtroom of her husband's true nature. This led to Mayor Melroy moving to acquit Hollister, and he was reluctantly seconded by Jess Caulfield; Hollister chose not to press any charges against the townsfolk. In March 1884, he rescued his friend Harris Claibourne, editor of the Tombstone Epitaph, from a duel with the French gambler and duelist Raoul de Morency by threatening to shoot De Morency in the right wrist to ruin his gambling and dueling careers; ultimately, De Morency apologized to the two men and left town with the wealthy mine owner Carole Thayer.

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