Billy Claiborne, a famous gunslinger, was a member of the notorious Clanton Gang of Tombstone, Arizona. He was an outlaw cowboy, miner, and gunfighter.
He was killed in a gunfight with "Buckskin Frank" on November 14, 1882.
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Birth and Criminal Activity
William “Billy” Floyd Claiborne was born in Yazoo County, Mississippi, on October 21, 1860. As a young man, he worked as a cowhand for John Slaughter, driving cattle from Texas to the Arizona Territory in 1879. Later, he was working in the mines around Tombstone.
After William Bonney died in 1881, he insisted that he be called Billy the Kid. He claimed to have killed three men who laughed at this demand, though newspapers report that he only shot one man. Billy was arrested after having killed a man named James Hickey but was found not guilty and released.
A cattle rustler with Clanton Gang, he readily enlisted in the confrontation with Earp Brothers at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone. However, when the time came, Claiborne, claiming to have been unarmed, ran from the confrontation and survived the gunfight.
After running from the O.K. Corral shootout, Claiborne's reputation fell. He testified at the O.K. Corral Spicer hearing and then left Tombstone for several months. He went to Globe and got a job in the mines.
He told a friend that he was "working double shifts to get enough money to go to Tombstone and kill Frank Leslie." Billy blamed Leslie for killing his friend Johnny Ringo. Bill returned to Tombstone on November 14, 1882
Death
Frank Leslie was tending bar at the Oriental Saloon on November 14, 1882, when Claiborne, who was very drunk, began using insulting and abusive language. Leslie asked Claiborne to leave, but Claiborne continued his foul and abusive speech. Leslie later testified.
I was talking with some friends in the Oriental Saloon when Claiborne pushed his way in among us and began using very insulting language. I took him to one side and said, "Billy, don't interfere, those people are friends among themselves and are not talking about politics at all, and don't want you about." He appeared quite put out and used rather bad and certainly very nasty language towards me. I told him there was no use of his fighting with me, that there was no occasion for it, and leaving him I joined my friends. He came back again and began using exceedingly abusive language, when I took him by the collar of his coat and led him away, telling him not to get mad, that it was for his own good, that if he acted in that manner he was liable to get in trouble. He pushed away from me, using very hard language, and as he started away from me, shook a finger at me and said, "That's all right, Leslie, I'll get even on you," and went out of the saloon
Two men told Leslie that Claiborne was waiting outside to shoot him. Leslie stepped outside and saw a rifle barrel protruding from the end of the fruit stand. He told Claiborne not to shoot, but Claiborne, still drunk, raised his rifle and fired, missing Leslie.
Leslie returned fire and hit Claiborne in the chest. Claiborne doubled over, and Leslie advanced upon him but did not shoot when Claiborne said, "Don't shoot again; I am killed."
Claiborne was taken to a doctor by friends, where he died six hours later. His last words were reportedly, "Frank Leslie killed Johnny Ringo; I saw him do it."
He was buried in Tombstone's Boothill Cemetery. He was only 22 years of age.
Frank Leslie was found to have acted in self-defense and was not charged.