Glenn Boyer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Glenn G. Boyer
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Glenn Boyer
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| Born | January 5, 1924 |
| Died | February 14, 2013 (aged 89) |
| Occupation | Air Force officer; western author |
| Known for | Author of numerous books and articles on the Earp family |
Glenn G. Boyer (born January 5, 1924 – died February 14, 2013) was an author who wrote about Wyatt Earp and other famous people from the American Old West. For many years, his books were seen as the main source of information about Wyatt Earp's life.
However, other experts later questioned his work. They asked Boyer to show the original documents he said he used, but he could not prove they existed. In one case, a person he said was a key source turned out to be made up. This greatly damaged his reputation. Even though he had many supporters, his work became very controversial. One critic even said that Boyer's later books were "riddled with bogus material," meaning they contained many false things.
One of his books, I Married Wyatt Earp, sold over 35,000 copies. It was the second-best selling book about Wyatt Earp. After some disagreements, Boyer got the rights back to his book. He then had it published again as a non-fiction autobiography. Over 30 years, Boyer published many books and articles. He also published the memories of Doc Holliday's partner, Big Nose Kate. He also shared the "Flood Manuscript," which was written with Wyatt Earp's direct help.
Contents
Glenn Boyer's Early Life and Career
Glenn Boyer was born in Wisconsin. In 1943, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. This was during World War II. He later served in the U.S. Air Force. He retired in 1965 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
During his time in the Air Force, he helped solve a problem. He studied F-100 aircraft accidents. His study showed that the planes were used too much. He suggested they needed more rest time.
Boyer married author Jane Candia Coleman in 1980. He passed away on February 14, 2013, in Tucson, Arizona. He was 89 years old. His wife, two sons, and three grandchildren survived him.
What Was the Boyer Collection?
While serving in the Air Force, Boyer spent his free time meeting with the Earp family. He interviewed many of Wyatt Earp's relatives. This included the Cason family, who knew Wyatt's common-law wife Josephine Earp as "Aunt Josie." He also met Albert Price Behan, the son of Johnny Behan.
Boyer gathered a huge collection of items. It included 32 boxes of letters, family pictures, notes, and audio recordings. He also collected weapons and other items. These materials were used for his books, like I Married Wyatt Earp. This book was supposedly written by Josephine Earp herself.
The Earp family gave Boyer many personal writings. They also gave him "trunks full of personal items." These included several firearms that belonged to the Earp brothers and their father.
Auctioning the Earp Collection
On April 17, 2014, Glenn Boyer's family decided to sell much of his Earp collection. Many artifacts were put up for auction. Among the items were 32 boxes of documents, files, pictures, and other items. A Colt .45 pistol was also for sale. Earp's family said this pistol belonged to Wyatt Earp. A Winchester lever-action shotgun, also said to be Wyatt Earp's, was included.
The Wyatt Earp revolver was expected to sell for $100,000 to $150,000. On the day of the auction, over 6,400 people bid online. More than 400 collectors from 49 countries also took part. The revolver linked to Wyatt Earp sold for $225,000. It was bought by an unknown phone bidder from New Mexico. The Winchester shotgun, also said to be Wyatt Earp's, sold for $50,000. This was less than its expected high value.
In 2009, Boyer planned to convert his VHS tapes to DVDs. He also wanted his research scanned and digitized. This was for his final book, Where the Heart Was. However, a publication date was never announced.
The Cason Manuscript: Josephine Earp's Story
The early life of Josephine Earp in Arizona is not fully clear. She wanted to keep her past private. After Wyatt Earp died, Josephine worked with two of her husband's cousins. They were Mabel Earp Cason and Vinolia Earp Ackerman. They wanted to write down her life story.
The cousins recorded events from Josephine's later life. But they found her very difficult to interview. Josephine was not clear about her early life in the Arizona Territory and Tombstone. She wanted to keep her and Wyatt's past private. She also wanted to make their story sound better.
Wyatt's cousins pushed her for details about her time in Tombstone. She finally said she returned to Arizona in 1881. She joined Johnny Behan in Tombstone because he promised to marry her. She was disappointed when he kept delaying the wedding. She was ready to leave him. But Behan convinced her to stay. Years later, she said she lived with a lawyer. She worked as a housekeeper for Behan and his ten-year-old son, Albert.
Boyer believed she actually lived with Behan. He warned readers that Josephine tried to tell only the "proper" parts of her story. Josephine was also sensitive about Wyatt's common-law wife, Mattie Blaylock. Blaylock suffered from severe headaches and used laudanum, a pain reliever common at the time. After the Earp Vendetta Ride, Mattie went to Colton, California. She expected Wyatt to call for her, but he did not. Wyatt might have still been with Blaylock when he started his relationship with Josephine.
Cason said she and her sister stopped working on the manuscript. This was because Josephine "would not clear up the Tombstone sequence." Other writers also said Josephine was often "difficult" to interview.
After Boyer's book, An Illustrated Life of Doc Holliday, was published in 1966, Wyatt Earp's grandniece, Estelle Josephine Miller, contacted Boyer. She and her husband, Bill Miller, wanted a writer to tell a more balanced story about their uncle. Estelle Miller remembered Earp well. She said he "wasn't like them writers say."
Boyer then contacted Virgil Earp's granddaughter, Mable Earp Cason. He learned she had died. But her daughter, Jeanne Cason Laing, helped Boyer. She sent him a large stack of material. This was from her mother and aunt's attempts to write Josephine Earp's biography. It included material from the 1930s, which Jeanne called the "Cason manuscript." Boyer interviewed Jeanne and other family members. He learned more details about Josephine's life. He also received more documents and photos.
The Clum Manuscript: Another Source?
Besides the Cason manuscript, Boyer claimed to have the "Clum manuscript." He said it had details about Wyatt and Josephine's life in Tombstone. These details were missing from the story she wrote with the Earp cousins. Boyer said that the Clum manuscript was written by The Tombstone Epitaph publisher John Clum. It was based on his talks with Josephine.
In his 1976 book I Married Wyatt Earp, Boyer wrote about the Clum manuscript. He said an Earp researcher, Esther Colyn, gave it to him. He said her collection was given to him after she died in 1973. Boyer claimed this manuscript was "essential" because the Cason manuscript lacked details about Tombstone.
However, Esther Colyn wrote to Glenn Boyer on December 9, 1965. She said, "I never had a real manuscript which could be called such."
A year after I Married Wyatt Earp came out in 1977, Boyer published a pamphlet. In it, he said the Clum manuscript was written by several authors. He said their work formed the basis of the Tombstone years in his book.
Boyer later changed his story about the Clum manuscript. He said he did not get it from Colyn. Instead, he said one of Earp's nieces, Jeanne Cason Laing, gave it to him. When asked if these were all the same manuscript, Boyer said, "Some of them are a manuscript. Some are only a mishmash." He called "Clum manuscript" a "broad way of referring to something." He said the documents were "undoubtedly made by former Tombstone mayor and Earp friend John Clum." But he added that "some Earp researchers got hung up on this 'manuscript' business."
Boyer said the Clum manuscript could be found at the University of Arizona archives. But they could not find it. Boyer finally admitted he no longer had the Clum manuscript. He could not find it. In 1998, a reporter asked if the Clum manuscript was real. Boyer replied, "Why am I compelled to tell the truth about a manuscript like that that is worth a lot of money?" He added, "I may have it and I may not. That's none of your business." When asked if it was a mix of sources, he said, "The Clum manuscript is a generic term and I've said it over and over."
A student reporter, Ryan Gabrielson, interviewed Boyer. Boyer told him, "The Clum manuscript is a generic term." He said it was supported by "hundreds, maybe thousands of letters and documents." Reporter Tony Ortega concluded that Boyer's descriptions of the manuscript were "so contradictory that they aren't credible."
Support and Criticism of Boyer's Work
Glenn Boyer had both very loyal supporters and many critics. Ben Traywick, a historian of Tombstone, called Boyer "a giant in the field of Earp history." Others described him as "opinionated, cantankerous, interesting and funny as hell."
Boyer was very careful about who could see his files. He sometimes let authors like Ben Traywick and Lee Silva look at them. He also invited Scott Dyke, a retired businessman and researcher, to help organize his materials. Dyke spent nine years organizing Boyer's files. He said Boyer's "collection of files, pictures and tapes... is staggering in volume." Boyer collected much of his information from Earp family members, many of whom he knew personally.
Dyke said the records showed Boyer's contact with Earp relatives for over 60 years. His files included many papers from Esther Colyn, a genealogist who studied the Earp family. The records also had memories from the Miller family. They also gave Boyer some of Wyatt's personal items. Dyke said Boyer let him see the Flood manuscript and Josie's story (the Cason manuscript). Dyke learned that Boyer got oral histories from Earp relatives who knew Wyatt. Boyer used these for some of his work. But Boyer limited what Dyke could say about the collection. Dyke said Boyer told him that parts of his collection "grew legs and took a hike." Even though Dyke knows Boyer's archive best, he would not say Boyer's books were fully accurate. He said, "Maybe he wrote his opinion in his books and stretched reality, but he didn't make up the research."
Boyer gave copies of the Flood and Cason manuscripts to the Ford County Historical Society. He also gave them an original journal kept by Josephine Earp. He set a condition that he would approve who could see the documents.
Boyer's Refusal to Grant Access
In the 1990s, other authors and experts started asking questions about Boyer's sources. Even though his archives had a lot of information, Boyer usually did not let critics see them. He promised Gary Roberts and Casey Tefertiller, two critics of his work, access to his archives. But when they visited him, he changed his mind.
Boyer's Response to Critics
Boyer often spoke badly of his critics. He called them "fanatics and their puppets." He joked that he would not show his sources just because he did not like the people who questioned his honesty.
Impact on Historical Research
Jack Burrows, an author, said, "How can he just take a stack of material and give it a name that has nothing to do with what’s included?" He compared it to calling a cowpie "filet mignon."
Gary Roberts, a history professor, said Boyer "has poisoned the record in a way that may take decades to clear." He meant that Boyer's work made it hard to know what was true. Roberts said that until Boyer's sources could be proven, no one could trust the ideas based on them. Roberts commented, "The tragedy is that even if [Glenn Boyer] has found the truth, it is so buried in a crazy quilt of obfuscation and deceit that serious researchers will not believe it." He added, "He has succeeded in becoming a part of the Earp saga that cannot be ignored. But at what cost to history?"
Estate Sale of Boyer's Collection
On April 17, 2014, Boyer's family put much of his Earp collection up for auction. Among the items were 32 boxes of documents, pictures, and other items. Three pistols and a Winchester lever-action shotgun were also for sale. One pistol was a Colt revolver owned by Virgil Earp. Another was a Remington Ball and Cap Revolver owned by Earp's grandfather. A Colt .45-caliber pistol was said by Earp descendants to have been owned by Wyatt Earp. The shotgun was also reported to be Wyatt Earp's. Personal items of Josephine Earp's were also in the auction. These included her riding crop, opera glasses, and jewelry.
The history of these items is controversial because they belonged to Boyer. John Boessenecker, an author and collector, said it would be "impossible to separate the authenticity of the auction items from Boyer's own troubled history." This is especially true because the proof of the weapons' origins came from letters written by or given to Boyer.
Bill Miller, Wyatt Earp's nephew by marriage, wrote a letter to Boyer. He said he received two pistols and the shotgun from Allie Earp, Virgil's wife. Casey Tefertiller, a critic of Boyer's work, commented on the auction. He said, "How do you trust material you're buying from somebody caught fabricating evidence?" He described Boyer as "the most charismatic, charming person I have ever met." But he added, "people wound up paying for it by buying into a hoax."
The revolver said to be carried by Wyatt Earp in Tombstone had parts replaced. Only the frame was original, and it was missing a serial number. But X-ray tests showed an original serial number. This number matched records confirming Earp had owned the gun. Before he died, Boyer signed a sworn statement saying the Colt .45 belonged to Earp. This statement was included with the revolver. LeRoy Merz, a large dealer in antique Winchesters, said the missing serial number was a "kiss of death." He said, "No serious collector will want that."
Before the auction, the Wyatt revolver was expected to sell for $100,000 to $150,000. On the day of the auction, over 6,400 online bidders and more than 400 collectors took part. The revolver linked to Wyatt Earp sold for $225,000. The Winchester lever-action shotgun, also said to be Wyatt Earp's, sold for $50,000. The Colt revolver that belonged to Virgil Earp sold for $37,500. John Anderson, a local businessman, bought the pistol owned by Virgil and his grandfather, the shotgun owned by Wyatt, and the 32 boxes of research for $160,000. He chose not to bid on the Colt said to belong to Wyatt Earp. He said, "Was it the one from the O.K. Corral? I don’t believe it was…" Anderson said he is looking for a museum to house the weapons. He also plans to donate the research to the University of Arizona. Boyer's widow, Jane Coleman, said, "Glenn would hate that."
Published Works
- I Married Wyatt Earp (non-fiction)
- An Illustrated Life of Doc Holliday (non-fiction)
- The Suppressed Murder of Wyatt Earp (historical fiction)
- Trailing an American Myth (fiction)
- Who Killed John Ringo? (fiction)
- Wyatt Earp's Tombstone Vendetta (fiction)
- Wyatt Earp's Tombstone Vendetta: The Story of the Earp-Clanton Feud (fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The Untold Story (fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The Man and the Myth (fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The Life and Times of an American Legend (non-fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The Legend (historical fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The Real Story (non-fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The True Story (fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The Final Chapter (fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The Last of the Gunfighters (fiction)
- Wyatt Earp: The Legend of the West (fiction)
- Where the Heart Was (semi-autobiography)
