There is little known about Curly Bill, but what is known is mostly portrayed
accurately in Tombstone. The opening scene where he and the Cowboys go
massacre a number of Mexican police is ficticious. Events surrounding the death
of City Marshal Fred White were accurately portrayed. On October 28, 1880, Curly
Bill was carousing and shooting at lampposts with several others when White
went to disarm him. Brocius complied, presenting his gun barrel first. However
when White attempted to take the gun, it when off and he was shot. He would
die two days later. Wyatt
Earp had been nearby and clubbed Brocius over the head with his pistol
as was portrayed in the film.
The scene depicting Curly Bill Brocius' death at the hands of Wyatt
Earp in
a gunfight is based on Wyatt Earp's own claim that he killed Brocius in a shootout
with several Cowboys on March 24, 1882. As the story goes, the Cowboys caught
Earp and his posse by surprise near the bank of Iron Springs. Brocius missed
Earp with a shotgun blast, while Earp cut him down with his own shotgun blast.
No one else has ever substantiated the story by finding corroborating witnesses
or a body. The best support for Earp's version is the fact that Brocius never
resurfaced.
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