Turn Left at Fremont and Walk to the OK Corral

Researching a Legend Part 3

North on Fourth and left on Fremont
I paused at the corner of Fourth and Allen and took out my 1881 street map to refresh my memory just to get a better idea of how it looked then. Some of the prominent landmarks I’d read about were still there some were not.
Walking north toward Fremont Street Hafford’s Corner Saloon was first on my right with the Brown Hotel, Gun Shop and News Stand farther along.
On the left was an Assayer’s office, Zeckendorf Building, a vacant lot, the New Orleans Restaurant and Saloon with Keatney’s Drug Store near the end of the block.
As you approach Fremont the US Post Office is the last building on the right then as you turn left into Fremont the first building on your right is the Courthouse. Some of the other buildings along that side of Fremont Street are the Exchange Building, Law Offices and Addie Bourland’s Dress Shop. On the left was the Papago Cash Store, which was under construction at the time of the shootout. Bauer’s Butcher Shop, Buck Fly’s Boarding House and Photographic Studio and then the infamous vacant lot where the shootout took place.
Once I got to the location I stepped off the yardage space that the gunfight was confined to. My immediate thoughts then turned to -- who had the best view of the fight? Of course it would be the combatants, but three of them were dead and the others you’d expect to give an account favoring their side.
Onlooker witnesses were of course possible. There was a vacant house on one side of the combat area; Buck Fly’s buildings were on the other. As I surveyed the area where the fight took place, I thought about the people that might have been looking out the windows of either of those buildings and chuckled. I bet they would have moved like a jackrabbit taking cover when the first shot rang out. And nobody in his right mind would have stayed by the window to watch the fight.
Then I looked at my map again and turned toward the other side of the street. According to the map Addie Bourland’s Dress Shop was adjacent to Buck Fly’s Boarding House and possibly far enough away from the action that a potential witness would not have been too frightened to watch the gunfight.
But today nothing remained of the dress shop, only a vacant lot. I walked across the street and took a position where the front window was probably located. And when I looked toward the vacant lot I was amazed at the view an observer would have had, a front row seat at the gunfight of the century. Was Addie Bourland at her shop window when all hell broke loose?

That was a question I didn’t need to answer right away although I’d heard a local historian talk about Addie Bourland’s testimony during the Spicer hearing. For me though, I would put a memo in my briefcase with all my other Tombstone notes that would be sorted out and corroborated later.
I had several more questions to ask about Tombstone but I was getting restless and decided to put them off until another visit.
Next stop Griffin, Georgia.
(To be continued)

‘The Goring Collection’
‘Could I please have my painting back?’ A personal note from Miriam.
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http://tinyurl.com/nlm5of


Prologue Part 3

Nothing was spelled out about Jacob’s transfer until a meeting with his regular KGB contact; a heavyset man named Alexei. They always met in a park at the end of a promontory overlooking the Baltic Sea. It was there during one a routine meeting when Alexei explained, in great detail, the KGB's plan for Jacob’s defection to the West. The escape would be timed to coincide with the 1960 Rome Olympics. Jacob was given a job as an assistant gymnastics instructor, and following a formal request Natalie was allowed to accompany her brother to the West.
The defection was set to take place during an Aeroflot charter flight in route from Potsdam to Rome. They faked a hijacking, and the charter flight made an emergency landing at London’s Heathrow Airport. The plane had no sooner parked on the tarmac when Jacob and Natalie made their exit and asked for political asylum in the United States. Then following extensive questioning by British authorities they were granted their wish and turned over to the American CIA.
Jacob and Natalie Heimann were granted political asylum, taken to the United States, and spent the next two months answering questions at the CIA facility located in Langley, Virginia. The agency looked into Jacob's background and determined that he was a possible KGB plant. However, the timing was right, they needed someone from the Eastern bloc to penetrate the inner circle of the Communist Party on the West Coast. And in spite of some reservations about his possible double agent status, Jacob was hired as a West Coast operative.
The CIA offered Natalie a job with the outfit, but she let them know that she was not interested. Following their stay at Langley, Jacob and Natalie traveled to San Francisco by train and rented an apartment on Clay Street.
Jacob’s KGB contact, code-name David, setup a series of meetings to introduce him to members of the West Coast Communist establishment. The CIA assigned him an agent, code name Luke, and while walking his double agent tight rope Jacob judiciously passed along a stream of dubious information to Luke regarding the communist underground in America.
Jacob spoke perfect English, but with a European accent. And with his German and Russian language skills he quickly became a popular guest at liberal functions. Jacob accepted all the invitations he could work into his schedule and in the early days listened to a diatribe of complaints from the hate America crowd. However, he listened patiently, taking his time, and then with the help of his KGB handlers drew on his credits from Rostock University, Jacob applied for and was offered a professor's seat at the College of California at Oakland.
During the early years in America Jacob’s work with the CIA and KGB, lectures and diplomatic functions took him all over the west with Hollywood recurring most frequently on his schedule. Those Hollywood meetings were the most contentious, and oftentimes he found himself in the middle of black list controversies. Although the House Un-American Activities Committee meetings had taken place in the late forties and early fifties the fall out from those hearings was still evident in Hollywood into the late sixties.
Over time Natalie accepted the American lifestyle and even decided to become a citizen. She begged her brother to join her in the Citizenship Program. Jacob argued, but Natalie was persuasive, and eventually talked her brother into going along.
It was during that period when Natalie met and fell in love with Morton Bromfield, a young intern working at San Francisco General Hospital. When their romance progressed toward a wedding, it was decided that the ceremony would be held at Santa Barbara, the groom's hometown
(To be continued)


Writers Notebook
Did you ever sit at the keyboard with a complete feeling of inadequacy? Maybe it’s borderline writers block and we all catch that bug every now and then.
So for all of you that suffer that affliction, from time to time, I thought I’d repeat of an earlier Writers Notebook post
.
You have committed to a project, finished the basic research and character prep work and you’re all set to begin writing. Suddenly you’re overcome with anxiety – you’ve got a knot the size of a baseball in your stomach. Stop!
You are not alone. It might give you some comfort to know that John Steinbeck experienced some of those same anxious moments. In one of his letters written in February 1936, which was included in his ‘A Life in Letters’ Steinbeck said, ‘I have to start [writing:] and am scared to death as usual – miserable sick feeling of inadequacy.’ Then in the very next sentence he said, ‘I’ll love it once I get down to work.’

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday