Johnny Behan

Who was Johnny Behan?

John Harris Behan was from April 1881 to November 1882 sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona Territory. Behan was appointed the first sheriff of the newly created county in February 1881. The mining boomtown of Tombstone was the new county seat and Behan's headquarters. Immediately before taking office as sheriff, Behan had served five months as undersheriff for the southern area of Pima County, which included Tombstone, succeeding Wyatt Earp in this position. Behan married and had two children, but his wife divorced him, accusing him of consorting with prostitutes. Sadie Marcus was his mistress beginning as early as 1875, and certainly from 1880 until she, too, was upset by his liaisons with other women, and she left him in 1881.

Behan was sheriff during the events leading up to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. He testified at length after the shooting in support of the Cowboy's position that the Earps had precipitated the shootout and murdered three Cowboys. After the Earps were exonerated, Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp was maimed in an ambush on December 28, 1881, and assistant deputy Morgan Earp was killed by assassins on March 19, 1882.