Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
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The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a gunfight of legendary proportion which has been portrayed in numerous Western films. Its importance is that it has come to symbolize the struggle between law-and-order and open-banditry and rustling, in frontier towns of the Old West where law enforcement was often thin, and where some of the urban-vs.-rural and North-vs.-South tensions of the American Civil War were still very much active.
The actual event occurred on Wednesday afternoon, October 26, 1881, in a vacant lot, known as lot 2, in block 17, behind the corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, United States . Some of the fight also occurred in Fremont Street in front of the vacant lot. Some thirty shots were fired in thirty seconds.
Although only three people were killed during the gunfight, it became more famous than many other gunfights that resulted in larger numbers of people killed, such as the Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight involving El Paso Marshal and gunman Dallas Stoudenmire, the Going Snake Massacre, and the Gunfight at Hide Park.
Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday fought against Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, Billy Claiborne, and Wes Fuller. Ike Clanton, Wes Fuller, and Billy Claiborne ran away from the fight, unharmed. Both McLaurys and Billy Clanton were killed, while Holliday, Morgan Earp, and Virgil Earp were wounded.
Although history would for decades show the Earp faction as heroes, recently more balanced portrayals have been made. The Earp faction's close involvement with (then legal) prostitution and gambling have been highlighted in these histories, with a certain amount of tarnishing of their Victorian characters. However, most recent biographies of Wyatt Earp (see below) have tended to uphold Wyatt and Virgil's places in history.
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[edit] Context
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Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
The conflicts leading to the gunfight remain complex: the two sides (in both cases related by strong family ties) were in opposition due to politics, business concerns, and other ideological factors. The Earps were viewed by their enemies as badge-toting pimps who ruthlessly enforced the business interests of the town ; the McLaurys, Clantons and their Cowboy crowd were viewed by their enemies as cattle rustlers, thieves, and murderers. The "Cowboys" was a term used in the area to identify a loose band of outlaws — which included the McLaurys and Clantons — that were implicated in such crimes. Although affiliated by a combination of blood relations, friendships and mere convenience, the Cowboys did not have the formal structure of a modern gang. Cowboys teamed up in crimes and came to each other's aid based on personal relationships, not orders from a leader.
Also, contrary to popular belief through subsequent films and writings, the "Cowboy" faction was fairly popular in Tombstone, despite later false portrayals of the town living in fear of them. Although undoubtedly many members were involved in cattle rustling and robberies, most were seen as fun loving and wild, but generally easy to get along with. Many of the businesses in Tombstone saw the "Cowboys" as job security, since they bolstered the business of saloons and gambling houses around town, and rarely were known to involve themselves in illegal activities inside Tombstone. Although Ike Clanton was not well liked, due mostly to his boasting attitude when drinking, his brother Billy was quite popular.
The Earp faction, although portrayed throughout history as doing what had to be done as lawmen during the ultimate gunfight, were often viewed in Tombstone as men who took advantage of their positions as lawmen to improve their market position on gambling, and using their law enforcement positions against some, while choosing not to use it against others, even though often this enforce or don't enforce attitude would involve the same violations of the law (there is no hard historical evidence of this claim, however ). These attitudes from the public toward both factions would later cloud the issues as to where blame for the gunfight should ultimately lie.
The key incident leading up to the shooting was an attempted stagecoach robbery on March 15, 1881, in which two people were killed and a prime suspect escaped from jail afterward. In the aftermath, accusations about who was involved in the robbery floated about, with Doc Holliday made a suspect after his girlfriend Big Nose Kate accused him, but then later recanted.
Wyatt intended to eventually stand for election for sheriff of Cochise County against incumbent Johnny Behan, his eventual rival. Wyatt reported that he (Wyatt) attempted to bribe Ike Clanton with Wells Fargo Co. reward money for information leading to the capture or death of the stage-robbers. Wyatt believed the "glory" of catching the robbers would help him win the sheriff's office. According to Wyatt, Ike later backed out of the deal after the robbers had all been killed in other separate incidents. Ike Clanton, for his part, would later claim that Wyatt and Holliday had actually been the ones involved in the stage robbery, and wanted to kill him because of his knowledge of this. However, Ike Clanton did not explain why Wyatt or Holliday would confide such a thing to him, as he claimed they both separately did, and Ike's testimony on this point was not believed by the presiding justice (or many people in the courtroom).
[edit] Lead-up to the event
[edit] Events up to the Ike Clanton court hearing
On Tuesday October 25, 1881, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury drove the 10 miles into Tombstone from Chandler's Milk Ranch (at the foot of the Dragoon Mountains). They were in town to get supplies, and rode in a spring wagon (a light horse-team drawn wagon, often with removable seats to increase cargo-carrying area), arriving about 11 A.M. That evening, shortly after midnight, Clanton had a verbal run-in with Doc Holliday and Morgan Earp.
The previous weekend Holliday had been out of town, gambling at a fiesta celebration in Tucson. Morgan Earp had gone to get him for the trouble with the Cowboys that he saw coming. In the small hours of the morning of the 26th, Clanton was confronted by Holliday who walked into the 24-hour "lunch-counter" where Clanton was eating, and tried to provoke Clanton into drawing his gun (the reasons for this confrontation would vary by the witness).
Wyatt and Morgan Earp watched the confrontation, and Wyatt suggested that Morgan, as a city police officer, do something about it. However, no arrests were made (Virgil threatened to arrest Doc and Ike if they didn't stop, and finally Wyatt got Doc in hand and took him back to his boarding house to sleep it off). Ike Clanton ended up threatening Doc Holliday and all the Earps, as soon as he was armed. Meanwhile, Wyatt had gone home to bed. Virgil Earp, the City Marshal (Chief of Police), in order to try to calm things down overnight, spent the night playing a long card game with Ike Clanton, Tom McLaury, and Cochise County sheriff Johnny Behan, and a fourth man unknown to Ike Clanton (and to history). Ike Clanton later testified that Virgil sat through the game with a pistol on his lap.
The next morning around dawn (about 6 or 7 A.M.), the card game broke up, and Behan and Virgil Earp went home to bed. This left Tom McLaury and Ike Clanton still awake and with nothing to do. For some reason, neither of them rented a room to get sleep. Ike was drinking heavily. By later in the morning Ike had reacquired both his rifle and pistol (having gotten them, so he testified later, from the West End Corral where the wagon was, and where weapons brought into the city by Ike and Tom the day before should by law have been left).
By noon on Wednesday, October 26, Ike was publicly bar-hopping while fully armed, still saying he was looking for Holliday or an Earp. Not long after noon, Virgil and Morgan Earp (who had been bothered in their sleep by various people reporting Ike Clanton's threats) came up behind Clanton on 4th Street, grabbed Clanton's rifle, and pistol whipped Ike. The Earps then took Clanton to court for violating the city's ordinance against carrying firearms after arrival in the city.
[edit] The Clanton court hearing and following events
Before the hearing that followed almost immediately, and while Virgil was out looking for the judge, Ike, Morgan, and Wyatt traded death-threats, with Wyatt finally matching Ike in dangerous language. When Judge Wallace arrived, Ike Clanton was fined $25 plus court costs, and left sometime after 1 P.M., unarmed. Virgil, ever the calm city peace officer, told Ike he'd leave Ike's confiscated rifle and pistol at the Grand Hotel (a favorite of the Cowboys when in town), and this Virgil did. There Ike's weapons stayed through the gunfight which followed.
Ike's death threats against all the Earps got under Wyatt's skin during the hearing. Outside the court that was trying Ike, Wyatt almost walked into Tom McLaury, who was headed the other way (witnesses would agree that Wyatt was headed toward the court while Tom was headed away, but regardless of the directions of the men, the trial had apparently already happened). The two men were brought up short nose-to-nose. Wyatt immediately got into an altercation with Tom. Tom, as an ordinary citizen who had arrived in town the day before, was not supposed to be armed, and was not obviously armed. Wyatt, however, thought he saw that Tom had a pistol under his shirt, tucked into the waistband of his pants.
At this point Wyatt had had enough of armed Cowboys in town, but he had a legal problem: having no official paid status as officer of city police force (which at that time he did not), and probably no badge (because Wyatt emphasized later that his brother Morgan DID have one), Wyatt would have a difficult time enforcing what was only a city ordinance against firearm-carrying. He was armed himself with a concealed weapon – something that may have been questionable for him since he hadn't had a job as a paid law officer since he'd last been deputy sheriff, almost a year before. Wyatt would say later that he was operating in the capacity of special deputy city marshal in assistance to his brother Virgil, who was both city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal for the area. Wyatt would testify in his deposition that he had served as temporary city marshal for Virgil the week before the gunfight, while Virgil was in Tucson for the Pete Spence and Frank Stilwell trial. Wyatt would say that he still considered himself a deputy city marshal (Virgil would later confirm this). However, at the time, it is apparent from Wyatt's behavior that he thought that arresting Tom for the misdemeanor infraction of carrying a firearm within city limits, or searching Tom for a concealed pistol (neither of them federal crimes), would best be done by Virgil Earp, in his capacity as city-marshal, or by one of Virgil's paid city-police deputies (which recently had come to include Morgan Earp, and possibly Warren Earp, but not Wyatt).
Wyatt apparently thought Tom was armed with intent to injure the Earps, and Wyatt was ready for a gunfight – preferring an open fight when he was ready for it to an ambush later when he was not. Under the circumstances, however, the only thing Wyatt could do to provoke a fight was goad Tom into drawing his weapon. Interpreting Tom's words as fighting words, Wyatt (according to witnesses) drew his own pistol from his coat pocket (or at least through the pocket from his pants), and began pistol-whipping Tom McLaury with it. This put Tom prostrate and bleeding in the street, but it did not accomplish Wyatt's goal: Tom either would not, or could not, draw a weapon. Since Wyatt could not legally search or arrest Tom for the pistol problem, and Tom would not draw the weapon for a gunfight, Wyatt was finally forced to simply walk away. (Teetotaler Wyatt, needing something for his nerves by this point, would testify later that he walked directly to the nearest saloon to buy a cigar).
[edit] Possibility of a concealed weapon on Tom McLaury
Whether Tom McLaury actually did have a concealed pistol in his pants at the time of his beating by Wyatt remains a historical mystery. It is known from the later testimony of saloon-keeper Andrew Mehan at the Spicer Hearing that at this same time (between 1 and 2 P.M.), Tom McLaury did deposit his pistol at the nearby Capital Saloon (on the southwest corner of Fremont and 4th Street). Further, one of the witnesses to Tom's beating (A. Bauer) would testify that he saw Tom AFTER the beating, at the Capital Saloon. Thus, unless Tom visited the Capital Saloon both before and after his beating by Earp, he left the pistol there after the beating, and was therefore armed during the beating by Wyatt, just as Wyatt believed him to be.
Depositing his pistol at the saloon was an act that, according to city ordinance, Tom should have performed the previous day, when he first arrived in town. The fact that Tom left his pistol at the Capital Saloon on the 26th, and not at the West End Corral on the 25th when he arrived in town more than 24 hours earlier, shows that Tom McLaury did indeed carry his pistol as a concealed weapon into town for some time, contrary to city ordinance which required weapons to be deposited immediately after arrival. Tom's reason for leaving his pistol at the saloon immediately after being beaten by Wyatt would appear clear also – he did not wish to give Wyatt another excuse to treat him in the same way.
In any event, Tom's pistol, like Ike Clanton's arms, remained at a nearby saloon during the O.K. Corral gunfight.
By the time Ike and Tom had seen doctors for their head wounds, it was getting into the early afternoon. The day was chilly, with snow still on the ground in some places. Neither Tom nor Ike had slept, but had spent the night gambling. Now, they were both out-of-doors, both wounded from head beatings, and at least Ike was still drunk. It is likely that both men were in very poor mental shape.
[edit] More Cowboys enter town
About this time (1:30 to 2:30 pm or so – but after the pistol-whipping of Tom), fresher men with more willingness to fight arrived in town. Ike's younger brother Billy Clanton (aged 19) and Tom's older brother Frank McLaury had heard from Ed "old man" Frink that Ike had been stirring up trouble in town overnight, and they had ridden into town on horseback, to back up their brothers. They had come from Antelope Springs 13 miles east of Tombstone, where they had been rounding up stock with their brothers (they had breakfast with their brothers Ike and Tom the day before). Both Frank and Billy were armed with pistol and rifle as was the custom for lone riders in the wild country outside Tombstone. (Apache warriors had fought with the U.S. Army near Tombstone just three weeks before the O.K. Corral gunfight, so the southwest Arizona Territory country was far from tame).
Billy and Frank stopped first at the Grand Hotel on Allen Street (being greeted there warmly by practical joker Doc Holliday), where almost immediately (before they'd even had time to taste their drinks) they were told of the beatings of both of their brothers by Earps within the previous two hours – an item which was the big news in town. Immediately, Frank and Billy left the saloon without drinking.
By law and custom, both Frank and Billy also should have left their firearms at the first corral or hotel they stopped at in town (in this case the Grand Hotel). Instead of doing that, they loitered fully-armed about the Western part (or "horse end") of town. At some point, they even ventured up to the gun and hardware store (Spangenberger's) on 4th Street, to buy ammunition, where they were observed by Wyatt Earp, who was smoking his cigar outside Hafford's saloon nearby.
[edit] Wyatt and Virgil Earp’s reactions
Wyatt still had the problem that he had no obvious legal authority to question their holding of weapons, and so did nothing but move Frank McLaury's horse off the sidewalk, where it had strayed (Earp gave the excuse for handling the horse that he still considered himself a city police deputy, but he was still overplaying his role). Earp's handling of his horse provoked Frank to come out of the store, but not to draw his pistol from its holster. Again, things were at a draw.
Wyatt Earp thought that the Cowboys, including Ike, were arming themselves in the store (Ike would testify that Tom wasn't in the store, but Wyatt could not tell who was and who wasn't there). Ike would later testify that indeed he had actually tried to buy a new pistol in the store, but the owner, observing his head bandages (and possibly his drunken state) refused to sell him one. If Ike did indeed try to buy a pistol, it would have meant that ironically he had not heard (or believed) Virgil Earp, who had put Ike's weapons exactly where he'd said he would, for recovery by Ike any time Ike wanted to pick them up on leaving town.
Meanwhile, Virgil Earp, in charge of enforcing city law, was trying to avoid a confrontation with Frank and Billy, by not going to where Virgil thought Frank and Billy were. These armed men, newly arrived in the city, were pushing at two fuzzy borders in the city law. One question was how far east into town a newly arrived traveler might go while carrying a firearm (the three main Tombstone corrals were all at the west end of town, a block or two away from where the Cowboys were buying ammunition). It was generally understood that newly-arrived travelers could pass through town while armed, if immediately on their way to a hotel or saloon. The other question was how long, after arriving in town, might a traveler legally keep his firearms, if he still had his horse with him. The latter would mean he was still in the process of "arriving," while surrendering a horse or wagon at a corral/livery stable automatically meant surrendering firearms with it.
The Earps apparently thought that Tom and Ike had arrived the previous day at the Dunbar Corral on Allen Street, where they were known friends of the owners (which included Sheriff Behan). They naturally assumed that newly arrived "reinforcements" Frank and Billy would leave their horses and arms there also, if they meant peace. Thus, when Virgil heard that the Cowboys had gone to the O.K. Corral (across from Dunbar's, but still close to it) he made the decision, stated in the presences of witnesses, that he would seek to disarm the Cowboys only if they left the vicinity of the corrals while still armed, meaning they clearly meant to openly violate town law against weapons carrying after arrival, or not while preparing to leave town. Unfortunately, unknown to the Earps, Ike and Tom had actually left their horse and wagon at the West End Corral on Fremont street, a block north of the O.K. Corral. If they prepared to leave town, it would be from a place a block north of where the Earps assumed it would (and should) be.
[edit] Actions near Fremont Street directly before the fatal fight
When Frank and Billy began to gather on Fremont Street, while still saddled and armed, Virgil felt they were getting too far from the corrals he assumed they and their brothers had arrived at.
Johnny Behan, Cochise County Sheriff and friend of the Cowboys, testified later that he learned of the trouble while he was being shaved at the barbershop sometime after 1:30 P.M., the time he'd risen after his late cardgame. Behan stated he immediately went to Fremont Street, where he found Frank McLaury still with horse and arms, on Fremont and 4th Street (this would now have been about 2:30 P.M.). Down the street to the west, he saw that Ike, Tom, and Billy had all gathered off the street in a vacant lot, which was immediately west of Fly's photography gallery and boarding house. This was about half a block east of the West End Corral, which the Cowboys may have been intending to use as a jumping-off point to get out of town, as soon as Frank finished doing business (it was also about half a block west of the Capitol Saloon where Tom's pistol was).
Unfortunately for them, the Cowboys gathered at a spot a block away from the O.K. Corral entrance on Allen Street. It was unluckily also next to Fly's, which was Doc Holliday's rooming house, and also between the position of the Earps and their homes just two blocks further west on Fremont Street. All of this constituted a physical threat which the Earps and Holliday could hardly ignore, especially in light of Ike Clanton's verbal threats.
On Fremont and 4th Street, Behan tried to disarm Frank McLaury, and here Frank made the fatal error of resisting disarmament by Behan (who was the sheriff), insisting that Virgil Earp (the chief of police) and his brothers disarm first. Instead of leaving town, as Ike now planned to do, Frank insisted on staying in town to do some business. He further insisted on doing this business while armed, in violation of city ordinance.
Meanwhile, having heard that the newly arrived Cowboys were now on Fremont Street, bearing weapons, and now a block away from the entrance of the O.K. Corral where they were legally entitled to hold weapons, Virgil decided to act. While Wyatt was confronting Frank McLaury at Spangenberg's, Virgil had collected a shotgun from the Wells, Fargo office around the corner on Allen street, in case of trouble. This would have been a short shotgun messenger type weapon, double-barrelled and likely 12-gauge (though possibly 10-gauge), loaded with buckshot. Returning to Hafford's, and not wanting to alarm the citizenry of Tombstone by carrying the shotgun through the streets, Virgil gave the shotgun to Doc Holliday to hide under his longer overcoat. (The Earps carried pistols in their coat pockets, or in their waistbands; there is some evidence that Holliday was using his longer coat that morning to conceal a pistol holster). Virgil took Holliday's walking-stick in return, to use for emphasis, and then the Earps and Holliday walked down the south side of Fremont street toward the Cowboys' last known position, keeping out of sight of the Cowboys.
Along the way, the Earps met Sheriff Behan, coming up Fremont street from the Cowboys. Behan told the Earps (or so Wyatt and Virgil heard him say) that he had disarmed the Cowboys and that no trouble was necessary. The Earps brushed by Behan, only slightly put off their guard. But when the Earps moved out into the middle of Fremont street and came into full view of the Cowboys in the vacant lot west of Fly's boarding house, they found two horses with saddles and rifles in the lot, and Frank and Billy still near their horses, wearing their pistol belts and still fully-armed. Later, Wyatt would especially blame Behan for telling what he took to be a lie about leaving the Cowboys armed. Behan would testify that he'd only said he'd gone down to the Cowboys "for the purpose of disarming them," not that he'd actually done it.
As the Earps and Holliday came upon Ike Clanton, he was talking to Billy Claiborne in the middle of the lot. Behind them, against a house to the west (the McDonald house), stood Tom and Frank McLaury, Billy Clanton, and both the horses of Billy Clanton and Frank. The precise arrangements of the men and animals would be debated by witnesses, but Billy Clanton seems by all accounts to have been nearest the house, near the building's corner.
[edit] The gunfight
[edit] Overview
The roughly 30-second gunfight that ensued at about 3:00 p.m. that afternoon of October 26 came to be known in the 1950s (after a movie title) as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and arguably the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West. It has been the subject of many books and movies. Who started the shooting remains a mystery, with partisan factions telling differing stories, and independent eyewitnesses who did not know the participants by sight unable to say for certain.
Of the participants, and contrary to popular belief, none but Virgil Earp had any extensive experience in shooting situations. Virgil's years of service during the Civil War gave him ample combat experience going into the fight, although it was experience of a different sort than street fighting. Wyatt Earp, despite his reputation and although becoming famous due to the fight and the Earp vendetta ride following it, had only been involved in one shooting before the O. K. Corral, and was not widely known at the time, film portrayals notwithstanding. In that one shooting, Wyatt Earp always claimed to have been the one to shoot George Hoy, who died days later as a result of the gunshot wound to his arm. However, many lawmen, including James Masterson and his brother of Bat Masterson, were involved in that gunfight and any of them could have hit Hoy . History does not record that Morgan Earp had any experience at gunfighting prior to this incident. Doc Holliday, also despite his reputation, had been mixed up in a few altercations here and there, mostly while drunk, but details of those are sketchy and generally not believed to have been extensive. Holliday had killed one man in a gunfight prior to Tombstone, that having taken place in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and in the presence of gunman and friend John Joshua Webb.
As for the Earp faction's opposition, short of a few minor instances prior, this was believed to have been the first actual shootout for any of them, except for Billy Claiborne, who had been in at least one gunfight over which he was later arrested for killing a man. However, Claiborne did not fire a shot during the gunfight, and fled the scene, claiming later he was unarmed at the time.
[edit] The fight
Before the fight Virgil was able to say "Throw your hands up, I want your guns", but eyewitness testimony from this point becomes divergent, depending on the bias of the witnesses. Independent non-partisan witnesses, including H.F. Sills and A. Bourland, would later say that the Cowboys did not at any time raise their hands in surrender. This point would be believed by the judge, and would provide the controlling data for his opinion that the Cowboys had not been murdered in the act of trying to surrender.
Wyatt Earp and his brother Virgil would state that both Frank and Billy had drawn their pistols from their holsters before any shots were fired, leaving the Earps no choice but to defend themselves. It is probable that at least Holliday fired early in the fight, hitting Tom McLaury with a shotgun blast. Ironically, Tom was probably not (by then) armed – although all evidence indicates the Earps and Holliday believed him to be. In particular, Doc wasted a precious shotgun blast on Tom, which would have been unthinkable in the presence of other men who certainly were armed, unless Doc thought Tom was equally dangerous. Wyatt even thought (as he testified later) that Tom fired shots over his horse, but this was almost certainly Frank, using his own horse. (Tom had no horse, and in any case was hit early in the fight by Doc, and could not possibly have used a pistol after that.) Wyatt would later testify that he and Billy Clanton fired first in the fight, after Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton drew their pistols.
The gunfight was fought in a vacant lot about 18 feet wide, but also in Fremont street in front of the lot. Most of the shooting was done at ranges of about 10 feet or less. The number of shots fired can only be estimated, and depends on who was actually armed. Estimates vary from 20 to 30 shots total.
[edit] The different injuries
Wyatt came out of the gunfight unscathed, while Virgil was shot through the right calf, Morgan was shot through the upper back above his shoulder blades (by a single bullet), and Holliday was grazed on the hip.
Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury died from their wounds. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran through the middle of the fight and escaped uninjured.
Frank McLaury was shot in the abdomen near the navel, early in the fight (probably by Wyatt). He stumbled into the street with his horse, firing his pistol, only to lose the frightened horse. He fired twice more before he was felled at the end of the fight by a pistol bullet hitting him at the base of his skull under his right ear – this shot fired by either Morgan Earp or Doc Holliday. He died where he fell, on the sidewalk on the opposite side of Fremont street from the vacant lot.
Tom McLaury, already fatally wounded from a double shotgun blast, was seen running or stumbling westward, away from the action, while shooting was still going on, and Frank and Billy were still standing. Tom fell at the telegraph pole at the corner of Fremont and 3rd Street (see left-most mark on photo at right). The coroner's report showed that Tom had been hit with a dozen buckshot, high in the side of his chest near the right armpit (the pattern being so tight that the coroner could cover it with a hand). He died without speaking, a few minutes after being carried into the nearest house on the corner (the Harwood House).
Billy Clanton was shot through the right arm (breaking the bone), in the right chest (through the right lung), and in the abdomen. He fell near his original position, near the corner of the McDonald house, in the empty lot. He died last, having put up the greatest fight from the Clanton side, dying after being carried to the same house at the corner (the Harwood residence) where Tom had been taken (it probably didn't make sense to the onlookers to take both men to different adjacent houses, and the corner house was chosen for both). Billy lived long enough to be seen by a doctor and be injected with morphine. He spoke a few words, saying he'd been murdered, and indicating he couldn't breathe. (Shortness of breath following a penetrating chest wound is a classic finding of a pneumothorax)
[edit] How the fighters may have been armed
No pistol was found on Tom after the fight, by any witness. As noted, Tom's usual pistol remained unclaimed during the fight at the bar at the Capitol Saloon, on 4th Street and Fremont less than a block East of the gunfight. This pistol was exhibited and identified by the barkeep and by Ike Clanton as being Tom's pistol, at the Spicer Hearing. Wyatt Earp, to the end of his life, would believe that the pistol Tom had used in the gunfight had been removed from the scene by a Cowboy confederate. At least two witnesses thought Tom had obtained a pistol in a butcher shop on Allen street just before the fight, for he was seen leaving the shop with a newly-bulging pants pocket. However, he would have had to walk past the very saloon where his own pistol had just been deposited and was stored, to have carried this second pistol to the fight. The bulge in Tom's pants pocket noted by witnesses before the fight may have been the nearly $3000 in cash and receipts found on his body (he had probably actually picked up these at the butcher's shop immediately before the fight, as it makes little sense that he'd spent all night carrying around this much cash).
Even if Tom wasn't armed with a pistol the question remains about whether or not he tried to get a rifle. Virgil Earp testified Tom attempted to grab a rifle from a horse (this would have been Frank or Billy's horse) before he was killed. Wyatt thought Tom fired a pistol over "his" horse (actually it would have had to be Billy's horse, because Frank had his own). It's very possible Virgil was mistaken about which McLaury brother used his horse in the fight, as Wes Fuller saw Frank in the middle of the street shooting with a pistol, and attempting to get a Winchester from his own horse, and failing (the very action attributed to Tom).
Billy's pistol was taken from him empty, by C.S. Fly, who emerged from his boarding house at the end of the fight to disarm Billy.
Frank's pistol, with two unfired rounds remaining in it, was recovered on the street by a bystander and placed next to Frank's body as it lay on the sidewalk. Frank's pistol was then taken by the coroner, Dr. Mathews, and laid on the floor of the Harwood house while he examined Billy and Tom (this would cause some confusion later, but both Billy and Frank's weapons would later be positively identified as their own, by witnesses).
From serial numbers given at the Spicer Hearing we know that Frank and Billy carried late 1870's manufactured Colt Frontier Six-Shooters, a pistol similar to the .45 caliber Colt Single Action Army model, but chambered for the .44-40 cartridge so that it could use the same ammunition as the Winchester 1873 model repeating rifle. As Frank and Billy are both identified as having "Winchesters" on their horses, it seems likely that these were 1873 models chambered for the same cartridge.
Witness Bauer thought Wyatt had a large gun "that appeared to be 14-16 inches long." Many people believe that Bauer was looking at Wyatt's Buntline Special, because a gun with a 10 inch barrel measures exactly 15 inches (see discussion of Buntline Special in Wyatt Earp).
Virgil Earp carried his Smith and Wesson no. 3 in .44 caliber Russian. Doc Holliday carried a double-barreled short messenger type shotgun, in either 10 or 12 gauge, along with a nickel-plated .45 1873 Peacemaker with ivory grips, along with a nickel-plated .38 1877 Lightning with ivory grips. Morgan Earp carried an 1873 Colt .45 Peacemaker, with pearl grips.
Of the non participants, John Behan carried a Sheriff's model 1873 Colt .45. Ike Clanton usually carried a Colt .45 Peacemaker with pearl grips. And C. S. Fly (the first man on the scene) carried an 1860 Henry .44 Repeater.
[edit] The horses
The two saddled horses of Billy and Frank escaped from the fight and were later caught a few hundred feet up the street, both with Winchester rifles still in place in their scabbards.
[edit] Aftermath
The Earps and Holliday were considered heroes for about forty-eight hours. The funerals for Clanton and the McLaurys (who were relatively wealthy men) were the largest ever seen in Tombstone. The huge turnout caused many Tombstone residents and businesses to reconsider their calls for the mass killing of Cowboys. Billy Clanton was fairly popular around town, and although rowdy, the "Cowboys" brought substantial business into Tombstone.
Also, the fear of Cowboy retribution and the potential loss of investors because of the negative publicity in large cities like San Francisco started to turn the opinion against the Earps and Holliday. Stories that Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury were unarmed, and that Billy Clanton and Tom McLaury even threw up their hands before the shooting, now began to make the rounds. Soon, another Clanton brother (Phineas "Fin" Clanton) had arrived in town, and some began to claim that the Earps and Holliday had committed murder, instead of enforcing the law.
[edit] The Spicer hearing
After the gunfight, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday (the two men not formally employed as law officers, and also the two least wounded) were charged with murder. After extensive testimony at the preliminary hearing to decide if there was enough evidence to bind the men over for trial, the presiding Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer ruled that there was not enough evidence to indict the men. Two weeks later, a grand jury followed Spicer's finding, and also refused to indict. (This was a common way of investigating "officer involved shootings" during that time). Spicer, in his ruling, criticized City Marshal Virgil Earp for using Wyatt and Doc as backup temporary deputies, but not for using Morgan, who had already been wearing a City Marshal badge for 9 days.
[edit] The participants in later history
A few weeks following the grand jury refusal to indict, Virgil Earp would be shot by hidden assailants from an unused building at night – a wound causing him complete loss of the use of his left arm. Three months later, Morgan Earp would be murdered, by a shot in the back, in Tombstone by men shooting from a dark alley.
After these incidents, Wyatt, accompanied by Doc Holliday and several other friends, would undertake what has later been called the Earp vendetta ride in which they tracked down and killed the men whom they believed had been responsible for these acts. After the vendetta ride, Wyatt and Doc would leave the Arizona Territory in April 1882, and part company, although remaining in contact.
Billy Claiborne would be killed in a gunfight in Tombstone in late 1882 by gunman Franklin Leslie. In less than six years, Doc Holliday would be dead of tuberculosis in Colorado. Virgil would live without the use of his arm, although continuing as a lawman in California, and die of pneumonia at age 62 in 1905, still on the job as a peace officer.
Wyatt Earp would travel across the Western Frontier for decades in the company of Josephine Marcus, working mostly as a gambler, and eventually die in Los Angeles of infection, in 1929, at the age of 80. Johnny Behan would fail re-election as sheriff in 1882 and never again work as a lawman, spending the rest of his life at various government jobs, dying in Tucson of natural causes at age 67, in 1912. Ike Clanton would be caught cattle rustling in 1887, and be shot dead by lawmen while resisting arrest.
[edit] A legacy of questions
The issue of fault has at the O.K. Corral shooting has been hotly debated over the years. To this day, Pro-Earp followers view the gunfight as a struggle between "Law-and-order" against out-of-control Cowboys; Pro-Clanton/McLaury followers view it as a political vendetta and abuse of authority.
A recent attempt to reinvestigate part of the matter aired on an episode of Discovery Channel's Unsolved History [citation needed] using modern technology to re-enact the shotgun shooting which was part of the incident. However, the re-enactment did not use 19th century period technology (a late 19th century shotgun messenger type short shotgun, brass cases, black powder). The episode concluded that Doc Holliday was the first shooter.
[edit] Representation in film, TV and literature
It is a testament to the gunfight's impact on the national psyche that numerous dramatic, fictional, and documentary works have been produced about or referencing this event over the decades. Here is but a small sample. For more on these works, see the more complete filmography given by Allen Barra, Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends, referenced in "Additional Sources" books in the following section, below.
- Frontier Marshal (1939)
- Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (1942)
- My Darling Clementine (1946)
- The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955) (television)
- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
- Doctor Who - The Gunfighters (1966)
- Hour of the Gun (1967)
- Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun" (1968).
- Doc (1971)
- Tombstone (1993)
- Wyatt Earp (1994)
- History Bites - Shootout at Fly's Photographic Studio
- Deadwood (TV series) Season 3 - Episode 8 (2006)
- Ghost Hunters (TV seres) (2006)
- Bianchi International produced a short documentary on the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" that was shown at their (now closed) Wild West Museum in Temecula, California.
- Actor Bruce Boxleitner's sci-fi/western novel Frontier Earth (ISBN 0-441-00589-6) deals with the events leading up to the gunfight.
- The TV show Lizzie McGuire featured a wild west attraction featuring a shoot-out similar to the OK Corral shooting, but the gangs' names were changed; the outlaws were called the Dopplegang. As a homage, one of the gunfighters was named "Doc" in honor of Doc Holliday.
- Warlock, A novel by Oakley Hall prominently features a fictionalized version of the gunfight, know as the "Shootout at the Acme Corral."(1939)
- A band named June, under the label of Victory Records, based a song upon this famous gunfight entitled "OK Corral".
[edit] External links
[edit] Primary sources
- A primary source. The Inquest answers reprinted from the Tombstone Daily Nugget
- The Tombstone Epitaph newspaper, which covered the event, and still prints that edition in reproduction.
- [1]. Another link to several primary sources, including the Epitaph newspaper account, the text of all the testimony at the Spicer Hearing, as well as Spicer's final ruling, all taken from Alford Turner's book The O.K. Corral Inquest
[edit] Selection of secondary sources
- A more detailed account of the Gunfight
- The Tombstone McLaurys - a family descendant's website with detailed narrative of the events leading up and after the OK Corral.
- Big Nose Kate bio
- Good historical essay on the web.
[edit] Additional sources
- Steve Gatto (2000). The Real Wyatt Earp: A Documentary Biography. Silver City: High-Lonesome Books. ISBN 0-944383-50-5.
- Allen Barra (1998). Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-0685-6. Contains a thorough analysis of the O.K. Corral fight.
- Casey Tefertiller (1997). Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-18967-7. Contains extensive discussion of the police issues and moral issues relating to the O.K. Corral shootings.
- Paula Mitchell Marks (1989). And Die in the West: the story of the O.K. Corral gunfight. New York: Morrow. ISBN 0-671-70614-4. Extensive examination not only of the gunfight and vendettas, but also of the myth-making that took place surrounding the OK Corral incident. Marks writes from a socioeconomic perspective.
- Grace McCool (1990). GUNSMOKE: The True Story of Old Tombstone. Tucson: Treasure Chest Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-918080-52-5.
