For some reason, I’ve watched a lot of PBS programs lately. A couple of weeks ago there was a documentary about the old west. It indicated that maybe the most famous gunfight occurred at the O.K. Corral. According to the TV show, the gunfight has been immortalized in over 40 feature films and written about in more than 1,000 books.
Well — that was enough for me…. this subject just screamed for some of my extensive research. One of the first big surprises my research uncovered was the fight had nothing to do with cattle. I thought that this was a fight between cattle rustlers and lawmen…. but there was no cows involved in any way with the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Another thing that is terribly misleading in all the books and movies is that the showdown in Tombstone, Arizona didn’t take place in the O.K. Corral — it happened in the city’s vacant lot No. 2. I guess the Shoot-out in Vacant Lot No. 2 just didn’t have the same ring to it, so some journalist, or scriptwriter must have moved it over a few yards.
And — no matter what the movies may suggest, it wasn’t a simple tale of white hats versus black hats or good versus evil — the real story is complicated with lots of twists and turns. It also had a cast of characters that included carousing cowboys, contentious lawmen, corrupt politicians, card sharks, cattle rustlers, a dentist named Doc, and Doc’s lady friend, Big Nose Kate (apparently her name was appropriate.)
One thing that everyone seems to agree on is that on October 26, 1881, at around 3:00 p.m., four men entered the lot behind the O.K. Corral: They were Wyatt Earp, his brothers, Virgil and Morgan, and John Henry “Doc” Holliday. There, they encountered Ike Clanton, his brother Billy, Frank and Tom McLaury, and Billy Claiborne. Thirty seconds later, both of the McLaury brothers as well as Billy Clanton were dead. Virgil and Morgan Earp sustained serious sounds and Holliday suffered a minor injury while Wyatt walked out without a scratch.
So — what brought them all there? Trouble had been brewing between the Earp and Clanton groups for quite a while. Doc Holliday, a Philadelphia-trained dentist, preferred playing cards to pulling teeth, and this habit left him short of cash. Earlier he had been accused of stagecoach robbery by his own girlfriend, Big Nose Kate. The Earp brothers suspected that Ike Clanton had put her up to it to deflect suspicion from Clanton’s friends. When four of those friends turned up dead, Clanton accused the Earps, and the bad blood began to boil.
How did the gunfight begin, who fired first? Most historians agree that Holliday and Morgan Earp started it, one wounding Frank McLaury and the other Billy canton. When that happened, all **** broke lose. An estimated 30 shots were fired within half a minute. Wyatt claimed that 17 were his, thought he is only thought to have killed one man, Tom McLaury.
The Earps and Holliday were ultimately acquitted of any wrongdoing. Several months later, Morgan Earp was shot to death by unknown assailants. Wyatt spent the next two years tracking down everyone he thought was connected with his brother’s death. The song says he was “brave, courageous, and bold,” but was he, or was he just a ruthless vigilante? The jury is still out on that one.
But whatever you think of him, Earp’s wife is responsible for shaping the narrative about him that most people know today. Josie Marcus, who technically never married Earp, was obsessed with making sure she could give her husband the epitaph she believed he deserved. But I’d say Wyatt Earp is an American original and there’ll probably be stories about him for years to come…
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