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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.
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 Civil War were still very much active.
For decades, history
shows the Earp faction as heroes and recently a more balanced portrayal
have been made. The Earp faction's close involvements 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 have tended to
uphold Wyatt and Virgil's places in history.
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.
In addition, contrary
to popular belief through subsequent films and writings, the “Cowboy”
faction was 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.
History portrayed the
Earp faction as “doing what had to be done” as lawmen during the
ultimate gunfight. However,
in Tombstone, they were often viewed as men who took advantage of their
positions as lawmen to improve their market position on gambling.
They used their law enforcement positions against some, while
choosing not to use it against others. Even
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).
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
City Marshal Virgil Earp
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.
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.
Sheriff Johnny Behan
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.
Frank McLaury
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 assassinated 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.
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