The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a gunfight that occurred at about 3 P.M. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. The famous gunfight did not actually occur at the O.K. Corral. It occurred in a fifteen- to twenty-foot space between Fly's Lodging House and photographic studio, and the MacDonald assay house west of it. The end of the gunfight took place in Fremont Street. Some of the fighting was in Fremont Street in front of the vacant lot. About thirty shots were fired in thirty seconds. Although only three men were killed during the gunfight, it is generally regarded as the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West, even though many other gunfights of the period resulted in more people killed (e.g., the Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight, the Going Snake Massacre, the Hot Springs Gunfight, and the Gunfight at Hide Park).
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral has been portrayed in numerous Western films. 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 weak or simply nonexistent. In other views, the fight was a more complex embodiment of some of the tensions of the American Civil War of a generation before. One group of fighters represented rural Democrats from Texas who were involved in the cattle-trade in a remote area of Arizona territory which had been desert just a few years before. The other faction (the Earps) had come from the East with the frontier, and represented the very different city interests of Yankee Republican capitalists and businessmen who were attempting to manage a silver-mining boom-town with Eastern expectations of behavior. The gunfight occurred on the physical border of these two cultures.
The proximate cause of the conflict that led up to the fight was the arrest by Virgil Earp, acting in his capacity as deputy federal marshal, of two rural “cowboys” for a stagecoach robbery. Drunken threats made by another cowboy against the Earps set them on guard, and when family and friends of the drunken man arrived in town on horseback the next day fully-armed, there was a misunderstanding about how and where they should disarm according to city law. Within hours, both new arrivals were dead, as also was a cowboy standing with them, who had illegally failed to surrender his pistol the previous day.
Law enforcement (the three Earp brothers and "Doc" Holliday) were eventually exonerated of the killings, but later assassinations and assassination attempts against the Earps over the next six months led to a series of killings and retributions, often with federal and county lawmen supporting different sides of the conflict. The series of battles, known as the Earp Vendetta Ride, finally ended with Virgil Earp permanently crippled by gunfire and his brother Morgan killed. The Earps and Holliday were also forced to flee the territory to Colorado and California, never to return to Arizona.
The gunfighters
Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday fought Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, Billy Claiborne, Ike Clanton, and Billy Clanton. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne (who later claimed that he had been unarmed, though some reports credit him with shooting one or more times) ran away from the fight, unharmed. Both McLaurys and Billy Clanton were killed; Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday were wounded.
Context
The conflicts leading to the gunfight are complex: the two sides were related in two instances (in both cases by strong family ties), but were in opposition due to politics, business concerns, and other ideological factors. The McLaurys, the Clantons and Claiborne were from a larger group called the Cowboys. The Cowboys were not necessarily hated, but they were loosely organized criminals. However, they enforced their interests in the town as a group, and going against one of them would likely be dangerous. Certainly they did not allow the law to hinder them.
The Earps were viewed by their enemies as badge-toting tyrants 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. "Cowboys" was a term used in the area to identify a band of outlaws — which included the McLaurys and Clantons — who were implicated in such crimes. These Cowboys were affiliated by a combination of blood relations, friendships and, some sources say, a sworn oath. 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, and a general understanding, not orders from a leader. In addition to this, although known to one another and having worked on cattle ranches together, not all of those considered part of the Cowboy faction were involved in illegal acts. However, the shooting at the OK Corral itself would not have occurred if retaliation were not their modus operandi.
Contrary to popular belief engendered by subsequent films and writings, the Cowboy faction was fairly popular in Tombstone as they had a lot of money to spend. Many members were involved in cattle rustling and probably some in robberies, most were seen as wild but generally easy to get along with, as long as you were not standing in the way of their progress. 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 of Tombstone.
The Clantons themselves were successful ranchers, with their ranch in Charleston, Arizona being one of the most successful in the territory at the time. They were definitely associated with several outlaws, but there is little evidence that any large-scale planned outlaw operations were underway based at their ranch, as is often indicated in films. Although Ike Clanton was not well-liked, due mostly to his boasting while drinking, his brother Billy was quite popular, and considered level-headed and hard-working. Little is known about brothers John and Phin Clanton, and it appears they simply worked their ranch. It is known that Phin Clanton was arrested several times over the years, for cattle rustling and once for robbery, but he was never convicted, quite possibly due to the Clantons' involvement in the Cowboy group.
The Earp faction, although portrayed throughout history as lawmen doing what had to be done during the ultimate gunfight, were quite possibly viewed in Tombstone as men who took advantage of their authority to improve their market position on gambling, and enforcing the law against some while choosing not to do so against others. It should be noted there is no documentation to support either position.
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 being made suspect. His girlfriend, Big Nose Kate, jealous and angry after a fight, accused him of being part of the robbery but later recanted. In reality, the suspects in that robbery were Luther King, Bill Leonard, John Crane and Harry Head. King mysteriously escaped after he implicated the others.
Wyatt intended to stand for election for sheriff of Cochise County against incumbent Johnny Behan, his eventual rival. Wyatt reported that he (Wyatt) attempted to entice Ike Clanton with Wells Fargo Co. reward money for information leading to the capture or death of the stage-robbers. Wyatt believed 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).
It can be said with good accuracy that much of the tension that led to the gunfight resulted simply from misunderstandings and rumours told by Ike Clanton about Doc Holliday. Although history would eventually slant the events in favor of the Earp faction, in reality Billy Clanton, as well as Frank and Tom McLaury, had not had any clashes with the Earps prior to the gunfight. All three were detained the night that Tombstone marshal Fred White was accidentally shot and killed by "Curly Bill" Brocius, but were released. Although later portrayed as a murder, that unfortunate incident has since been proven to have been an accident. By Fred White's own admission prior to his death, the revolver had gone off accidentally. In addition, White was actually well liked and respected by Brocius and others of the "Cowboy" faction.
Billy Clanton had also been caught in possession of a stolen horse. However, it was never confirmed whether Billy Clanton knew that the horse was stolen
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