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Bullets were flying so fast that I could not
keep track of them. Frank McLaury had given a yell when I shot him and
made for the street with his hand over his stomach.
- Wyatt Earp
On October 25, 1881, the night before the famous shootout, Ike Clanton and
Doc Holliday had a verbal confrontation at the Alhambra Saloon. Doc
Holliday, after hearing threats being made against himself and the Earps,
comes into the saloon and provokes Ike Clanton to draw his gun. Because
Ike Clanton is unarmed, Doc Holliday invites someone to give Ike Clanton a
gun. Morgan Earp, recently appointed a police officer by Virgil Earp, gets
between the two and breaks up the confrontation. The fight continued out
into the street. Virgil Earp showed up and threatened to arrest both Ike
Clanton and Doc Holliday if they did not stop fighting. Everyone went
their separate ways. That confrontation set the stage for what was to
follow the next day.
On October 26, 1881, at about 3 o'clock PM, near the O.K. Corral in
Tombstone, Arizona there was a famous shootout between Doc Holliday,
Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, and Wyatt Earp, against Ike Clanton, Billy
Clanton, Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne.
The shootout took place in a vacant lot near the intersection of Third
Street and Fremont Street, less than a block from the the O.K. Corral,
next to Fly's Photography Studio in Tombstone, Arizona. The shootout
lasted for about 30 seconds.
 The
shootout began when Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury cocked their pistols.
Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp were wounded in the shootout. Billy Clanton,
Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury were killed in the shootout. Ike Clanton
and Billy Claiborne fled, but were later captured and sent to jail.
One of the first newspaper articles to report the shootout at the O.K.
Corral appeared in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin on Thursday,
October 27, 1881. The photo shows part of the report that appeared in San
Francisco Evening Bulletin. An article about the shootout also
appeared in the Tombstone Epitaph on Thursday, October 27, 1881.
After the shootout the Earps and Doc Holliday were arrested for murder by
Sheriff John Behan. After a month-long trial following the shootout, it
was determined that the Earps acted within the law.
About Tombstone:
A city in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona. It was
settled by Ed Schieffelin, a prospector, in 1877, incorporated 1881.
Tombstone has a colorful history as a lawless mining town. Points of
interest include Boot Hill cemetery, containing the graves of many
outlaws, the O.K. Corral, and Tombstone Courthouse Historic Park,
Monument, and Museum. Much gold and silver was produced here in the 1880s,
but large-scale mining ended by 1890, partly because of flooding of the
mines. At its peak, the community had some 10,000 inhabitants.
People involved in gunfight:
Wyatt Earp
Virgil Earp
Morgan Earp
Doc Holliday |
Ike Clanton
Billy Clanton
Tom McLaury
Frank McLaury
Billy Claiborne |
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