Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Anyone who loves westerns or has an interest of the history of the so called Wild West, will undoubtedly have heard of “the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”. The infamous event that took place in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26,1881.

If you believe the Hollywood versions of the event, you’d think that the gunfight lasted for hours. In fact it only lasted for 30 seconds.

A feud had been building between two rival factions in Tombstone. One was led by Kansas lawman Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and their friend John “Doc” Holliday.

(L-r) John Henry “Doc” Holliday, Wyatt Earp and Virgil Earp

The other was a loose band of outlaws called the “cowboys”: Among their members were brothers Ike and Billy Clanton and brothers Tom and Frank McLaury. The rising tensions between the two groups revealed that the line between law enforcement and vendetta was very thin in the Arizona Territory.It is unclear who shot first, but by the end Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were dead, and Ike had fled. The feud continued through 1882, killing Morgan and several others, until Wyatt and Virgil left Arizona.

Tombstone was founded a few years earlier by Ed Schieffelin, a former scout with the United States Army. Schieffelin headed to the Arizona Territory in the 1870s to strike it rich in mining. He found a promising spot in what is today southeastern Arizona, about 30 miles north of the Mexican border. James, Virgil, and Wyatt Earp arrived in Tombstone on December 1, 1879, when the town was mostly composed of tents as living quarters, a few saloons and other buildings, and the mines.

Virgil had been hired as Deputy U.S. Marshal for eastern Pima County, with his offices in Tombstone, only days before his arrival. In June 1881 he was also appointed as Tombstone’s town marshal.

Though not universally liked by the townspeople, the Earp brothers tended to protect the interests of the town’s business owners and residents; even so, Wyatt helped protect outlaw “Curly Bill” Brocius from being lynched after he accidentally killed Tombstone town marshal Fred White. In contrast, Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan was generally sympathetic to the interests of the rural ranchers and members of the loosely organized outlaw group called the Cochise County Cowboys, or simply the Cowboys, to which Brocius belonged.

Earlier in 1881 an ordinance was passed in Tombstone prohibiting the carrying of weapons in town. Known as Ordinance No.9:
“To Provide against Carrying of Deadly Weapons” (effective April 19, 1881).

Section 1. “It is hereby declared to be unlawful for any person to carry deadly weapons, concealed or otherwise [except the same be carried openly in sight, and in the hand] within the limits of the City of Tombstone.

Section 2: This prohibition does not extend to persons immediately leaving or entering the city, who, with good faith, and within reasonable time are proceeding to deposit, or take from the place of deposit such deadly weapon.

Section 3: All fire-arms of every description, and bowie knives and dirks, are included within the prohibition of this ordinance.”

This riled the cowboys, who were used to carrying their weapons wherever they pleased. As town marshal, Virgil Earp was responsible for enforcing the law and wanted to disarm the offenders.

A heated argument took place between Doc Holliday and Ike Clanton at the Alhambra saloon on the night of October 25, 1881. The fight was broken up, but Clanton continued to drink into the morning. Making threats against Holliday and the Earps, Clanton was armed with several guns, accounts say.

After a number of confrontations between the two feuding groups , it came to a head on October 26, 1881, when Virgil arrested Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury for carrying firearms in the city limits. After the pair were released, they joined up with Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury, who had just arrived in town. Gathered near the OK Corral on Fremont Street, Virgil then decided to disarm Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury, as well. Marshal Virgil Earp recruited his brothers Wyatt and Morgan to help him in this dangerous task. Doc Holliday also insisted upon joining them. When the four men approached the “Cowboys,” demanding their guns, all hell broke loose.

In what has since forever been known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton made the mistake of cocking their pistols when approached by the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. It is not really known who fired the first shot, but Doc’s bullet was the first to hit home, tearing through Frank McLaury’s belly and sending McLaury’s own shot wild through Wyatt’s coat-tail. The 30-second shootout left Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury, and Tom McLaury dead. Virgil Earp took a shot to the leg and Morgan suffered a shoulder wound. Sheriff John Behan arrested Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp, as well as Doc Holliday for the murder of Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury. However, Judge Wells Spicer, who was related to the Earps, decided that the defendants had been justified in their actions.

Despite its name, the gunfight did not take place within or next to the O.K. Corral, which fronted Allen Street and had a rear entrance lined with horse stalls on Fremont Street. The shootout actually took place in a narrow lot on the side of C. S. Fly’s photography studio on Fremont Street, six doors west of the O.K. Corral’s rear entrance.

sources

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/what-happened-gunfight-ok-corral

https://azlibrary.gov/dazl/learners/research-topics/gunfight-ok-corral

O.K. Corral Gunfight

https://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/gunfight-ok-corral.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20110203135216/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/ordinances.html

When the Pinkertons maimed the James’s brothers Mother.

Mistakenly believing Frank and Jesse James are hiding out at their family home, a gang of men–likely led by Pinkerton detectives–mount a raid that left the outlaws’ mother,Zetelda, permanently maimed and their nine-year-old half-brother dead.

On the night of January 26, 1875, a gang of men surrounded the James farm in the mistaken belief that the James brothers were inside. In an attempt to flush the outlaws out of the house, the gang threw several flares through the windows. Unexpectedly, one of the flares exploded instantly, killing Frank and Jesse’s  young half-brother Archie and blowing away their mother’s arm.

(Allen Pinkerton (left) with President Abraham Lincoln and a Union general during the Civil War)

Afterward, Pinkerton denied that the raid’s intent was arson, but biographer Ted Yeatman located a letter by Pinkerton in the Library of Congress in which Pinkerton declared his intention to “burn the house down.

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The Wild Bill Hickok – Davis Tutt Duel

On July 21, 1865, Wild Bill Hickok shot Davis Tutt in a duel in Springfield, Mo. The event became known as the first real shootout in Old West.

Tutt and Hickok, both gamblers, had at one point been friends, despite the fact that Tutt was a Confederate Army veteran, and Hickok had been a scout for the Union Army. Davis Tutt originally came from Marion County, Arkansas, where his family had been involved in the Tutt–Everett War, during which several of his family members had been killed. He had come north to Missouri following the civil war. Hickok had been born in Illinois, coming west after mistakenly thinking he had killed a man in a drunken brawl

The eventual falling out between Hickok and Tutt reportedly occurred over women. There were reports that Hickok had fathered an illegitimate child with Tutt’s sister, while Tutt had been observed paying a great deal of attention to Wild Bill’s paramour, Susanna Moore. When Hickok started to refuse to play in any card game that included Tutt,

the cowboy retaliated by openly supporting other local card-players with advice and money in a dedicated attempt to bankrupt Hickok

What began as an argument over gambling debts, turned deadly when Tutt seized a prize watch of Wild Bill’s as collateral.

 

Warned against wearing the watch in public to humiliate Wild Bill, Tutt appeared on the square on July 21, prominently wearing the watch. The two men then unsuccessfully negotiated the debt and the watch’s return.

Hickok returned to the square at 6 p.m. to again find Tutt displaying his watch. Wild Bill gave Tutt his final warning. “Don’t you come around here with that watch.” Tutt answered by placing his hand on his pistol.

Standing about 75 yards apart and facing each other sideways in dueling positions, Tutt drew his gun first. Wild Bill steadied his aim across his opposite forearm. Both paused, then fired near simultaneously.

Tutt missed. Wild Will’s shot passed through Tutt’s chest. Reeling from the wound, Tutt staggered back to the nearest building before collapsing.

Wild Bill was acquitted of manslaughter by a jury after a three-day trial. Nothing better described the times than the fact that dangling a watch held as security for a poker debt was widely regarded as a justifiable provocation for resorting to firearms.

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The death of William H. Bonney- aka Billy the Kid

Billy The Kid was born in the slums of New York City in 1859. After the death of his father, he traveled west with his mother ending up in Silver City, New Mexico Territory in 1873. Little of substance is known about Billy’s life during this period, and myth has replaced fact to shroud the early years of Billy the Kid in folklore. What is known for sure is that he arrived in Lincoln County, New Mexico in 1877 using the name William Bonney. His life would last only four more years, but in that short period he became embroiled in the events that made him a legend.

Lincoln County was in a state of near-anarchy in 1877. The native Apache had recently been subdued and the local cattlemen divided themselves into two camps in a fight for local power. Unfortunately for Billy the Kid, he allied himself with the losing side in this “Lincoln County War.” Billy worked as a ranch hand for John Tunstall a leader of one faction seeking control of the county. Tunstall befriended the Kid acting in many ways as a surrogate father. Tunstall’s ambush and murder in 1878 by a sheriff’s posse set the Kid off on a path of revenge. His first victims were the sheriff and his deputy, killed from ambush on the streets of Lincoln. On the run for two years, the Kid was eventually captured, tried, convicted and returned to Lincoln to hang for the murders. However, Lincoln’s makeshift jail was no match for Billy the Kid.

On the evening of April 28, 1881 as he was climbing the steps returning him to his cell, the Kid made a mad dash, grabbed a six-shooter and shot his guard. Hearing the shots, a second guard ran from across the street only to be gunned down by the Kid standing on the balcony above him. Mounting a horse, William Bonney galloped out of town and into history.

Pat Garrett was elected Sheriff of Lincoln County in 1880 on a reform ticket with the expectation that he would reinstate justice in the area. One of his first acts was to capture Billy the Kid, sending him to trial for the murder of the Lincoln sheriff and his deputy. Garrett was away from Lincoln on county business when the Kid made his escape.

While Bonney was on the run, Governor Wallace placed a new $500 bounty on the fugitive’s head. Almost three months after his escape, Garrett acted in response to rumors that Bonney was in the vicinity of Fort Sumner. Garrett and two deputies left Lincoln on July 14, 1881, to question one of the town’s residents, a friend of Bonney’s named Pete Maxwell.Maxwell, son of land baron Lucien Maxwell, spoke with Garrett the same day for several hours. Around midnight, the pair sat in Maxwell’s darkened bedroom when Bonney unexpectedly entered the room.

Accounts vary as to the course of events. The canonical version states that as Bonney entered the room, he failed to recognize Garrett due to the poor lighting. Drawing his revolver and backing away, Bonney asked “¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?“, Spanish for “Who is it? Who is it?”. Recognizing Bonney’s voice, Garrett drew his revolver, firing twice. The first bullet struck Bonney in the chest just above his heart, killing him.

A few hours after the shooting, a local justice of the peace assembled a coroner’s jury of six people. Maxwell and Garrett were interviewed by the jury members and Bonney’s body was examined along with the place of the shooting. After the jury certified the body as Bonney’s, the jury foreman was put on record by a local newspaper as stating, “It was ‘the Kid’s’ body that we examined.Bonney was given a wake by candlelight. He was buried the next day and his grave was denoted with a wooden marker.

Five days after Bonney’s killing, Garrett traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to collect the $500 reward offered by Governor Lew Wallace for his capture, dead or alive. William G. Ritch, the acting New Mexico governor, refused to pay the reward. Over the next several weeks, the citizens of Las Vegas, Mesilla, Santa Fe, White Oaks, and other New Mexico cities raised over $7,000 bounty reward money for Garrett. A year and four days after Bonney’s death, the New Mexico territorial legislature passed a special act to grant Garrett the $500 bounty reward promised by Governor Wallace.

Because people had begun to claim that Garrett unfairly ambushed Bonney, Garrett felt the need to tell his side of the story. In response, Garrett called upon his friend, journalist Marshall Upson, to ghostwrite a book for him.^] The collaboration led to the book The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid,which was first published in April 1882. Although only a few copies sold following its release, the book eventually became a reference for historians who later wrote about Bonney’s life.

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I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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