The Gunfight (Not) At the Ok Corral

A historian once remarked that "The Gunfight at the OK Corral" sounds a lot better than "The Gunfight on the Vacant Half of Lot 2 of Tombstone City Block 17 Between Camillus Fly's Boarding House and Photography Shop and the House Owned by William Harwood." It fits the movie marquees a lot better too.

But that's where it really happened.

Of course all the western writers and historians know the Gunfight at the OK Corral didn't happen at the OK Corral.  And it's actually an indication that you're among the Western intellegenisia if you know that.

Some historians have even been known to try to impress members of the opposite sex with this.  In a singles bar, they'll walk up, and say, "Hey, babe, did you know the Gunfight at the OK Corral really didn't happen at the OK Corral?  It was on the Vacant Half of Lot 2 of Tombstone City Block 17 Between Camillus Fly's Boarding House and Photography Shop and the House Owned by William Harwood."  A lot of historians go home alone, too.

And in their books they always explain it didn't happen there.  Then they go ahead and call it the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Actually one writer had a neat way around this. He called it the Gunfight NEAR the OK Corral.

Of course, the whole point of writing (and reading) a 600 page history book is you hope to find out what really happened.  And so it can come as a surprise to find out that, nobody, but nobody really knows what happened at (or near or close to) the OK Corral.  And that includes the guys who were there.

But it's still fun trying to figure it all out.

And to do that, professional historians will tell us, you need to go to "contemporary sources".  None of that "oral history" jazz where someone tells what happened fifty years after the event.  And no "secondary sources" (which are books written by other writers).  Nope, you need to know what the people said right then and there.

So what you do is read everything that was written at the time, be it newspapers, court records, letters, and diaries. Then toss out (or at least "reconcile") the parts that don't agree with each other.  Then what's left over will most likely be reasonably close to what happened.

The trouble with the Gunfight at [sort of] the OK Corral is that other than Virgil calling out "Throw up your hands!", nobody can really agree on anything.  Still all is not lost. If you DO wade through all that stuff, what you get is better than the truth.  You end up with TWO accounts:  one tailor made for the Earp Champions and the other for the Earp Detractors.  And then you can spend the next hundred or so years arguing about it.

Which is really a lot more fun than finding out what really happened.

So first let's look at Version 1.  In a nutshell it's this:

When Virgil told the Clantons and McLaurys to "Throw up your hands!" the cowboys did as they were told. Then the Earps blew them away.

Naturally this is preferred by the Earp Detractors.

Now on to Version 2.

When Virgil told the Clantons and McLaurys to "Throw up your hands!" the cowboys drew their guns and began to shoot. Then the Earps, in self-defense, blew them away.

And is what happened according to the Earp Champions.

Now let's check out Version 1 in more detail.  This comes to you courtesy of Johnny Behan, Ike Clanton, and their friends with a little help from some of the by-standers.

When the Earps pushed on by Johnny Behan, all the Clantons and McLaurys were wanting to do was leave town. But when Virgil walked up and called out for the cowboys to throw up their hands, they, honest and law abiding stockmen and ranchers, did so.  They put up no resistance and all were willing to do as the city marshal commanded.

And young Billy Clanton, a lad of a scant nineteen summers who had never been in any difficulties (other than trying to put the moves on Josie a few times), not only raised his hands but also called out to the Earp party that he did not intend to resist.

"Don't shoot me!" he said. "I don't want to fight!"

And Tom, the stalwart citizen who had willingly checked his gun when he came into town (remember Frank was the one who stole the government mules), opened his coat to show he was unarmed.

"I haven't got anything, boys!" he called. "I am disarmed!"

So with a group of men standing before him, either unarmed or with their hands raised and begging for their lives, Doc Holliday, ever the gambler, suddenly liked the odds.

So he shot Frank in the belly.

The next shot - which occurred almost at the same time - was from Morgan.  It hit Billy in the chest.

Keeping tabs of who shot who in a gunfight can not only be difficult but also hazardous to your health. But Ike swore Morgan shot at Billy. He knew this, he later said, because he saw Morgan's pistol pointed within two to three feet of Billy's "bosom" (Ike really did seem to have a thing about bosoms) and he saw the gun go off.

At this point, as Johnny Behan later said, the fighting became "general."

Frank, in a move that could have gotten him in trouble with the local chapter of the SPCA if he had lived longer, tried to take cover behind his horse. Frank's horse, being no fool, got the heck out of there.  So Frank soon found himself looking down the business end of Doc's forty-five.

Tom decided to follow the lead of his older brother and tried to keep Billy's horse between him and the bullets. And Billy's horse, like Frank's, wasn't having any of it. The horse skedaddled out of there, leaving Tom along with Frank standing in front of the three Earps and Doc.

Although unarmed, Ike was determined to stop the fight.  So after the first shots had been fired, he ran up and grabbed Wyatt. After a bit of a tussle, (where according to Ike, Wyatt tried to plug him) Ike took off and ran off toward the OK Corral. No one saw him for a while after this.

After Doc's bullet hit Billy in the "bosom" (to use Ike's word), he drew his gun and was immediately hit in the wrist. He switched the gun to his left hand and started to shoot.  According to Johnny this was after eight or ten shots had been fired by the Earps and Doc.   As Billy slid to the ground he kept shooting.

Johnny Behan, unlike Tom or Ike, was armed.  And he acted exactly as you might expect. He and a young friend of the cowboys, Billy Clairborne, ran for cover.

Frank had by now moved out into the street. Although acting confused and disoriented (it's hard to concentrate with a bullet in your guts), he was able to draw his gun and take a shot at Doc. The bullet skinned Doc's hip.

"I have got you now!" Frank called.

'Your a good one if you have!" Doc replied, who decided that even during a gunfight it was a gentlemanly courtesy to pay a man a compliment.

One of the bystanders, R. F. Coleman saw that Doc had been grazed.

"You have got it now!" he called.

For a man who was known to be quarrelsome, Doc seemed to be able to find plenty of time to make polite conversation during his gunfights.

"I am shot right through!" he shouted back.

Morgan had been shooting at Frank and Billy and likely hit one or both. But then a bullet struck his right shoulder and ripped along his back.  He fell down but got back up and continued shooting.

Wyatt and Virgil also had gotten their guns into action. Virgil fired (so he said) once at Frank and three times at Billy. Then Virgil got hit in the calf, probably by Billy. Virgil, like Morgan, was able to get back up and keep on fighting.

By this time Doc had pretty near emptied his pistol at Billy and Frank.  Doc was a man who never liked to leave a job half finished so he took Virgil's shotgun and blasted Tom in the side.  Tom staggered out in the street and then a bullet from Morgan hit him in the head. He managed to make it to the corner of Third and Fremont.

At least Frank was no longer acting dizzy and confused.  Actually he wasn't doing much of anything except laying on the other side of the street.  Like his brother, he had a bullet in his head.

But Billy still kept firing from the ground with his back propped up against the Harwood House.  Then too weak to hold his gun, he fell back.

The gunfight was over. Three law abiding and hard working ranchers had been brutally murdered by a bunch of opportunistic tin-horn gamblers.

So said Johnny, Ike, and their friends.

Now on to Version 2. Courtesy of the Earps and Company.

After being told by Johnny that he had disarmed the Clantons and McLaurys, Virgil and Wyatt put their guns away. Being conscientious law officers, they would only use "minimum force" even when trying to subdue a treacherous gang of murderous thugs bent on mayhem.

So they were mighty surprised when they saw the cowboys still had their guns.  Virgil, acting judiciously and with he full authority of the law, lifted up Doc's cane.

"Throw up your hands," he said.  "I have come to disarm you.  I want your guns."

Seeing that Virgil and Wyatt didn't have their guns in hand, Billy and Frank, those dastardly cow thieves, went for theirs. Virgil claimed he heard the clicks as they drew back the hammers.

But even now, the Responsible Virgil was still trying to avoid a fight.

"Hold on! " he called.  "I don't want that!"

But it was too late. Billy and Frank, criminals to the core, were drawing their guns against the city marshal and his deputies.

Wyatt, veteran of a thousand brawls and faro games, thought fast. Knowing that Frank was a better shot than Billy, he drew his gun and shot at Frank, finding his mark. At almost the same time, Billy fired at Wyatt and missed.

So the first two shots were fired by Wyatt Earp, a fully authorized lawman, and Billy Clanton, who was as one Earp Champion called him "a hardened young fighter" who would never beg for his life.

Ike ran up to Wyatt and grabbed him. And Wyatt could be as loquacious as Doc while bullets were whizzing around his head.

"The fight has commenced," he said. "Go to fighting or get away."

He then pushed Ike away and Ike took off.

Tom was trying to grab the rifle in Billy's saddle, but couldn't reach it.  Using the horse as a shield he moved toward the street while he fired his pistol (!) twice at Virgil.

Yep, according to Virgil and Wyatt, Tom had a gun. It could have been one of his bullets that hit Morgan.

At this point the two versions begin to agree. Both sides were now shooting at each other, the horses were taking off down the street, and the by-standers and the county sheriff were scattering for cover.  And after anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds (depending on how you count), Tom and Frank ended up with bullets in their heads and Billy was lying on the ground shot in the guts.

But the forces of justice and righteousness had finally triumphed.  And one of the worst criminal gangs in the history of the nation had been worsted.

At least that's how the Earps told it.

Once the shooting was over, though, the townspeople began to take over.  A group of men ran up to Frank who was lying in Fremont Street. Doc Holliday was one of them.

"That son of a [gun] has shot me," Doc said, "and I mean to kill him."  Since Frank already had a bullet in his brain, the other men were able to reason with Doc that it wasn't really necessary.

A group of men also gathered around Tom.  One of them, Tom Keefe, a carpenter who had earlier seen Wyatt buffalo Tom, spoke to the rest.

"Let's pick this man up and take him in the house before he dies," he said.  So they took him to the house on the corner.  For all practical purposes Tom was done in. In a few more minutes, he WAS done in.  Frank too was carried in the house.  He didn't have to wait a few minutes.

Billy however was still conscious. And he still had his gun.

Camillus Fly, the photographer, came out of his house with a rifle.  He called to Robert Hatch who earlier had warned Virgil when Wyatt was at the gunshop.

"Take than man's pistol or I will kill him," Fly said.

Hatch saw Billy was still trying to cock his gun.

"Go and get it yourself if you want it," he called.  Fly went over and took the gun from Billy.

"Give me some more cartridges" Billy muttered.

Once the shooting was over, Johnny came out of Fly's gallery. By golly, he was sheriff and had to do his duty. And he did it as effectively as ever.

He went up to Wyatt.

"I will have to arrest you," he said.

"No one could arrest me now," Wyatt said. Then he decided it was all Johnny's fault.

"You threw me off my guard," he said. "You have deceived me.  You told me that you had disarmed them."

After a bit of a "Did not!/Did too!" conversation, Johnny let Wyatt go on about his business. Which was helping Virgil and Morgan.

Both were wounded pretty seriously. Virgil was shot in the calf and Morgan's shoulder wound resulted in a chipped vertebrae.  Now in the movies leg or shoulder wounds are mere annoyances.  The hero wraps a hankie around his leg or puts his arm in a sling and gets along hale and hearty as ever. But in 1881, when the most potent antibiotic was whiskey, a lot of men died from shoulder and leg wounds. Virgil and Morgan were loaded up into wagons and taken to their homes.

Billy had been carried into the house where Tom and Frank were stretched out. Billy though was still kicking.  Literally.

Again when a guy gets plugged in the movies and "isn't going to make it", he'll still have plenty of time to deliver his lines.  Oh, he may cough and gasp a bit, but he'll still say he's sorry for what he did and how he hopes his mother won't find out about what happened and to tell Nellie he won't be around to help on the ranch. And usually he asks to have his boots taken off. Then he lifts his head high enough so it can dramatically fall back to let the audience know he's finally dead.

But since the first Western movie was still twenty years in the future, and the first one about Wyatt Earp was over fifty years off, Billy didn't know the script. He just played it by ear.

So rather than giving long teary speeches, Billy was "hallooing" with the pain and "turning and twisting and kicking in every manner." You never see this in the movies, but you do see it if someone really gets gut shot.

One of the men told Billy he couldn't live.

"They have murdered me," Billy said. "I've been murdered.  Chase the crowd away from the door and give me some air."

A doctor was called and Billy was given two doses of morphine. He lived less than fifteen minutes.

"Drive the crowd away," he said at the end.

One of the reasons Westerns have been so popular is they always give you a lot of action. The good guy rolls into town, blasts the bad guys, and rides off into the sunset.  But in Arizona in 1881 (and now) if three people got gunned down on a city street you had to divert at least some attention to things like statutes, judicial proceedings, and inquiries.

So if you ignore Johnny's attempt to arrest Wyatt (and you might as well), the first cog in the judicial wheel began to turn.  Dr. Harry M. Matthews, the county coroner, called an inquiry as the law required.

Eight witnesses testified.  And although some were pretty impartial you have to admit it seemed a bit slanted in favor of the Clantons and McLaurys. The two main witnesses were Johnny Behan (who had jumped into Fly's Gallery once the shooting started) and Ike Clanton (who wasn't even there for most of the fight). Also called was Billy Clairborne who according to those in the know was a cowboy partisan.

They all agreed with Version 1.  The Earps shot down unarmed men who were in the act of surrendering.

But none of the somewhat more impartial witness could tell who shot first. Either they weren't around when the first shots were fired or they were trying to get the heck out of there when things started to look nasty.  And none heard Billy say he didn't want to fight or Tom say he was disarmed.

Evidently Dr. Matthews thought it a bit unusual that it was only the witnesses with an Earp ax to grind that were brave enough to stick around and take down verbatim dialog.  So in the end he didn't pass judgment on whether the killings were justified or not.  He simply reported that Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury had died of gunshot wounds.  And the shots were fired by Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp and by John Henry "Doc" Holliday.

The Tombstone Nugget (which didn't like the Earps) said they were pleased to learn that. After all people may have thought the cowboys had been struck by lightning or stung to death by hornets.

Opinion was decided mixed.  If you listened to Wyatt talk about it a decade or so later, once the fight was over he was surrounded by a whooping, hollering, cheering crowd of well wishers who were glad to see the forces of good had triumphed over those of evil.   But no one else at the time noticed that.

And dissenting opinions weren't just from "the cowboy" faction and anti-Earp newspapers.  In keeping with the custom of the times Billy, Frank and Tom were put on display in the hardware store.  The sentiments of the owner there were scarcely pro-Earp. Instead a sign was hung up with the huge letters that blared out "Murdered in the Streets of Tombstone.

So was born the first Chapter of Honorable Earp Detractors.  And it's been going strong ever since.

But when you look back at it, there was at least one verifiable, documented, and positive milestone to come out of the whole affair.  And it was a big one.  Virtually unheard of at the time and whether due to through luck, fortitude, sunspots, or a shift in the earth's electromagnetic field is anyone's guess.

But Johnny Behan, yes Johnny Behan, Sheriff of Cochise County, Good Old ("I am in charge") Johnny, had finally gone out and, by golly, actually made an genuine, bonafide arrest.  Not only one but two.

With Johnny, of course, you might expect him to have hauled in a couple of Sunday School marms or maybe some denizens of Tombstone's elementary school.

Nope, actually it was a bit more substantial than that:  Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were now sitting in the Tombstone city jail.  And charged with murder.

It was a big day for Johnny.