In October 1881, in the tiny town of Tombstone Arizona, one of the most notorious shootouts in the history of the U.S. Occurred. In the rear of the O.K. Corral, federal marshal Wyatt Earp , his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and friend "Doc" Holliday exchanged gunfire with the Clanton and McLaury brothers. The guns blazed for less than a minute, but revenge lasted for months.The Earp bothers were renowned gun handlers, with Wyatt rising to a law enforcement position after a shady past. Their friend from Wyatt's stint as a lawman in Dodge City was John Holliday, a gambler and sometime dentist. Power in Tombstone lay in either enforcing the law or wielding influence over the lewd women, gambling, and saloons -- and the Earps and Holliday had a grip on both.The law-enforcing Earps had enemies among the ranchers, cowboys, and cattle rustlers who resented the establishment of a town on their limitless prairie. Particularly resentful were the men of the Clanton and McLaury clans.The trouble with the Earps began when a Clanton stole Wyatt's favorite horse. Then the McLaurys stole six mules from a nearby Army post, which Wyatt was charged with policing. The situation escalated with arrests by the Earps of the other clans' men on suspicion of killing a stagecoach driver during an attempted holdup. Frank McLaury issued a public challenge to Morgan Earp -- and the stage was set for the bloody showdown. Armed with rifles, pistols, revolvers, and six-shooters, the Earps announced they were going to arrest the Clantons and McLaurys. With Holliday in tow (and deputized on the spot), they found their rivals and ordered them to disarm. The Clantons and McLaurys were boxed into a yard behind a livery stable known as the O.K. Corral. The adversaries were within six feet of one another when they opened fire. Of the eight participants, three were soon dead, three wounded, and Wyatt and one of the Clantons was uninjured. Wyatt and Holliday were jailed on charges of murder by the Cochise County sheriff, but the charges were later dropped. The bodies of the three slain were exhibited in caskets in a hardware store with a big picture window.In revenge attacks, the survivors shattered Virgil Earp's arm with gunfire and killed Morgan. Then a sheriff's deputy was found dead after boarding a train bearing the body of Morgan and attended by Virgil, Wyatt, and Holliday. Accounts of the shootout at the O.K. Corral were picked up by Eastern newspapers. The event became a symbol of the lawlessness of the West and of gunfighters as romantic, rough-hewn knights. You can still visit the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, looking just like 1881, about an hour from Tucson and two hours from Phoenix.
