![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
121 years ago...
Oct. 27th, 2002 12:12 amOn October 26, 1881, in the town of Tombstone, Arizona, Wyatt Earp, accompanied by his brothers Virgil and Morgan and his friend John Henry "Doc" Holliday, confronted Joseph "Ike" Clanton, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury and Billy "The Kid" Clairborne in a vacant lot near the intersection of Third Street and Fremont Street behind the OK Corral next to C.S. Fly's Boarding House and Photo Studio.
The exact circumstances of how the shootout took place are debated to this day, but it is clear that this was the climax of a months-long animosity between the two sides. The 30-second shootout, apparently begun when Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury cocked their pistols, left Virgil and Morgan Earp and "Doc" Holliday wounded, and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury dead. The Earps and Holliday were arrested for murder by Tombstone Sherrif John Behan and brought to trial, but acquitted.
The OK Corral was not the end of the matter, however. Morgan Earp was killed the following March while playing billiards, setting Wyatt Earp and "Doc" Holliday off on a vigilante hunt for the remaining "cowboys" who were associates of the Clantons.
The exact circumstances of how the shootout took place are debated to this day, but it is clear that this was the climax of a months-long animosity between the two sides. The 30-second shootout, apparently begun when Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury cocked their pistols, left Virgil and Morgan Earp and "Doc" Holliday wounded, and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury dead. The Earps and Holliday were arrested for murder by Tombstone Sherrif John Behan and brought to trial, but acquitted.
The OK Corral was not the end of the matter, however. Morgan Earp was killed the following March while playing billiards, setting Wyatt Earp and "Doc" Holliday off on a vigilante hunt for the remaining "cowboys" who were associates of the Clantons.
