On the 16th of November, 1881, in the courtroom of Tombstone, Cochise County, Wyatt Earp took the stand. He was thirty-two years old, a saloon keeper who had once served as deputy sheriff and city marshal, and he was there to answer for the deaths of William Clanton and Frank McLaury. The prosecution had finished its case, and Wyatt, along with Doc Holliday, had elected to give sworn statements. What Wyatt laid out over the course of his testimony was not a simple tale of a gunfight, but a long, tangled story of stolen mules, stage robbers, revenge threats, and a community caught in the grip of men known as the Cowboys.
The trouble, Wyatt explained, had its roots more than a year earlier, in the summer of 1880. He, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and a man named Marshall Williams had joined Captain Hurst and four soldiers in tracking stolen government mules from Camp Rucker. Six mules had been taken, and the trail led them to the ranch of Frank and Tom McLaury. Along the way, a man named Dave Estus told Wyatt the mules were there, being branded with the letters DS.
They found the branding iron at the ranch and later found some of the mules bearing the brand. But instead of pressing the matter, a man named Frank Patterson reached a compromise with Captain Hurst, and the soldiers withdrew. A few weeks later, Hurst told Wyatt and his brothers that the McLaury brothers refused to give up the mules after all. They had only wanted the soldiers gone.
Hurst warned the Earps that the outlaws had made threats against their lives. About a month later, Wyatt met Frank and Tom McLaury in Charleston. They tried to provoke a quarrel and warned him of dire consequences if he ever pursued them as closely again. Then came the killing of Bud Philpot, a stage driver shot during an attempted robbery of the Benson stage.
Wyatt, working as a detective for Wells Fargo, became convinced that three men were responsible: Billy Leonard, Harry Head, and James Crane. These men were friends of the Clantons and the McLaurys, and they frequently sheltered at their ranches. Among those familiar with criminal matters in the territory, it was widely recognized that Ike Clanton was a leading figure among the Cowboys. The Clantons and McLaurys were reputed cattle thieves, and their ranches served as meeting places for the gang.
Wyatt had his own reasons for wanting to catch the robbers. He hoped to become sheriff in the upcoming county election, and he believed that capturing the men who killed Philpot would raise his standing with the public and the businessmen of Tombstone. Rewards totaling about thirty-six hundred dollars had been offered for their capture. So he approached Ike Clanton, Frank McLaury, and a man named Joe Hill with a proposal.
If they would help him find Leonard, Head, and Crane, he would let them claim the full reward and keep their involvement secret. Ike Clanton was interested, partly because he had a dispute with Leonard over a ranch claim. But he warned that Leonard, Head, and Crane would resist capture, and he insisted that Wyatt find out whether the reward applied dead or alive. Wyatt contacted Marshall Williams, the Wells Fargo agent, who telegraphed the company’s superintendent in San Francisco.
The reply confirmed that the reward would be paid whether the robbers were captured dead or alive. Wyatt showed the dispatch to Ike Clanton and Joe Hill, and later to Frank McLaury. The plan was set: Joe Hill would travel to a place near Ike, New Mexico, where Leonard, Head, and Crane were hiding, and lure them to the McLaury ranch near Soldiers Hole, about thirty miles from Tombstone. Wyatt would be waiting with a posse.
The story they would use was that a paymaster would be traveling from Tombstone to Bisbee to pay off miners, a tempting target for the robbers. But when Joe Hill reached his destination, he arrived a day too late. Leonard and Harry Head had been killed the day before by horse thieves. Later, those horse thieves were themselves slain by members of the Clanton and McLaury gang.
The plan collapsed, and soon after, Ike Clanton and Frank McLaury began claiming that Wyatt had turned them over to Marshall Williams and Doc Holliday. They avoided the Earps in town, and Wyatt, his brothers, and Doc Holliday began to hear their threats. Wyatt’s connection with Doc Holliday went back to his time as city marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, where Holliday had once come to his aid when he was surrounded by outlaws. Now, in Tombstone, the two were allies again.
In the weeks before the gunfight, tensions escalated. Marshall Williams, farmer Daly, Ed Barnes, and others warned the Earps at various times that Ike Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, Joe Hill, and John Ringo were threatening their lives. Wyatt knew these men were dangerous and desperate, connected to cattle thieves, robbers, and murderers. He had heard accounts of the McLaurys stealing government mules and cattle, and of a man being driven off the ranch at gunpoint when he came looking for his stock.
He had also heard that John Ringo had shot a man near Camp Thomas, and that Frank and Tom McLaury had committed robbery and murder in Skeleton Canyon against Mexicans a few months earlier. Wyatt remained vigilant, determined not to let any of the gang catch him off guard. About five or six weeks before the shooting, Ike Clanton confronted Wyatt at the Alhambra, accusing him of telling Doc Holliday about the plan to capture Leonard, Head, and Crane. Wyatt denied it.
When Holliday returned from Tucson, he confronted Ike Clanton in the Alhambra on the night of the 25th of October. Clanton denied making the accusation, and a heated quarrel broke out, with Holliday calling him a liar. Wyatt, sitting at the lunch counter, called Morgan over and told him, as an officer, to stop the fight. Morgan climbed over the counter and escorted Holliday outside.
Virgil arrived and warned both men that he would arrest them if they continued. They dispersed. Later that night, Ike Clanton approached Wyatt on the street and asked to talk. He said he was not ready to face Holliday just then, but he declared he would be ready for a fight the next morning.
Too much had been said over the years, and he wanted to end it. Wyatt told him he had no interest in fighting. Clanton walked away, saying, “I will be ready for you in the morning. ” He followed Wyatt to the Oriental, drinking with his six-shooter in plain view, and repeated that he would be after them all in the morning.
Wyatt went home and retired for the night. The next day, October 26th, Wyatt rose around noon. Ned Boyle told him he had seen Ike Clanton near the telegraph office on Allen Street, armed and declaring that as soon as the Earps appeared on the street, the fight would begin. At the Oriental, Harry Jones warned Wyatt that Clanton was hunting for them with a Winchester rifle and a six-shooter.
Wyatt left and met Virgil, the city marshal, who was also aware that Clanton was looking for them. Wyatt went down Allen Street while Virgil took Fifth and then Fremont. Virgil found Ike Clanton on Fourth Street near Fremont, positioned at the entrance of an alley. Wyatt approached and said he understood Clanton was hunting for some of them.
Clanton swung his Winchester toward Virgil, who seized the rifle and struck him with his six-shooter, knocking him down. Virgil and Morgan took the rifle and the holstered six-shooter and brought Clanton before Justice Wallace. In the courtroom, Ike Clanton glared at Wyatt and said that if he had a six-shooter, he would make a fight with all of them. Morgan offered him his own gun.
Clanton began to rise to take it when Deputy Sheriff Campbell intervened, pushing him back into his seat and forbidding the fight. Wyatt, frustrated by the endless threats and convinced that Clanton and his gang intended to assassinate him, decided that if he had to defend his life, it would be on his own terms in an open fight. He addressed Clanton directly, calling him a “damn dirty cow thief” and telling him that he had been threatening their lives and that he would be justified in shooting him down wherever he met him. But if Clanton was anxious for a fight, Wyatt would fight him anywhere, even in the sand among his crowd.
Clanton replied that he would see Wyatt after he finished there, saying he only wanted four feet of ground to fight on. Just outside the justice’s office, Wyatt met Tom McLaury, who suggested he would make a fight with Wyatt anywhere. Believing McLaury had heard the exchange and aware of his previous threats, Wyatt accepted, slapping him in the face with his left hand and drawing his pistol with his right. McLaury made no move for his own visible pistol.
Wyatt told him to jerk his gun and use it. McLaury said nothing. Wyatt struck him on the head with his six-shooter and walked away. Wyatt then went to Halford’s Corner, bought a cigar, and stood by the door.
Shortly afterward, he saw Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton heading down Fourth Street toward the gunsmith shop. Curious about their intentions, he followed. He found Frank McLaury’s horse on the sidewalk and, acting as deputy city marshal, began to back the horse off. Tom, Frank, and Billy came out of the shop, and Wyatt insisted the horse be moved.
Frank backed it into the street. Ike Clanton then joined them, and they all went into the gunsmith shop, loading cartridges into their belts. They walked along Fourth Street, turned onto Allen Street, and entered Dunbar’s Corral. Virgil, the city marshal, Morgan, a special policeman, Doc Holliday, and Wyatt were standing on the corner of Fourth and Allen Streets.
Virgil had returned from Tucson a few days earlier, and Wyatt was still acting in his place from the trial of Spence and Stillwell. Several people came to warn them that the armed men meant trouble. A man named Coleman told Virgil that they had moved from Dunbar’s Corral into the OK Corral, all armed, and advised him to go disarm them. Virgil turned to Holliday, Morgan, and Wyatt and told them to join him.
Morgan suggested they get horses in case the men made a running fight, but Wyatt answered that if they tried that, they could kill their horses and then capture them. The four of them walked through Fourth to Fremont. As they turned the corner, they saw the men near the vacant space between Fly’s photograph gallery and the building to the west. Wyatt noticed Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, Billy Clanton, and Sheriff Behan.
As they approached within about a hundred and fifty feet, Behan left the group and came toward them, glancing back nervously. He cautioned Virgil, “For God’s sake, don’t go down there, you will get murdered. ” Virgil replied that he was going to disarm them. When Behan reached Morgan and Wyatt, he said he had already disarmed the men.
Believing this, Wyatt put his pistol, which he had been holding in his hand, into his overcoat pocket. Behan then walked up the street. The Earps and Holliday continued. Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton were lined up along the east side of the building opposite the vacant space west of Fly’s gallery.
Ike Clanton, Billy Claiborne, and an unidentified man stood in the vacant space. Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were openly carrying their six-shooters. Virgil commanded them to throw up their hands, saying he had come to disarm them. Instead, Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury put their hands on their pistols.
Virgil said, “Hold, I don’t mean that, I have come to disarm you. ” But they began to draw, and Tom McLaury threw open his coat, showing his right hip, and jumped behind a horse that actually belonged to Billy Clanton. Wyatt’s pistol was still in his overcoat pocket. The moment he saw Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury draw, he pulled his own gun.
Billy Clanton aimed at him. Wyatt, knowing Frank McLaury’s reputation as a skilled and dangerous shooter, aimed at him instead. The first shots were exchanged almost simultaneously between Wyatt and Billy Clanton, and a general gunfight broke out. About four shots into the exchange, Ike Clanton grabbed Wyatt’s left arm.
Wyatt saw no weapon in his hand and told him to either join the fight or get out of the way. He pushed him away with his left hand, and Ike ran down the side of the building, disappearing between the lodging house and the photograph gallery. Wyatt’s first shot struck Frank McLaury in the abdomen, staggering him onto the sidewalk, though he still fired once in Wyatt’s direction. Tom McLaury moved his hand toward his right hip and jumped behind the horse.
As the fight unfolded, Doc Holliday fired a shotgun and fatally wounded him. Wyatt did not shoot at Ike Clanton, believing he was unarmed. When the shooting was over, Billy Clanton was dead, and Frank and Tom McLaury lay dying. Wyatt, his brothers, and Doc Holliday had survived.
Wyatt gave his statement in court to explain that the shooting had been a matter of defending his life and fulfilling his duty. He insisted that Ike Clanton’s testimony against him, alleging that he had admitted involvement in stage robbery or had dealings with criminal enterprises, was a fabrication from start to finish. He had wanted only to capture the men who killed Bud Philpot, to clear Doc Holliday’s name, and to win the sheriff’s race.
Instead, the violence that had been building for over a year had culminated in a thirty-second gunfight on a dusty Tombstone street, a fight that would become one of the most famous in the history of the American West.