On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, Wyatt Earp walked down Fremont Street in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, with his brothers Virgil and Morgan and a friend named Doc Holliday. Ahead of them, near the O. K. Corral, stood the men they had come to disarm: Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton, with Ike Clanton and a man named Clayborn in the vacant lot beside the photography gallery.
Virgil Earp, the city marshal, called out that he had come to disarm them. Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury reached for their six-shooters. Within seconds, gunfire erupted. Wyatt Earp later gave a sworn statement describing everything that led to that moment.
He was thirty-two years old, born in Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois, and had lived in Tombstone since December 1, 1879. He worked as a saloon keeper and had previously served as a deputy sheriff and detective. The trouble, he explained, began more than a year earlier, in the spring of 1880. Wyatt, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and several others traced six government mules stolen from Camp Rucker to the McLaury ranch near Charleston.
They found the branding iron there and recovered some of the mules bearing the same mark. A man named Frank Patterson arranged a compromise with Captain Hurst, who persuaded the Earps to return to Tombstone, promising the mules would be given back. Weeks later, Hurst admitted the McLaury brothers had no intention of returning them; they had only wanted the soldiers gone, believing they could stand them off. Hurst warned the Earps that the men had threatened their lives.
About a month later, Wyatt met Frank and Tom McLaury in Charleston. They tried to provoke a quarrel and warned of dire consequences if the Earps ever pursued them as closely again. Then came the killing of Bud Philpot during an attempted robbery of the Benson stage. Wyatt, working as a detective for Wells Fargo, became convinced that Billy Leonard, Harry Head, and James Crane were responsible.
He knew these men were friends of the Clantons and McLaurys, who frequently visited their ranches. Among lawmen and those familiar with criminal circles, it was widely acknowledged that Ike Clanton was a leading figure among the Cowboys, a loose organization of cattle thieves and outlaws. The Clanton and McLaury ranches served as meeting points and shelter for the gang. Wyatt had ambitions of becoming sheriff in the upcoming county election.
If he captured the men responsible for Philpot’s death, he believed it would greatly strengthen his standing with the public and local businessmen. Rewards totaling about $3,600 were offered for their capture. He approached Ike Clanton and Frank McLaury in the backyard of the Oriental Saloon, along with a man named Joe Hill. He told them he wanted the credit for capturing Leonard, Head, and Crane, and proposed that if they provided information, he would ensure they received the full reward and anonymity.
Ike Clanton expressed interest. He had a dispute with Leonard over a ranch claimed by both men and believed removing Leonard would eliminate opposition to his claim. He also warned that Leonard, Head, and Crane would likely resist capture, and asked whether the reward applied whether they were taken dead or alive. Wyatt checked with Marshall Williams, the local Wells Fargo agent, who telegraphed the company’s San Francisco superintendent in June 1881.
The response confirmed the reward would be paid whether the robbers were captured dead or alive. Wyatt relayed this to Ike Clanton, Joe Hill, and later Frank McLaury. The plan was for Joe Hill to travel to the area near Ike’s New Mexico, where Leonard, Head, and Crane were hiding. He was to lure them toward the McLaury ranch near Soldier’s Holes, about thirty miles from Tombstone, on the pretext that a paymaster would be traveling from Tombstone to Bisbee with money to pay miners.
Wyatt agreed to be there with a posse to capture them. Before leaving, Joe Hill handed his watch chain and between two and three hundred dollars to Virgil Earp for safekeeping. After about ten days, he returned with bad news. He had arrived a day too late.
Leonard and Harry Head had been killed the day before by horse thieves. Later, Wyatt learned that those horse thieves had themselves been slain by members of the Clanton and McLaury gang. Then Ike Clanton and Frank McLaury announced that Wyatt had turned them over to Marshall Williams and Doc Holliday. When they entered town, they avoided the Earps, who began hearing threats against their lives.
Wyatt’s connection to Doc Holliday went back to his time as city marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, where Holliday had saved his life when he was surrounded by outlaws. In October 1881, about a month or more before the shootout, Morgan Earp and Wyatt helped arrest a man named Stillwell and a man named Spence for robbing the Bisbee stage. The McLaury brothers and Clantons were close friends with both men and blamed the Earps for their arrest, even though the Earps had acted as a sheriff’s posse. When Spence and Stillwell were brought into town, Frank McLaury confronted Morgan in front of the Alhambra saloon, where John Ringo, Ike Clanton, and the two Hicks brothers were present.
Frank berated Morgan for pursuing Spence and Stillwell, saying he disliked Spence’s arrest, and warned, if you ever come after me, you will never take me. Morgan replied that if the need arose, he would make an arrest. Frank then declared he had threatened the Earps’ lives before, had taken it back, but that this arrest changed things. Morgan walked away without responding.
In the weeks that followed, several people warned the Earps that Ike Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, Joe Hill, and John Ringo had threatened their lives. Wyatt knew these men were dangerous and desperate, with connections to outlawry, cattle theft, robbery, and murder. He had knowledge of the McLaury brothers’ involvement in stealing the six government mules and cattle. He had heard accounts of John Ringo cold-bloodedly shooting a man near Camp Thomas.
He was convinced that Frank and Tom McLaury had committed robbery and murder in Skeleton Canyon against Mexicans some three or four months earlier. He 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 divulging information about the capture plan to Holliday. Wyatt denied it and promised to prove his innocence when Holliday returned from Tucson.
On the night of October 25, Holliday met Ike Clanton in the Alhambra and asked him about it. Clanton denied it angrily, and a quarrel broke out, with Holliday calling him a liar. Wyatt called Morgan over, reminded him he was an officer, and told him to stop the quarrel. Morgan climbed over the lunch counter and escorted Holliday outside.
Virgil Earp arrived and warned both men he would arrest them if they did not stop. They dispersed. Later that night, Ike Clanton asked Wyatt to walk with him. Clanton said he was not ready for a fight when Holliday approached him, but declared he would be ready the next morning, saying it was time to end the long history of confrontational talk.
Wyatt replied that he saw no financial gain in fighting. Clanton walked away, saying, I will be ready for you in the morning. The next morning, October 26, Wyatt rose around noon. Ned Boyle told him that Ike Clanton, armed, had been seen near the telegraph office, saying that as soon as the Earps appeared on the street, the fight would begin.
Harry Jones later told Wyatt that Clanton was looking for them with a Winchester rifle and a six-shooter. Wyatt left the Oriental Saloon and met Virgil, who confirmed Clanton was hunting for them. Virgil found Ike Clanton near Fourth and Fremont Streets. Wyatt approached and said, I hear you are hunting for some of us.
Clanton swung his rifle toward Virgil. Virgil seized it and struck Clanton with his six-shooter, knocking him down. Virgil and Morgan took his rifle and pistol to the Grand Hotel. Wyatt took Ike Clanton before Justice Wallace.
In the courtroom, Clanton told Wyatt he would get even with all of them, and that if he had a six-shooter, he would make a fight with all of them. Morgan Earp offered him his own gun. Clanton began to rise to take it when Deputy Sheriff Campbell intervened and pushed him back into his seat. Fed up with the constant threats and believing the gang intended to assassinate him, Wyatt decided that if he had to defend his life, it would be on his own terms.
From about eight feet away, he addressed Ike Clanton, calling him a dirty cow thief and telling him he had been threatening their lives. He said he thought he would be justified in shooting him down anywhere he met him, but if Clanton was anxious for a fight, he would go anywhere on earth to fight him. Clanton replied that he would see Wyatt after he finished there, saying he only wanted four feet of ground to fight on. Outside the justice’s office, Tom McLaury approached Wyatt, saying he would make a fight with him anywhere.
Wyatt, believing he had a fair chance to defend himself, agreed and slapped Tom across the face with his left hand while drawing his pistol with his right. Tom had a pistol visible on his right hip but made no move to draw it. Wyatt told him to jerk his gun and use it. Tom remained silent.
Wyatt struck him on the head with his six-shooter and walked away. Later, Wyatt saw Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton heading down Fourth Street toward the gunsmith shop. He followed. Frank’s horse was on the sidewalk.
Acting as deputy city marshal, Wyatt began backing it off. Frank took the horse’s bridle and backed it into the street. Ike Clanton joined them, and they all entered the gunsmith shop, where Wyatt observed them loading cartridges into their belts. They then went to Dunbar’s Corral.
The Earps gathered with Doc Holliday at the corner of Fourth and Allen Streets. A man named Coleman warned Virgil that the armed men meant trouble and had moved from Dunbar’s Corral into the O. K. Corral.
Virgil told the others to join him in disarming them. Morgan suggested getting horses in case of a running fight. Wyatt replied that if they tried to run, they could shoot their horses and capture them. The four of them walked down Fourth Street to Fremont.
As they turned the corner, they saw Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, Billy Clanton, and Sheriff Behan near the vacant space between Fly’s photography gallery and the building to the west. Behan left the group and approached, cautioning Virgil: for God’s sake, don’t go down there, you will get murdered. Virgil replied that he was going to disarm them. Behan told Morgan and Wyatt that he had already disarmed them.
Believing this, Wyatt put his pistol, which he had been holding, into his overcoat pocket. As they closed in, the McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton stood along the east side of the building, with Ike Clanton, Billy Claiborne, and another man in the vacant space. Virgil commanded them to throw up their hands, saying he had come to disarm them. Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury placed their hands on their six-shooters.
Virgil clarified that he had come to disarm them, not to fight. Despite that, Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury began drawing their pistols. Tom McLaury threw open his coat and jumped behind a horse. Wyatt drew his pistol.
Billy Clanton aimed at him, but Wyatt, knowing Frank McLaury’s reputation as a skilled and dangerous shooter, aimed at Frank. The first shots were exchanged between Billy Clanton and Wyatt, almost simultaneously. About four shots into the exchange, Ike Clanton grabbed Wyatt’s left arm. Wyatt saw no weapon in his hand and pushed him away, telling him to either join the fight or run.
Ike sprinted down the side of the building and disappeared. Wyatt’s first shot struck Frank McLaury in the abdomen, causing him to stagger onto the sidewalk, though he fired one shot in Wyatt’s direction first. Holliday, armed with a shotgun, fatally wounded Tom McLaury. Billy Claiborne raised his left hand and fled.
Wyatt did not shoot at Ike Clanton, believing he was unarmed. He stated that he did not draw his pistol or make any threatening gesture until after Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury drew their weapons. In the end, the gunfight left Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton dead. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday were wounded.
Wyatt Earp was not hit. Ike Clanton escaped. In his sworn statement, Wyatt firmly denied Ike Clanton’s allegations that he had admitted involvement in any stage robbery, that he provided information about an impending stage event, or that he engaged in any improper dealings with criminal enterprises. He called the testimony a fabrication from start to finish.
Wyatt also gave his account of a separate matter. Sheriff Behan had offered, in his office on Allen Street, that if Wyatt withdrew from seeking the appointment as sheriff of Cochise County, Behan would hire a clerk and they would share the profits. Wyatt agreed, but Behan never honored the arrangement and later gave inaccurate reasons for failing to do so. As for the horse stolen from Wyatt shortly after he arrived in Tombstone, he explained that he had gone to Charleston to reclaim it.
With the help of papers prepared by Judge Wallace and Mr. Street and sent by his youngest brother, Warren, the horse was recovered. Billy Clanton, who had tried to take the horse from the corral, handed it over and asked Wyatt if he had any more horses to lose. Wyatt replied that he would keep them in the stable from then on and give him no chance to steal them.
Wyatt’s statement detailed his relentless pursuit of Leonard, Head, and Crane, a trail that stretched approximately eighty miles down the San Pedro River through the Dragoon Mountains, with a man named King captured along the way. He insisted that without the combined efforts of himself and Morgan, King would not have been apprehended. The testimony given by Wyatt Earp that day, describing Ike Clanton and the Cowboys, the threats, the conspiracy he believed was aimed at his family, and the deadly confrontation at the O. K.
Corral, became one of the most examined accounts of that famous gunfight.