The most
famous gunfight in the
Wild West.
On one side of the
battle were:
Virgil Earp, the
marshal in
Tombstone,
Arizona;
Wyatt Earp, the assistant marshal;
Morgan Earp, a part-time policeman; and
John "Doc" Holliday, a friend of Wyatt's, a bad-tempered
dentist and
gambler. On the other side were:
Ike and Billy Clanton and
Tom and Frank McLaury, a group of
cowboys from local
ranches who occasionally rode into town to
raise hell and sell their
rustled
cattle. In fact, Billy once rode around Tombstone on Wyatt's
stolen horse.
On the
morning of October 26,
1881, the Earp faction argued with the cowboys and
pistol-whipped two of them. Around 2 p.m., the local
sheriff, fearing
violence, stopped the Clantons and McLaurys on
Fremont Street near the
O.K. Corral. The Earps and Holliday appeared, approaching the group at a
slow walk. The sheriff hurried up the street to stop them, but they
brushed past him, stopping about
six feet away from the cowboys.
The Earps and Holliday each carried a
pistol, and Holliday was concealing a
double-barreled shotgun under his coat. Billy and Frank had
revolvers, while Ike and Tom were
unarmed. Frank was holding the
reins of his
horse, with a
Winchester rifle in the
saddle scabbard.
At that point, Virgil Earp shouted, "Boys, throw up your
hands. I want your guns." Three of the cowboys
raised their arms, and Tom opened his
coat to show that he had no
weapons, saying, "I haven't got anything, boys. I am
disarmed." Billy added, "Don't
shoot me. I don't want to
fight."
Doc then walked up to Frank and stuck his
pistol in Frank's stomach. Morgan shot at Billy, hitting him in the right
wrist, and Doc shot Frank in the
stomach. Frank, holding his
stomach wound,
staggered into the street, leading his horse.
Wyatt shoved his pistol into Ike Clanton's stomach and said, "Throw up your hands, you
son of a bitch!" Ike grabbed Wyatt's
pistol with his left hand and Wyatt's
shoulder with his right. They
grappled with each other for a moment before Wyatt shouted, "Go to
fighting or
get away!" Wyatt
fired his pistol without hitting anyone, and Ike
ran away.
Holliday
pocketed his pistol and pulled out his
shotgun. Tom had been hiding behind Frank's
horse, but after it
bolted, Holliday emptied both
barrels into Tom's chest,
killing him.
Billy, still in the fight even with
bullet wounds in his chest and wrist, shot
off-handed, hitting Virgil in the
thigh and knocking him to the ground.
Despite his
belly wound, Frank was also still going. He
shot at Holliday once and missed, prompting Doc to
drop the shotgun and pull out his
pistol. Frank shouted, "I've got you now!" and Holliday replied, "You're a
good one if you have!" Doc and Frank shot at each other -- Holliday
missed, but Frank scored a
flesh wound on Doc's
hip. As Holliday yelled, "
I'm shot right through!", Morgan shot Frank in the
neck and exclaimed, "
I got him!"
As Frank fell to the ground, near
death, Billy shot Morgan in the
shoulder. Morgan fell, but
bounced back up. He and Wyatt shot at Billy, who took a
shot to the stomach and
slumped over,
dying. He demanded more
cartridges and tried to cock his
gun again, but a
bystander took it away from him.
By the end of the day, Frank, Tom, and Billy were
dead, Virgil, Morgan, and Doc were
injured, but
recovered, and Ike and Wyatt had escaped
unscathed.
That December, an
unknown gunman shot Morgan in the
arm as he walked down the street one night. In March 1882, a Clanton
supporter shot Morgan in the back as he chalked his
cue at a
pool hall in Tombstone. Morgan told Wyatt, "This is the last game of
pool I'll ever play," before he died.
(The above account was taken from "GURPS Old West" by Ann Dupuis, Liz Tornabene, Lynda Manning-Schwartz, and Rob Smith, published by Steve Jackson Games in 1991, pp. 105-108. What source their account came from, they do not say, though I've found some very similar versions all over the 'net. The main points of difference in the varying accounts appear to be over what the participants said and who actually started the fight.)