Another Interesting Historical Fact Of Interest.

[Steely Dan]

This is from a history channel email I get.

 

October 26: General Interest

1881 : Shootout at the OK Corral

 

On this day in 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the

Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the OK Corral

in Tombstone, Arizona.

 

After silver was discovered nearby in 1877, Tombstone quickly

grew into one of the richest mining towns in the Southwest.

Wyatt Earp, a former Kansas police officer working as a bank

security guard, and his brothers, Morgan and Virgil, the town

marshal, represented "law and order" in Tombstone, though they

also had reputations as being power-hungry and ruthless. The

Clantons and McLaurys were cowboys who lived on a ranch

outside of town and sidelined as cattle rustlers, thieves and

murderers. In October 1881, the struggle between these two

groups for control of Tombstone and Cochise County ended in

a blaze of gunfire at the OK Corral.

 

On the morning of October 25, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury

came into Tombstone for supplies. Over the next 24 hours, the

two men had several violent run-ins with the Earps and their

friend Doc Holliday. Around 1:30 p.m. on October 26, Ike's

brother Billy rode into town to join them, along with Frank

McLaury and Billy Claiborne. The first person they met in the

local saloon was Holliday, who was delighted to inform them

that their brothers had both been pistol-whipped by the Earps.

Frank and Billy immediately left the saloon, vowing revenge.

 

Around 3 p.m., the Earps and Holliday spotted the five

members of the Clanton-McLaury gang in a vacant lot behind

the OK Corral, at the end of Fremont Street. The famous

gunfight that ensued lasted all of 30 seconds, and around 30

shots were fired. Though it's still debated who fired the first

shot, most reports say that the shootout began when Virgil

Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point-blank

in the chest, while Doc Holliday fired a shotgun blast at Tom

McLaury's chest. Though Wyatt Earp wounded Frank McLaury

with a shot in the stomach, Frank managed to get off a few

shots before collapsing, as did Billy Clanton. When the dust

cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead,

and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded.

Ike Clanton and Claiborne had run for the hills.

 

Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, who witnessed the

shootout, charged the Earps and Holliday with murder. A month

later, however, a Tombstone judge found the men not guilty,

ruling that they were "fully justified in committing these

homicides." The famous shootout has been immortalized in

many movies, including Frontier Marshal (1939), Gunfight at

the OK Corral (1957), Tombstone (1993) and Wyatt Earp (1994).