October 19, 2021 • 8 mins
The gunfight in Tombstone in 1881 between some tough-nosed lawmen and hard-headed outlaws went down in history -- thanks to Hollywood. Learn the story behind it in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/gunfight-ok-corral.htm
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff. Lauren Vogel bomb here, the romanticized version of
the American cowboy tin stars, quick draw gunfights, saloons on
dusty streets, and unending desert landscapes wouldn't hold such a
firm place in her consciousness if not for the infamous
(00:23):
showdown now known as the Gunfight at the Okay Corral.
You know, the one between tough nosed law men and
some hard headed outlaws in the town of Tombstone near
the Mexican border in the Arizona Territory. But just to clarify,
the shootout wasn't even in a corral at all. It
took place in a vacant lot next to a photo
(00:44):
studio in a boarding house. The second point of clarification,
nobody ever called the standoff the Gunfight at the Okay
Corral until Hollywood sunk its claws into the story with
seven Burt Lancaster Kirk Douglas blockbuster titled Gunfight at the
Okay Corral, which you have to admit, does sound way
cooler than gunfight in a vacant lot, But in true
(01:08):
Wild West movie fashion, the cast of the real life
fight is easily broken into two groups. The good guys
were the lawman in an otherwise lawless part of the
Arizona territory. They were Tombstone Marshall Virgil Earth, his brothers
Morgan and Wyatt, both officially special policeman, and temporary policeman
(01:28):
John Henry doc Holiday. The bad guys were a group
known as the Cowboys cal russelan horse thieven group of
no good cusses. They were Billy Clayborne, brothers Ike and
Billy Clinton, and brothers Frank and Tom McClory, and these
two groups hated each other. Long story short. Between eighteen
(01:51):
seventy nine and eighteen eighty, Tombstone's population exploded with prospectors
searching for silver ore and the town needed law enforce sment.
The town leaders wanted men like Virgil and Wyatt Earth
because they had solid reputations as gunfighters and lawmen, but
the Clayton and mclory families, who were prominent ranchers, formed
(02:13):
their own coalition known as the Cowboys. The Cowboys didn't
recognize Virgil Earp as marshal or his legal authority, and
the Cowboys despised the fact that eurpened his lawmen often
used possibly extra legal methods to enforce the law. In
late eighty one, it was against the law to carry
(02:33):
weapons within the Tombstone town limits. A Virgil earp let
that be known to the cowboys, and that's how things
started that day. After some threats and two pistol whippings
by the Earps, the two groups squared off at about
three pm on October. Most estimates put the two groups
not much farther than six ft or two meters apart.
(02:56):
There were plenty of handguns present. Holiday carried a shotgun
before the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Works.
Spoke with Marshall Trimble, Arizona's official state historian. He said,
when the cowboys came into town and Billy Clinton saw
his brother Ike had been hit, and Frank saw his
brother Tom had been cocked, they were spoiling for a fight.
(03:18):
Then they made open threats that they were going to
kill the Earth's They were overheard, and that's what saved
the earps and Doc from maybe going to a murder trial.
And here we jump ahead to the first hand witness
account of John H. Bean. He was the sheriff of
Cochise County, a political rival to the Earps, and a
friend too many of the cowboys, and one of many
(03:40):
interviewed afterward during a hearing into the gunfight. This transcript
is courtesy of the Arizona Memory Project. Quote when they
got to the party of cowboys, they drew their guns
and said, you sons of you have been looking for
a fight, and you can have it. Someone of the party,
i think Marshall Arp, said throw up your hands. We
are going to disarm you instantaneously. With that, the fight
(04:03):
commenced and there was around some thirty shots fired. Dozens
and dozens of accounts have been written on the fight,
and many relying on firsthand accounts like this. Some say
that at least one of the cowboys was unarmed. Others
refute that claim. The questions arose as to who fired
the first shot and who shot whom, but the toll
(04:25):
of the gunfight is not in question. Once everything had
quieted down, three cowboys, Billy Clinton, just eighteen or nineteen
years old at the time, and both McClory brothers were dead.
The fight lasted no more than thirty seconds. The lawmen
weren't without their injuries, though Tremble said In the end,
Morgan Earp almost had a fatal wound. The bullet just
(04:47):
missed his spine, but it went right clear through his back.
Virgil took a hit in his leg, and Doc just
got a scrape. Why it came through without a scratch,
just like he does in the movies. Four days after
the fight, Mike Clayton, who had fled once bullets started flying,
accused the Earps and Holiday of murder and Tombstone Justice
(05:08):
of the Peace Wells Spicer held a hearing into the
throw down being back to the cowboys, but others supported
the Earps and Holiday. The verdict may have hinged on
the testimony of one Addie Borland, a local dressmaker, who
contradicted the cowboys claim that they had their hands up
and should not have been fired upon. The Spicer eventually
(05:29):
found that the Earps and Holiday were well within their
rights and declared that no trial was necessary. Mike Clayton,
bent on revenging the death of his brother and the
other cowboys, is generally thought to be behind the assassination
attempt on Virgil Earp in December of that year and
the murder of Morgan Earp, who was gunned down in
a Tombsdown billiard club in early two After Morgan's killing,
(05:53):
Wyatt Earp tracked down some of the Clayton's cohorts when
killing a couple. Clayton was killed by a detective in Springerville,
Arizona Territory in eighteen eighty seven while resisting arrest. Wyatt
was the last of the Ok Corral survivors. He died
in Los Angeles in nineteen twenty nine at age eighty.
The gunfight gained near mythic status in nineteen thirty one
(06:16):
after Stuart Lake, a former press agent for President Theodore Roosevelt,
and a Hollywood writer, interviewed Wyatt and published a loose
biography titled Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal. Then came the movie
and a TV series on Why Earp's life and times
ran from nineteen fifty five to nineteen sixty one. Among
the actors who have portrayed Wyatt are Henry Fonda in
(06:39):
My Darling Clementine from nineteen forty six, A Burt Lancaster
in the nineteen fifty seven movie James Garner An Hour
of the Gun in nineteen sixty seven, Kurt Russell in
Tombstone in ninetee, Kevin Costner in Wide Earp in ninety four,
and Bell Kilmer in wyatt Earp's Revenge in twelve. Trimble said,
(07:00):
I think it's the psychology that people like to believe
that a good guy can't be that good and why
it wasn't why it had a little shady past all
of them? Did I tell people these were sporting men.
They ran around with prostitutes, gambled, hung out with an
unsavory lot. But why it came from a good family
A why it was a whole lot better than the
others and he was just a product of his time.
(07:23):
Tourists now streamed Tombstone to see re enactments, and beyond Tombstone,
that face to face showdown between a lawless bunch of
cowboys and a hardened bunch of law men has given
Arizona and the entire West a huge part of its identity,
a larger even than that for many visitors, the gunfight
is a snapshot of America. A Tremble said, A gunfighters
(07:46):
are America's rendition of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
People are fascinated by them because they had a code
of their own and It's an independence, of free spirited independence.
It's what everybody wishes they could be, but aren't y.
Today's episode is based on the article The Okay Corral,
(08:07):
the Gunfight of All Gunfights on how stuff works dot Com,
written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart
Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and
is produced by Tyler Klain. Four more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff. Lauren Vogel bomb here, the romanticized version of
the American cowboy tin stars, quick draw gunfights, saloons on
dusty streets, and unending desert landscapes wouldn't hold such a
firm place in her consciousness if not for the infamous
(00:23):
showdown now known as the Gunfight at the Okay Corral.
You know, the one between tough nosed law men and
some hard headed outlaws in the town of Tombstone near
the Mexican border in the Arizona Territory. But just to clarify,
the shootout wasn't even in a corral at all. It
took place in a vacant lot next to a photo
(00:44):
studio in a boarding house. The second point of clarification,
nobody ever called the standoff the Gunfight at the Okay
Corral until Hollywood sunk its claws into the story with
seven Burt Lancaster Kirk Douglas blockbuster titled Gunfight at the
Okay Corral, which you have to admit, does sound way
cooler than gunfight in a vacant lot, But in true
(01:08):
Wild West movie fashion, the cast of the real life
fight is easily broken into two groups. The good guys
were the lawman in an otherwise lawless part of the
Arizona territory. They were Tombstone Marshall Virgil Earth, his brothers
Morgan and Wyatt, both officially special policeman, and temporary policeman
(01:28):
John Henry doc Holiday. The bad guys were a group
known as the Cowboys cal russelan horse thieven group of
no good cusses. They were Billy Clayborne, brothers Ike and
Billy Clinton, and brothers Frank and Tom McClory, and these
two groups hated each other. Long story short. Between eighteen
(01:51):
seventy nine and eighteen eighty, Tombstone's population exploded with prospectors
searching for silver ore and the town needed law enforce sment.
The town leaders wanted men like Virgil and Wyatt Earth
because they had solid reputations as gunfighters and lawmen, but
the Clayton and mclory families, who were prominent ranchers, formed
(02:13):
their own coalition known as the Cowboys. The Cowboys didn't
recognize Virgil Earp as marshal or his legal authority, and
the Cowboys despised the fact that eurpened his lawmen often
used possibly extra legal methods to enforce the law. In
late eighty one, it was against the law to carry
(02:33):
weapons within the Tombstone town limits. A Virgil earp let
that be known to the cowboys, and that's how things
started that day. After some threats and two pistol whippings
by the Earps, the two groups squared off at about
three pm on October. Most estimates put the two groups
not much farther than six ft or two meters apart.
(02:56):
There were plenty of handguns present. Holiday carried a shotgun
before the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Works.
Spoke with Marshall Trimble, Arizona's official state historian. He said,
when the cowboys came into town and Billy Clinton saw
his brother Ike had been hit, and Frank saw his
brother Tom had been cocked, they were spoiling for a fight.
(03:18):
Then they made open threats that they were going to
kill the Earth's They were overheard, and that's what saved
the earps and Doc from maybe going to a murder trial.
And here we jump ahead to the first hand witness
account of John H. Bean. He was the sheriff of
Cochise County, a political rival to the Earps, and a
friend too many of the cowboys, and one of many
(03:40):
interviewed afterward during a hearing into the gunfight. This transcript
is courtesy of the Arizona Memory Project. Quote when they
got to the party of cowboys, they drew their guns
and said, you sons of you have been looking for
a fight, and you can have it. Someone of the party,
i think Marshall Arp, said throw up your hands. We
are going to disarm you instantaneously. With that, the fight
(04:03):
commenced and there was around some thirty shots fired. Dozens
and dozens of accounts have been written on the fight,
and many relying on firsthand accounts like this. Some say
that at least one of the cowboys was unarmed. Others
refute that claim. The questions arose as to who fired
the first shot and who shot whom, but the toll
(04:25):
of the gunfight is not in question. Once everything had
quieted down, three cowboys, Billy Clinton, just eighteen or nineteen
years old at the time, and both McClory brothers were dead.
The fight lasted no more than thirty seconds. The lawmen
weren't without their injuries, though Tremble said In the end,
Morgan Earp almost had a fatal wound. The bullet just
(04:47):
missed his spine, but it went right clear through his back.
Virgil took a hit in his leg, and Doc just
got a scrape. Why it came through without a scratch,
just like he does in the movies. Four days after
the fight, Mike Clayton, who had fled once bullets started flying,
accused the Earps and Holiday of murder and Tombstone Justice
(05:08):
of the Peace Wells Spicer held a hearing into the
throw down being back to the cowboys, but others supported
the Earps and Holiday. The verdict may have hinged on
the testimony of one Addie Borland, a local dressmaker, who
contradicted the cowboys claim that they had their hands up
and should not have been fired upon. The Spicer eventually
(05:29):
found that the Earps and Holiday were well within their
rights and declared that no trial was necessary. Mike Clayton,
bent on revenging the death of his brother and the
other cowboys, is generally thought to be behind the assassination
attempt on Virgil Earp in December of that year and
the murder of Morgan Earp, who was gunned down in
a Tombsdown billiard club in early two After Morgan's killing,
(05:53):
Wyatt Earp tracked down some of the Clayton's cohorts when
killing a couple. Clayton was killed by a detective in Springerville,
Arizona Territory in eighteen eighty seven while resisting arrest. Wyatt
was the last of the Ok Corral survivors. He died
in Los Angeles in nineteen twenty nine at age eighty.
The gunfight gained near mythic status in nineteen thirty one
(06:16):
after Stuart Lake, a former press agent for President Theodore Roosevelt,
and a Hollywood writer, interviewed Wyatt and published a loose
biography titled Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal. Then came the movie
and a TV series on Why Earp's life and times
ran from nineteen fifty five to nineteen sixty one. Among
the actors who have portrayed Wyatt are Henry Fonda in
(06:39):
My Darling Clementine from nineteen forty six, A Burt Lancaster
in the nineteen fifty seven movie James Garner An Hour
of the Gun in nineteen sixty seven, Kurt Russell in
Tombstone in ninetee, Kevin Costner in Wide Earp in ninety four,
and Bell Kilmer in wyatt Earp's Revenge in twelve. Trimble said,
(07:00):
I think it's the psychology that people like to believe
that a good guy can't be that good and why
it wasn't why it had a little shady past all
of them? Did I tell people these were sporting men.
They ran around with prostitutes, gambled, hung out with an
unsavory lot. But why it came from a good family
A why it was a whole lot better than the
others and he was just a product of his time.
(07:23):
Tourists now streamed Tombstone to see re enactments, and beyond Tombstone,
that face to face showdown between a lawless bunch of
cowboys and a hardened bunch of law men has given
Arizona and the entire West a huge part of its identity,
a larger even than that for many visitors, the gunfight
is a snapshot of America. A Tremble said, A gunfighters
(07:46):
are America's rendition of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
People are fascinated by them because they had a code
of their own and It's an independence, of free spirited independence.
It's what everybody wishes they could be, but aren't y.
Today's episode is based on the article The Okay Corral,
(08:07):
the Gunfight of All Gunfights on how stuff works dot Com,
written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart
Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and
is produced by Tyler Klain. Four more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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