The O.K. Corral hearing and aftermath was the direct result of the 30-second Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, on October 26, 1881. During that confrontation, Deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone Town Marshal Virgil Earp, Assistant Town Marshal Morgan Earp, and temporary deputy marshals Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday shot and killed Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury. Billy's brother Ike, who had repeatedly threatened to kill the Earps for some time, had been present at the gunfight but was unarmed and fled. As permitted by territory law, he filed murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday on October 30.
In an unusual preliminary hearing, Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer heard testimony from a large number of witnesses during the next 30 days. Friends of the Cowboys, most notably Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, testified that the Cowboys had thrown up their hands or opened their coats and been shot in cold blood. Initially persuasive, his testimony motivated Spicer to jail Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday who had been free on bond. Virgil and Morgan were recuperating from their wounds. Friends of the lawman and several key neutral witnesses then testified that the Cowboys had drawn their guns and that Virgil Earp had called out, "Hold, I don't want that!" or words to that effect. In a lengthy ruling, Spicer concluded there was no basis for a trial. Although he criticized Virgil Earp's use of Wyatt and Holliday as deputies, he concluded that no laws were broken by the lawmen. He said the evidence indicated that the Earps and Holliday acted within the law and that Holliday and Wyatt had been properly deputized by Virgil. He described Frank McLaury's insistence that he would not give up his weapons unless the marshal and his deputies also gave up their arms as a "proposition both monstrous and startling!"
The Earps were freed from jail, but the blood feud between the lawmen and their friends and the Cowboys and their allies escalated. On December 14, Justice Spicer received a threatening letter from "a miner" who threatened to kill him and told him to leave Tombstone. On the same day, someone tried to kill Tombstone Mayor John Clum, who was a member of the Citizens Safety Committee and publisher of The Tombstone Epitaph that had consistently supported the Earps. On December 28, 1881, Virgil Earp was ambushed and hit by a shotgun round that crippled his left arm. The Earps thought they knew who the perpetrators were, but witnesses provided alibis for them. On March 18, Morgan was killed while playing billiards. An assassin shot him through the window of a door that opened up into an alley. A bullet intended for Wyatt struck close above his head. Once again, the Earps believed they knew the men responsible, but the testimony of a key witness was inadmissible and the Cowboys were not charged.
Wyatt assumed Virgil's duties as Deputy U.S. Marshal for eastern Pima County. He concluded that he could not rely on the courts for justice and decided to take matters into his own hands. He believed that the only way to deal with the Earp's enemies was to kill them. He assembled a federal posse that intercepted Frank Stilwell laying in wait near the train station in Tucson and killed him. They then scoured the countryside looking for others they believed responsible. During early April 1882, Wyatt and his posse tracked down and killed Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz, Curly Bill Brocius, and Johnny Barnes, three of the men they believed were responsible for their brothers' ambush and murder. The ride for vengeance came to be called the Earp Vendetta Ride. Five of the Earp party were wanted on a warrant for killing Frank Stilwell, and they left Arizona Territory and never returned.
Background
Media response
The two newspapers in Tombstone usually opposed each other in their reporting, but both newspapers' stories after the gunfight initially supported the lawmen's version of events. The Daily Nugget was a Democratic newspaper loyal to Sheriff Behan and the rural Cowboys, but their pro-Cowboy publisher Harry Woods was out of town. Richard Rule, an experienced reporter, knew Behan personally and very likely interviewed him after the gun fight. He wrote the story for Nugget published on the day after the shootout, and it backed up the Earps' version of events. Rule wrote in the style of the day by telling a story without attributing sources or naming witnesses.
Rule reported that the battle began when Frank made a motion for his pistol, and that Wyatt responded by drawing and firing his pistol. He wrote that Doc Holliday fired a short-barreled shotgun. Rule's account backed up the actions taken by the Earp brothers and Holliday. Rule's article varied widely from Behan's and the Cowboys' later court testimony. Subsequent stories about the gunfight published in the Nugget after that day supported Behan and the Cowboys' view of events.
The October 28, 1881, issue of The Tombstone Epitaph, which was loyal to the Republican business establishment, was more restrained in its language:
Other stories in the Epitaph countered the Nuggets later view entirely and supported the lawmen. Since The Tombstone Epitaph was the local Associated Press client, its story was the version of events that most readers across the United States read first.
Public reaction
The initial public reaction was largely favorable to the Earps, but began to change when rumors began to circulate that Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury were unarmed, and that Billy Clanton and Tom McLaury even threw up their hands before the shooting. Within a few days, Phineas "Phin" Clanton arrived in town, and some began to claim that the Earps and Holliday had committed murder, instead of enforcing the law. Clara Spalding Brown, the wife of mining engineer Theodore Brown, was a correspondent for the San Diego Union and other California newspapers. She wrote that Tombstone residents were divided about the justification for the killings. Referring to the initial testimony offered by Ike Clanton, she wrote:
Even the Governor of the Arizona Territory, John C. Frémont, reported after the gunfight, "Many of the very best law-abiding and peace-loving citizens [of Tombstone] have no confidence in the willingness of the civil officers to pursue and bring to justice that element of out-lawry so largely disturbing the sense of security ... [The opinion] is quite prevalent that the civil officers are quite largely in league with the leaders of this disturbing and dangerous element."
Conflicting record of events
It is not known who started shooting first. Accounts by both participants and eye-witnesses were contradictory. Those loyal to one side or the other told conflicting stories and independent eyewitnesses who did not know the participants by sight were unable to say for certain who shot first. All witnesses agreed that general firing almost immediately commenced. Most witnesses reported the first two shots were so close together that they could barely be distinguished. Some witnesses testified that Morgan and Doc fired across one another at Billy and Frank, respectively. Wyatt said that he and Billy Clanton had fired first, and Virgil confirmed that one of the first shots was fired by Billy Clanton. From Turner, Alford (Ed.), The O. K. Corral Inquest (1992) Witnesses could not agree on whether Tom McLaury was armed.
The existing record of the events surrounding the gunfight and the testimony given at the preliminary hearing are provided by three primary sources. The first two are the newspapers, The Tombstone Epitaph and The Nugget. Reporters from both newspapers covered the hearings and recorded the testimony at the coroner's inquest and the Spicer hearings, but only the reporter from the Nugget knew shorthand. The third source was the court recorder, who took down the testimony in longhand. Testimony recorded by the court recorder and the two reporters varied greatly. Generally the Nugget coverage was more complete, but occasionally the Epitaph offered information not found elsewhere.
Author Stuart N. Lake, who wrote the extremely popular biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, relied on the surviving portion of the court record, which he described as a "sheaf of original handwritten documents rescued from oblivion."
Part-time newspaper reporter Howell 'Pat' Hayhurst, sponsored by the Federal Writers' Project, part of the Works Progress Administration, transcribed all of the testimony from the hearing in the early 1930s. However, it's known that Hayhurst arbitrarily edited and removed text that he decided was not relevant. The documents were subsequently lost and are still unaccounted for. Hayhurst seemed to have an antipathy toward Wyatt Earp. Author Alan Barra believes Hayhurst was a friend of Albert Behan, Johnny Behan's son. After he completed his transcription, he kept the original document in his home, where it was destroyed in a house fire. Lake later said Hayhurst 'mutilated' the transcription.
Alford E. Turner published The OK Corral Inquest based on the Hayhurst transcription, minus his edits, in 1981, and added his own footnotes. He hired a typist to copy the Hayhurst transcription, which introduced additional errors and omissions. A copy of the Hayhurst transcription is in the Goldwater collection at Arizona State University.
Coroner's report
Coroner Henry M. Matthews convened the Coroner's Inquest. For unknown reasons, he chose individuals mostly sympathetic to the Cowboys: Ike Clanton, William Claiborne, C.H. Light, John Behan, R.F. Coleman, William Cuddy, Peter Fallehy, and Mrs. Martha King. Matthews examined the dead Cowboys and reported his findings to the inquest members. The Tombstone Epitaph reported and commented on the coroner's jury's findings:
Matthews testified at the inquest that Tom McLaury had been killed by a single shotgun blast, contradicting Behan's testimony that he had been shot with a pistol, which according to the defense, "... to make any sense, the court would have to believe that Holliday marched down Fremont Street carrying a shotgun; put it aside in order to pull out his pistol; fired the first shot, presumably at Billy Clanton; and then picked up the shotgun in order to kill Tom McLaury—all in the space of a few seconds." Under questioning, Matthews said he did not see Ike Clanton appeal to Wyatt to not shoot him.
Earps and Holliday arrested
Four days after the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, as permitted by territorial law, Ike Clanton applied by affidavit for an arrest warrant against Doc Holliday and the Earps. Because Morgan and Virgil were incapacitated by their wounds, they were recovering at home, and were not required to post bail. Wyatt and Holliday were arrested and brought before Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer. Spicer initially denied bail because it was a capital case, but "upon a showing of facts by affidavit," decided to exercise judicial discretion, and granted Wyatt and Holliday $10,000 bail, about $ today.
Their bail was paid by contributions from James Earp, Tom Fitch (their attorney), Robert J. Winders (a mining partner), E. B. Gage (part-owner and superintendent of the Grand Central Mining Company), Fred J. Dodge (Wells Fargo undercover agent), and other business owners appreciative of the Earps' efforts. Wyatt contributed $7,000 to Holliday's bail amount. Gage was also a prominent Republican and a member of the Citizens Safety Committee.