Tombstone and "The Gunfight"

A couple of years ago I was invited by Bennie to attend “Helldorado Days” in Tombstone, Arizona.  Bennie has family in Tombstone and had been to the Helldorado Days celebration many times.

OK Corral after an 1882 fire

The event is a celebration and re-enactment of the infamous “Gunfight at the OK Corral” that goes on for several days.  Since everyone, and I mean everyone, is attired in period costumes it was necessary for me to purchase a complete outfit for the occasion, including boots, Stetson, western belt buckle, shirt, and Wrangler blue jeans; Levi’s just wouldn’t do.  Also, all the men were sporting six shooters!

Tombstone, 1908

A couple weeks before the event, Bennie loaned me a leather bound book about the October 1881 gunfight and the events surrounding the Earps.  It was a book I couldn’t put down and in spite of it being a large volume, I completed reading it before I left for Tombstone.  The book told a completely different story than any that I had heard or seen before.  It told a story about how the “cowboys,” the Clantons and McClaureys etc. preyed on some of the local miners and how they forayed into Mexico to steal cattle and prey on the villagers there.  They had even gotten so bold that they intercepted military supply trains.

Morgan Earp

Wyatt Earp

Virgil Earp

According to the book, the Earps and Doc Holliday did not end up in Tombstone by chance.  After one of the “Cowboy’s” incursions into Mexico, the Mexican government filed a formal complaint with the U.S. government, and in a clandestine arrangement the U.S. authorities contracted with the Earps to confront the “Cowboys” and put a stop to their border rampaging and citizen intimidation.  A lot of questions are answered by this scenario.  Why did the Earps seem impervious to prosecution and why, when they were prosecuted, were they inevitably pardoned?  Even after the “Earp Vendetta Ride” following Morgan Earp’s assassination Wyatt and Doc Holliday walked free.

Doc Holliday

In August of 1881, the “Cowboys” ambushed and killed 15 Mexicans in Skeleton Canyon and robbed them of all their gold, and the following month the Mexicans dispatched troops to the border and killed 5 “Cowboys.”  Things were getting out of hand and the Earps had to move sooner than they planned.  Just a month later, they purposely goaded Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne, into the confrontation that made them all famous.

Frank McLaury

Tom McLaury

In a side note, Johnny Ringo was found dead in a remote location just six months after the famous gunfight with a single bullet hole in his right temple.  His death was ruled suicide.  According to the book, Ringo was “taken care of” after things in Tombstone had calmed down a bit.

Johnny Ringo