Sorting facts from long held fictions
During casual conversations over the summer
of 2019, musing about the enduring popularity of the
movie TOMBSTONE, Michael Biehn voiced often his
fierce conviction that
decades of film and
television have grossly distorted the true history
behind the fabled “Gunfight at the O. K. Corral.”
His awareness of that distortion and
sensitivity about it grew out of his association
with screenwriter Kevin Jarre, whose obsessive
devotion to authenticity in shooting TOMBSTONE led
to him being replaced as director after four weeks.
The victims of the “Gunfight,” Billy Clanton
and McLaury brothers Frank and Tom, were local
ranchers, members of the business community.
Yet they have long been cast as villains,
branded “Cowboys” and “outlaws” and portrayed as
loathsome desperados, which they never were.
More egregious still, Wyatt Earp has become
an iconic hero when he was likely the most
disreputable character anywhere near the O. K.
Corral and nothing he would do over his remaining
fifty years would ever be considered any kind of
accomplishment.
Noting this great disparity between Tombstone
facts and fictions led us to explore its history,
and our interest was piqued when we learned about
the month long “trial”
right after the “Gunfight.”
Wyatt and Doc were behind bars for most of
that proceeding, facing the harshest charges of
first degree murder. In the
quarter century since TOMBSTONE’s release, and
possibly spurred by it, an outpouring of research
and books has shed new light into these people and
events. Add the growing
availability of original, archival material online
and ferreting out truth from the welter of
distortion is now all the more possible.
Over the past year, we’ve done a “deep dive”
into this story, looking at more than a dozen books
and several dozen more internet sources.
We set out below the facts as we see them,
very much at odds with Tombstone myths and legends.
We believe we have gleaned new insights into
the motives and actions of the principal characters
as as they approached their final, fateful encounter
that cold October afternoon.
As we unveil our conclusions about the
“Gunfight” and
its aftermath we will often note how the historical
record differs from what’s been depicted onscreen.
We start by offering brief, salient portraits
of the principals, including names rarely
spotlighted, and then look at the key events that
led them to that vacant lot.
Wyatt Earp was in Tombstone for barely two
years and he left that town as he had others before
— with a warrant for his arrest and a posse on his
trail.
We will be adding to this site, more fully
developing our account, but now, here’s the opening
of MURDER AT THE O.K. CORRAL.
1)
There’s
likely no event more deeply burrowed into
our cultural DNA than the thirty seconds
when thirty gunshots shattered the stillness
of a vacant lot next to a photographer’s
studio a century and a half ago. Just
six doors down the alley was an
establishment whose proprietors wished to
honor former President Martin Van Buren by
incorporating the initials of his nickname,
“Old
Kindersley,” into the name of
their company. Above their livery
stable they erected a sign reading
“O.
K. Corral.”
2)
“Truth Decay” is a nothing new in American
life. Consider how a saturating
century of pop culture has turned a
thick-headed, chronic failure more familiar
with the wrong side of the law into an
archetype symbolizing dedicated, stalwart
law enforcement.
For the short
time Wyatt Earp was in Tombstone, he
spent most of his time grabbing for what
wasn’t
his and left death and destruction in his
wake. If we
want to live in a world where
“the
truth shall make you free,” then a good
place to start is by freeing ourselves of
what we think we know about the legend of
Wyatt Earp.
3)
For thirty years following the
“Gunfight”
Wyatt and Josie roamed the West, chasing
quick money without success. He
brought with him his fondness for fixing
games and that blew up when he refereed a
heavyweight championship fight and was
universally condemned as throwing it by
calling a low blow on the boxer clearly
winning. Trying to put that stench
behind him, he and Josie settled in Southern
California in 1911.
4)
With the arrival of the fledgling
movie business, Wyatt began hanging around
sets, trying to ingratiate himself to anyone
he thought might put his stories on the
screen. He never succeeded, although
he did befriend a few of the early Western
stars. For the fifteen years she lived
on after Wyatt’s
death in 1929,
Josie was relentless in foisting
outlandish narratives that created Wyatt’s
image and she protected it by haranguing,
hectoring, and threatening expensive
litigation on anyone who even considered a
more accurate and balanced view.
By the time of her
passing, she’d
dictated and set in stone how the world
would view her husband.
5)
Our view of Wyatt, however, is quite
at odds with the legend Josie so diligently
manufactured. At the age
of twenty-four, he was running a floating
brothel in Peoria, and not very well,
either; he kept having to relocate after
being arrested three times.
He
arrived in Peoria after escaping from a
Missouri jail cell following his arrest for
stealing two horses.
This was shortly after he’d fled
Lamar, Missouri where he was was wanted for
pocketing license fees and court judgements
he was responsible for collecting.
The monies funded schools.
* *
*
6)
In the moments leading up to the
killings, only one group — the Earps — was
on the prowl for the other and they brought
with them an incendiary, ill-tempered ally —
Doc Holliday — whose very presence was sure
to incite mayhem.
The Earp’s quarry
— the McLaury and Clanton brothers — weren’t
shooting up the town nor were any wanted for
any crimes.
They were accosted leading
their horses through the alley from the
Corral, heading home after selling beef to
the town butchers. The
McLaurys planned to continue on to Iowa for
their sister’s wedding before they were
slaughtered.
7)
While the McLaurys and the Clantons
were clearly not “outlaws,” they are often
grouped together with a shady cast of
characters known as the “Cowboys”; or the
“Cochise County Cowboys,” and whether they
fit in this category requires a bit of
exploration as to just what the term meant
at the time.
- Jim Anderson & Michael Biehn -
