Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert, joined today by Sarah Dowdy. How are you, Sarah,
Speaker 1: I'm good, Katie. I'm excited about this gun fight. Well,
Speaker 1: and thank you to the listener who sent us in
Speaker 1: the request. John in South Saint Paul, Minnesota said he
Speaker 1: could not wait to hear all about the gunfight at
Speaker 1: the Okay Corral. So we're gonna do a little with
Speaker 1: busting and um go through the shootout. Yeah. So our
Speaker 1: story takes place in Tombstone, Arizona, which was a boom
Speaker 1: town in the eighteen eighties and probably if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for this gunfight, it would be a ghost town today.
Speaker 1: But um in the in eighteen seventy nine, prospector finds
Speaker 1: silver um and he's warned by a passing soldier that
Speaker 1: the only thing you're going to find in those hills
Speaker 1: as your own tombstone. And he showed him, didn't he.
Speaker 1: The town grew from one hundred people to seven thousand
Speaker 1: people in two years because of all the silver mining,
Speaker 1: and it was quite the place for a lot of
Speaker 1: rough and lawless horse wrestlers, bandits. They had a big
Speaker 1: red light district, lots of saloons and bars. And there
Speaker 1: are two key parties in Tombstone in eighteen eighteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: the Earps and the cowboys. And you've probably heard of
Speaker 1: the Herbs because of Whyatt Earp, but it wasn't just him.
Speaker 1: He had some brothers. Why It worked a security at
Speaker 1: a saloon. James was a car dealer in a bartender
Speaker 1: and his brother's Virgil and Morgan, guarded stage coaches. And
Speaker 1: Virgil was also a deputy U s Marshal while Wyatt
Speaker 1: was a deputy sheriff. And the cowboys, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: were pretty lawless, not the heroes of movies that we
Speaker 1: don't think they were hill racing. We've got Clanton and
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton, who are especially notorious, and we have Tom
Speaker 1: and Frank mclowery, two sets of brothers who liked hanging
Speaker 1: out with horse wrestler. So the trouble starts in a
Speaker 1: summer of eighteen eighty when Virgil Earp goes to his
Speaker 1: brother's Wyatt and Morgan and says that there were men
Speaker 1: who stole six mules from an army outpost. So they
Speaker 1: go on the lookout and they find the horses at
Speaker 1: the mcclowery ranch and the brands have been changed so
Speaker 1: they no longer look like they belonged to the army.
Speaker 1: And Frank mcclawery is having none of it and tells him,
Speaker 1: you know, he's just a deputy u s Marshal and
Speaker 1: get off my properties your concern and not accepting the
Speaker 1: legal positions. So a little bit of trouble starts there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and troubles bruin on another front, with Wyatt Earp going
Speaker 1: up against Johnny Bean, who is kind of a cowboy
Speaker 1: type more than the law abiding type, over a woman
Speaker 1: Josephine Marcus, and over the sheriff position, right, and Josephine
Speaker 1: first picked Johnny, but she ended up married to Wyatt
Speaker 1: for about fifty years. That wasn't until later, but both
Speaker 1: men wanted to be appointed sheriff of the state, because
Speaker 1: that's how that worked, and whyatt ended up dropping out
Speaker 1: of the race because he could tell the governor was
Speaker 1: leaning much more towards Johnny, and Johnny told him that
Speaker 1: he would give him a lesser appointment, so he thought, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll drop out, and that didn't work out.
Speaker 1: So these guys have been gripped in a professional and
Speaker 1: romantic competition. So there's a lot of resentment from the start. Yes,
Speaker 1: So in March of one the Tombstone Benson's stage coach
Speaker 1: is held up and twenty six thousand dollars of stolen,
Speaker 1: and the driver and the passenger are both killed, and
Speaker 1: Virgil Earp ends up leading a posse to hunt down
Speaker 1: the people who robbed it, and he brings in his
Speaker 1: brothers of course, Wyatt and Morgan, along with Doc Holiday,
Speaker 1: who I'm sure everyone has heard of him. I didn't
Speaker 1: know this, but he used to be a dent which
Speaker 1: and he was how related to Margaret Mitchell, which I
Speaker 1: found out when I was touring the Hop from Georgia. Anyways,
Speaker 1: Doc holidays in Virgil Earp's posse. Um Sheriff Being also
Speaker 1: leads a posse. The Earth Group finds a guy who
Speaker 1: confesses to this stagecoach hold up, though, and they turn
Speaker 1: him over to the sheriff. He ends up escaping. There's
Speaker 1: some question as to whether his jail cell is even locked,
Speaker 1: did be in just let him escape and why it. Obviously,
Speaker 1: no fan of Being suspects that he might have been
Speaker 1: in on it right, and his past doesn't even Yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't even get their reward, so they're they're pretty
Speaker 1: piste off at this point. So according to the story,
Speaker 1: whyatt Earp makes a deal with Ike Clanton of the
Speaker 1: infamous Clintons that we mentioned earlier, and he says that
Speaker 1: if Ike will give him information about who did the robbery,
Speaker 1: then why it will make sure that he gets the
Speaker 1: reward from well spargoward. And these are two guys who
Speaker 1: would want to have no professional association with each other,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't They neither would want their name linked to
Speaker 1: the other. One is the semi law abiding man, the
Speaker 1: other's the cowboy U. So this deal is very under
Speaker 1: the table. Well, and whyatt thought that way he could
Speaker 1: make the arrest and he would look good, you know,
Speaker 1: unlike Johnny Bean and Clanton just wanted the money and
Speaker 1: or to set up a trap for why the part
Speaker 1: still unshore. Unfortunately, the actual robbers of the stagecoach are
Speaker 1: killed in a gunfight in New Mexico, so the deal
Speaker 1: isn't even there's no point. So in October of eight one,
Speaker 1: Clanton and Doc Holiday, which remember on opposite sides of
Speaker 1: this particular conflict, are both at the Alhambra Saloon. And
Speaker 1: historians don't know whether Clanton planned this meeting because he
Speaker 1: wanted reassurance that why it wasn't going to turn him in,
Speaker 1: or if Whyatt set it up to scare Ike into
Speaker 1: behaving because Doc Holiday was not the kind of man
Speaker 1: you wanted to mess with. But either way, the meeting
Speaker 1: does not go well and the two start trading insults
Speaker 1: and they end up both getting kicked out by security
Speaker 1: um interestingly enough, Morgan Earp Uh and the confrontation kind
Speaker 1: of carries on through the night though, even though they're
Speaker 1: no longer in the saloon, Right and Ike ends up
Speaker 1: in an all night poker game at another saloon with
Speaker 1: Johnny b. N, Virgil Earp, and Tomic Lowry, which it
Speaker 1: is quite the motley crew because again they're all in
Speaker 1: opposite sides, and it just keeps going, the trading of
Speaker 1: insults and death threats. Even right Ike is. Ike is
Speaker 1: saying some pretty nasty stuff about the Earth's all around
Speaker 1: town and the next morning he's still talking about Doc
Speaker 1: Holiday and the Earps and they find out and they're
Speaker 1: not pleased now and they actually end up arresting him
Speaker 1: up for illegally carrying a firearm in public, which seems
Speaker 1: like kind of a low blow because they were all
Speaker 1: doing that and they just wanted a pretense. Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: um and Wider joins into the party to taunt Ike
Speaker 1: and just this he calls him a damn dirty calfie.
Speaker 1: So the whole thing is escalating out of control, and
Speaker 1: even why it runs into Tom mclowery, one of the
Speaker 1: other cowboys when he's leaving the courtroom and wax him
Speaker 1: over the head with his gun. So you know, the
Speaker 1: lawmen are not doing their part to to bring the
Speaker 1: turn the fire down on this fight that's brewing well,
Speaker 1: and news is traveling fast. So Billy Clinton and Frank
Speaker 1: mcclowry here about everything that's going on, and they decide
Speaker 1: they're having none of it, and they buy a bunch
Speaker 1: of bullets and set up a meeting and a vacant
Speaker 1: lot on Fremont Street, which isn't actually at the Okay
Speaker 1: Corral to discuss their plans. And when Sheriff Ban finds
Speaker 1: out about this, he knows that this is not going
Speaker 1: to end well, so he heads off to Fremont Street
Speaker 1: to meet them and tries to get Frank mclowry's gun.
Speaker 1: Frank won't let the sheriff disarm him until the Earths
Speaker 1: are disarmed, which that's a I don't know, it's a
Speaker 1: hotheaded response. Yes, it's not really very acceptable. Um, but
Speaker 1: Ike is padded down, he doesn't have a weapon. Tom
Speaker 1: says he's unarmed. Billy is just like I'm heading out
Speaker 1: of town and the sheriff doesn't even bother to check him.
Speaker 1: At this point, the Earth's and doc Holiday are on
Speaker 1: their way and the sheriff tells them not to go
Speaker 1: or they'll be killed. But he also tells them that
Speaker 1: he's disarmed the men, which makes no sense. It is
Speaker 1: really weird because he didn't well and it's too totally
Speaker 1: contradictory statements. So this is where it all begins. And
Speaker 1: there are two versions of events that were given at
Speaker 1: the trial. So Katie and are going to have a
Speaker 1: show down here. I will be playing the part of
Speaker 1: why at Earth and I will be like Lanton. So
Speaker 1: Wyatt Earp says that the mcclowry's and the Clinton and
Speaker 1: the Clantons are still upset about these stolen mules, and
Speaker 1: they've been making threats for months, and he makes this
Speaker 1: deal with I Clanton over stage coach killings, which we
Speaker 1: had mentioned, and on October twenty six, Doc Holiday and
Speaker 1: I Clanton got into that fight and they were separated
Speaker 1: by the RBS. And then he says that I continued
Speaker 1: to threaten him throughout the night, and the next morning
Speaker 1: all the brothers here that he's still threatening them, so
Speaker 1: they arrest him and bring him to court. Tom mcclowry
Speaker 1: starts threatening them, so why it hits him on the
Speaker 1: head and walks away. So he says this was a
Speaker 1: provoked attack, and he meets up with his brothers and
Speaker 1: Doc Holiday and here's what. The mcclowry's and Clantons are
Speaker 1: armed and they've gone to the Okay Corral. So at
Speaker 1: this point the brothers are thinking about arming themselves, but
Speaker 1: Virgil asks for help disarming them, so instead he's trying
Speaker 1: to paint their intentions as going into the with purely
Speaker 1: innocent attentions and let's disarm these dangerous, violen men. So
Speaker 1: they walk in that direction and the sheriff walks up
Speaker 1: to the earps and says, hey, the men have been disarmed.
Speaker 1: You know, there's no danger here. And when they see
Speaker 1: the men in the lot Frank mclowry and Billy Clanton
Speaker 1: have visible guns, so you know, being wyatt EARP, I
Speaker 1: am a bit alarmed, and I decided to get ready
Speaker 1: to take out mine. Virgil asked the men to surrender
Speaker 1: and throw up their hands, and he says, I have
Speaker 1: come to disarm you, but Billy and Frank go for
Speaker 1: their guns. So I as what EERP draw and fire
Speaker 1: at Frank. But the first shots are my shot and
Speaker 1: Billy Clanton's shot, so we're both at the same time.
Speaker 1: I didn't provoke them, they didn't provoke me. We both
Speaker 1: shot at each other, and after several shots, I Clanton
Speaker 1: runs up grabs my arm. I push him off and
Speaker 1: never fire at him, because again I've been told he's unarmed,
Speaker 1: So I'm just acting in self defense here. This is
Speaker 1: not my fault. And I thought that Tom mcclowry was armed,
Speaker 1: we all did he and though he wasn't, and Doc
Speaker 1: Holiday killed him, So maybe Doc shouldn't have done that,
Speaker 1: But again I was acting in self defense. Just how
Speaker 1: it went down right? Right? All right? Well, as like Clinton,
Speaker 1: I have a different version of events. Uh. For one thing,
Speaker 1: back of the saloon, Doc Holiday started all the trouble
Speaker 1: it wasn't me provoking him, It was all on Doc
Speaker 1: and Morgan RP. Instead of being this neutral party who
Speaker 1: throws both of us out, he joins in to to curse,
Speaker 1: curse me out and threatens me all right. The next
Speaker 1: day the Earps arrest me like Clinton, take me to
Speaker 1: court on false charges of threatening a gunfight, and Morgan
Speaker 1: and Virgil continue to taunt me and threaten me and Um.
Speaker 1: Later I see the Earps and Holiday coming down the street,
Speaker 1: with being meeting them, telling them not to go down there,
Speaker 1: but with all my brothers and my cowboys by now.
Speaker 1: And when the Earps and Holiday come up they pull
Speaker 1: out their guns. Virgil or curses us and says, you've
Speaker 1: been looking for a fight and you can have it.
Speaker 1: Those are fighting words, aren't they. Um? And the Earth's
Speaker 1: order us to throw up our hands, and Billy Clinton
Speaker 1: does I do. Tom mcclowry throws open his coat, says
Speaker 1: he's disarmed, and then the shooting starts. We have our
Speaker 1: hands up in the air where all defenseless, and the
Speaker 1: Earth's Holiday are shooting at us, and Doc Holiday fires
Speaker 1: the first shot at Tom mcclowry. Morgan shoots at Billy Clinton,
Speaker 1: while he's holding up his hands wide up shoots at me,
Speaker 1: and then I grab him and push him and finally
Speaker 1: escaped to flies photo gallery with bullets whizzing around my head.
Speaker 1: And Billy Clinton is shooting a little bit as he
Speaker 1: lays on the ground. So when all has said and done,
Speaker 1: this gunfight has lasted only thirty seconds. And at the end,
Speaker 1: Frank mclawry is dead, Tom mcclowry is dead, Billy Clanton
Speaker 1: is dying, and Doc Holiday, Virgil Earp, and Morgan erb
Speaker 1: are all wounded. And Sheriff Ban tries to arrest Wyatt,
Speaker 1: and Doc Wyatt says no, he thought the guys were unarmed,
Speaker 1: because the sheriff had told him after all, and the
Speaker 1: citizens on the scene stood stood with what And the
Speaker 1: newspapers have a field day with this. Hundreds of people
Speaker 1: show up to the funerals and thousands come to watch
Speaker 1: the procession, which in a city of seven thousand is
Speaker 1: saying a lot. And Doc Holiday was generally thought of
Speaker 1: as a hothead, and people thought he shouldn't be involved
Speaker 1: in upholding a law, period, So why was he even there?
Speaker 1: And by October twenty nine, Clan Inspired filed first green
Speaker 1: murder charges, so we have a preliminary hearing with the
Speaker 1: Justice of the Peace, Well Spicer, And it should have
Speaker 1: been a short little thing, you know, a preliminary hearing
Speaker 1: is just a prelude to a real trial. But it
Speaker 1: ended up lasting longer than a month because the herbs
Speaker 1: that he might be sympathetic to them, more sympathetic than
Speaker 1: a random jury would be. And this trial is crazy.
Speaker 1: It's just all these different testimonies, all the different feuds
Speaker 1: going on. It makes everything really suspect. So we'll just
Speaker 1: give some highlights. Basically, the prosecution was trying to prove
Speaker 1: that their men had been shot before they ever even
Speaker 1: had a chance to get their guns while they had
Speaker 1: their hands in the year right. Probably the most important
Speaker 1: testimony for the prosecution was was Sheriff Bean, who said
Speaker 1: that he asked for Frank mcglory's gun repeatedly, but he
Speaker 1: was interrupted by the arrival of the earths. And as
Speaker 1: far as the defense goes, they took a trickier attack.
Speaker 1: Why it got to give a narrative instead of being
Speaker 1: examined and cross examined, a little quirk of Arizona law.
Speaker 1: So he went up there and and gave his testimony
Speaker 1: and said he was acting in self defense as a
Speaker 1: man of the law. And Virgil was actually examined while
Speaker 1: he was in bed and recovery because he was still wounded,
Speaker 1: and said that he tried to calm down Ike the
Speaker 1: night before the morning of the shootout, a bunch of
Speaker 1: people had told him that Ike and the crew were
Speaker 1: after him and wanted to kill him and his brothers.
Speaker 1: And he also said that they would have left the
Speaker 1: Clantons and mcclowry's alone if they had stayed in the corral.
Speaker 1: So we have all these different witnesses giving different accounts,
Speaker 1: but in the end, Judge Spicer rules that there would
Speaker 1: be no criminal trial. He says that the Earths were
Speaker 1: profoundly unwise the way they went about disarming the cowboys,
Speaker 1: but nothing criminal happened, And he also mentioned that the
Speaker 1: Clantons mcclowery should have given up their guns because for them,
Speaker 1: they don't like this verdict the Clantons and mcclowry's. So
Speaker 1: then takes place what's called the Cowboy revenge, And the
Speaker 1: first is an assassination attempt in a stage coach of
Speaker 1: the mayor who had been sympathetic to the Earth's and
Speaker 1: he jumps out to escape his own demise is the
Speaker 1: wild West, folks, right, um. The second thing is Virgil
Speaker 1: is ambushed when he's walking home from a saloon. One
Speaker 1: of the men who ambush is him was Ike because
Speaker 1: his hat was found on the scene, so it's an
Speaker 1: important tip don't leave your hat an assassination attempt. And
Speaker 1: Virgil isn't killed, but his arm is shot so full
Speaker 1: of buck shot that it's left practically a mobile. And
Speaker 1: then Morgan is shot through a window during a game
Speaker 1: of pool and dies and his last words are, I
Speaker 1: have played my last game of Pool's pretty deep. I
Speaker 1: think there's some good last words. So in response to this,
Speaker 1: why Earp starts his famous and then dead a ride.
Speaker 1: He kills Frank Stillwell, who was a suspect in Morgan's murder.
Speaker 1: He kills Indian Charlie and Curly Brocius, another suspect. And
Speaker 1: after you've just gone and killed three people who were
Speaker 1: never rested or anything in any way, there are a
Speaker 1: bunch of warrant out for wide Ears arrest. So he
Speaker 1: runs off to New Mexico and then to Colorado with
Speaker 1: Doc Holiday and Arizona wanted him extradited, but the State
Speaker 1: of Colorado refused this request and why it goes on
Speaker 1: to live a nice long life, doesn't he He does.
Speaker 1: He married and Ms Josephine from earlier and um. He
Speaker 1: has a varied career. He referees heavyweight boxing matches. He
Speaker 1: minds for gold, sells real estate, raised racehorses, ran saloons.
Speaker 1: He even appeared on the sets of early Hollywood westerns,
Speaker 1: which is fitting considering there have been so many TV
Speaker 1: shows and movies about him, although many of them seemed
Speaker 1: to portray him in a much more golden light than
Speaker 1: perhaps we have. Yeah, like, maybe they just read his
Speaker 1: testimony and not so much. Yours porite Clinton and sorry so.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to learn more about US Marshals and
Speaker 1: Wild Wild West and check out our blog on the
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