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96 Pages

ISBN 978-1917120234

B&W Images

 

An unbiased account of the tragic incident which came to be known as the Gunfight near the OK Corral. The difficulty which ended in a deadly confrontation of firearms on the Wednesday afternoon of 26 October 1881, near the Old Kinderhook Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, left Frank and Tom McLaury and teenager Billy Clanton dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday wounded. But why did the situation get so out of hand?

Virgil was a United States Marshal, and Wyatt and Morgan were sworn in as deputies. They were no-nonsense men, and Doc Holliday, who could be hot-headed at times, was staunchly loyal to them. Together they protected the business interests of the town, particularly their own. However, acts of banditry were giving the region a reputation of lawlessness, and prominent citizens were feeling insecure and losing confidence in their peace officers.

The Clantons and McLaurys were believed to be ‘cowboys’, a term used to identify outlaws involved in criminal activity. The two factions had clashed in this capacity and threats had been made towards the Earp men. The gang were: ‘experts with firearms,’ so the Earps took the threats to their lives seriously, and they wanted to deal with the difficulty on equal ground. The lawmen were itching to teach the cowboys a lesson, at the same time enhancing their reputation, and therefore some kind of confrontation was inevitable.

Tombstone Tragedy by James W. Bancroft

SKU: 24
£9.99Price
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