There is a lot of filler info to round out the page count of this book. If you are interested in learning all the context of what was going on, including political, sociological, and familial histories that go back decades before the action, then you'll gobble up this book. Otherwise you'll need to skim heavily, which is what I did. ( )

Very good attempt to weed through the myth and fact of a legendary family and era in order to tell the story of a few months in an American western town as famous as those who frequented it. ( )

Got through 2/3s and bowed out. I was impressed by the confident interpretation of the world view of the Tombstone townspeople. Didn't know 'cowboy' meant rustler until that term was nostalgified later. I was aware of the tension between visiting, partying cowboys and the townsfolk who wanted their money and then wanted them gone. This book portrays that very clearly. The level of detail got a little too microscopic at times. But I appreciated the way the author used the available sources and interpreted period newspaper editorials for instance.

My generation grew up on western hero's battling bad guys and fighting Indians. Sorry, no political correctness back then. Just the tall hero riding into town kicking ass and taking names. No regrets because they "never killed anyone that didn't need killin." So this was an eye opener. The legend of Wyatt Earp and the fierce righteous cowboys and lawmen turned to myth right before my eyes. But if you like history and have an interest in the old West this one is highly recommended. Just don't expect John Wayne and Maureen O'hara. Not even Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke. ;-) ( )

Yet another attempt at describing an iconic American event – The Gunfight at the OK Corral. Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp is supposedly the most filmed character in American history – more so than Lincoln or Washington or Robert E. Lee – and also one of the more controversial; over the years he’s morphed from an almost canonized Western hero through a vicious bully to a complicated character with merits and flaws. Author Jeff Guinn is in the last camp, portraying him as a man whose prime motivation was a search for wealth and status, which kept eluding him due to his misapprehension of the way to obtain them.


Guinn sees the event in Tombstone in 1881-1882 as mostly politically and economically motivated. Republican Wyatt Earp wanted to be Cochise County sheriff – an extremely lucrative position because the sheriff got to keep 10% of collected property taxes. In most of Arizona this would have been a pittance, but silver mines around Tombstone were valuable enough to make the sheriff’s share worth $400-$900K in modern purchasing power. The incumbent sheriff was Democrat Johnny Behan, and Behan’s principal supporters were the “cowboy” faction; small to medium size ranchers from the rural areas who were opportunistic cattle rustlers. Behan acquired a reputation for indifference to cowboy activities; a particular embarrassment on his watch (Behan was away and one of his deputies was involved) was the escape of cowboy wanted for murder during a stage robbery. The prisoner found his jail cell unlocked, all the jail staff absent, and a saddled horse tethered but unattended outside the jail. Behan had another reason to be annoyed with the Earps, as Wyatt was in the process of seducing Behan’s girlfriend, Sarah Marcus (who has a fascinating story in her own right).


The demand for beef from Tombstone and military posts made rustling quite profitable, and since only Mexican cattle were involved other ranchers in Arizona were not particularly concerned. Residents of Tombstone were opposed to the cowboys; although they didn’t really think stealing from Mexicans was wrong either, it made the town look bad, and since cowboys wandered into town now and then blew off steam – sometimes with gunshots – they made the town look bad too. Just before the GATOKC, Tombstone citizens had formed a “vigilance committee”, bravely called the “Tombstone Rangers”, with the avowed intent of ending the “cowboy menace” once and for all. On the day of the gunfight, four of the cowboys were in town on business; one, Ike Clanton, had been drinking for two straight days and kept uttering threats toward the Earps and Doc Holiday. Such a thing probably wasn’t that unusual, but perhaps there was an extra edge this time, since at least two Tombstone citizens tracked down Chief of Police Virgil Earp and commented on it. Wyatt Earp had seen the four cowboys in a gun store earlier; again not all that unusual but perhaps adding a little more tension. Even then Virgil Earp might have dismissed it but he happened to run across one of the “Tombstone Rangers” who pretty pointedly offered help if Earp didn’t feel up to dealing with the situation. At that point Earp gathered up his brothers Wyatt and Morgan – Doc Holliday apparently just joined up in passing – and headed toward Fremont Street, where the cowboys were reported, weapons in hand or in holsters.


You were supposed to check your weapons when entering Tombstone. The process was casual; you could drop them off at a hotel or at the sheriff’s or various other places when you entered and pick them up when you were leaving. However, “entering” and “leaving” could be gradual processes; after collecting your firearms you had to walk to wherever your horse was corralled, perhaps stopping to chat or make a last minute purchase on the way.


Johnny Behan was also aware of the situation and acted to defuse it – but, paradoxically, probably made things worse. He met the cowboys and attempted to disarm them – but they refused, wither because they were on their way out of town anyway or because they didn’t want to be humiliated by handing over their guns right there in the street (if they had, Behan would have had to carry four rifles and four to eight handguns – it isn’t clear how many cowboys had double holsters – back to the sheriff’s office). Behan seems to have taken their word that they were leaving and went back to meet the Earps – saying to Wyatt “I have disarmed them” – when he hadn’t; if he had said “They’re leaving town” instead, again things might have ended differently. The Earps took him at his word and put their own weapons back into their coat pockets, continuing on to the corral on Fremont Street (not the OK Corral, which was a block further south), presumably just to verify that the cowboys were leaving town. When they got there they were surprised to find the cowboys still present and still armed.


Well, as they say the rest is history. Somebody drew a gun, and somebody started shooting. At the trial afterward Johnny Behan attempted to indirectly pin the blame on Doc Holiday by saying he saw “a nickel plated pistol” drawn and fired – and Holiday was well known to have a nickel plated pistol (he had a concealed carry permit for it). The catch was Virgil Earp had given Holiday his shotgun on the walk to the corral – so Holiday, who was wearing a long coat, could conceal it and not unduly alarm the peaceful citizens of Tombstone – and Behan, by his own admission, spent the gunfight hiding behind a wall. It’s clear that Holliday used to shotgun to kill Tom McLaury, and cowboy apologists have made various far-fetched claims – that Holliday fought with a pistol in one hand and a shotgun in the other, for example. In fact, none of the 200 people (10% of the population of Tombstone) claiming to have witnessed the fight could agree on who drew a gun or shot first; however, it was obvious when things were over that Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury were dead and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded. In Murder in Tombstone, reviewed earlier, author Steven Lubet contends that Wyatt Earp shot first, since he had his pistol in his pocket while the cowboys carried theirs in holsters, and therefore he couldn’t have outdrawn them. Guinn claims that Wyatt Earp had a special canvas pocket sewn into his coat to make it easy to carry a pistol, and that Earp’s favorite law enforcement tactic was to pistol whip a malefactor into unconsciousness and carry him off to jail; he therefore probably had some practice in quick draw from a coat pocket (all parties concede that Earp, despite his career in law enforcement, had only been involved in one gunfight before, and in that case he and a number of other people were shooting at a fugitive on horseback; in fact there’s no evidence that any of the participants had ever killed a man in a face-to-face gunfight).


Although the initial public response was favorable to the Earps, things changed fairly quickly; the citizens of Tombstone wanted law and order but not gunfights on the street. Virgil Earp lost his police chief job and Wyatt lost all chance of being Cochise County sheriff. Virgil Earp was ambushed afterwards (losing the use of one arm) and Morgan Earp was killed; that spurred Wyatt to collect a posse and set off after the killers (the “Vendetta Ride”). In turn, Johnny Behan collected his own posse and set off after Earp and his. After considerable wandering around the wilds of Arizona the Earp group had accounted for Frank Stillwell, Florentino Cruz, and (maybe) Curly Bill Brocius, and (maybe, but unlikely) Johnny Ringo, all supposedly involved in the ambush and murder. The Earp posse then broke up and left Arizona, scattering in various directions. Earp (accompanied by Sarah Marcus, who now went as Josephine Earp) went on to continue attempts to make his fortune, variously owning part of a racetrack, running a brothel/saloon in gold rush Alaska, and prospecting in the Mojave desert; he eventually found time to dictate his memoirs to his friend John Flood, who took extensive notes but never got them published. Chicago journalist Walter Noble Burns published his own account, Tombstone: An American Illiad, which enraged Wyatt; he was portrayed as a hero but he didn’t make any money off it. Cochise County deputy Billy Breakenridge published Helldorado, which didn’t portray the Earps as villains but didn’t portray them as heroes either; after Earp’s death author Stuart Lake got ahold of Flood’s notes and with the sometimes problematical assistance of Josephine Earp turned out Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshall. Twentieth Century Fox got the film rights but was frustrated by Josephine Earp’s attempts to control things; they changed the film title to Frontier Marshall and the lead character to Michael Wyatt. This was remade in 1939, this time using the Wyatt Earp name (Randolph Scott as Wyatt, Caesar Romero as Doc); and the gunfight figured again in 1946 as My Darling Clementine, Henry Fonda as Wyatt, Victor Mature as Doc; and again in 1957 as Gunfight at the OK Corral, Burt Lancaster as Wyatt, Kirk Douglas as Doc; and again in 1967 as Hour of the Gun, James Garner as Wyatt, Jason Robards as Doc; and again in 1971 as Doc, Harris Yulin as Wyatt, Stacy Keach as Doc; and again in 1983, for TV, as I Married Wyatt Earp, Bruce Boxleitner as Wyatt, Jeffrey DeMunn as Doc (and the highly improbable Marie Osmond as Sarah Marcus); and again in 1993 as Tombstone, Kurt Russell as Wyatt, Val Kilmer as Doc; and again in 1994 as Wyatt Earp, Kevin Costner as Wyatt, Dennis Quaid as Doc.


Ironically, as Guinn points out, despite the town’s rejection of him in 1881 Wyatt Earp is the only reason there’s still a town of Tombstone today; the silver mines began playing out and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act finished them off. The county seat moved to Bisbee and the town would have disappeared were it not for the notoriety of the GFATOKC. Guinn doesn’t address the question of why the Earps and Tombstone got all the attention; there were certainly plenty of other western towns with violence in the streets and plenty of other lawmen and outlaws ready to perpetrate it. I suppose of all the Western places and events the Tombstone situation lends itself best to mythological treatment; that’s why although Wyatt Earp is the most authentic treatment, Gunfight at the OK Corral is the best movie.


Guinn’s book will probably be the most definitive account; I don’t expect there’s much more research that can be done. It’s an engrossing, almost novelistic read; which may be its principal flaw; Guinn is often a little too enthusiastic about reporting Wyatt Earp’s thoughts and motivations as if he were channeling him. There’s also a considerable emphasis on the politics, with the Democrats portrayed as anti-government individualists (there’s a switch) and the Republicans as more business oriented. Don’t know; perhaps that’s the way it was but I fear a projection of modern political attitudes backwards (although the depiction of the Democrats is a little unsettling). Photographs of most of the participants (although not the famous one of Sarah Marcus in a see-through shirt); maps of Arizona, Cochise County, and the area of Tombstone where the gunfight occurred. Extensive references from both primary and secondary sources; Guinn emphasizes that the personal accounts (from Billy Breakenridge, Jospehine Earp, Walter Burns, and Stuart Lake) are all highly suspect and sometimes demonstrably fictional. ( )