Tombstone

Tom Clavin, a New York Times bestselling author whose earlier books include Dodge City and Wild Bill, tells the true story of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday and the gunfight at the OK Corral. On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, nine men faced off in what is often described as the most famous shootout of the American frontier. In about half a minute, roughly thirty shots were fired, leaving three men dead and three wounded. The confrontation grew out of a tense, scorching summer. Cattle thieves had been raiding the back country of Mexico and selling the stolen livestock to dishonest ranchers. Mexico built forts along the border to keep American outlaws out, while residents of Arizona grew more and more uneasy. The rustlers, who came to be called the cow-boys, started killing one another as well as innocent townspeople. By October the tension had reached breaking point. Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne came up against Tombstone marshal Virgil Earp, his brothers Wyatt and Morgan, who had just been deputized, and Doc Holliday, who carried a shotgun. Clavin looks past the decades of legend that have gathered around these events to set out what actually happened and why the violence in Tombstone became so famous. The book also follows the vendetta ride that came after the gunfight. Wyatt Earp, his brother Warren and Holliday acted as vigilantes, tracking down Johnny Ringo, Curly Bill Brocius and other cowboys who had gunned down Wyatt's brothers. That campaign completed the myth of Wyatt Earp and marked the contest for power in the frontier's last boom town.