Virgil Earp took the job as town marshal and quickly hired his two brothers, Morgan and Wyatt as deputies. They could often be found at the gambling tables at the Birdcage Theater with their good friend Doc Holliday. As payday rolled around and the wild bunch hit the town, it was the Earp's responsibility to disarm them before the shooting started. This was done quickly and effectively as often demonstrated by Wyatt. He would walk up ask for the gun and if there was no response, with lightning speed crack his pistol over the head of the armed cowboy sending him to the ground where his gun could be removed without incident. Known as "Buffaloing", the Earps' reputation for using it at the first provocation became their trade mark. The town quieted down and the shooting incidents declined, still the cowboys resented the heavy handed methods and often hurled insults at the lawmen. With the addition of whisky these insults often went to threats. Such was the case with one Ike Clanton, who along with his younger brother Billy was responsible for more then his share of the trouble in and around the town. The hatred between Ike and Wyatt was well know and on a particular night in late October of 1881, Ike Clanton stood in the middle of the main street, a Winchester rifle in his hand and a pistol on his hip, shouting for Wyatt to come out and get what was coming to him. Without so much as a word, Wyatt walked up to him, grabbed the rifle in one hand and cracked him over the head with his pistol. The next day, Ike Clanton, having been bailed out of jail by his brother, was reported standing near Fly's photo gallery with 4 other cowboys. Several of them being armed with six shooters. The first person to confront the group was John Behan, Sheriff of Cochise County. His particular attention was with two of the newcomers, Frank and Tom McLaury, specifically with their guns. When asked to disarm, Frank refused. The Sheriff ordered the five to the sheriff's office and left in search of the Earps to warn them of possible danger. Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt along with their trusted friend Doc Holliday had already been warned and were on their way to meet the challenge. As the two groups lined up across from each other with only feet between them, Virgil Earp shouted for all 5 cowboys to put their hands in the air. Simultaneously two shots rang out, one fired by Frank McLaury, the other by Doc Holliday. The second volley brought all guns to bare as 30 shots were fired in less the a minute. The toll added up quickly. The resulting conflict found three dead; Bill Clanton, shot in the stomach, chest and right wrist, Tom McLaury shot through the right side, and Frank McLaury shot in the stomach. Virgil Earp had been shot through the right leg and Morgan had been shot through the shoulder. Doc Holliday had been shot in the hip with the bullet hitting his holster first deflecting its impact. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran at the first shot. One of the witnesses of the shooting was a lady by the name of "Big Nose Kate" who was Doc Holliday's girlfriend. Check out a cowboy poem about her at Big Nose Kate. In the following days, Sheriff Behan filed charges of murder against the Earps and Doc Holliday. Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer found all not guilty. Over a hundred years later, you can still stand in the alley that leads to the OK Corral and look at the markers indicating where each of the players stood on that fateful day. We grabbed a couple of tickets and went in to see the show. It's hard to make a 40 minute presentation out of a 30 second incident so several earlier shootings were re-enacted to set the stage for the kind of quick to anger, quick to action attitude of the town in the 1880s. When it was over, we walked back out past the exact spot where it all transpired, each spot carefully marked with a statue and name plate. It always gives me a strange feeling to stand on the soil where some historic incident took place, as if the ground could tell me its secrets. On the way back out of town we had to stop at the final resting place for so many of the characters portrayed in the movies and TV over the years. Boothill Cemetery sits on a hill North of the city. As I stood there, overlooking the actual graves of Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers I was satisfied that I had found yet another piece of the historic fabric that makes the country what it is today.

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