A Cronkite News Service Weekend Special
Say it ain’t so, Wyatt: Authors contend Earp wasn’t the good guy at OK Corral
NOTE: CORRECTS date of gunfight to Oct. 26 sted Oct. 21. This story moved Wednesday, Feb. 18. We recommend it for weekend use.
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By MICHELLE PRICE
Cronkite News Service
TOMBSTONE _ Guns drawn, Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and Doc Holliday stride toward Ike Clanton and his gang of drunken outlaws. Each side shouts threats.
The tension in their triggers is matched only by the excitement of the 100 or so tourists who paid $9 to see this reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral.
Long after the 30-second shootout on Oct. 26, 1881, the legend of Wyatt Earp looms over this former silver-mining town. The lawman’s exploits live on in movies and books and draw people here from around the world.
But not everyone agrees that Earp was preserving law and order when he led his band against the Clanton and McLaury gang, killing Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury. A recent book and one that’s soon to be published contend that the gunfight actually was a murderous ambush led by Earp, continuing a debate that has echoed since the incident.
“In Defense of the Outlaws,” published by Joyce Aros, a writer with the monthly magazine Tombstone Times, portrays Earp as a thief and pimp who acted out of personal animosity.
“At first I found them too good to be true,” she said of Earp and his brothers, Virgil and Morgan. “But then I saw them as strong-arm men.”
Many locals at the time believed that, Aros said, and their descendents still tell stories about Earp’s party starting the violence and shooting as their adversaries tried to surrender.
Steve Gatto, who has published several books about Tombstone, characterizes the gunfight as “cold-blooded murder” on Earp’s part. He makes that case in “Hurled Into Eternity: The Story of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” scheduled for release in July.
“People look at him through rose-colored glasses,” Gatto said in a telephone interview from Michigan. “But it’s not actually correct.”
Both authors say Earp may have had his eye on running for county sheriff and used the gunfight to enhance his image as a lawman. And they say the evidence shows that the alleged outlaws actually were ranchers and not cattle-rustling cowboys, as they are portrayed.
Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s official state historian, said people have argued about who started the gunfight since the dust settled. Most historical accounts, including his own, agree with those popularized in movies and reenactments: that Earp and his allies acted to restore order.
“In things like law enforcement, you were dealing with some pretty bad characters. Some of those guys were sociopaths that you had to deal with,” Trimble said in an interview at his Scottsdale office. “You had to be every bit as tough and mean as the people you were around.”
Trimble didn’t always see it that way. Writing about the gunfight in various books decades ago, he repeated an argument popular at the time that Earp was the aggressor.
Based on his own research, however, Trimble determined that Earp was in the right. That’s how he portrays him in “Wyatt Earp: The Showdown in Tombstone,” a book published last year as part of a series on outlaws of the Old West.
“I think he was a good guy. I think he was a product of his time,” Trimble said. “I think people make judgments based on morals and standards of today.”
Painting Earp as the aggressor _ and worse _ doesn’t go over well at the OK Corral, at least the reproduction managed by Don Taylor, who has written his own history books about Tombstone. He said Earp and his allies were fighting an early form of organized crime.
“There will always be people that take the underdog’s side,” Taylor said.
Taylor doesn’t dispute that Earp may have been a gambler and a pimp, but he said those activities weren’t thought of the same way in the Old West.
“You can’t judge 19th century actions with 21st century morals,” Taylor said. “It doesn’t apply.”
Michael Christie, who portrayed Wyatt Earp on this day, said some of the allegations against Earp are actually true, such as working in a brothel. But in general, he said, Earp was a lawman who stayed calm in the face of overwhelming danger.
“He had his character traits that were commendable and his character traits that were fallible,” he said.
Given the decades-old debate, perhaps it’s fitting that at the end of the reenactment the actor playing Holliday turns to Earp and says, “This won’t be the end, Wyatt.”
A faraway look in his eye, Earp responds, “There never is, Doc.”
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PHOTOS: Click thumbnails to see full-resolution images and download; caption information is in the file under File>File Info.
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-WYATT EARP: Michael Christie portrays Wyatt Earp in a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone. Earp has traditionally been viewed as in the right in the battle that took down the Clanton gang in 1881. But some new accounts are calling that into question. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-WYATT EARP: Michael Christie portrays Wyatt Earp in a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone. Earp has traditionally been viewed as in the right in the battle that took down the Clanton gang in 1881. But some new accounts are calling that into question. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-WYATT EARP: Joyce Aros, a writer with the Tombstone Times, has published “In Defense of the Outlaws,” a book that paints the Wyatt Earp and his allies as the aggressors in the gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-WYATT EARP: Joyce Aros, a writer with the Tombstone Times, has published “In Defense of the Outlaws,” a book that paints the Wyatt Earp and his allies as the aggressors in the gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-WYATT EARP: Markers at Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone note members of the Clanton gang killed in the 1881 gunfight at the OK Corral. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-WYATT EARP: Don Taylor, who manages OK Corral gunfight reenactments at a Tombstone tourist venue, doesn’t agree with those who paint Wyatt Earp and his allies as aggressors in the legendary battle. He said the gang Earp took out was a menace to the community. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-WYATT EARP: Reminders of the Tombstone of yesteryear, including the Bird Cage Theatre, fuel a thriving tourist industry. It all revolves around the legend of the gunfight the OK Corral. A recent book contends that Wyatt Earp and his allies were the aggressors in the 1881 battle, and some in Tombstone see those as fighting words. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-WYATT EARP: Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s state historian, says people have argued who were the aggressors since the dust settled at the OK Corral in Tombstone back in 1881. Most historical accounts, including Trimble’s, agree with those popularized in movies and reenactments: that Wyatt Earp and his allies were the good guys. Trimble has written the new book “Wyatt Earp: The Showdown in Tombstone.” (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)