Shootout at Corral O.K.

All three Erp brothers: Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt - were Republicans , Virgil and Morgan fought on the North side during the Civil War. Confederate sentiments were strong in the city and the district as a whole (although the civil war had long ended by then), the northerners were not there, the district marshal- democrat Johnny Bien openly showed his contempt for the Erps, condoned the thefts of cattle and completely covered his acquaintances - Texans . Before the shootout, the situation grew tense for many months - threats, insults gradually overflowed the patience ^[2] .

Gangster cowboys Billy Clayborn , brothers Tom and Frank Maclay, brothers Billy and Ike Clantons took part in a showdown with government officials (the Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp brothers and Doc Holliday, who joined them).

Armament

On the morning of October 26, Wyatt Earp, having met Tom Maclay on the street, hit him in the face with a barrel of a revolver (it is believed that Maclay had insulted or threatened him before that). Wyatt soon did the same with Ike Clanton. By noon on the same day, the Clanton and MacLawry brothers had gathered at O'Kay Corral. Virgil, as the city marshal (chief of the city police), intended to arrest them for violating city law prohibiting civilians from carrying weapons within the city limits, for this he gathered his brothers, to whom their old family friend Doc Holliday joined. Together they left the police station and went along the main street to the corral ^[2] .

Having met Clanton and Maclay at the corral, Virgil, holding a cane borrowed from Holliday in his hand (to have a less threatening appearance), ordered the brothers to give him weapons (according to another version, he ordered to raise his hands up to disarm them himself). Frank Maclay responded, “We'll give it back,” and reached into the pocket of his cloak. Wyatt did the same, first grabbing his revolver. Who shot the first remains unknown until now. The shootout took only half a minute (32 seconds, as it was later established). ^[3] A total of about thirty shots were fired by all participants in the shootout ^[3] (according to various estimates, from 28 to 31). ^[2] The McClory brothers and Billy Clanton died, Clayborn and Ike retreated as unarmed, all government officials except Wyatt Earp were injured.

American historians and forensic experts concluded that the decisive role in completing the shootout was played by a shot from a double-barreled shotgun , which Doc Holliday shot Tom Maclay (in all probability unarmed), shooting almost point-blank, ^[3] as well as a shot from a revolver, with which Morgan Earp killed Frank Maclay, having hit him in the head , below his right ear ^[2] .

Ike Clanton sued the brothers Erp and Holliday, they were brought to court on charges of intentional murder. Morgan and Virgil were at home for treatment, so the hearing was held in absentia. For Wyatt and Holliday, they immediately made a deposit of $ 10 thousand, - crazy money for those times (the average monthly salary was $ 15), - northerners who were interested in punishing rebellious farmers for the success of their business. The prosecution was supported by District Attorney Littleton Price, a member of the Republican Party. The hearing was not held by jury, as public opinion was very sharply opposed to the defendants, the local justice of the peace Wells Spicer ordered Wyatt and Holliday to be detained until the end of the hearing. The hearing lasted another 16 days; as a result, Spicer dropped all charges from the defendants for the lack of convincing evidence of their guilt.

At the end of the same year (December 28), City Marshal Virgil Erp was attacked by bandits and was mutilated at the exit from the saloon. His brother Morgan was killed on March 18, 1882 while playing billiards. This marked the beginning of the famous hunt for bandits, called the Vendetta Erpa .

The general public learned about the shootout from the biography of Wyatt Earp for the authorship of the press secretary of former President Roosevelt , novelist writer Stuart Lake. One of Theodore Roosevelt's acquaintances was Bat Masterson , a friend of Erp and his brothers. Lake, upon hearing the story in Masterson's retelling, traveled to Los Angeles to meet with the elderly Wyatt Earp. Lake managed to meet with him several times and record a story from a direct participant in the events, but he did not have time to complete what he had begun, since Earp had died suddenly, in order to restore the full picture of the events, his friends had to interview. As a result, in 1931, a book was published in which events are described from the point of view of Erp, which formed the basis of John Ford 's western “ My dear Clementine ” (1946) with Henry Fonda in the title role. In 1957, John Sturges returned to this episode of American history in the Western Firefight at O. K. Corral , starring B. Lancaster and C. Douglas . In 1966, a series of the British science fiction series Doctor Who , The Accurate Arrows , was dedicated to this topic. In 1993, the West Tumstone: Legend of the Wild West was released. Subsequently, alternative descriptions of the picture of events appeared, in which the essence of the events is stated from the position of the opposite side, Earp and his brothers are represented by the bandit ^[2] .

About the shootout in O`Key Corral, which is near the town of Tumbstone, almost more films were shot than about the Battle of Waterloo . Brothers Erp and Doc Holliday shot there an inveterate family of Klentons, thieves and murderers: it is believed that law and order came to the Wild West that day.

- M. Trofimenkov ^[4]

The literary and cinematic display of events conveys what happened as a competition for snatching revolvers from a holster and high-speed shooting. Wyatt Earp laughed at this artistic exaggeration. He himself has repeatedly said that in any shootout the main thing is to properly prepare for it (for this purpose, loaded double-barreled shotguns were hidden for all these hot spots in case of a possible armed confrontation). And the then holsters themselves excluded the possibility of quickly removing a revolver - holsters worn by western heroes appeared in the 1950s, they were made specifically for Hollywood ^[2] .

The scene itself has become a tourist attraction and a place of pilgrimage for all Western fans. For tourists there are staged performances-reconstruction of the shootout every day.

Cinema

Skirmish is played out in the following television and feature films: ^[5]

In order not to infringe on the copyright of Stuart Lake, the names of key characters in some films have been changed ("Michael Wyatt", "Doc Chalidey", etc.).

• During the Cold War, the U.S. Army anti-aircraft artillery range at the military base Fort Bliss, Texas (Okay Corral Range), where the main American and foreign anti-aircraft guns and machine guns were tested, was named in honor of this event - suddenly appeared over the hill and cardboard figures of enemy helicopters disappeared just as quickly, the anti-aircraft gunner, like the sheriff, was required to immediately respond to the changing target situation - the anti-aircraft command often beat the themes of the frontier and various cliches e Wild West in the names of military equipment and infrastructure.

• Paula Mitchell Marks. And Die in the West: the Story of the OK Corral Gunfight . New York: Morrow, 1989. ISBN 0-671-70614-4 .
• Alford E. Turner. The OK Corral Inquest . Creative Publishing Co., 1981. ISBN 0-932702-14-7 .