O K Corral Shootout
- Thread starter K F Jay
- Start date
That's a very debatable subject. I don't think you can say it was an ambush from either side. Neither the Earps/Holliday or the Clanton/McLaurys were 'good' guys, but the Earps and Holliday were acting within the constraints of the law (though Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were deputized specifically for the occasion). The Cowboys were armed illegally, but likely so was Doc, so at best it was an example of convenient enforcement of the law. Wyatt had tried to provoke a gun fight with Tom McLaury previously (and had beaten him with his pistol), and Ike had made death threats against the Earps and Holliday (for accusing him and other Cowboys of a stage coach robbery and double homicide). Basically, a fight was brewing, and had been for a while.
As to who fired first? Nobody knows for sure. Anybody that did has been dead for a hundred years. Quite possibly one of the Earps/Holliday, but the Cowboys, upon being told by city Marshall Virgil Earp to "throw up their hands," instead grabbed their revolvers and cocked back the hammers. At that point, whoever it was that fired first is really irrelevant. A gunfight was coming. Charges were never filed against the Earps/Holliday, and tend to think that it was a case where neither side was totally right or wrong. They provoked each other.
As to who fired first? Nobody knows for sure. Anybody that did has been dead for a hundred years. Quite possibly one of the Earps/Holliday, but the Cowboys, upon being told by city Marshall Virgil Earp to "throw up their hands," instead grabbed their revolvers and cocked back the hammers. At that point, whoever it was that fired first is really irrelevant. A gunfight was coming. Charges were never filed against the Earps/Holliday, and tend to think that it was a case where neither side was totally right or wrong. They provoked each other.