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Tombstone, Ariziona 1881
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a gunfight that took place on
October 26, 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona Territory of the United States.
Despite its name, the gunfight did not actually take place at the O.K.
Corral but in a vacant lot next to Camillus Fly's photography studio,
six doors down Fremont Street from the rear entrance to the O.K. Corral.
Although only three men were killed during the gunfight, it is generally
regarded as the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West.
The immediate cause of the conflict that led up to the fight was the arrest by Virgil Earp, acting in his capacity as deputy federal marshal, of two rural "cowboys" for a stagecoach robbery. Drunken threats made by another cowboy against the Earps set them on guard, and when family and friends of the drunken man arrived in town on horseback the next day, fully armed, there was a misunderstanding about how and where they should disarm according to city law. Within hours, both new arrivals were dead, as was a cowboy standing with them, who had illegally failed to surrender his pistol the previous day.
About the Series
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral has been portrayed in numerous Western
films. It has come to symbolize the struggle between legal authority and
banditry and rustling in frontier towns of the Old West, where law
enforcement was often weak or nonexistent.
The three Earp brothers and "Doc" Holliday were eventually exonerated of
the killings, but assassinations and assassination attempts against the
Earps over the next six months led to a series of killings and
retributions, often with federal and county lawmen supporting different
sides of the conflict. The series of battles became known as the Earp
Vendetta Ride.
Hugh O'brian portrayed Wyatt Earp in one of the many Western TV Series
that were running at the time.