Free Lady at the O.K. Corral by Ann Kirschner Page B

follow.”
    Gosper’s dire warning was the catalyst for the formation of a Tombstone Citizens Safety Committee to work around the town’s peacekeeping paralysis. In case of emergency, an alarm would sound, and the one hundred or so committee members would gather at an appointed place. It was a vigilante solution to a failure of government.
    ON THE MORNING of October 26, 1881, extreme fatigue and painful hangovers befuddled the brains of an unusual gathering of men who had been gambling and drinking all night. The unlikely group around the table included Virgil Earp, Johnny Behan, and his friends and cowboy sympathizers Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury. The game was anything but friendly, as the participants had a long list of reasons why they hated each other. Johnny was the least experienced gambler among them, an easy mark for the professionals. But he had come to the table determined to win, knowing that there was a lot more on the table than cash.
    It was almost daylight when the game broke up. Long after the rest of the poker players staggered off to bed, Ike Clanton continued to roam the streets of Tombstone, waving his gun and complaining loudly about the Earps and Doc Holliday. As chief of police, Virgil showed up and answered Ike by hitting him over the head and arresting him. Ike was not supposed to carry a gun, since Tombstone’s “Ordinance Nine” had been enacted to prevent armed confrontations in town. Although this regulation was, at best, applied inconsistently, Virgil acted swiftly. Ike was dragged into court and walked out with a still more throbbing head and a $25 fine for carrying a weapon.
    Another one of the poker players that night, Ike’s friend Tom McLaury, took up the war of words and was the next one to get whacked over the head, this time by Wyatt Earp.
    Each side gathered reinforcements. Ike kept up his steady stream of schoolyard taunts. He and Tom were joined by their brothers, Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury. Virgil huddled with Wyatt and Morgan. Doc Holliday, who had heard enough of Ike’s loud accusations, joined them. The chorus of anger and aggression grew louder, the volatile brew of jealousy and political ambition and greed and historical resentment more toxic. Exhaustion clouded the capacity of both sides for mature judgment. October 26 was a day of sneering, taunting, verbal and physical abuse, dares and double dares, and finally, deadly provocation. The Earps closed ranks and responded with an unprecedented display of police firepower.
    Johnny Behan’s job was to keep the peace, and he failed. He slept late that morning, and then he indulged in a leisurely shave, thus missing most of the day’s provocations. Virgil Earp’s job was to keep the peace, and he also failed. There were hours in which either one of them could have defused the hostilities. Behan was indecisive and flustered in the face of escalating tensions. As Walter Noble Burns put it, Behan was “a man of words rather than action. . . . [He] talked like a big man and acted like a little one.” Instead of recognizing that personal resentments were compromising his judgment, Virgil Earp gathered his deputies—including the most unlikely peacekeeper, Doc Holliday—and confronted his enemies in the middle of Tombstone’s afternoon bustle.
    With the rest of Tombstone going about its business, buying groceries, cashing checks, and sharing the news of the day, Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday confronted Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, and Billy Claiborne in an open lot near the O.K. Corral. The next few minutes were a blur of shouts and shots and flying bodies—a complex tour de force of sheer drama that has fueled more than a century of controversy.
    Who shot first?
    Were the cowboys armed?
    Did the Earps act in self-defense, or with homicidal intent?
    These and a hundred other questions have been asked and answered, and then asked