Editing Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (section)

==== Stilwell and Spence arrests ====
Frank Stilwell had just arrived in Bisbee with his livery stable partner, [[Pete Spence]], when the two were arrested by Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp for the holdup. Both were friends of Ike Clanton and the McLaurys. At the preliminary hearing, Stilwell and Spence were able to provide several witnesses who supported their [[alibi]]s. Judge Spicer dropped the charges for insufficient evidence just as he had done for Doc Holliday earlier in the year.<ref name=spicerhearing>{{cite web |url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/spicerdecision.html |title=Decision of Judge Wells Spicer after the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp-Holliday Case |date=November 30, 1881 |access-date=April 17, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816194502/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/spicerdecision.html |archive-date=August 16, 2011 }}</ref>

Released on bail, Spence and Stilwell were re-arrested October 13 by Marshal Virgil Earp for the Bisbee robbery on a new federal charge of interfering with a [[mail carrier]].<ref name=tanner>{{cite book|last1=Tanner |first1=Karen Holliday |first2= Robert K. |last2=Dearment |title=Doc Holliday: a Family Portrait|year=2001|publisher=Univ Of Oklahoma Press|location=Norman|isbn=978-0-8061-3320-1}}</ref> The newspapers, however, reported that they had been arrested for a different stage robbery that occurred on October 8 near Contention City.

Ike and other Cowboys believed the new arrest was further evidence that the Earps were illegally persecuting the Cowboys.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-petespence.html |title=Pete Spence – Escaping the Wrath of the Earps |access-date=January 9, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140213115235/http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-petespence.html |archive-date=February 13, 2014 }}</ref> They told the [[Earp family|Earps]] that they could expect retaliation.<ref name="history-com">{{cite web| url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tensions-grow-in-tombstone-arizona-after-a-stage-coach-robbery| title=Tensions Grow in Tombstone, Arizona, After a Stage Coach Robbery| access-date=February 5, 2011| publisher=History.com| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818044346/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tensions-grow-in-tombstone-arizona-after-a-stage-coach-robbery| archive-date=August 18, 2011 }}</ref> While Virgil and Wyatt were in Tucson for the federal hearing on the charges against Spence and Stilwell, Frank McLaury confronted Morgan Earp. He told him that the McLaurys would kill the Earps if they tried to arrest Spence, Stilwell, or the McLaurys again.<ref name=wyatttestimony/> ''The Tombstone Epitaph'' reported "that since the arrest of Spence and Stilwell, veiled threats [are] being made that the friends of the accused will 'get the Earps.'"<ref name=rosen/>{{rp|137|date=November 2012}}