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

== Conflicting versions of events ==
[[File:ownwspok.jpg|thumb|Newspaper coverage of the fight]]
Many of the sources describing the events leading up to the gunfight and details of the gunfight itself conflict with each other. Newspapers of the day were not above taking sides, and news reporting often editorialized on issues to reflect the publisher's interests.<ref name="burns">{{cite book|author=Burns, Walter Noble|title=Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4PnFRfNtyhYC&pg=PA252|access-date=February 8, 2011|year=1999|publisher=UNM Press|isbn=978-0-8263-2154-1|pages=252–|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521074848/https://books.google.com/books?id=4PnFRfNtyhYC&pg=PA252|archive-date=May 21, 2016}}</ref> [[John Clum]], publisher of ''[[The Tombstone Epitaph]]'', had helped organize a "Committee of Safety" (a [[vigilance committee]]) in Tombstone in late September 1881.<ref name=epitaph1226>{{cite news |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84021939/1881-12-26/ed-1/seq-1/ |title=Opinions of the Press |newspaper=The Tombstone Epitaph |volume=2 |location=Tombstone, Arizona |date=December 26, 1881 |issue=32 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418143655/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84021939/1881-12-26/ed-1/seq-1 |archive-date=April 18, 2015 }}</ref> He was elected as Tombstone's first [[mayor]] under the new [[Municipal corporation|city charter]] that year. Clum and his newspaper tended to side with the interests of local business owners and supported Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp. Harry Woods, the publisher of the other major newspaper, ''The Daily Nugget'', was an [[undersheriff]] to Behan. He and his newspaper tended to side with Behan, the Cowboys (some of whom were part-time ranchers and landowners) and the rural interests of the ranchers.<ref name=reilly>{{cite web|url=http://idea.library.drexel.edu/bitstream/1860/1208/1/2006175044.pdf |title=Born to Uphold the Law: Frank Sulloway's Principles Applied to the Earp-Clanton Feud of 1879–1882 |first=Joe |last=Reilly |publisher=[[Drexel University]] |date=March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014010423/http://idea.library.drexel.edu/bitstream/1860/1208/1/2006175044.pdf |archive-date=October 14, 2012 }}</ref>

Much of what is known of the event is based on month-long [[preliminary hearing]]s held afterward, generally known as the [[O.K. Corral hearing and aftermath|Spicer hearings]]. Reporters from both newspapers covered the hearings and recorded the testimony there and at the [[coroner's inquest]], but only the reporter from the ''Nugget'' knew [[shorthand]]. The testimony recorded by the court recorder and the two newspapers varied greatly.<ref name=historynet2>{{cite web |url=http://www.historynet.com/gunfight-at-the-ok-corral-did-tom-mclaury-have-a-gun.htm/2 |access-date=February 7, 2011 |title=Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: Did Tom McLaury Have a Gun |date=September 5, 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314014055/http://www.historynet.com/gunfight-at-the-ok-corral-did-tom-mclaury-have-a-gun.htm/2 |archive-date=March 14, 2011 }}</ref>

According to the Earps' version of events, the fight was in [[self-defense]] because the Cowboys, armed in violation of [[local ordinance]], defied a lawful order to hand over their weapons and drew their pistols instead. The Cowboys maintained that they raised their hands, offered no resistance, and were shot in cold blood by the Earps. Sorting out who was telling the truth was difficult then and remains so to this day.<ref name="historynet">{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/gunfight-at-the-ok-corral-did-tom-mclaury-have-a-gun.htm|title=Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: Did Tom McLaury Have a Gun|publisher=HistoryNet|access-date=February 7, 2011|date=September 5, 2006|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315183948/http://www.historynet.com/gunfight-at-the-ok-corral-did-tom-mclaury-have-a-gun.htm|archive-date=March 15, 2011}}</ref>

Though usually opposing each other in their depiction of events, reporting by both the ''Epitaph'' and the ''Nugget'' initially supported the lawmen's version of events. Woods, the publisher of the pro-Cowboy ''Nugget'', was out of town during the hearings, and an experienced reporter, Richard Rule, wrote the story. The ''Nugget'' staff had a close relationship with Behan, but Rule's story, as printed in the ''Nugget'' the day after the shootout, backed up the Earps' account. This varied widely from Behan's and the Cowboys' later court testimony.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://truewestmagazine.com/behans-lies/ |title=Behan's Lies |access-date=February 25, 2019 |archive-date=November 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107112544/https://truewestmagazine.com/behans-lies/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="historynet"/><ref name="nuggett">{{cite web |url=https://www.angelfire.com/co4/earpgang/nugget.html |title=A Desperate Street Fight |newspaper=The Daily Nugget |date=October 27, 1881 |access-date=February 13, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504134613/http://www.angelfire.com/co4/earpgang/nugget.html |archive-date=May 4, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="barra">{{Cite book | last1=Barra | first1=Allen | title=Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends | year=2008 | publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] | location=Lincoln | isbn=978-0-8032-2058-4 | page=440}}</ref>{{rp|183|date=November 2012}} 

Subsequent stories about the gunfight published in the ''Nugget'' after that day supported Behan's and the Cowboys' view of events. Other stories in the ''Epitaph'' countered the ''Nugget''{{'}}s later view entirely and supported the lawmen. Dr. George Goodfellow, who examined the Cowboys after their deaths, told the court that the angle of the wound in Billy Clanton's wrist indicated that his hands could not have been in the air,<ref name="oldwest">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/tombstone/corral.html|title=The Gunfight At The O.K. Corral|website=www.jcs-group.com|access-date=October 29, 2017|first1=Harold O.|last1=Love|date=March 1979|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629181611/http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/tombstone/corral.html|archive-date=June 29, 2017}}</ref> or holding his coats open by the [[lapel]]s, as witnesses loyal to the Cowboys testified.<ref name="burns"/>

Part-time newspaper reporter Howell "Pat" Hayhurst transcribed the testimony from the hearings in the early 1930s as part of a [[Federal Writers' Project]], which was part of the [[Works Progress Administration]]. According to one report, Hayhurst was a friend of the Behan family. After he completed his transcription, he kept the original document in his home, where it was destroyed in a house fire.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Trimble|first1=Marshall|title=Has an original copy of the official inquest into the O.K. Corral shooting survived? A book by Al Turner purports to include the complete testimonies of the participants, but I also read that the original findings were lost in one of Tombstone's fires.|url=http://www.truewestmagazine.com/has-an-original-copy-of-the-official-inquest-into-the-ok-corral-shooting-survived-a-book-by-al-turner-purports-to-include-the-complete-testimonies-of-the-participants-but-i-also-read-that-the-original/|work=True West|access-date=November 10, 2015|date=September 1, 2004|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160122154802/http://www.truewestmagazine.com/has-an-original-copy-of-the-official-inquest-into-the-ok-corral-shooting-survived-a-book-by-al-turner-purports-to-include-the-complete-testimonies-of-the-participants-but-i-also-read-that-the-original/|archive-date=January 22, 2016}}</ref>