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Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
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== Public reaction == [[File:Mclauriesclanton.jpg|right|thumb|Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton (left to right) in the window of the undertakers. This is the only known photo of 19-year-old Billy.]] [[File:Gräber der Opfer vom O. K. Corral.jpg|right|thumb|Graves of Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton at Boot Hill]] The bodies of the three dead Cowboys were displayed in a window at Ritter and Reams undertakers with a sign: "Murdered in the Streets of Tombstone."<ref name="cowboys">{{cite web |url=http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/tombstone/cowboys.html |title=The Clanton Gang aka The Cowboys | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713093236/http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/tombstone/cowboys.html |archive-date=July 13, 2011 | access-date=February 13, 2011}}</ref> === Sympathy for Cowboys === The funerals for Billy Clanton (age 19), Tom McLaury (age 28) and his older brother Frank (age 33) were well attended. About 300 people joined in the procession to [[Boot Hill]] and as many as two thousand watched from the sidewalks.<ref name=lubet/> Both McLaurys were buried in the same grave, and Billy Clanton was buried nearby. The story was widely printed in newspapers across the United States. Most versions favored the lawmen. The headline in the ''San Francisco Exchange'' was, "''A Good Riddance''".<ref name=johnson/> Three days after the shootout, the ruling of the Coroner's Jury convened by Dr. Henry Matthews neither condemned nor exonerated the lawmen for shooting the Cowboys. "William Clanton, Frank and Thomas McLaury, came to their deaths in the town of Tombstone on October 26, 1881, from the effects of pistol and gunshot wounds<ref name=johnson/> inflicted by Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, Wyatt Earp, and one—Holliday, commonly called 'Doc Holliday'." === Spicer hearings {{anchor|Spicer hearing}} <!-- linked from other articles --> === {{main|O.K. Corral hearing and aftermath}} Four days after the shootout, Ike Clanton filed murder charges against Doc Holliday and the Earps. Wyatt and Holliday were arrested and brought before [[Justice of the Peace]] [[Wells Spicer]]. Morgan and Virgil were still recovering at home. Only Wyatt and Holliday were required to post $10,000 bail ({{Inflation|US|10000|1881|fmt=eq|r=-4}}), which was paid by their attorney [[Thomas Fitch (politician)|Thomas Fitch]], local mine owner E.B. Gage, Wells Fargo undercover agent Fred Dodge, and other business owners appreciative of the Earps' efforts to maintain order.<ref name="barra"/>{{rp|194|date=November 2012}} Virgil Earp was suspended as town marshal pending the outcome of the trial.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jcs-group.com/oldwest/tombstone/earp2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090329080733/http://jcs-group.com/oldwest/tombstone/earp2.html| archivedate= March 29, 2009|title=Virgil Earp |access-date=April 11, 2011}}</ref> Justice Spicer convened a [[preliminary hearing]] on October 31 to determine if there was enough evidence to go to trial. The prosecution was led by Republican District Attorney Lyttleton Price, assisted by John M. Murphy, James Robinson, and Ben Goodrich. They were joined by William McLaury, Frank and Tom's older brother, he also being an able attorney, who played a key role on the prosecutor's team.<ref name=pjohnson>{{cite web|last1=Johnson|first1=Paul Lee|title=2014 Six-Shooter Award: The Will of McLaury|url=http://www.historynet.com/the-will-of-mclaury.htm|publisher=History Net|access-date=March 18, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316023532/http://www.historynet.com/the-will-of-mclaury.htm|archive-date=March 16, 2015|date=July 30, 2014}}</ref> The Earps' attorney Thomas Fitch was an experienced trial lawyer<ref name="wyatttestimony"/> and had earned a reputation as the "silver-tongued orator of the Pacific."<ref name=lubet/> Spicer took written and oral testimony from a number of witnesses over more than a month. Accounts by both participants and [[eye-witness]]es were contradictory. Those loyal to one side or the other told conflicting stories and independent eyewitnesses who did not know the participants by sight were unable to say for certain who shot first.<ref name="oldwest"/><ref name=tefertiller2>{{cite web|first1=Casey|last1=Tefertiller|first2=Jeff|last2=Morey|title=O.K. Corral: A Gunfight Shrouded in Mystery|url=http://www.historynet.com/ok-corral|publisher=Wild West Magazine|access-date=April 17, 2011|date=October 2001|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613075636/http://www.historynet.com/ok-corral|archive-date=June 13, 2013}}</ref> Cochise County [[Sheriff]] [[Johnny Behan]] testified on the third day of the hearing. During two days on the stand,<ref name=lubet/>{{rp|103|date=November 2012}} he gave strong testimony that the Cowboys had not resisted but either threw up their hands and turned out their coats to show they were not armed.<ref name=hearing>{{cite web |url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/earphome.html |title=The Earp-Holliday Trial |first=Douglas |last=Linder |year=2005 |access-date=February 25, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224022537/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/earphome.html |archive-date=February 24, 2011 }}</ref> Behan's views turned public opinion against the Earps, who were free on bail. He and other prosecution witnesses testified that Tom McLaury was unarmed, that Billy Clanton had his hands in the air, and that neither of the McLaurys were troublemakers. They portrayed Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury as being unjustly bullied and beaten by the vengeful Earps on the day of the gunfight.<ref name="behantestimony"/><ref name="allentestimony">{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/allentestimony.html|title=Testimony of William Allen in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp-Holliday Case|access-date=February 7, 2011|publisher=Famous Trials|year=2005|editor-first=Douglas|editor-last=Linder|work=Famous Trials: The O. K. Corral Trial|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203142803/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/allentestimony.html|archive-date=February 3, 2011}} From Turner, Alford (Ed.), ''The O. K. Corral Inquest'' (1992)</ref> On the strength of the prosecution case, Spicer revoked the bail for Doc and Wyatt Earp and had them jailed on November 7. They spent the next 16 days in jail. Defense accounts contradicted the testimony of Behan, Claiborne and Allen, who all said that a man had fired a nickel-plated pistol first. Claiborne and Allen both said it was Holliday. Virgil, Wyatt and other witnesses testified that Holliday was carrying a shotgun. (Morgan remained bedridden throughout the trial and did not testify.) The prosecution's scenario would have required Holliday to fire with his pistol first, switch to the shotgun to shoot Tom McLaury, then switch back again to his pistol to continue firing.<ref name="historynet" /> Three witnesses gave key evidence that swayed Justice Spicer to hold that Virgil had acted within his capacity as town marshal and that there was insufficient evidence to indict the Earps and Doc Holliday for murder. H.F Sills was an [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway|AT&SF RR]] engineer who had just arrived in town and knew none of the parties involved. He testified that he saw "the marshal go up and speak to this other party. I ... saw them pull out their revolvers immediately. The marshal had a cane in his right hand at the time. He throwed up his hand and spoke. I did not hear the words though. By that time Billy Clanton and Wyatt Earp had fired their guns off."<ref name="silltestimony">{{cite web| url=http://www.westernoutlaw.com/the-spicer-hearing-testimony-of-h-f-stills| title=The Spicer Hearing Testimony of H.F. Stills| access-date=February 7, 2011| publisher=Western Outlaw| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114145407/http://www.westernoutlaw.com/the-spicer-hearing-testimony-of-h-f-stills| archive-date=November 14, 2010 }}</ref> Grilled by the prosecution, he corroborated virtually all of the defense's testimony.<ref name=ledoux>{{cite book|last=Ledoux|first=Gary|title=Tombstone Tales; Stories from The Town too Tough to Die ... and Beyond|publisher=Goose Flats Publishing|asin=B003YDXJJ4|date=August 1, 2010}}</ref> Addie Bourland was a dressmaker whose residence was across Fremont Street from Fly's Boarding House.<ref name="turner"/>{{rp|207–211|date=November 2012}} She testified that she saw both sides facing each other, that none of the Cowboys had held their hands up, that the firing was general, and that she had not seen Billy Clanton fall immediately as the Cowboys had testified.<ref name="addietestimony">{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/bourlandtestimony.html|title=Testimony of Addie Bourland in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp-Holliday Case|access-date=February 7, 2011|year=2005|editor-first=Douglas|editor-last=Linder|work=Famous Trials: The O. K. Corral Trial|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203135211/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/bourlandtestimony.html|archive-date=February 3, 2011}} From Turner, Alford (Ed.), ''The O. K. Corral Inquest'' (1992)</ref> Judge J.H. Lucas of the Cochise County Probate Court had offices in the Mining Exchange Building about {{convert|200|ft|m|sigfig=1}} from the shootout.<ref name="turner"/>{{rp|214–216|date=November 2012}} Lucas corroborated Addie Bourland's testimony that Billy Clanton was standing throughout the fight, which contradicted prosecution witnesses who maintained he went down immediately after being shot at close range in the belly. Spicer noted that no powder burns were found on his clothing.<ref name="spicerdecision"/> These witnesses' testimony, especially that of H.F. Sills, a disinterested party, discredited much of the testimony given by Sheriff Johnny Behan, Ike Clanton and the other Cowboy witnesses. After hearing all the evidence, Justice Spicer ruled on November 30 that Virgil, as the lawman in charge that day, had acted within his office and that there was not enough evidence to indict the men. He described Frank McLaury's insistence that he would not give up his weapons unless the marshal and his deputies also gave up their arms as a "proposition both monstrous and startling!" He noted that the prosecution claimed that the Cowboys' purpose was to leave town,<ref name="spicerdecision"/> yet Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne did not have their weapons with them.<ref name="iketestimony"/><ref name="claibornetestimony"/> Spicer noted that the doctor who examined the dead Cowboys established that the wounds they received could not have occurred if their hands and arms had been in the positions that prosecution witnesses described. Spicer did not condone all of the Earps' actions and criticized Virgil Earp's use of Wyatt and Holliday as deputies, but he concluded that no laws were broken. He said the evidence indicated that the Earps and Holliday acted within the law and that Holliday and Wyatt had been properly deputized by Virgil Earp.<ref name="spicerdecision">{{cite web |url=http://www.law.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=February 11, 2011 |editor-first=Douglas |editor-last=Linder |work=Famous Trials: The O. K. Corral Trial |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051211103947/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/spicerdecision.html |archive-date=December 11, 2005 }} From Turner, Alford (Ed.), ''The O. K. Corral Inquest'' (1992)</ref>
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