Editing Tombstone, Arizona (section)

===Gunfight at the O.K. Corral===
{{Main|Gunfight at the O.K. Corral}}

On the evening of March 15, 1881, three [[Cochise County Cowboys]] attempted to rob a Kinnear & Company [[stagecoach]] carrying $26,000 in [[silver bullion]] {{USDCY|26000|1881}}, en route from Tombstone to [[Benson, Arizona]], the nearest railroad freight terminal.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=O'Neal |first1=Bill |title=Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters |year=1979 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman|isbn=978-0-8061-2335-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5KLrfdOrI78C&pg=PA180|page=180}}</ref>

Near Drew's Station, just outside [[Contention City, Arizona|Contention City]], the stage was attacked. Eli "Budd" Philpot, a popular and well-known driver. and a passenger named Peter Roerig riding in the rear [[rumble seat|dickey seat]] were both shot and killed. Deputy U.S. Marshal [[Virgil Earp]], with his temporary deputies and brothers [[Wyatt Earp]] and [[Morgan Earp]], pursued the Cowboys suspected of the murders. That set off a chain of events that culminated, on October 26, 1881, in a gunfight in a vacant lot owned by photographer [[C. S. Fly]] near, but not in or at, the O.K. Corral, during which the lawmen and [[Doc Holliday]] killed [[Tom McLaury]], [[Frank McLaury]], and [[Billy Clanton]].

[[File:ownwspok.jpg|thumb|left|Newspaper coverage of the fight at the [[Gunfight at the O.K. Corral|O.K. Corral]]]]

The gunfight was the result of a personal, family, and political feud. Two months later, on the evening of December 28, 1881, [[Virgil Earp]] was ambushed and seriously wounded on the streets of Tombstone by hidden assailants shooting from the second story of an unfinished building. Although identified, the suspects provided witnesses who supplied alibis, and the men were not prosecuted. On March 18, 1882, while [[Morgan Earp]] was playing billiards at 10 p.m. at Campbell & Hatch in Allen Street—in the heart of Tombstone's still-current downtown—he was killed by a shot through a window that struck his spine, as Wyatt looked on. Once again, the assailants were named but escaped arrest due to legal technicalities. Wyatt Earp concluded that official justice was out of reach. Armed with warrants obtained via the U. S. Marshal's Office, he led a [[posse comitatus (common law)|posse]] of US deputy marshals on what became known as the [[Earp Vendetta Ride]], pursuing and killing four of the men they held responsible.<ref name="historynet">{{cite web |url=http://www.historynet.com/wyatt-earps-vendetta-posse.htm |title=Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Posse |date=January 29, 2007 |access-date=February 18, 2011}}</ref>

Much of the Cowboy-related crime subsided after the Earp family left Arizona in early 1882, following the attempted murder of Tombstone Marshal Virgil Earp on December 28, 1881, and the murder of Deputy Marshal Morgan Earp on March 18, 1882. [[John Horton Slaughter|John Slaughter]] was elected Cochise County Sheriff in 1886 and served two terms. He hired [[Burt Alvord]], who as a 15-year-old boy had witnessed the shootout between the Earps and Cowboys. Alford served very effectively for three years until he began to drink heavily and associate with outlaws, as had Earp-era County Sheriff Johnny Behan, a close friend and constant protector of the law-breaking Clanton family and their friends.<ref name="weiseralford">{{cite web |last=Weiser |first=Kathy |title=Burton Alvord – Lawman Turned Outlaw |url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-burtonalvord.html |date=June 2010 |publisher=LegendsofAmerica.com |access-date=May 26, 2011}}</ref>