GUN FIGHT AT OK CORRAL (26 Ottobre 1881)

The livelest street battle that ever occurred in Tombstone took place at 2:30 pm of yesterday, resulting in the death of three persons, one probably fatally. For some time past several cowboys have been in town, and the fight was between the city marshal, Virgil Earp, his two brothers Morgan and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday on one side, and Ike and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLowry on the other. About 2:30 o'clock the marshal requested his brothers Morgan and Wyatt and Doc to accompany him to aid in disarming the cowboys, as trouble was feared in the evening. They started toward the O.K. Corral on Fremont street, and a few doors below the Nugget office saw the Clantons and the McLowry brothers talking to Sheriff Behan, who had requested them to disarm. The marshal called out "Boys, throw up your hands; I want you to give up your shooters!". At this Frank McLowry attempted to draw his pistol, when Wyatt Earp immediately shot him. Doc Holliday then let go at Tom McLowry with a shotgun, filling him full of buckshot under the right arm. Billy Clanton then blazed away at marshal Earp, and Ike Clanton, who it is claimed was unarmed, started and ran off through the corral to Allen street. The firing then became general, and some thirty shots were fired, all in such rapid succession that the fight was over in less than a minute. When the smoke cleared away it was found that Frank McLowry had been killed outright, with one ball through the torso, one in the left breast and one in the right temple, the latter two wounds being received at the same instant. Tom MacLowry lay dead around the corner of the Third street, a few feet from Fremont, the load of buckshot fired by Holliday killing him almost instantly. Billy Clanton lay on the side of the street, with one shot in the right waist and another in the right side near the wrist, and the third in the left breast. He was taken into a house and lived about half an hour in great agony. Morgan Earp was shot through both shoulders, the ball creasing the skin, the marshal Earp was shot through the fleshy part of the right leg. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday escaped unhurt. (The Tombstone Epitaph)

(Foto: Originale del titolo apparso sul Tombstone Epitaph del 27 ottobre 1881)