Wyatt Earp's Greatest Gunfight

The gunfight at the O.K. Corral – a 30-second shootout between lawmen and outlaws – occurred on October 26, 1881, in the small US mining town of Tombstone. When the smoke cleared, three people lay dead. 

The gunfight might have remained little more than a minor footnote in the history of the Old West, except that it came to be romanticised, dramatised and exaggerated by countless books and movies over the years to come.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the line between lawman and outlaw was more than a little murky in the Old West; look into why so many people had flooded to the small down of Tombstone in the first place; and discuss how the whole shootout could have been avoided if only someone hadn’t stolen someone else’s mule...

Further Reading:

• 'What really happened at the gunfight at the O.K. Corral?' (National Geographic, 2020): https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2020/03/what-really-happened-at-the-gunfight-at-the-ok-corral 

• 'Black-and-white view of O.K. Corral gunfight gets grayer' (The Denver Post, 2011): https://www.denverpost.com/2011/05/21/black-and-white-view-of-o-k-corral-gunfight-gets-grayer/ 

• ‘My Darling Clementine’ (1946): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3f3qIXXcEY

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