Houston homeowner kills two masked, armed men claiming to be law-enforcement with warrant

[Jack Valentino]

131. All also true, but acting town Marshall Virgil Earp's intention to disarm the Clanton gang

if they were carrying guns outside of the corral on town streets (which had been repeatedly reported)
was the 'legal reason' for which they made their way towards the back-side of the OK Corral which exited
into the vacant lot between the Fly's photographic studio and the boarding-house where Doc lived,
where the confrontation and gunfight actually took place.

Several eyewitnesses reported that Virgil Earp ordered them to throw up their hands,
that he intended to disarm them.... but they moved to draw their weapons and fire instead,
which several of the Earp party also did almost simultaneously.

(Other eye-witnesses, notably County Sheriff Behan, who was friendly with the outlaws,
made contradictory testimony, but it seems they were lying.)

The immediate reason for the gunfight was the Earp's intent to disarm the Clantons & co.,
thereby enforcing the town's gun control ordinance--

but YES, the previous hostility between the two factions did much to cause the deadly results.


Virgil Earp was acting town Marshall in Tombstone, not a U.S. Marshall.

Wyatt Earp was a Deputy U.S. Marshall with jurisdiction over a large portion of Arizona
of which Tombstone was a part, although not Tombstone in particular.

(I've read numerous books about this gunfight, being one of my favorite historical topics--
and was lucky enough to be able to visit the actual site on one of my visits to Arizona!)