[tense percussive music playing]
[music stops]
[Ed Harris] Now, pay attention.
Because this happens fast.
Oh, we don't want that.
No! Hold on, hold on.
[groans]
- [groans] - Wyatt, don't kill me. I'm unarmed.
Ike Clanton. Get out of the way.
- [gunshot] - [man grunts]
[gunshot]
[man moans]
[groaning]
- [groans] - [gunshots continue]
- [groans] - [Wyatt] Morg!
[grunts]
- [Wyatt] Morg! - [grunts]
[somber music playing]
[Ed] That was it.
The whole thing only lasted about 30 seconds.
But it would become the most famous gunfight
in Wild West history.
And it would change everything for Wyatt Earp
and America.
Somebody get a doctor! [grunts]
I need a doctor!
[somber music playing]
[Casey] The gunfight was very quick. It probably took half a minute at most,
with around 30 shots being fired.
And all this activity happening so quickly
that even people watching it weren't sure what was happening
because so much was going on.
[Ed] Three Cowboys were dead.
Brothers Tom and Frank McLaury.
And Ike Clanton's younger brother, Billy.
[somber music continues]
[gasping]
[Ike] Billy.
Billy!
[somber music continues]
[breathes shakily]
[somber music continues]
[music fades]
[Morgan groans]
- Jesus. - [Morgan] Doc, give me the whiskey.
[tense music playing]
Here. Take a swig of that.
[groaning]
- [Morgan coughs] - [groaning]
[man] Nurse.
[tense music continues]
[groans]
[Casey] You've got Virgil Earp wounded through the leg,
Morgan seriously wounded.
He's in horrible pain.
Holliday's been skimmed by a bullet.
And... I mean, you wouldn't think it was that painful, but it really hurts.
[Virgil screams]
[Ed] In 1881, if you needed surgery,
dying might actually sound like a better option.
It was brutal... and barbaric.
And your chances of surviving a bullet wound
were pretty much zero.
But often, it wasn't the bullet that killed you.
It was infection.
You see, while the surgeons were poking around looking for the bullet,
they were spreading germs from their dirty hands.
The only way you had a chance of surviving is if you got shot in the arm or the leg.
Because then the surgeon could just saw it off.
[Virgil groans]
Doc, am I gonna lose my leg?
[Ed] Now, call it fate or divine intervention,
but it just so happened that one of the smartest doctors in the country
was treating Morgan and Virgil.
You're gonna be just fine.
Dr. George Goodfellow,
who was a surgical pioneer
and one of the first to realize that washing your hands before surgery
prevented infection.
So who knows how many lives he saved just by that act alone.
[Virgil] Doc.
Doc!
[groans]
[Virgil yells in pain]
[Ed] While Wyatt was left wondering if his brothers were going to survive,
most of the townspeople wanted to congratulate him.
[Edward] In the immediate aftermath of the shoot-out,
the Earps are initially hailed as representatives of law and order.
Sure, they killed a few people,
but they were in the right when they did so.
[somber music playing]
[Ed] But Ike had fallen from grace.
[somber music continues]
[Ed] The once mighty mob boss was now the town's pariah.
He'd started a gunfight,
and lost.
He'd been completely humiliated.
[somber music continues]
Ike Clanton was enraged for many, many reasons.
Long-standing hatred of the Earps,
the fact that he'd been humiliated and had to flee from the battle,
and the fact that his brother had been killed.
He was just consumed with a desire for vengeance.
[Ed] Now, Ike probably thought his days as the mob boss were over.
But to hell with what people thought.
He wasn't going anywhere.
And this is where Ike did something totally unexpected.
["Requiem in D Minor, Lacrimosa" by Mozart playing]
[John] The three Cowboys were placed in open-top coffins
with a big sign that said, "Murdered on the streets of Tombstone."
[man] This is sheer propaganda.
They were in their Sunday best, looking so clean-cut, all-American.
This is, uh, a real effort to win over public sentiment
to the Cowboy element and away from the Earps.
And it worked.
["Requiem in D Minor" continues]
[Ed] The thing is, Ike was just getting started.
[Ike] Three innocent young men
in their prime were gunned down in cold blood
by the very men that are supposed to protect this town.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Ed] Ike wanted to tell his version of events to as many people as possible.
So he used the press.
Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Morgan and Virgil.
You may call them lawmen.
I call them murderers.
[Ed] Ike didn't just take control of the narrative.
He completely hijacked it.
And it's hard to believe, but in the course of about 24 hours,
opinions started to shift from the Earps as heroes to murderers,
and the Cowboys as the innocent victims.
And that's when the story really blew up.
[suspenseful music intensifies]
[Ed] The story was picked up by big city newspapers...
and soon spread across America.
[newsboy] Get your Morning Star! Read all about it! Morning paper!
The American newspaper industry is booming.
And there's a vast newspaper network all across the country.
And they're all competing for the most sensational version of a story.
And American newspaper readers wanted salacious stories.
They wanted corruption, murder, scandal, infidelity,
and in this case, gunfights, because that's what sold newspapers.
[Ed] The story about the gunfight at the O.K. Corral
couldn't have happened at a worse time.
Because it landed just after another violent crime.
One that happened back east in Washington.
In 1881, America had a new president, James Garfield.
He was young, dynamic, and popular.
He was the JFK of his time.
Unfortunately, in more ways than one.
[gunshots]
[people scream and shout]
[Ed] While waiting to board a train, he was gunned down by an assassin.
[somber music playing]
[Edward] There is virtually no layer of protection for the president.
It's nothing like the protections that presidents have in the modern era.
And that allows for Garfield's assassin
to walk right up to him on that train platform and shoot him.
[Ed] The nation was horrified.
Memories of Lincoln's assassination, which happened only 16 years earlier,
came flooding back.
The whole country went into mourning.
Even the White House was draped in black.
The death of a president was big news around the world.
And then, soon after,
the story of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral hit.
So you can imagine people were wondering what the hell was going on in America.
And news traveled fast.
It only took a day to reach England
because of the transatlantic telegraph cable constructed a few years earlier
running under the Atlantic Ocean.
[somber music playing]
[Ed] And do you know who this was a big problem for?
J.P. Morgan.
You see, the news arrived in England
just as he was about to close one of the biggest deals
any American had ever attempted.
He'd spent weeks in London trying to secure an investment
to help him take over the railroads in America.
And one of those investors was Lord Rothschild.
Northern Pacific have accepted my offer.
It's only a matter of time before the Erie follows.
Is something wrong?
I've spoken with our investors.
The feeling is now is not a good time.
The president assassinated.
And now I'm hearing stories about lawmen murdering innocent people.
It's rather disconcerting, wouldn't you say?
[suspenseful music playing]
[man] Whenever there's a crisis, like the assassination of a president,
foreign investors take a moment, and they wonder,
"Okay. Is this... is this a good idea?"
"Is this a good investment?"
"Is my money gonna be safe if I place it in an American railroad?"
[Ed] There was no way J.P. Morgan was gonna lose this deal.
If Rothschild thought America was a disaster,
then Morgan was going to sort it out.
Telegraph this to Washington.
Yes, sir.
[telegraph machine clicks]
[suspenseful music continues]
[Ed] After Garfield died, the vice president became president.
His name, Chester Arthur.
The only reason people have heard of him
is that he's known as one of the worst presidents in history.
No one thought he was anything other than a decent guy.
He liked good meals, the company of... of other gentlemen.
He dressed quite well. He was a bit of a dandy.
But politically, he was seen as a nothing.
[suspenseful music continues]
Send a telegraph to the governor of Arizona.
"Concerned about reports of a gunfight in... Tombstone."
"Investigate immediately and, uh, report forthwith."
[music fades]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Ed] The president's telegram basically said, "Sort this out."
The governor of Arizona's response was to send a telegram
basically saying the same thing...
[knocking on door]
...to the sheriff of Tombstone.
[suspenseful music continues]
Shit.
[Ed] Johnny Behan was the sheriff.
And he was the top lawman in Tombstone.
It was a well-paid job, and he didn't have to do much police work.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Ed] He left that to the marshal and the deputy marshals,
who all reported to him.
And that was Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp.
What's important to understand about Sheriff Behan
is that he was a politician.
The sheriff was an elected position,
so he had to stay on good terms with the locals,
including, and maybe especially, the Cowboys.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Ike] Come on, Johnny.
[Ed] You see, Ike had a lot of influence in the town.
When Ike said vote for someone, they voted.
And in return, Behan turned a blind eye to Ike's criminal activities.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Ed] But that cozy relationship was now threatened.
[music fades]
[Ed] Because the governor had asked Behan
to do a full investigation of the gunfight.
Maybe he should just arrest Ike for causing the gunfight.
But you don't just arrest the mob boss. Not with an election coming up.
No, he'd talk to him.
Maybe he could get everyone to agree it was all just a big misunderstanding.
An accident.
Nobody's fault.
[tense music playing]
[music fades]
- [Ike] Whiskey? - Nope.
I have to write a report.
Got the governor breathing down my neck about a gunfight.
A gunfight that you started, Ike.
[tense music playing]
Well, that's not what happened.
No?
Then why don't you go ahead and tell me what happened?
[tense music continues]
[liquid pours]
[tense music continues]
We were just about to leave town.
I heard Wyatt Earp screaming my name.
[Wyatt] Ike Clanton!
- Where are you? - What do they want?
I don't know, but put your gun down. We don't want no trouble.
They wanted to kill all of us.
These sons of bitches.
Don't shoot.
Let 'em have it.
[gunshots]
[groans]
[groaning]
[gunshot]
I managed to escape.
For God's sake.
[tense music playing]
Run, rabbit, run.
[tense music continues]
- [gunshots continues] - [Ike panting]
Poor Billy never stood a chance.
[Billy] Wyatt, please don't shoot me. I'm unarmed.
[breathes heavily]
[gunshot]
[Billy] Please.
Please don't.
[gunshot]
Billy!
They murdered him.
Did you see? He shot him like a dog.
[Johnny] All right.
If that's it, I guess I'll go talk to the others.
[Ike] You're gonna speak with the Earps?
I wouldn't be much of a sheriff if I didn't do that.
[Mark] So Ike was basically saying
that the Earps were shooting down in cold blood
these men who were surrendering.
That's not what happened.
But it was again, you know, Ike's way of twisting the story
to make his brother and their associates look innocent.
[tense music playing]
[Ed] Behan knew Ike's story was bullshit. And usually, that didn't matter.
Whatever Ike said was good enough.
But with the governor involved,
Behan had no choice but to speak to his marshal, Virgil Earp,
who, along with Morgan Earp, had barely survived the gunfight.
- [Virgil coughs] - [Johnny] You take it easy.
If you feel up for it, you can go ahead and tell me what happened.
Oh, we don't want that.
[tense music playing]
We went in there only to disarm them.
We weren't expecting them to fire.
[tense music continues]
[Virgil] When we approached them near the O.K. Corral,
they already had their guns raised.
Billy Clanton fired first.
We fired back in self-defense.
[Ed] Now, understandably, Virgil could only remember certain things.
So it's probably best if you learned what really happened
at the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
[funky music playing]
[Ed] Most historians believe Billy went for his gun first
and fired at Wyatt, just missing him.
At the same time, Wyatt fired his gun.
Not at Billy Clanton, but Frank McLaury.
[operatic music playing]
Because he thought he was the most dangerous gunman of the bunch.
[groans]
[operatic music continues]
[Ed] Two of Ike's Cowboys saw Frank get hit,
and ran like hell.
That left four against four.
The gunfire came in bursts.
Frank returned to the fight,
and his brother, Tom, tried to take cover behind a horse.
Doc stalked him and blasted him with a shotgun.
[Tom groans]
[operatic music continues]
[Ed] He didn't last long after that.
[coughs]
[Ed] The strangest thing happened in the middle of the gunfight.
Ike hadn't even pulled out a gun.
He was frozen with fear.
Wyatt.
And in a panic... he ran towards Wyatt.
- No, no Wyatt. Don't kill me. - [Wyatt] Get out of the way.
[Ike grunts]
[Ed] Wyatt saw he had no gun in his hand and pushed him away.
Ike ran into Fly's Boarding House.
As the gunfight continued, Morgan fired at Billy,
and got him in the right arm.
He switched his gun to his left hand.
Meanwhile, even though he was wounded,
Frank McLaury continued to fire,
and hit Virgil in the calf.
Billy Clanton then hits Morgan in the shoulder.
[groans]
[Ed] Frank fires at Doc, grazing him on the hip.
[operatic music playing]
Doc shoots Frank McLaury in the chest.
[operatic music continues]
[Ed] Morgan shoots and hits Frank in the head.
At some point, Billy's hit in the chest,
the bullet most likely coming from Morgan.
[somber music playing]
[music stops]
[Johnny] Hmm.
You did the right thing.
No one does that.
[Virgil] Thanks, sheriff.
Well, you rest up.
You're a tough son of a bitch.
[tense music playing]
[Ed] Ike's plan to expose Wyatt Earp as a murderer had just unraveled.
He was screwed, and he had to find another way.
[tense music continues]
[Ed] And this is where the story takes a massive turn.
But to understand why,
you have to know more about Sheriff Behan.
You see, he was living with a beautiful actress,
Josephine Marcus.
Josephine was smart and talented,
and way out of Behan's league.
Behan had promised her a life of adventure.
And had promised to marry her.
But she waited and waited.
And neither happened.
And the relationship quickly soured.
[tense music playing]
What are you looking at?
[tense music continues]
[Josephine] Where are you going?
[tense music continues]
[woman] Johnny Behan is cheating on Josephine almost from the beginning.
[sighs]
He had a girl in every brothel in, uh... in Tombstone.
[tense music playing]
[exciting music playing]
[Ed] But Josephine had a secret of her own.
[exciting music continues]
[Ed] And it was only a matter of time before that secret got out.
[music fades]
["Love Is A Game" playing]
How long do you have?
[Josephine] An hour.
♪ Doo, doo, doo Doo, doo, doo, doo ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo, doo... ♪
[whispers] I found Josephine with Wyatt Earp.
♪ Doo, doo Doo, doo, do, do, doo ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo... ♪
[laughing] Oh my sweet Jesus.
[laughs]
Help yourself.
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah... ♪
[Ed] Now, there was always speculation about how this whole thing went down.
[Ike] Don't shoot the messenger.
♪ Ah... ♪
[Ed] But one thing was for sure.
[Johnny] I'll take care of it.
[Ed] Wyatt was having an affair with Josephine.
♪ Doo, doo, doo Doo, doo, doo, do, do, doo... ♪
[Ed] This had all fallen into Ike's lap.
♪ Doo, doo, doo... ♪
[Ed] Now he just had to watch the whole thing play out.
♪ Doo, doo, doo, doo ♪
[tense music playing]
[David] So of all the women in all of Tombstone,
Wyatt's gotta steal the sheriff's girlfriend.
And so you have all of the makings of a disaster.
[ominous music continues]
[music fades]
[Johnny] Don't.
[Ed] Neither Behan, Wyatt, or Josephine ever talked about the moment
when Behan confronted them.
So we don't know exactly what happened.
But you have to imagine Behan must have been so filled with rage
that he desperately wanted to shoot Wyatt.
But he did something much smarter.
Wyatt Earp.
I'm arresting you for the murder of Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury,
and Tom McLaury.
Now, put your clothes on.
[Ann] The story that we never tell of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral
is that this was a love triangle.
A tale of jealousy and rage fought over a beautiful young woman.
Wyatt Earp had stolen Johnny Behan's girl.
["Requiem in D Minor, Lacrimosa" by Mozart playing]
[David] So Behan makes a big show of it...
[man] Murderer!
[David]...marching him down into town,
making sure everybody witnesses this.
There must be a personal factor here, right?
Wyatt stole his girlfriend.
[woman] Murderer!
["Requiem in D Minor" continues]
You will never see her again.
[David] But also, he is signaling to the Cowboys that,
"I'm on your side against Wyatt Earp."
[Ed] Ike Clanton had gotten his revenge.
And now, Behan was charging Wyatt,
his brothers, and Doc with murder at the O.K. Corral.
["Requiem in D Minor" continues]
This isn't good.
No shit.
[music fades]
["Love Is A Game" playing]
♪ Doo, doo, doo Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo Doo, doo, do, do, do, do, do, doo ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo, doo ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo Doo, doo, do, do, do, do, do, doo ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo, doo ♪
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪
♪ Doo, doo, doo, doo ♪