The gunfight, believed to have lasted only about thirty seconds, was fought between the outlaw Cowboys Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and his brother Frank McLaury, and the opposing lawmen Virgil Earp and his brothers Morgan and Wyatt Earp, aided by Doc Holliday acting as a temporary deputy of Virgil.

James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren Earp were a tight-knit family who had worked and served together as deputy marshal, marshal, sheriff, and saloon owners in several towns, among other occupations, and had moved together from location to location.

Wyatt, James and Virgil Earp, along with their wives, arrived in Tombstone during the initial period of its chaotic growth on about December 1, 1879 when there were only a few hundred residents.

Hurst brought four soldiers, and Virgil invited Wyatt and Morgan Earp, as well as Wells Fargo agent Marshall Williams.

Deputy U. S. Marshal Virgil Earp, along with temporary federal deputies Wyatt and Morgan Earp, Wells Fargo agent Marshall Williams, former Kansas Sheriff Bat Masterson ( who was dealing faro at the Oriental Saloon ), and County Sheriff Behan set out to find the robbers.

Ike Clanton later testified at the Spicer hearing that Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, and Morgan Earp had all confided in him that they had actually been involved in the stage robbery.

While Wyatt and Virgil were in Tucson for the federal hearing on the charges against Spence and Stilwell, Frank McLaury confronted Morgan Earp.

He said Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan offered him his rifle and to fight him right there in the courthouse, which Ike declined.

As an unpaid deputy marshal for Virgil, Wyatt habitually carried a pistol in his waistband, as was the custom of that time.

Wyatt said in his deposition afterward that he had been temporarily acting as city marshal for Virgil the week before while Virgil was in Tucson for the Pete Spence and Frank Stilwell trial.

Wyatt said that he still considered himself a deputy city marshal, which Virgil later confirmed.

When Virgil Earp learned that Wyatt was talking to the Cowboys at Spangenberg's gun shop he picked up a 10-gauge or 12-gauge, short, double-barreled shotgun from the Wells Fargo office around the corner on Allen Street.

Wyatt spoke of his brothers Virgil and Morgan as the " marshals " while he acted as " deputy.

Virgil was further in the lot opposite Frank and near Wyatt, who was opposite Tom.

Virgil and Wyatt testified they saw Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton draw and cock their six-shooters.

Virgil and Wyatt thought Tom was armed.

Virgil and Wyatt were now firing.

Both Wyatt and Virgil believed Tom McClaury was armed and testified that he had fired at least one shot over the back of a horse, and Tom was killed.

Both Virgil and Wyatt stated that Holliday had shot Tom, which the coroner's exam supported.

Wyatt, Virgil and Holliday believed that Tom had a revolver at the time of the gunfight.

" William Clanton, Frank and Thomas McLaury, came to their deaths in the town of Tombstone on October 26, 1881, from the effects of pistol and gunshot wounds inflicted by Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, Wyatt Earp, and one — Holliday, commonly called ' Doc Holliday '.

Ike also claimed that Doc Holliday and Morgan, Wyatt, and Virgil Earp had separately confessed to him their role in the Benson stage holdup, or else the cover-up of the robbery by allowing the robbers ' escape.

Mementoes of the Old West recall the days of Wyatt Earp in Dodge City, Nebraska, where present-day cowboys add a colorful human interest note to your vacation shooting.

The Diddley-penned, " Wyatt Earp " was a single released on Okeh Records, since the Chess brothers did not want to release the record.

Frontiersmen Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid played the instrument, and it became a fixture of the American musical landscape.

The few Spaghetti Westerns containing historical characters like Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid etc.

* Urilla Sutherland Earp, first wife of Marshall Wyatt Earp, probably died of Typhoid Fever in or around 1870 in Lamar Township, Missouri.

* January 13 – Wyatt Earp, American gunfighter ( b. 1848 )

* March 19 – Wyatt Earp, American lawman and gunfighter ( d. 1929 )

* May 18 – Wyatt Earp starts work in Dodge City, Kansas, serving under Marshal Larry Deger.

Fonda played Wyatt Earp in John Ford's My Darling Clementine ( 1946 ) and appeared in the film Fort Apache ( 1948 ) as a rigid Army colonel, along with John Wayne and Shirley Temple in her first adult role.

In her review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin called the film a " romantic comedy with barely a laugh or a spark, and with a pace that makes it feel longer than Mr. Kasdan's previous work, Wyatt Earp.

Corral between Wyatt Earp and the Clantons and McLaurys.

Only Wyatt Earp came through the fight unharmed.

The gunfight was relatively unknown to the American public until 1931 when author Stuart Lake published what has since been determined to be a largely fictionalized biography, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, two years after Earp's death.

Wyatt Earp

Author Stuart N. Lake wrote the first biography of Earp, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal published in 1931.

In the summer of 1878, as an assistant marshal in Dodge City, Kansas, Wyatt Earp and Policeman James Masterson, together with several citizens, fired their pistols at several cowboys who were fleeing town after shooting up a theater.

Wyatt Earp said in his testimony after the shootout, " I naturally kept my eyes open and did not intend that any of the gang should get the drop on me if I could help it.

On July 27, 1880, Pima County Sheriff Charles A. Shibell, whose offices were in the county seat of Tucson, appointed Wyatt Earp as deputy sheriff.

Paul finally became sheriff in April 1881, but it was too late to reappoint Wyatt Earp as deputy sheriff because on January 1, 1881, the eastern portion of Pima County containing Tombstone had been split off into the new Cochise County, which would need its own sheriff, based in the county's largest city, Tombstone.