Earp Brothers Slain

WI the Gunfight at the OK Corral had gone differently and Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp had been killed?

From what I've read, the Cowboys were actually fairly popular amongst the business owners of Tombstone who considered them to be "good business" if a bit rowdy.

What are the effects on old west folklore if the Cowboys gun down the badge-wearing tyrants of the Earp clan?
 
Does Doc survive?

Anyways, I dare say Tombstone would get flooded with US Marshalls if not indeed US soldiers. The days of the Cowboy gang would be numbered.
 
But why would Tombstone be flooded with Marshalls? Cochise County Sherriff John Behan was a friend and supporter of the Cowboys. If he testified (which he almost certainly would have) that the Earps started the fight and the Cowboys were defending themselves, would US Marshalls have been called in?
 
But why would Tombstone be flooded with Marshalls? Cochise County Sherriff John Behan was a friend and supporter of the Cowboys. If he testified (which he almost certainly would have) that the Earps started the fight and the Cowboys were defending themselves, would US Marshalls have been called in?


Because, if memory serves, the Earps were US Marshalls. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but US Marshalls don't take too kindly to having their own slaughtered at any time, let alone 150 years ago, by a gang of thugs, bullies, & murders... ;)
 
Because, if memory serves, the Earps were US Marshalls. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but US Marshalls don't take too kindly to having their own slaughtered at any time, let alone 150 years ago, by a gang of thugs, bullies, & murders... ;)

But the epithet of "thugs, bullies, & murderers" wasn't necessarily how the people of Tombstone saw the Cowboys. ;)

Further, at the time of the shootout, neither Wyatt nor Doc was officially an officer of the law. In OTL, after the shooting both Wyatt and Doc were charged with murder (though Judge Spicer and later a grand jury refused to indict for lack of evidence). As history is written by the winners, however, if the Cowboys had won would there have been an equal "lack of evidence" for murder indictments in their case?
 
But the epithet of "thugs, bullies, & murderers" wasn't necessarily how the people of Tombstone saw the Cowboys. ;)


Well I'd say good things about them too if I had a revolver pointed at me... :D


Further, at the time of the shootout, neither Wyatt nor Doc was officially an officer of the law. In OTL, after the shooting both Wyatt and Doc were charged with murder (though Judge Spicer and later a grand jury refused to indict for lack of evidence). As history is written by the winners, however, if the Cowboys had won would there have been an equal "lack of evidence" for murder indictments in their case?


Well Doc was never an officer of the law, although he was on their wanted list at times... :eek:

Wyatt, meanwhile, was a well known lawman figure even before the gunfight at the OK Corral. Kind of stupid to be picking a fight with him then.

It seems everyone murdered someone in the wild old days of the west. If you didn't, then you'd be dead - especially considering who the Earps were up against. Needless to say, though, they weren't found guilty - just the opposite - or doesn't that legal requirement matter? ;)

I will say one thing that's real freaky - I put on my DVD of Tombstone about 5 minutes before originally reading this thread! :eek:
 
If I remember correctly, the Cowboys were more popular in Tombstone then the Earps and company, Hollywood representation notwithstand.
 
It seems everyone murdered someone in the wild old days of the west.

not really.... the violence in the Wild West has been wildly exaggerated by books and movies. People who've done the research have found that the frontier was actually lower in crime than the nation east of the Mississippi or on the west coast. The main reasons being that people were thin on the ground and money was scarce. There were outlaw bands, but not that many, and shootouts like the OK Corral were rare..
 
not really.... the violence in the Wild West has been wildly exaggerated by books and movies. People who've done the research have found that the frontier was actually lower in crime than the nation east of the Mississippi or on the west coast. The main reasons being that people were thin on the ground and money was scarce. There were outlaw bands, but not that many, and shootouts like the OK Corral were rare..


Well I was exaggerating too... ;)

Now where's my six-shooter?
 
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