The Earps in turn stated that the Clanton boys were the bandits.

And that began the Earp-Clanton feud.

It did not last long, but there was much happening while it was going
on.

The Clanton brothers, Ike and Billy, betook themselves to their ranch
and gathered their friends around them. Frank and Tom McLowrey were
prominent among these allies. And now the statement was made in
Tombstone that the members of this faction had promised to shoot the
Earps on sight.

One October evening Ike Clanton came to town with Tom McLowery, and
Virgil Earp arrested the two on the charge of disturbing the peace. He
did it on the main street and disarmed them easily enough. The justice
of the peace, whose name was Spicer, fined the prisoners fifty
dollars.

The next morning these two defendants went to the 0. K. corral on
Fremont Street, where they had put up their horses the night before.
And there they met Bill Clanton and Frank McLowery. All four were
leading their ponies out of the gate when Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan
Earp, together with Doc Holliday, confronted them.

"Hands up!" Wyatt ordered.

The shooting began at once. Holliday killed Tom McLowery, who was
unarmed, at the first volley. Billy Clanton fell mortally wounded but
continued shooting up to his last gasp. Frank McLowery got a bullet
through his pistol hand but shifted his weapon to the other and kept
on firing until Morgan Earp, who had fallen with a ball through his
shoulder, killed him from where he lay. Ike Clanton jumped a high
fence and fled.

Justice of the Peace Spicer held an examination and exonerated the
slayers on the ground that they had done the thing in performance of
their duty as officers, but friends of the Clantons had money. Some
one retained lawyers to assist in prosecuting the Earps. The sheriff
saw his opportunity and became active getting testimony.

And then, while the town was seething with gossip concerning the
coming trial, Frank Stilwell stole into Tombstone with a half-breed
and slew Morgan Earp, who was playing billiards at the time. The
murder accomplished, Stilwell took a fast horse and rode to Tucson.
The half-breed fled to the Dragoon Mountains.

The next day the three surviving Earp brothers and Doc Holliday
started for California with Morgan's body. At dusk that evening the
train reached Tucson. Now Ike Clanton was in the town, out on bail
awaiting trial for a stage-robbery. And Frank Stilwell was there. It
was no mor