The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral—And How It Changed the American West

Jeff Guinn

May 2011 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

This myth-busting account of the most famous gunfight in American history reveals the truth about Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the shootout itself.

On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, in a vacant lot in Tombstone, Arizona, a confrontation between eight armed men erupted in a deadly shootout. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral would shape how future generations came to view the Old West. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons became the stuff of legends, symbolic of a frontier populated by good guys in white hats and villains in black ones. It’s a colorful story—but the truth is even better.

In The Last Gunfight, historian Jeff Guinn draws on archival research as well as new material from private collections, including diaries, letters, and Wyatt Earp’s own hand-drawn sketch of the shootout’s conclusion. Digging beneath popular lore, Guinn delivers a startlingly different and far more fascinating picture of what actually happened that day in Tombstone—and why.

“The most thorough account of the gunfight and its circumstances ever published.” —The Wall Street Journal

Ratings and reviews

A. No. But I think everyone has an interest in this Western history episode, probably because of the movies and television shows that grew out of the legend. Q. So how was the book? A. I think Jeff did a great job of collecting all the available evidence, memoirs, journals, newspaper reports, books, anything he could find, to piece together a truthful account of what really happened at Tombstone in October, 1881, and prior to and after the OK corral gunfight itself. Sometimes he seems to put thoughts in the people's heads that no one can really be sure were there or not, but that goes with putting the story into a narrative form, to make it interesting for readers. And it is quite interesting. It reads almost like a novel. Q. So the general reader would be interested, not just Western buffs? A. I think so. By reading the book, I understood a lot more about Tombstone, about the mining operations, about the politics of the area, and about the Earps and their adversaries, than I did by seeing the movies and television. Of course, movie goers and TV watchers don't want this kind of detail, but it's good to compare those scenes, from movie and TV, with what actually happened, to see how entertainment grows out from the truth but dramatizes it to sell it to audiences.

About the author

Jeff Guinn is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Go Down Together, The Last Gunfight, Manson, The Road to Jonestown, War on the Border, and Waco. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.