This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/18/2024
[GUNFIGHT AT THE O. K. CORRAL]. Tombstone Daily Nugget. Vol. 2, No. 340. Tombstone, Cochise County, A. T., October 19, 1881. Four folio pages on one large folded sheet. Approximately 610 x 455 mm. Toned, pages brittle, chipped, torn, worn, one central horizontal crease, pages detached from each other. Dated less than a week before the most famous gunfight of the Old West (October 26, 1881). On the paper’s first page is an “Official Directory,” listing officials of the territory, county, and the “City of Tombstone,” including “Marshal - Virgil E. Earp.” Also listed are “Mayor - J. P. Clum” who was the first Mayor of Tombstone, and the publisher of a rival newspaper. Under the county directory heading, there is the listing for “Sheriff - J. H. Behan,” as well as three notices of “Sheriff’s Sale” by Behan. Behan bears some responsibility for the famous shoot-out: he went to disarm the cowboys (part of the Clanton Gang), but failed to do so. After this attempt, he met the Earps and Doc Holliday and warned them to not encounter the cowboys, else they would be murdered. Wyatt Earp claimed that he said he would disarm them, but Behan told him that he had done so. When the Earps encountered the gang who weren’t disarmed, the famous gunfight began, with the cowboys suffering three deaths. Behan later testified against the Earps, but was discredited during the trial.