How historically accurate is the movie 'Tombstone'?

Question

In all the other movies about Wyatt Earp there's never mention of this organized crime gang called 'The Cowboys', red sashes, and Wyatt Earp chasing them all down and killing them one by one.
Is Tombstone accurate?

Answer 1

its a movie....

Answer 2

What can one expect from a movie? I've seen five movies about all this, and all differ. I've read much about it too, including "Wyatt Earp Speaks" in which he gives his account, but is he telling the truth? "Wild West" magazine had an article years ago that claimed the Earps and Clantons had been partners in devious doings and fell out when the Earps thought the Clantons told that Doc Holliday was involved in a stage robbery, but someone recognized him, and the Clantons told nothing. Most of the Clantons had no guns at the OK Corral battle the article said. Billy Clanton had one under his shirt and wounded Virgil Earp's right arm. Virgil switched his revolver to his left hand and killed Billy. Frank McLowery was shot in the back in the street with a shotgun. All of this is the mag's story. Wyatt tells a different tale. Which is true. We'll never know for certain. I haven't read anything about red sashes, but there were gangs. Morgan Earp was shot down as he played pool in a saloon, and Wyatt took revenge. The movie has an interesting idea in having a duel between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo, the deadliest gunfighters next to John Wesley Hardin. It never happened.

Answer 3

It would be very difficult to make an historically accurate movie about the Gunfight at the OK Corral since we don't even know who was armed and who wasn't. The Clanton Cowboys outnumbered the Earps five to four, but if all four of the Earp crowd had guns to only three of the Clantons that hardly adds up to a fair fight.
Films always make out that the Earps were the good guys, but the people of Tombstone weren't so sure. Wyatt Earp was certainly involved in prostitution and illegal gambling, and he was breaking a town law by carrying a concealed weapon. When the town tried to prosecute the Earp brothers there was a long and complicated legal case which never really came out to a convincing end.
The story is always told from Wyatt Earp's point of view, but that is mainly because when Wyatt was a very old man he met John Ford (the film-maker) and a very young John Wayne and convinced them of his view of events. If Ike Clanton had ended up retired in Los Angeles we would have a very different version of the OK Corral story.
Nobody really knows what happened that afternoon in 1881, but people know what they want to believe. And that has always been good enough for Hollywood.

Answer 4

The movie follows the general order of events, but takes a lot of liberties and has some outright falsehoods. Here are a few of bigger things that are historically inaccurate about the movie:

- Although there was a large number of semi-lawless cowboy/rustlers who annoyed the townfolk and were referred to in general as the 'cowboys' they were not a tightly organized band as portrayed in the movie - 'cowboys' was just a negative term that the townsfolk used for any of the drifters and rustlers. They did not all wear red sashes.

- The shootout at the OK Corral took place on Oct 26, 1881. Virgil Earp was shot in the arm two months later and it was not until March 1882 - nearly a half year after the OK Corral - that Morgan was killed in a pool hall. The movie makes it seem as if Morgan and Virgil were shot on the same night a few days after the OK Corral.

- After the shooting of Morgan, Earp and friends did roam the county chasing those they thought were responsible. Their exact actions are not confirmed, but they certainly killed Frank Stilwell in Tucson and probably killed Bill Brocius and Florentino Cruz in the mountains. There is no evidence that they killed anyone else.

- John Ringo was NOT a great gunfighter. In fact, there is no evidence that he ever killed anybody. He grew up on a farm and did not have an advanced education or speak Latin (although he did like to read). He was found shot in the head in the Chiricahua Mts and nobody really knows who did it. It was definitely NOT Doc Holliday or Wyatt Earp as they were far away in Colorado at the time.

- The massacre of a Mexican wedding at the start is completely made up. It is probably taken from the Clanton's killing and robbing of a Mexican mule train near the border before the Earp troubles.

Things that the movie did get right (more or less):
- Virgil was the family's real lawman while Wyatt was more interested in gambling and mining and only got pulled into events reluctantly.

- The OK Corral scene is closer to most of the eyewitness accounts than has been shown in most movies and does pretty closely portray the location, duration and results of the fight. It does make the cowboys look better armed and prepared than they were. Ike Clanton did NOT shoot at the Earps from the studio (he was unarmed and ran away). There was much debate at the time and since as to if Tom McLaury had a pistol (some claim they saw one, but one was not found on his body and he fought mostly with a rifle he pulled from his horse after he was already shot and dying).

As to if the Earps were 'good' or 'bad'. They were certainly not squeakly clean sorts as shown in some B movies, but they were probably not as bad as the Clantons. Most of the town's leading citizens saw them as muscle to protect against the cowboys, but never really saw the Earps as being in the same upper class as themselves. The poorer rural farmers and ranchers (who generally related to the cowboys) did not generally like Earps.

The fight was largely forgotten until the 1920s when Tombstone deputy Billy Breakenridge published his autobiography ("Helldorado") which did not paint a flattering picture of the Earps. In response, Wyatt agreed to give his story to writer Stuart Lake in a series of interviews which were turned into the Earp-biased book "Frontier Marshall". During the 1920s to 50s, there was a big obsession in the US with the west and the OK Corral and many books and movies were created for entertainment purposes and made no real attempt to be accurate (some of them are almost comical).

To make matters more confusing, Wyatts last wife, Josephine, wrote down some memoirs which eventually fell into the hands of writer Glenn Boyer who used them to publish the book "I Married Wyatt Earp" in 1976. When other writers and historians noted many errors and conflicts and asked to see the original papers, Boyer eventually admitted that he had fabricated much of it.

It was not until the last 20 years that serious historians, using original accounts, court records, and letters and diaries of non-biased witnesses began to piece together a more accurate picture of the real events in Tombstone and the life of the Earps (see below). But even today, most magazines and movies will not let the facts stand in the way of a good story.

Answer 5

Wyatt Earp actually did go after a bunch of outlaws that killed his brother Morgan. It was called the Vendetta Ride if you want to look it up. However, I'm not sure about the red sashes and much was changed in the movie to make it more fun to watch. For example, Doc Holiday dumped his girlfriend Kate at Wyatt's request long before they went to Tombstone.

Answer 6

If you want to learn to stop any kind of violence the you will have to have this program of Bruce Perry, Patriot Self Defense , a course that you just will find it here https://tr.im/TYTK1
Patriot Self Defense will educate you on a very successful self-defense program that's been field-tested in houses, at government functions and on some of the meanest streets on the planet against the most ruthless, cunning and dangerous criminal.
With Patriot Self Defense you will see out that's much simpler then you definitely estimated to defend yourself because that you do not need to be a specialist or have strength, you have to learn how to do particular techniques, easy moves but deathly.

Answer 7

Tombstone True Story

Answer 8

Actually not that accurate. The Earp brothers were just as corrupt as the Clantons.

Answer 9

What I learned in school, was that Wyatt Earp was actually kind of a loser. He had drinking problems, and came close to getting killed/got knocked around quite frequently. However, late in his life he sold his story to Hollywood, and they built him up into the hero we see today in films like Tombstone and Wyatt Earp.

Answer 10

1

Answer 11

It's not particularly acurate at all although it does contain a general sweep of acual events many of the specifics have been altered.