Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp
By Steven Lubet
4/5
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About this ebook
This account of the court case that followed the gunfight at the OK Corral “will interest Wild West buffs as well as readers interested in legal history” (Publishers Weekly).
The gunfight at the OK Corral lasted less than a minute—yet it became the basis for countless stories about the Wild West. At the time of the event, however, Wyatt Earp was not universally acclaimed as a hero. Among the people who knew him best in Tombstone, Arizona, many considered him a renegade and murderer.
This book tells the nearly unknown story of the prosecution of Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and Doc Holiday following the famous gunfight. To the prosecutors, the Earps and Holiday were wanton killers. According to the defense, the Earps were steadfast heroes—willing to risk their lives on the mean streets of Tombstone for the sake of order.
The case against the Earps, with its dueling narratives of brutality and justification, played out themes of betrayal, revenge, and even adultery. Attorney Thomas Fitch, one of the era’s finest advocates, ultimately managed, against considerable odds, to save Earp from the gallows. But the case could easily have ended in a conviction—and Wyatt Earp would have been hanged or imprisoned instead of celebrated as an American icon.
“This trial has everything: a family feud, famous outlaws and lawmen, politics, sex, and the most famous shootout in frontier history . . . Lubet’s accessible and highly original book will set a standard for scholarship in a field laden with folklore.” —Allen Barra, author of Inventing Wyatt Earp
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Reviews for Murder in Tombstone
10 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book's conversational style, coupled with the author's thorough and in-depth scholarship in both the historical era and the law, make Northwestern University law professor Steven Lubet's "Death in Tombstone" completely convincing, enjoyable and interesting. This story of the handling, use, and abuse in law enforcement and in court of gun laws in pre-statehood Arizona in 1880 is especially fascinating to read now, in a time when such laws are undergoing complete revision in the US.