Tombstone The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell: an excellent, in depth history of the infamous boomtown

Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday and the Vendetta Ride from Hell by Tom Clavin an in depth account of Tombstone and the famous gunfight at the OK Corral it would host. On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, eight men clashed in the explosion of gunfire. Thirty bullets were fired in a span of thirty seconds. In the end, three men were killed and three others were wounded. The fight had come after a long, tense and hot summer in which cattle rustlers, a gang of outlaws known as The Cowboys, had been terrorizing the back country of Mexico, stealing livestock and selling them to corrupt ranchers. The Mexican government built forts along the border to keep the American outlaws at bay and the Arizona citizens were increasingly agitated as stagecoaches were being robbed and innocent people were being harmed. That October day, tension had boiled over with Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne confronted the Tombstone marshal, Virgil Earp, bringing along Wyatt and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday to back him up. But the story doesn’t end there. After the smoke clears, there were inquests and trials that had the Earps and Holliday up on murder charges. Tempers flared further as vendettas were made and carried out. Everyone knows the myths and the legends, what do you know about the real story of Tombstone? 

A few months ago, I read and reviewed Tom Clavin’s book, Blood and Treasure, which he co-wrote with Bob Drury, about Daniel Boone and the exploration of America’s first frontier. I knew I was in for an in-depth history lesson with Tombstone. I have been interested and fascinated by the Gunfight at the OK Corral since I did a report on it for an eighth grade history class and knowing that the Earps have a connection to my current hometown with many of the Earps buried in nearby cemeteries, has made the topic even more alluring. Mr. Clavin peels back decades of myth and legend surrounding the story of Tombstone to reveal the true story about the drama and violence that made it infamous. He takes the readers back to the founding of Tombstone and each of the players’ lives before they came to Tombstone as well as the political and social tensions which played a role in the famous gunfight. Mr. Clavin also details the “vendetta ride” in which Wyatt Earp formed a posse that included his younger brother, Warren and Holliday, to track down those who cowardly killed Morgan, and attempted to kill Virgil. Tombstone is a very in depth history into the city and the people that would participate and witness the most famous gunfight of American Western history. If you love history, I highly recommend you check out Tombstone. 

Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday and the Vendetta Ride from Hell 

is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook