Gunfight at the O.K. Corral direct conflict with the Earps' roles as lawmen, Johnny Behan was Cochise County Sheriff. Virgil Earp had served for three years during the Civil War and had also been involved in a police shooting in Prescott, Arizona Territory. He was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal for eastern Pima County by U.S. Marshal Crawley Dake, on November 27, 1879, before the Earps arrived in Tombstone on December 1, 1879. He was appointed acting Tombstone's town marshal (or police chief) on September 30, 1880, after popular Tombstone town marshal Fred White was shot and killed by Curly Bill Brocius. Only a few days
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was part of the Works Progress Administration. According to one report, Hayhurst was a friend of the Behan family. After he completed his transcription, he kept the original document in his home, where it was destroyed in a house fire. The interpersonal conflicts and feuds leading to the gunfight were complex. Each side had strong family ties. The brothers James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren Earp were a tight-knit family, working together as pimps, lawmen, and saloon owners in several frontier towns, among other occupations, and had moved together from one town to another. Virgil served in the Union Army