O.K. Corral hearing and aftermath O.K. Corral hearing and aftermath The O.K. Corral hearing and aftermath was the direct result of the 30-second Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory on October 26, 1881. During that confrontation, Deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone Town Marshal Virgil Earp, Assistant Town Marshal Morgan Earp, and temporary deputy marshals Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday shot and killed Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury. Billy's brother Ike, who had repeatedly threatened to kill the Earps for some time, had been present at the gunfight but was unarmed and fled. He filed murder charges against the Earps and
Cochise County Cowboys when Virgil Earp attempted to disarm the cowboys before the Gunfight at the OK Corral. After the gunfight on October 26, 1881, in which three Cowboys died, the Earps and Holliday had to defend themselves against murder charges filed by Ike Clanton. The defendants cited the weapons ordinance during the preliminary hearing held by Justice Wells Spicer. In his ruling exonerating the lawmen of murder, Judge Spicer described Frank McLaury's insistence that he would not give up his weapons unless the marshal and his deputies also gave up their arms as a "proposition both monstrous and startling!" Virgil Earp had