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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Court Fight, Not the Gun Fight, January 12, 2005
This review is from: Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp (The Lamar Series in Western History) (Hardcover)
Even if you can't recite the names of the participants, you have probably heard of the "Gunfight at the OK Corral," probably courtesy of Hollywood. The most famous participant was Wyatt Earp, who has been portrayed in at least thirty movies, and you can imagine with what degree of realism. For instance, who remembers that because of the shootout, Wyatt and his sidekick Doc Holliday were actually brought to court for murder? In the lawless West, the law took its course, and in _Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp_ (Yale University Press), Steven Lubet has looked at the legend and the legal outcome. This particular gunfight is still argued about by experts and western fans, and it is certainly the case that important parts of the event itself are never going to be completely understood. However, the subsequent trial was well documented, and Lubet's is the first book to tell the often surprising story of the court fight after the gun fight. Lubet is a lawyer himself, and brings much legal insight to a story that is usually only told as western legend.
Tombstone was a town that had sprung up in response to silver mining, and in true boomtown fashion it would fold only a few years after the shootout (it has come back as a tourist site since then). Around the town were cowboys, not at this time the respectable ranch-hands who managed cattle production, but small time ranchers who raided herds in Mexico to replenish stock, and robbed stagecoaches as a sideline. Virgil Earp came to town as a US marshal and Wyatt followed as a deputy county sheriff; they were professional lawmen, and would have been immediately marked as enemies of the cowboys. Youngest brother Morgan was there as well, and following Wyatt was the disreputable Doc Holliday he had inexplicably befriended. Among the cowboys were Ike and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury. Ike got into a shouting match with Doc in the Alhambra Saloon, in which Virgil had to intervene. Ike spent the night drinking and cursing the Earps, and on 26 October 1881 enlisted the McLaurys and his brother Billy to arm themselves and prepare to meet the lawmen. Three of the cowboys died, and public sympathy turned from the lawmen to those they had killed. Five days later there was a preliminary hearing which was to determine if the accused men ought to be bound over for a trial. It is this hearing that forms the mass of the book, with an examination of the legal procedures of the time compared to those now.
The hearing lasted a month, with thirty different witnesses, some of them surprise witnesses called by the defense. As a lawyer, Lubet is very good at alerting readers to mistakes the lawyers on both sides made. "As desperate lawyers often do..." he explains when a lawyer stalls for time after a witness has given a surprisingly unfavorable response, or "Then the cross examiner blundered in a manner still all too familiar to trial lawyers, by asking one question too many." Spicer found that although Virgil had acted "incautiously and without due circumspection," the defendants had committed only "a necessary act, done in the discharge of official duty." There is a short epilogue after the trial; Virgil was ambushed in revenge and crippled for life, Morgan was shot and killed while playing billiards, and Wyatt conducted a "vendetta ride" to kill those responsible for attacking his brothers. This all sounds more like western history as depicted in the cinema. The main part of Lubet's history, however, is a fascinating and detailed examination not of a shoot-out but of the uncinematic and neglected legal outcome.
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Is the Tombstone Movie I'd Love to See!, September 30, 2004
This review is from: Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp (The Lamar Series in Western History) (Hardcover)
Let me preface this review by stating that I am a political junkie. My copy of "Murder in Tombstone" arrived this AM. I wasn't able to sit down to read it until about an hour before the Presidential Debate. I kept one ear on the debate and both eyes on the book. I think Wyatt Earp may have expressed an opinion on the War in Iraq, but I'm not quite sure. I devoured Steve Lubet's book in one sitting, finishing just about the time Brit Hume ended his wrap-up of the debate.
Seriously, I found the book absolutely fascinating. About half-way through it I came to the conclusion I'd love to see this book made into the Ultimate OK Corral Movie! Lubet brought much needed new insight into a story that appeared not to need new insight. Until now the only book strictly about the Inquest was Turner's, which is excellent source material. The Lubet version will replace Turner in many respects although the Turner does provide a complete transcription of the Inquest.
The entire field of Tombstone & Earp related books and research will benefit from this book. The past decade has been an exciting one in the field dominated by well-researched books by Casey Tefertiller and Allen Barra, both of which I highly recommend. It will be further enhanced by the publication of my book, "Travesty" this winter.
Anyone who is interested in a good legal read with be absolutely fascinated by this one.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent but oddly named book, August 23, 2006
Despite its anomalous title, which must be either a marketing ploy or the author's unstated opinion, this is an exceptional book written by a legal scholar who is intimately familiar with the law and its history, and who has obviously done his homework regarding the hearing held in the wake of the police action of October 26,1881 in Tombstone, Arizona. The author clearly understands the laws, then extant in Arizona, and has studied the case and its testimony in painstaking detail. With that insight and background, he walks us through the proceedings pointing out when and where the prosecution and defense succeeded or erred in judgment, either winning or losing points for their positions. Fortunately for the reader, Mr. Lubet writes fluently and is able to explain the subtle nuances of both the law and the testimony, as a lawyer would see it, in terms easily understood by the layman. This makes for easy and enjoyable reading.
Beyond the proceedings, the book is still more interesting since it delves into some little known legalities of times past and explores the histories of some of the major participants. For example: I never quite understood why those accused of assassinating Abraham Lincoln were never allowed to testify in their own defense. Little did I know that, prior to 1864, laws in all U.S. jurisdictions prohibited accused parties from doing so or that in 1864 Maine became the first state to abolish that rule. Neither did I know that Judge Spicer, who presided at the OK Corral hearing was the defense attorney for the only man found guilty and executed in Utah for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I also didn't know that Tom and Frank McLaury's brother, Will, a lawyer from Texas, interjected himself into the proceedings on the side of the prosecution and may have been instrumental in that side's insisting on a charge of first degree murder.
I must confess, however, that although I found this book to be an excellent read I was somewhat disappointed at some of the things the author failed to recognize, or at least failed to mention, and I have to disagree with some of his conclusions. More specifically: he never observed that the prosecution's case was almost entirely fabricated. As a result, he didn't seem to understand why their lawyers didn't ask more probing and expansive questions to solidify their testimony. The obvious answer, in my view, is that what they had contrived was all there was and that any deviation from that orchestrated testimony could easily have devastated their case. I.e., Would all the witnesses have said the same thing? (Witness Ike Clanton's wild and outlandish testimony.) In addition, the author stated several times that Wyatt Earp had clearly lied in stating that his gun was in his pocket. In the author's opinion, if that was so Wyatt would never have been able to draw it as quickly as he was said to have done. Instead, Mr. Lubet concluded that Wyatt was most likely waving it as they approached the "Cowboys." (a clear provocation) To me, a more likely scenario is that upon seeing that the Cowboys were armed, Wyatt quite sensibly put his hand in his pocket, grasped his pistol and steadied his nerves. And, strangely enough, the author never mentioned the fact that almost all of the prosecution witnesses were friends or associates of the slain Cowboys and that, based on the testimony of the two most neutral witnesses to the shootout, all had clearly perjured themselves.
There is one other conclusion which one can drawn from this book. Whereas many have long held that Sheriff Behan was simply a bumbling or ineffectual lawman with sympathies toward the "Cowboys" (i.e., the outlaws). He was most likely one of them. Why else would he: 1) deputize known Cowboys, 2) include known Cowboys in his posses, 3) steadfastly avoid ever capturing any Cowboys, and 4) perjure himself in an attempt to hang Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp, three respected lawmen, along with Doc Holliday? Blind hatred may have clouded Will McLaury's judgment, if he was an honorable man, but Johnny Behan has no such excuse.
All that aside, however, this is an erudite book about the most famous gun fight and the most controversial character on America's wild frontier. As such, it is thought provoking and a "must have" for every fan of western history.
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