Hurricane Season Ebbs and Post Gunfight Tensions Grow

Current hurricane activity: AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center reported Saturday morning November 1, 2008 "Well, as we move  through the month of November, we have just 30 more days until the official end of hurricane season, but with this time of year formation of storms becomes  increasingly difficult. Largely the water temperatures are dropping off quickly, but shear also increases overall throughout the region. Such is the case at this  time. Shear values are quite high and will keep the tropics quiet."

However, we don't have to look far for a stark reminder of the 2008 hurricane season. Just go to the Galveston and Houston area of the Gulf Coast and look at  the problems Hurricane Ike left behind. An Aging Cruise Ship Might Offer Help. For Story Click Here.

Back to Tombstone:

Most folks interested in Americana and Western Lore are well aware of the Shootout at the OK Corral but few know about the events following the gunfight.  Over the next several weeks I'm going to tell you what happened and why the shootout had to take place.

Tombstone: October 26, 1881, moments after the gunfight at the OK Corral.

Excerpt from Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone.

The acrid and pungent smell of gunpowder had not had time to dissipate when Johnny Behan came out of hiding, counted the dead and realized the street  fight had been a disaster for the ring-cowboy faction. Behan's alternative was to put the ring's backup plan on the table. Blame the Earps and Holliday. Show  them to be the culpable party and the cowboy's just innocent victims. The sheriff got the attention of the lawmen with a sneering smile and a tone designed to  infect the gathering crowd, announced, "I'll have to arrest you." "We won't be arrested today," was Wyatt's terse reply. "We're right here and we're not going  away. You have deceived us, Johnny. You lied to us, you son-of-a-bitch." Johnny Behan backed down and quickly made a hasty retreat.

Virgil limped over to the front doorstep of the boarding house, squeezed his right leg and grimaced with pain. Morgan stood nearby, bent over, breathing  heavily and hurting. Doc ignored his own pain as he observed the predicament of his friends. "Somebody grab a bandanna and tie a tourniquet around Virg's  leg." Mr. Comstock took a kerchief out of his pocket and tied it into place. "I don't understand the sheriff saying what he did. Couldn't he see you fellows were  just doing your job?"

Morgan stood upright, put his arm around Doc and leaned on him for support. Wyatt called out, "Somebody go for Dr. Goodfellow. Tell him to meet us at  Keatney's Pharmacy." Dr. Goodfellow arrived at the pharmacy shortly after his patients. The doctor patched Virgil and Morgan up and sent them home to  recover. Doc and Wyatt walked the short distance to the New Orleans Restaurant and Doc finally savored his first sip of that long overdue coffee. Millie hung  around, inviting conversation. But neither Doc nor Wyatt said anything. She cleared her throat and talked below the din. "Would one of you gentlemen give  me the actual version of what happened? I've already heard the cowboy's side."

Doc arched an eyebrow. "And what was that?"

"I'm sure it's straight from the ring," Millie frowned, "they say that you fellows gunned down three unarmed cowboys and it would have been four, but Ike  Clanton was quick on his feet and he escaped."

Doc grinned. "Well, they got part of it right. Ike was quick on his feet."

"The rest was a flat out lie," Wyatt said. "They were armed to the teeth. Six-shooters and rifles."

Doc and Wyatt ordered their regular breakfast, the ones they had missed earlier. The afternoon shoot-out had settled nothing and they both knew it. Millie  brought their orders. Doc picked at his eggs and grits trying to sort things out. Johnny Behan's attempt to arrest them. For what? And that unarmed cowboy's  story. That was a lie, but it gives that crowd time to start a few rumors and place a story or two in the Nugget and the lie could take legs.

Next week...

Following a coroner's inquest and a bogus indictment against the Earps and Holliday, heavy hitters, legal talent is being assembled for prosecution and  defense.

Writers Notebook:

Popular novelist Frank Yerby, The Foxes of Harrow, The Vixens, Floodtide, and 27 others had this comment relative to writing a novel. "It's my contention  that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have the intestinal fortitude to cut out even the most brilliant passage as long as  it doesn't advance the story." For your information we touched on this subject back on October 15, 2008 when Ernest Hemingway talked about and related to  it as regards to his short story, The Killers.

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter. Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my  novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda  Triangle.

www.tombarnes39.com
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