Claim: Wyatt Earp took part in the gunfight at O.K. Corral.

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second shootout between lawmen and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday , October 26 , 1881 in Tombstone , Arizona Territory . It is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of the American Wild West . The gunfight was the result of a long-simmering feud , with Cowboys Billy Claiborne , Ike and Billy Clanton , and Tom and Frank McLaury on one side and town Marshal Virgil Earp , Special Policeman Morgan Earp , Special Policeman Wyatt Earp , and temporary policeman Doc Holliday on the other side . All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys , who objected to the Earps ' interference in their illegal activities . Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed . Ike Clanton claimed that he was unarmed and ran from the fight , along with Billy Claiborne . Virgil , Morgan , and Doc Holliday were wounded , but Wyatt Earp was unharmed . The shootout has come to represent a period of the American Old West when the frontier was virtually an open range for outlaws , largely unopposed by law enforcement officers who were spread thin over vast territories .   The gunfight was not well-known to the American public until 1931 , when Stuart Lake published the initially well-received biography Wyatt Earp : Frontier Marshal two years after Earp 's death . The book was the basis for the 1946 film My Darling Clementine , directed by John Ford , and the 1957 film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , after which the shootout became known by that name . Since then , the conflict has been portrayed with varying degrees of accuracy in numerous Western films and books , and has become an archetype for much of the popular imagery associated with the Old West .   Despite its name , the gunfight did not take place within or next to the O.K. Corral , which fronted Allen Street and had a rear entrance lined with horse stalls on Fremont Street . The shootout actually took place in a narrow lot on the side of C. S. Fly 's Photographic Studio on Fremont Street , six doors west of the O.K. Corral 's rear entrance . Some members of the two opposing parties were initially only about 6 ft apart . About 30 shots were fired in 30 seconds . Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed . Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday . The lawmen were eventually exonerated by a local justice of the peace after a 30-day preliminary hearing and then by a local grand jury .   The gunfight was not the end of the conflict . On December 28 , 1881 , Virgil Earp was ambushed and maimed in a murder attempt by the Cowboys . On March 18 , 1882 , Cowboys fired from a dark alley through the glass door of a saloon , killing Morgan Earp . The suspects in both incidents furnished alibis supplied by other Cowboys and were not indicted . Wyatt Earp , newly appointed as Deputy U.S. Marshal in Cochise County , then took matters into his own hands in a personal vendetta . He was pursued by county sheriff Johnny Behan , who had received a warrant from Tucson for Wyatt 's shooting of Frank Stilwell .