GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL-A STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM?

GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL: A STRUGGLE OVER RELIGIOUS FREEDOM?

               One of my favorite actors was Hugh O'Brien, who starred in the old Wyatt Earp series on TV. And it was that show that got me interested in the life of Wyatt Earp. That led me to read Stuart Lake's biography on Earp. But, as I discovered years later, Lake's work putting Earp on a pedestal was a lot of fluff, leaving out some of the sordid details of Earp's life. Lake met Earp near the end of Earp's life and became enamored with the tales of the old west Earp told him.   

               Earp is best known for his participation in the old west's most famous gunfight, the gunfight at the OK Corral. This gunfight was between Earp's allies and the Cowboys headed by Ike Clanton and the McLaury brothers. Earp was the only participant who escaped without an injury. Several Cowboys were killed and Wyatt’s brothers, Morgan and Virgil, and his sidekick Doc Holiday suffered gunshot wounds. A collie was hit by a stray bullet that grazed her head. This incident traumatized the dog, and she became an alcoholic.  A physiatrist eventually cured the collie of her addiction with hypnoses and, by the power of suggestion, made the collie believe she was an elite ballet dancer. The collie became a sensation in Russia performing for the Tsar at the Bolshoi Ballet.

               Contemporary history suggests that this battle was the culmination of a feud between the two groups and their growing antagonism over control of the desert city of Tombstone, Arizona. But, when one digs deeper, there is evidence to suggest that this wasn't the case. For instance, it would seem both groups participated agreeably together in several community activities: One was the establishment of public restrooms. Although, there was a minor disagreement over whether to allow Indians to use the toilets. The Cowboys felt that only white people should be permitted the use these restrooms. While the Earps, more open-minded, declared they were for allowing anyone access who hadn't consumed beans. Both parties settled this minor dispute by agreeing to give the Indians bedpans.

               Another activity both adversaries worked with cooperatively was the weekly bingo games to support culture and arts. Although, here again, there was a slight disagreement on this issue. The Earps preferred classical music concerts, but the Cowboys backed the saloon and brothel owners who favored hootenanny-themed music. The cowboy backers professed that classical music abated their patrons' drinking and sexual desires. They settled the issue peacefully by eliminating all music in favor of starting an art class where the deer and antelopes would pose au naturel.

                Therefore, since the Earps and Cowboys cooperated in the past, there is enough reason to suggest there might be another motive for the "Gunfight". My curiosity led me to contact Professor Wes "Spurs" Cassidy, a curator for the "Museum of Lost Western History". Cassidy had the classic cowboy personality and appearance. He sported a large beard that housed a family of coyotes. He chewed tobacco voraciously and spit out the contents towards a spittoon. Unfortunately, his aim was so poor that the EPA designated the floor a toxic area.

               But, his knowledge of the old west was meticulous. He informed me of facts about Wyatt Earp's life that I had not known. The two that stood out were Earp's fondness for Jews. Earp was not a Jew, but his second common-in-law wife was. The other startling fact is that Earp is buried in a Jewish cemetery but without his boots. The boots were sent to Grauman's Chinese Theatre so Earps's footprints would be on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.  

               Cassidy attributed Earp's fondness for Jews as possibly the reason for the falling out between the Cowboys and the Earps. According to Cassidy, the Cowboys were a bigoted group and highly anti-Semitic. There is a rumor that when B'nai Brit went to the Cowboy's ranch for a donation, the Cowboys instead of contributing stole all of the money out of the donation box. Then they spent the funds on buying all the kosher provisions from the town's general store, depriving the town's Jews of sustenance. Fortunately for the Jews, this occurred right around the Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur, when Jews fast.

               Cassidy stated that the Cowboy's cooperation with the Earps ended when Wyatt started his relationship with a Jewish woman, Sarah Josephine Marcus. Sarah, also known as Sadie, became Wyatt's common-law wife. In the old west, with its bigotry, a man having a relationship with a Jewess was tantamount to the same ridicule as if he had sexual relations with a manatee.

               What infuriated the Cowboys even further was when Wyatt agreed to have a circumcision to please his new wife, Sadie. Sadie motivated Wyatt by telling him he would experience a more profound and exciting sexual arousal. Now, usually, a Mohel would perform the circumcision. A Mohel is an orthodox Jew who has studied the ancient art of precise cutting at a Yeshiva. Unfortunately, some of Yeshiva’s dropouts ended up as serial murderers. But, there were no Mohels in Tombstone. So Sadie found a sheep shearer to complete the task. He performed the circumcision with aplomb. Well, he actually used a scalpel. And Wyatt had to admit Sadie was right about the sex being incredible. The only drawback was that after having sex, Wyatt would go out onto the meadow and graze grass.

               Another incident that caused friction between the two groups occurred when the Cowboys heard through the grapevine because the telephone hadn't been invented yet, the sexual benefits of circumcision. Ike Clanton decided to give it a try. But instead of hiring Wyatt's sheep shearer, he hired a local Indian known to have magical powers. At first, the Indian mistook the word circumcision to mean an Indian term, "I gave at the office". The Indian had never gone to Berlitz and misinterpreted Clanton when he said, "Take a little off the top." Clanton never figured that a tomahawk wasn't a very precise instrument to perform such a delicate procedure.

               The final straw in the breakup of the Earp-Cowboy alliance occurred when a Jewish teenager named Irving was caught by one of the Cowboys teaching an armadillo how to do the Jewish dance, the Hora. This infuriated the Cowboys because they all had two left feet and didn't want to be shown up at the barn dances by these armored animals. The one advantage for the Cowboys with two left feet was they were exempt from the selective service draft. The Cowboys decided to punish Irving by exposing him to their ranch alpaca, who would chew on Irving's nose and ear hair. The Earps came to Irving's defense by hiding him in their farm's field and concealing him as a scarecrow.

               So, it is safe to say history has got it all wrong about the gunfight at the OK Corral. It wasn't about who would control the politics in the town of Tombstone. It was more about religious freedom. What Wyatt and his brothers did was equivalent to the other great historical struggles for the religious rights of men, women, and Boston terriers to live the way they choose. Even though I am saying it, it goes without saying that what the Earps fought for at the OK Corral was that religious intolerance would not be accepted in the old west.