I
think it was too late for thinking. A heartless cold wind was blowing
across the Arizona Sonora desert. It was about 3:01 pm on Wednesday,
26 October 1881. And in a small corner of the mining town of
Tombstone, 9 men were facing off across a 15 foot wide alley,
sandwiched between the wood frame private home of William
Arthur Harwood and the 15 room wood frame boarding house managed by
"Mollie" Fly. In a span of approximately 30 seconds those 9
men would fire 31 shots, wounding 3 and killing 3 of them. And 2 men
would escape uninjured.
Before
the fight began 33 year old Wyatt Earp (above) had decided the most dangerous
threat to himself and his brothers was 33 year old Frank McLaury.
In
the first second of that fight, and hearing the double click of Doc
Holliday's shotgun, Wyatt drew his 3 pound Smith and Wesson New Model
3 revolver (above), aimed its 8 inch barrel dead center at Frank, and fired.
In that same instant, 19 year old Billy Clanton pulled his 3 pound
13 inch long Colt 1876
revolver (above), and fired at Wyatt
Earp.
In
both guns the firing pins were driven into the primer at the back of
each shell. This ignited a small quantity of mercury fulminate,
briefly generating a temperature above 800 degrees Fahrenheit. This
ignited a grain of black powder, a mixture of 75% potassium nitrate
which provided oxygen, 10% sulfur, which lowered the mixture's
combustion temperature so that the 15% softwood charcoal quickly
burned. However only
45% of the black powder mass was converted into heat. Well over half
did not combust, and was converted into dense white smoke. Still, the
heat ignited the 239 adjoining grains of black powder, spreading
within the shell casing at a rate of 30 feet per second.
This
rapid increase of air pressure sent the lead and atimony bullets
racing out of their respective barrels at nearly 850 feet per second,
air resistance then causing them tumbling over the six to eight feet
between Wyatt and Frank in less than a tenth of a second. Billy
Clanton's slug had a couple of more feet to travel, but it did not
matter since Billy missed his target.
Wyatt's
bullet was almost broadside when it struck Frank McLaury's stomach,
multiplying the damage at the point of entry, one inch to the left of
his navel. First the flesh was compressed by the lead pellet, then
sheered, pulling apart as the metal tore into the abdominal cavity,
leaving a thin greasy lead smear on the flesh. Air, heated by
friction as the bullet pushed it aside. swelled into the wound as it
opened, increasing the air pressure in the cavity, and pulverizing
soft tissue. The elastic skin then rebounded, as the air following
Newton's Third Law of Motion now rushed back out of the wound. It was
still less than a second after Wyatt's gun had fired.
The
protective peritoneum tissue surrounding Frank McLaury's abdomen was
now perforated as the bullet ripped through the folded small
intestines, scattering their bacteria about the cavity. As the
bullet's speed was translated into heat, thousands of capillaries
were cauterized. But on either side of the bullet track, cavitation
vibrations caused even more damage to the soft tissues. Last, the one
ounce lead bullet now shattered Frank McLaury's kidney, causing a
massive hemorrhage of blood. As this happened, the lower parts of
Frank's brain were becoming aware of the damage being suffered, and
his face was beginning to distort. In the Second and Third Seconds he
staggered backward a step and in the Fourth Second he doubled over.
In
the Third Second, 30 year old Morgan
Earp fired his pistol at Billy Clanton, who had just shot at his
brother Wyatt. Less than one tenth of a second later, Morgan's bullet
hit Billy near the inside of the base of his right thumb. Still
traveling faster than the speed of sound the bullet shattered the
delicate carpal and metacarpal bones. Then the splintered pellet tore
out the back of Billy's wrist, carrying away bone, cartilage and
muscle, ripping an even larger wound in his lower arm, and rendering
Billy Clanton's right hand useless. Arterial blood began to spurt out
of Billy's wrist. In the Fourth and Fifth Seconds Billy staggered
back against the Harwood house, while struggling to grab the handle
grip of his Colt with his left hand.
Also
in that First Second, seeing 28 year old Tom McLaury instinctively
reach for his holster, 38 year old Virgil Earp pulled his weapon from
his pocket and fired at him, and missed. In the Third Second, the 5
foot 4 inch Tom, realizing his holster was empty, reached for the
nearest weapon - a pistol secreted in a saddle bag on his brother's
horse. Virgil fired again, and missed the moving target. In the
Fourth Second the noise and the human's sudden movement caused the
horse to back a step, the lead rope pulling Tom off balance. The
horse was now blocking Virgil's line of fire, and in the Fifth Second
the Marshal took a shot at Tom over the top of the horse, missing for
the third time.
In
the Third Second, 30 year old John "Doc" Holliday, cradling
the 10 gauge coach gun in his arms, moved two steps further west on
Fremont, to give himself a clear view of Tom McLaury, in the alley.
And in the Fifth Second Doc pulled both triggers on the Coach Gun.
The
twin firing pins were driven into the primer at the back of each
shell. Again the mechanical and chemical reactions ignited black
powder grains, sending the wax paper wad and 20 one ounce lead and
atimony pellets up the two barrels at 800 feet per second.
Because
of air resistance, the paper wad fell to the ground well short of Tom
McLaury. But less
than a second after Doc pulled the triggers, the shot reached Tom,
it's 20 BB sized pellets having spread out to a circle of just 4
inches in diameter. These plowed
into Tom under his raised right arm, peppering and penetrating the
flesh between the 3rd and 5th ribs. Absorbing the energy caused his
ribs to crack. Those which missed the bone punctured the upper lobe
of his right lung, producing a pulmonary laceration. Air was forced
out of his mouth. Most of the pellets ran out of energy just before
reaching Tom McLaury's heart. In the Sixth Second, Tom, his hand
finally gripping the secreted gun, staggered into Fremont Street,
dragging the frightened horse behind him - between himself and Doc
Holliday.
In
the Sixth Second, as Wyatt Earp was taking aim for a second shot at
Frank McLaury, Ike Clanton ran forward, pressing himself against the
lawman, and spoiling his shot. Ike cried out that he was unarmed.
In the Seventh and Eighth Second, Wyatt told Ike to "Get a
heeled", adding, "Go to fighting or get away!" In
the Ninth Second Wyatt pushed Ike to his right and rear, out of the
line of fire. And during the Tenth through Thirteenth Seconds, Ike
stumbled east on Fremont, up the steps of Fly's Boarding House, and
through the front door - out of the fight. There was now a 2 second
pause while the wind cleared enough smoke so the combatants could see
each other.
In
the Eighth through the Thirteenth Seconds, Tom Mclaury staggered east
across Fremont Street, and Doc Holliday dropped the coach gun, pulled
his Nickel plated .41 caliber "Long" Colt Thunderer
revolver from his shoulder holster and stepped
forward to face his enemy. About the Fourteenth Second the horse
pulled free from Tom's hand and loped west on Fremont. In the
Fifteenth Second Tom McLaury reached the south side of Fremont
Street.
In
the Sixteenth Second Billy Clanton (above) got a firm grip on the pistol in
his left hand by bracing it with his leg. Tom McLaury fired his Colt
in blind anger at Virgil Earp. The bullet hit Virgil in the calf. In
the Seventeenth Second the big lawman fell. During the Eighteenth
through Twenty-first Seconds Virgil staggered to his feet and
stumbled back against Fly's Boarding House.
During
the Nineteenth Second, Morgan Earp (above) and Billy Clanton exchanged shots.
Morgan's bullet hit two inches below Billy's left nipple. The bullet
clipped a rib and penetrated his lung. Billy's shot clipped Morgan's
right scapula, and went spinning across his back, burning across his
left shoulder blade as well. In the Twentieth through Twenty-third
Seconds Morgan fell. He then tried to stand, calling out "I'm
hit." But he tripped over a lightly buried water line and fell
again. Billy Clanton slumped to the ground, still firing but hitting
no one as his sight failed for lack of blood to the vision centers of
his brain.
In
the Twentieth Second Wyatt Earp fired his last shot at Frank McLaury (above),
the bullet striking him in the abdomen beneath the 12th rib, 6 inches
to the right of his naval. Frank staggered forward, away from the
gunfire, and then began to jog up Fremont Street, out of the fight.
Wyatt then turned to help his brother Morgan. In the Twenty-third
Second, Tom McLaury stood on the South side of Fremont, telling Doc
Holliday, "I have you now." In the Twenty-fourth Second Doc
replied, "You're a daisy if you have." In the Twenty-fifth
Second Tom fired his Colt revolver, hitting Doc, who cried out, "I'm
shot through". He was not. He had suffered a flesh wound.
In
the Twenty-eighth Second, braced against the boarding house, Morgan
fired his last shot. It traveled the 50 feet in less than a second
and struck Tom McLaury (above) just below his right ear, - the best shot in
the entire fight. The lead projectile punched in an oval section of
Tom's Temporal bone, converting it into a quarter inch think
projectile which plowed into the 100 million neurons of Tom's brain.
This was followed almost instantly by the bullet, which followed a
different path through the greasy squishy white brain matter.
Modern
medicine calls what happened an ischemic cascade. In less than a tenth
of a second all that was Tom McLaury, his ability to speak, to smell,
to hear, to think and plan and dream, 28 years of memories, talents,
skills and failings were all obliterated as if they had never
existed. His heart would go on beating for some time, and he would
continue to breath for a few minutes, but in truth Tom McLaury ceased
to exist before his legs crumpled beneath him, and he fell to the
sand of Fremont Street.
Billy Clanton (above) was slumped
now against the Harwood house, his revolver empty.
The 19 year old asked for more cartridges. Fifty feet up Fremont, Tom
McLaury collapsed against a telegraph pole at the corner of Fremont
and Third Street and died from exsanguination,
less than thirty seconds after Wyatt's first bullet destroyed his
kidney. In the Thirtieth Second Doc Holliday ran up to Frank McLaury's crumpled body and
yelled, "That son-of-a-bitch shot me, and I mean to kill him!"
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