hat did not go for the rest of the town. The events played in the movie were obviously crucial to the gunfight, but there were other circumstances that contributed. Perhaps the biggest problem that went unmentioned was the Benson Stage Robbery where Bud Philpot was murdered. Though it was believed to be a failed assignation attempt on Bob Paul instead of a robbery, since none of the reported 26-80 thousand dollars was stolen. A posse quickly formed with three Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and many others. They only found one man on their hunt, Luther King whom they scared into admitting that the robbers were Harry Head, Billy Leonard, and Jim Crane. This is a very important event because of the actions the Earps take with the Clantons and the McLaurys to locate the stage robbers. Many rumors flew around the Benson robbery accusing everyone from Doc and the Earps to the Clantons and the McLaurys. A deal between Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp was documented, Ike wanted the Leonard’s ranch and Wyatt wanted the glory of arresting Philpot’s murders. Even though these were associates of Ike, he wanted the ranch and the cash reward. He knew that if word were to get out that he had a deal with the Earps that he would surly be dead. And this fact scared him from the day he and Wyatt shook hands. The film makes the sheriff of Tombstone Cotton Wilson, but in real life his name was John Behan. His character in the movie is fairly accurate, Behan was a corrupt man whom received payoffs and benefits from the cowboys in exchange for him being impartial to their actions. Wyatt openly has problems with Behan after he pieces together Behan is dirty.The reasons for the problems with the cowboys, as the film writes it, are their cattle rustling and their blatant disrespect for laws. The Earps seemed to take this personally and even though they offered to get out of town, Wyatt instead demanded that they return the stolen cattle. The C...
