1882: He Ran From the O.K. Corral Gunfight, Then Started One He Could Not Survive
Billy Claiborne stood with Ike Clanton near Fly's Photography Studio when gunfire broke out at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, in October 1881. Unarmed and unwilling to fight, he bolted through the studio and escaped while Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were shot dead by the Earps and Doc Holliday. The humiliation never left him.
Claiborne blamed gunfighter Frank Leslie for killing his friend Johnny Ringo, and told a friend he was working double shifts in the mines just to save enough money to return to Tombstone and kill him. He got his chance on this day in 1882, drunk and abusive inside the Oriental Saloon, he was thrown out by Leslie, then waited outside with a rifle hidden behind a fruit stand. His shot went wide. Leslie's did not, and Claiborne died six hours later.
As he lay dying he reportedly said, "Frank Leslie killed Johnny Ringo, I saw him do it."
