April 22, 2010
Everybody, I mean everybody, has forwarded me the news about the O.K. Corral inquest papers being found. Unfortunately, the reports make it seem as if these have been missing since 1881, but that is not the case.

Here is Mark Boardman's take on the find:

"Just to be clear--this is the Coroner's Inquest, done the same day as the Street Fight. It is not the trial inquest (the so-called Earp Hearing). The originals of that are still missing.

"I'm trying to find out just how long the Coroner's Inquest papers have been around--a couple of years at least, according to some friends.

"I believe these are the originals. They were misplaced in the '60s and later found in Bisbee.

"There is no real new info in the 'find.' Lord knows how many copies were made before they were lost. They're quoted in many places."
—Mark Boardman

"Three men hurled into eternity in the duration of a moment."
—Headline from Tombstone Epitaph, October 27, 1881