Both Westerns and history are filled with outlaw gangs.
The Cowboys' most frequent crime earned them that title.
Tombstone is one of Val Kilmer’s most famous films, but how much is fact over fiction?
WhileTombstonedid a good job of depicting their viciousness, it didn’t get everything about the gang right.
Aside from minor differences like that, however,Tombstonemostly depicted the Cowboys as they were: thoroughly hated.
Corral (viaAmerican Cowboy Chronicles).
Custom image by Sean Morrison
Where history diverges from the film, however, is in the timeline.
In real life, the few survivors of the Earp Vendetta continued committing crimes for a time.
Eventually, the Earps left Tombstone, and the Cowboys' power over Arizona was never the same.
Tombstone chronicles legendary marshal Wyatt Earp and his brothers as they seek fortune in a prosperous mining town. Forced to confront a gang threatening the community, Earp joins forces with the infamous Doc Holliday, highlighting a tense battle between lawmen and outlaws in the American West.
Several officials tried to form a posse to eliminate the remaining Cowboys, but those never came to fruition.
Their reign of terror ended shortly after that, in 1882.
