The main combatants at the OK Corral

• Virgil Earp: "A raw-boned six-footer, with a sinister expression, and no one who studies faces could fail to see that he is a bold, daring man, not to be trifled with."

• Wyatt Earp: "A professional gambler, cold and calculating, and the brains of the outfit. He is consulted on all occasions and his judgment is generally law with the rest."

• Morgan Earp: "The handsomest of the brothers and perhaps the most reckless." A gambler by trade, and for short time, a messenger for Wells, Fargo & Co.

• Warren Earp: The youngest of the brothers, at 20, he came from California when he heard about the OK Corral shootout.

• James Earp: A saloon man and "the most agreeable one of the family."

• "Doc" Holliday: "...Generally known as a desperado of the first water. It is related that Wyatt Earp owes him his life, which he saved by interfering in a fight while Earp was marshal of Dodge City, Kan. He has killed a number of men, how many no one knows. He is also a professional gambler."

• Brothers Ike, Phineas and Billy Clanton: They took over their father's ranch on the San Pedro River when he was murdered the summer before the Tombstone shootout. The inheritance left them "pretty well fixed. They are fine specimens of the frontier cattle man."

• Brothers Tom and Frank McLaury: Young ranchers. "Having just sold a band of cattle, they were about to invest the proceeds in sheep. They were both well educated and Tom, especially, was sober and industrious."

• Frank Stilwell: After he was murdered, the Star said he had a reputation as "a bad and dangerous man. This may all be true. He has been twice or thrice arrested, once charged with murder and once on suspicion of stage robbery, but in both cases the court, or examining magistrate, pronounced him innocent. Let us give the man who is silenced in death by the assassin's bullet the benefit of the court's judgment."