SHOOT-OUT AT THE O.K. CORRAL

Airdate Jan. 22, 2003 -- Almost every popular notion about the Old West has its origins in the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Four courageous lawmen face off against ruthless, murderous outlaws in the streets of the tiny mining town of Tombstone, Arizona. The marshals demand the outlaws' guns.

The desperados refuse.

A slight twitch of a hand and six-shooters burst into a frenzy of gunfire. In just seconds, the outlaws are dead and the unflappable marshals stand magically unscathed.

Order is restored and the legends of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are born.

The problem is, it all may be wrong.

Analyzing the Gunfight

For the first time ever, we will analyze the gunfight as a "police shooting," to determine if the killing of the three outlaws was justified … or homicide, and to learn if some of our greatest American heroes were actually guilty of murder. Was the gun battle a case of lawmen versus criminals, or was it a dual of men competing for political and economic power in Tombstone?

Using testimony from the Corner's Inquest and modern day forensic technology, we will try to determine what happened that afternoon in 1881. On a Wild West movie set, a group of Tombstone historians, ballistic experts and police detectives reconstruct the Gunfight.

At a modern "firearms simulator," we see what happens to a man's ability to aim a weapon while in the line of fire. Computer-generated mapping of the town is used to analyze eyewitness accounts that the Earps were going into that empty lot looking for a fight.

Ballistic analysis will determine the accuracy and lethality of the weapons to establish how far the shooters were from one another when the guns were fired.

.… All to help resolve the fundamental questions: Who fired first and was it a "good arrest gone bad" or premeditated murder?

All Above For Mockup Purposes Only