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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 4141013" data-attributes="member: 307">Burr's political career was destroyed by the illegal duel, and he was considered an outcast from society after the duel. yeah, that was considered "good" and "right" at the time.Hmm, Hickock claimed self-defense, after he was arrested and tried for manslaughter. It doesn't sound like his actions were considered particularly good at the time. He was only acquited because the jury bought the argument that Tutt had acted first. Otherwise, he likely would have been convicted, as many other gunslingers of the era were. Earp and Holliday acted under the authority of law, even if they may have abused that authority, and many condemned them at the time, and they were actually charged with murder, and although the charges weren't sustained the judge roundly criticized them. Public opinion was so against them at the time, that after their vendetta ride Earp and Holliday had to uproot and leave the Arizona Territory. That doesn't sound like they were lauded as heroes (and they weren't, until much later when Earp got to publicize his accounts of the activities, after most of his opponents were dead).Most gunfights at the time involved lawmen (like the Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight), resulted in muder charges (like the Gunfight in Hide Park), and many times the only reason no one was prosecuted was poor communications (it was still possible to go to the next territory and vanish from sight). Most gunfighters became famous much later, when their stories were romanticised, but at the time, most people (and most newspaper accounts) seem to have painted them as thugs and criminals.</blockquote>

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