The author never intended to write about Wyatt Earp or the Tombstone saga. What could be learned from another retelling of that old chestnut? New revelations, like the Otero Letter, alter traditional interpretations of Earp's sanguinary campaign as a personal feud ala western fiction. It was a seek and destroy mission sanctioned by the attorney-general, the United States marshal and governor of Arizona Territory, following a year of corrupt law enforcement in league with the Cow-boys' expanded livestock raids, stagecoach holdups, and other atrocities.

This work is divided into three sections. The first part establishes the major players prior to converging on Tombstone. Part two recaps the Earp path to confrontation via a monthly/daily account of the 18-months culminating with the final bloody field action. Part three covers the provenance, authenticity and credibility of the Otero Letter; a detailed examination of each statement in the letter including the shotgun dual between Wyatt Earp and Curly Bill; the split between Earp and Holliday; sanctuary for the Earp posse in Colorado and Holliday's extradition fight; Earp's covert Phase II assault resulting in Johnny Ringo's death; the controversial courtship and marriage of Earp and Josephine Marcus; and the author's concluding observations.