Wyatt Earp

**Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp** (March 19, 1848 — January 13, 1929) was an Old West lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. He is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was the Tombstone City *and* Deputy U.S. Marshal that day, and had far more experience in combat as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier.

In 1874, Earp arrived in the boomtown of Wichita, Kansas, where his reputed wife opened a brothel. He was appointed to the Wichita police force and developed a solid reputation as a lawman, but was fined and "not rehired as a police officer" after getting into a physical altercation with a political opponent of his boss. Earp immediately left Wichita, following his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas, where he became an assistant city marshal. In the winter of 1878, he went to Texas to track down an outlaw, and met John "Doc" Holliday, whom Earp credited with saving his life.

Earp moved throughout his life from one boomtown to another. He left Dodge in 1879 and moved with brothers James and Virgil to Tombstone, where a silver boom was under way. The Earps clashed with a group of outlaws known as the "Cowboys". Wyatt, Virgil, and younger brother Morgan held various law-enforcement positions which put them in conflict with Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, Ike Clanton, and Billy Clanton who threatened to kill the Earps on several occasions. The conflict escalated culminating in the shootout at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881, where the Earps and Doc Holliday killed three Cowboys. During the next five months, Virgil was ambushed and maimed, and Morgan was assassinated. Wyatt, Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, and others formed a federal posse which killed three more Cowboys whom they thought responsible. Wyatt was never wounded in any of the gunfights, unlike his brothers Virgil and Morgan or Doc Holliday, which only added to his mystique after his death.

After leaving Tombstone, he went to San Francisco where he reunited with Josephine Marcus, and they lived as husband and wife. They joined a gold rush to Eagle City, Idaho, where they owned mining interests and a saloon. Back in San Francisco, Wyatt raced horses again, but his reputation suffered irreparably when he refereed the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match and called a foul which led many to believe he fixed the fight. Earp and Marcus joined the Nome Gold Rush in 1899. He and Charlie Hoxie paid $1,500 (about $47,000 today) for a liquor license to open a two-story saloon called the Dexter and made an estimated $80,000 (or about $2,489,000 today). Around 1911, Earp began working several mining claims in Vidal, California, retiring in the hot summers with Josephine to Los Angeles. He made friends among early Western actors in Hollywood and tried to get his story told, but was portrayed only very briefly in one film produced during his lifetime: *Wild Bill Hickok* (1923).

Earp died on January 13, 1929. Known as a Western lawman, gunfighter, and boxing referee, he had a notorious reputation for his handling of the Fitzsimmons–Sharkey fight and his role in the O.K. Corral gunfight. This changed only after his death when the extremely flattering biography *Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal* was published in 1931, becoming a bestseller and creating his reputation as a fearless lawman. Since then, Earp has been the subject of films, television shows, biographies, and works of fiction which have increased his fame and his notoriety. Long after his death, he has many devoted detractors and admirers. His modern-day reputation is that of the Old West's toughest and deadliest gunmen.