Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was a lawman in the American West, involved in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which he and other lawmen killed three outlaws.^[2][3] While Wyatt is usually depicted as the key figure in the shootout, his brother Virgil was Deputy U.S. Marshal, Tombstone City Marshal, and had decided to enforce a city ordinance prohibiting carrying weapons and disarm the Cowboys. Wyatt was an assistant marshal to his brother.^[4][5]

In 1874, Earp arrived in the boomtown of Wichita, Kansas, where his reputed wife opened a brothel. Wyatt was arrested more than once for his presence in a brothel, where he may have been a pimp. He was appointed to the Wichita police force and developed a good reputation as a lawman, but was "not rehired as a police officer" after a physical altercation with a political opponent of his boss.^[6][7] Earp left Wichita, following his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas, where his brother's wife Bessie and Earp's common-law wife Sally operated a brothel. He became an assistant city marshal. In 1878, he went to Texas to track down an outlaw, Dave Rudabaugh, and met John "Doc" Holliday, whom Earp credited with saving his life.

Earp moved between boom towns. He left Dodge in 1879 and moved with brothers James and Virgil to Tombstone where a silver boom was underway. The Earps held law enforcement positions that put them in conflict with an outlaw group known as the "Cowboys", who threatened to kill the Earps on several occasions. The conflict escalated, culminating in the shootout at the O.K. Corral in 1881, where the Earps and Doc Holliday killed three Cowboys. During the next five months, Virgil was ambushed and maimed, and Morgan murdered. Wyatt, Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, and others formed a federal posse that killed three more Cowboys whom they thought responsible. Wyatt was never wounded in any of the gunfights, unlike brothers Virgil and Morgan or Doc Holliday, which added to his mystique after his death.

After leaving Tombstone, Earp went to San Francisco where he reunited with Josephine Marcus, and they later joined a gold rush to Eagle City, Idaho. Back in San Francisco, Wyatt raced horses, but his reputation suffered 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 opened the Dexter saloon,^[8][9][10] and made an estimated $80,000 (equivalent to $3,024,000 in 2024).^[11] But, Josephine had a gambling habit and the money did not last. Around 1911, Earp began working mining claims in Vidal, California, retiring in the summers with Josephine to one of several cottages they rented in Los Angeles. He made friends among Western actors in Hollywood and tried to get his story told, but was portrayed during his lifetime only briefly in one film: Wild Bill Hickok (1923).

Earp died in 1929^[12] notorious for his handling of the Fitzsimmons–Sharkey fight and role in the O.K. Corral gunfight. This changed only after his death when the flattering biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake was published in 1931, becoming a bestseller and creating his reputation as a fearless lawman. Since then, Earp's fame and notoriety have been increased by films, television shows, biographies, and works of fiction. Long after his death, he has many devoted detractors and admirers.

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