Lawman
On this date in 1848, America's most famous lawman was born. Wyatt Earp was born in Monnmouth, Illinois, and raised with his own posse: his brothers Virgil, Morgan, James, Warren, and his half-brother Newton.
In 1870, Wyatt married Urilla Sutherland in Iowa. She died of typhus while pregnant, and he apparently took it hard. In the next two years, he was arrested, sued, sued again, escaped from jail, and arrested three more times for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame."
He became deputy city marshall of Wichita, Kansas in 1875. Background checks were not as exhaustive as nowadays.
A year later, he followed his brother James to Dodge City, where he worked as a faro dealer in a series of saloons as well as the town's assistant marshal. It was there he met a man he'd later credit with saving his life, a consumptive gambler and one-time dentist, Doc Holliday. He also met a saloon girl named Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock. The nicer histories said they were married. They don't mention that she was a laudanum-addicted prostitute and that any marriage was of the common-law variety.
In 1879, Wyatt, Doc Holliday, and Mattie Blaylock went to the silver mining boomtown of Tombstone, New Mexico. His brother Virgil became marshal, Wyatt and his brother Morgan were appointed "special deputies."
The tin badge brought the Earps into conflict with Billy, Ike, and Phineas Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury. The Clanton gang were freelance socialists where other people's livestock were concerned.
Wyatt also ran afoul of John Behan, the sheriff of Cochise County, who took exception to Wyatt's attentions to his common-law wife, Josephine Sarah "Sadie" Marcus. Sadie styled herself an actress on the basis of having been a dancer in a burlesque troupe's production of H.M.S. Pinafore.
On October 26, 1881, Virgil Earp arrested Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury for carrying firearms within city limits. Yes, the Wild West had more stringent gun control laws than we have now. After being released, they sought out their brothers and gathered on Fremont Street near the O.K. Corral.
Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp, accompanied by Doc Holliday, went to arrest them. The Clanton gang didn't care to be arrested, and shots rang out. The gunfight near the O.K. Corral lasted only forty seconds, but three members of the Clanton gang were killed. Morgan and Virgil Earp sustained wounds. And that's pretty much where the movie ends. But here's the rest:
Sheriff Behan arrested the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday for the murder of Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury. A judge later acquitted them, saying the shootings were justified.
On December 28, 1881, Virgil Earp suffered "crippling injuries in the shotgun ambush" launched by the surviving Clanton gang members. On March 18, 1882, Clanton gang member Frank Stilwell killed Morgan Earp while he was playing pool. Wyatt killed Stilwell on March 20th and hunted down and killed other Clanton gang members.
Sheriff Behan obtained a warrant for Wyatt's arrest on the charge of murder. Wyatt grabbed Sheriff Behan's woman, Sadie Marcus, and they fled to Colorado. Wyatt married Sadie in Denver.
Wyatt and Sadie continued their life of adventure in the Alaskan Gold Rush. They made a nice bit of money up there, returning to the continental United States with $80,000 (worth millions in today's currency). They eventually settled down in Los Angeles, where Wyatt worked as a Hollywood consultant on westerns.
According to the Tombstone Times, “Wyatt Earp was untouched by any of the flying lead; he had a habit of going unscathed through episodes of gunplay, and, indeed, in a half-century of life in the Wild West he was never so much as nicked by a bullet.” He died in his bed on January 13, 1929, just a few weeks shy of his 81st birthday. Sadie lived on until 1944.
According to George Parson, a mining speculator who knew the Earps, Wyatt "was not an angel, but his faults were minor ones and he never killed a man who did not richly deserve it.”
In 1870, Wyatt married Urilla Sutherland in Iowa. She died of typhus while pregnant, and he apparently took it hard. In the next two years, he was arrested, sued, sued again, escaped from jail, and arrested three more times for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame."
He became deputy city marshall of Wichita, Kansas in 1875. Background checks were not as exhaustive as nowadays.
A year later, he followed his brother James to Dodge City, where he worked as a faro dealer in a series of saloons as well as the town's assistant marshal. It was there he met a man he'd later credit with saving his life, a consumptive gambler and one-time dentist, Doc Holliday. He also met a saloon girl named Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock. The nicer histories said they were married. They don't mention that she was a laudanum-addicted prostitute and that any marriage was of the common-law variety.
In 1879, Wyatt, Doc Holliday, and Mattie Blaylock went to the silver mining boomtown of Tombstone, New Mexico. His brother Virgil became marshal, Wyatt and his brother Morgan were appointed "special deputies."
The tin badge brought the Earps into conflict with Billy, Ike, and Phineas Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury. The Clanton gang were freelance socialists where other people's livestock were concerned.
Wyatt also ran afoul of John Behan, the sheriff of Cochise County, who took exception to Wyatt's attentions to his common-law wife, Josephine Sarah "Sadie" Marcus. Sadie styled herself an actress on the basis of having been a dancer in a burlesque troupe's production of H.M.S. Pinafore.
On October 26, 1881, Virgil Earp arrested Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury for carrying firearms within city limits. Yes, the Wild West had more stringent gun control laws than we have now. After being released, they sought out their brothers and gathered on Fremont Street near the O.K. Corral.
Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp, accompanied by Doc Holliday, went to arrest them. The Clanton gang didn't care to be arrested, and shots rang out. The gunfight near the O.K. Corral lasted only forty seconds, but three members of the Clanton gang were killed. Morgan and Virgil Earp sustained wounds. And that's pretty much where the movie ends. But here's the rest:
Sheriff Behan arrested the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday for the murder of Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury. A judge later acquitted them, saying the shootings were justified.
On December 28, 1881, Virgil Earp suffered "crippling injuries in the shotgun ambush" launched by the surviving Clanton gang members. On March 18, 1882, Clanton gang member Frank Stilwell killed Morgan Earp while he was playing pool. Wyatt killed Stilwell on March 20th and hunted down and killed other Clanton gang members.
Sheriff Behan obtained a warrant for Wyatt's arrest on the charge of murder. Wyatt grabbed Sheriff Behan's woman, Sadie Marcus, and they fled to Colorado. Wyatt married Sadie in Denver.
Wyatt and Sadie continued their life of adventure in the Alaskan Gold Rush. They made a nice bit of money up there, returning to the continental United States with $80,000 (worth millions in today's currency). They eventually settled down in Los Angeles, where Wyatt worked as a Hollywood consultant on westerns.
According to the Tombstone Times, “Wyatt Earp was untouched by any of the flying lead; he had a habit of going unscathed through episodes of gunplay, and, indeed, in a half-century of life in the Wild West he was never so much as nicked by a bullet.” He died in his bed on January 13, 1929, just a few weeks shy of his 81st birthday. Sadie lived on until 1944.
According to George Parson, a mining speculator who knew the Earps, Wyatt "was not an angel, but his faults were minor ones and he never killed a man who did not richly deserve it.”