Wyatt Earp
(1848 – 1929)

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp, better known as Wyatt Earp (19^th March 1848 Monmouth – 13^th January 1929 Los Angeles), American justice of the peace, bison-hunter, farmer, contractor. His brothers were Virgil and Morgan Earp, both of them were formerly well-known justices of the peace on the wild west.

So far one of the best known men on the wild west spent his childhood in Iowa and Illinois. During the American civil war, when he was a young adult, he often wanted to run away after his brothers into the army, but finally he always stayed beside his father who needed him around their home. The real life started in 1864 for him, when his family moved to the west, settled down on a ranch and started to run a farm led by Earp senior. Wyatt drove stage-coach, he was a judge on boxing-matches, and he regularly tried himself out in gambling. As a representative of law, he was firstly a policeman in the city of Lamar, but when his wife died a few months after their marriage, his life derailed. He often got into trouble with law, he was accused of robbery and embezzlement. He was arrested several times, once he escaped from prison. After this he disappeared from before public for years, and he appeared just in 1874 again, in Wichita, Kansas.

Wichita wasn’t a peaceful town in the least. The cattle-traders and carpet-baggers travelling to Texas took a rest here, and threw themselves into drinking and gambling. Working for the town’s justice of the peace, Wyatt Earp caught several train-robbers and horse-thieves being wanted by the police. He got bigger and bigger fame, and he got enthusiastic about his popularity, so he wanted to enter for an election. The office-holder police judge resented Earp’s political ambitions, there was a difference of opinion between them which finally led to fistfight. The city council turned against Earp, so he gave up his ambitions in Wichita and moved to Dodge City together with his brothers.

In Dodge City which was none the more peaceful place than Wichita, he was appointed to be the deputy justice of the peace. In this city he met Doc Holliday and they made friends with each other for a lifetime. Earp left Dodge City in 1878. He headed towards New Mexico, finally he settled down with his brothers in Tombstone, Arizona (the hotbed of the “Silver fever”), where Doc Holliday joined them a bit later as well.

As the law’s man he regularly got into trouble with the Clanton and the McLaury clan who made him angry about stealing the mules of the army. These animals counted as federal property at that time, but McLaury re-branded them quite simply. These two clans stood behind the increasing robberies and armed attacks as well.

At night of the 15^th March 1881, armed people attacked a stage-coach. The coachman and a passenger died. Ike Clanton felt as if he had recognized Earp and Holliday. Further atrocities and long-lasting opposition finally led to the most notorious armed clash of the wild west. The gun-battle fought at O. K. Corral hardly took half a minute, and during the 30 seconds there were 30 shots gone off. The 3 Earp-brothers and Holliday stood opposite 5 cowboys. Wyatt Earp got off unharmed, but 3 of the Clanton clan died. Billy Claiborne and Ike Clanton escaped from the firefight. This gun-battle was followed by a trial which was closed by the Earps’ acquittal, but the revenge of the 2 clans had to come. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday became persecuted, so the Earp-brothers left Tombstone in 1882 for ever.

Living with his third wife Earp earned his bread mostly as businessman, he opened and rent salons, he invested in house property and after winning a race-horse he started to go to the races. During the gold fever he opened a rest-house in Alaska, then he made another fortune from his mines in Mojave desert. The former western-hero who spent summers regularly in Los Angeles cultivated close friendship with the first Hollywood-celebrities.

He was one of the greatest legends of the wild west’s heroic age, his life has been elaborated by several movies until our days. His death happened in Los Angeles in 1929 under peaceful circumstances, but his life, fame and legend immortalized him for posterity.

He took part actively in several gun-battles but there were no injuries on his body hit by a bullet.

Page By Greyman