You know Wyatt Earp: gambling gunslinger,
lawless lawman, and the hero of the O.K. Corral. But much of his biography was embellished,
largely by Earp himself. That means Earp's life story is literally
the stuff of Wild West legend. This is the story of his incredible life. Born on March 19, 1848, Wyatt Earp seemed
to have 50 different fathers all rolled into one. As author Allen Barra laid out, Wyatt's father,
Nick, worked as a farmer, storekeeper, constable, judge, justice of the peace, and lawbreaking
bootlegger. He also recruited and drilled Union soldiers
during the Civil War. A 19th-century nomad, Nick dragged the family
from city to city for various reasons. By the mid-to-late 1850s, Wyatt and his brothers,
James and Virgil, had lived in seven different homes. A 13-year-old Wyatt would attempt his own
journey after the Civil War broke out. He detested farm work and ran away from home
in hopes of fighting like his two oldest brothers and half-brother. Wyatt apparently ran into his father at the
recruiting office, ending his not-so-great escape from the doldrums of hoeing corn. In late 1869, a 21-year-old Wyatt Earp met
Urilla Sutherland. Just after Earp turned 22, they exchanged
wedding vows, with Earp's father officiating the ceremony. As detailed in the biography Inventing Wyatt
Earp, by 1870 Urilla was pregnant, and Earp was constable of Lamar, Missouri, a place
that had no jail and where his father worked as a justice of the peace. Whatever hopes Wyatt had for their future
died with his wife and child, possibly during labor. It was at that time that Earp embraced his
inner outlaw. In 1871, he, John Shown, and Edward Kennedy
allegedly stole two horses. However, Shown's wife claimed that Earp and
Kennedy got Shown drunk to recruit him for the horse heist. She further alleged that they threatened to
kill Shown if he incriminated them in court. Guilty or not, Earp escaped and never faced
justice after his arrest. Earp started his law career in Kansas as an
accused criminal. After the horse thievery charge in, he absconded
to Wichita, where his brother James lived. There, Wyatt provided security for saloons
and later got hired as a policeman. An intimidating figure, he excelled at pistol-whipping
criminals and whipping them in fistfights. His cop buddy, Bat Masterson, remarked that, "There were few men in the West who could
whip Earp in a rough-and-tumble fight." "You gonna do something or just stand there
and bleed?" Earp got fired for winning one such fight
with William Smith, a candidate for marshal who made the grave mistake of insulting the
incumbent, AKA Earp's boss. The once-more unemployed Earp relocated to
Dodge City. Per the Dodge City Daily Globe, he worked
seasonally as an assistant marshal or deputy for several years, where he maintained order
but seemed less concerned about upholding the law. He allowed illegal drinking and prostitution,
imposing fines to profit off of the crime instead of stopping it outright. Author Laurence Yadon noted that detractors
referred to Wyatt and Bat Masterson, as "the 'Fighting Pimps" because of, quote, "their
affinity for prostitutes and other women of questionable morality." Roger Jay observed that in 1872, Wyatt Earp
resided at a brothel in Peoria, Illinois. He and his brother, Morgan, would be arrested
there during a February raid. Three months later, they were arrested a different
brothel: this time at the antiseptic-sounding McClellan Institute. A court might have found Wyatt guilty of pimping
because he and Morgan each received hefty fines of $44.55. Later that same year, Wyatt was arrested again,
this time on a gunboat said to be occupied by pimps and prostitutes. And once again, he got slapped with a pimp-sized
fine. "You Godd--- PIMPS!" Doc Holliday may have been the greatest poster
child for those living with tuberculosis. Wyatt Earp said of Holliday, "Although he sometimes drank three quarts
of whiskey a day, he was still the most skillful gambler, and the nerviest, fastest, deadliest
man with a six-gun I ever saw." "Don't mind if I do." Kinder words have probably never been said
about a dentist. But tales of Holliday's lethal aim were massive
exaggerations invented to protect him from robbers and ruffians. He was a thin, sickly man who lost his mother
to TB at 15. When he was later diagnosed with the disease
himself, the development torpedoed his life as a professional mouth mangler. Instead, he mouthed off at people as a gambler,
traveling out West in hopes that the climate would keep his TB at bay. Regardless, the Encyclopedia of the Great
Plains claims that Holliday was, quote, "not a bluff." The Georgia-born gentleman engaged in duels
to protect his honor, and his fighting spirit would lead him to Earp. Sources differ on where the legendary friends
first crossed paths. Some say that Holliday became acquainted with
Earp in Dodge City, Kansas while dodging murder charges. Others, like author Chuck Hornung, have asserted
that they met in Texas. According to that account, Holliday had beaten
a gambler named Henry Khan with a cane, and Khan shot him. Looking to recover, he traveled about, encountering
Earp in Fort Griffin. In 1879, Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Virgil
and James, arrived in the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona, later followed by their other brother,
Morgan and Doc Holliday. Professor Douglas Linder described Tombstone
as being, quote, "wild even by the standards of the wild West." It was dubbed the "Town Too Tough To Die,"
and according to History.net it quote, "had no law except that of the gun and knife." Or as author Frederick Bechdolt put it, "Tombstone had a man for breakfast every morning. And there were mornings when the number ran
as high as half a dozen." When you think about famous Wild West rivalries,
the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday clashing with the Clantons and McLaurys in Tombstone
probably tops the list. But Wyatt Earp was a multitasker where feuds
were concerned. In addition to outlaws, he also fought the
law — and one law man in particular. Johnny Behan had two things that Earp wanted
badly. Behan was sheriff and Behan had lived with
a woman named Josephine — and Earp wanted both. Earp wooed Josephine, and they would spend
the better part of five decades together. His bid for sheriff didn't go nearly as well. Some of history's most famous bullets flew
during the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, when brothers Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp
along with Doc Holliday battled Cowboys Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury in an empty
lot. Two other Cowboys, Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne,
reportedly ran when the shooting began. There were multiple sources of animosity between
the groups. For instance, the Cowboys allegedly viewed
Virgil, who was a marshal in Tombstone as an illegitimate lawman because of the dubious
way he enforced the law. But the gunfight was also steeped in deep-seated
hostility over the Civil War. The O.K. Corral claimed the lives of the McLaury
brothers and Billy Clanton. Holliday and the Earps stood trial for murder,
but were acquitted. However, the bad blood between the Cowboys
and the Earps was far from over. Dodge City author Tom Calvin described Wyatt
Earp's love life as being pretty complicated. Four different women identified themselves
as his wife over the course of his life — and apparently he never divorced any of them. Then again, writer Roger Jay has pointed out
that there's no solid proof that he ever actually married most of them either. After his first love Urilla, next came Sally
Heckell, though some evidence suggests her name was Salley Haspel. Regardless, she was a prostitute who got busted
alongside Earp on a gunboat. She further complicated things when she identified
herself to authorities as "Sarah Earp." Wyatt could have actually been her pimp or
protector, but whatever the case, they were close enough that Sally likely followed him
to Dodge City. Unfortunately for her, Earp fell in love with
Mattie Blaylock. As Legends of America detailed, Mattie was
a prostitute who became Earp's common-law wife. Sally moved on, and Earp went on to break
Mattie's heart by abandoning her for his fourth wife, Josephine, a.k.a. Johnny Behan's former
fiance. In 1882, Wyatt Earp, his brother Morgan, and
Doc Holliday were shooting pool when a different kind of shooting interrupted them. Per History Net, two bullets were fired. One narrowly missed Wyatt; the other didn't
miss Morgan. Believing the Cowboys killed Morgan in retaliation
for the O.K. Corral, Wyatt led a vendetta ride and started executing Cowboys. Now a wanted man, he left Arizona and traveled
throughout the West, eventually settling in California, where he established himself in
West Coast boxing circles. A longtime boxing fan, Earp received training
from a pro fighter as a teenager and later refereed fights. In 1896, he was chosen to referee the heavyweight
championship bout between Tom Sharkey and Bob Fitzsimmons in San Francisco. Rumors circulated that Earp agreed to hand
Sharkey the victory. The fight started bizarrely when Earp entered
the ring with a gun under his coat that had to be confiscated. Fitzsimmons bested Sharkey throughout the
bout and floored him in the eight round with a wicked gut punch, but Earp declared it a
low blow and disqualified Fitzsimmons. Earp was branded a dirty referee but again
dodged a legal bullet. Because boxing was illegal in San Francisco,
he couldn't be tried for fight-fixing. Wyatt Earp spent the end of the 19th century
trying to strike gold. He ran a saloon in Alaska during its gold
rush, and then rushed to Nevada in 1901 in search of more gold there. He eventually moved to Los Angeles, where
he would have a striking influence on the Golden Age of Hollywood. Earp became an unpaid technical adviser for
Hollywood Westerns and befriended two of the silent era's biggest stars: William Hart and
Tom Mix. Per A Wyatt Earp Anthology, Earp and Mix bonded
over Shakespeare, and Wyatt compared his life to Hamlet. "To be or not to be… that is the question." But that's where the similarities ended. According to Earp, "That feller Hamlet was a talkative man. He wouldn't have lasted long in Kansas." Earp himself, no speaker of Elizabethan English,
might have talked more like the 'Duke' John Wayne. Or rather, John Wayne might have talked like
Wyatt Earp. It's been reported that Wayne modeled his
onscreen persona after Earp, whom he allegedly got to know personally. The actor was quoted as saying, "Earp was the man who had actually done the
things in his life that I was trying to do in a movie. I imitated his walk; I imitated his talk." However, The American Cowboy disputed this
narrative, arguing that Wayne instead got his knowledge from director John Ford, who
worked with Earp. "We became quite friendly, and I didn't know
anything about the OK Corral at the time." Pop culture often paints Wyatt Earp as a guy
who talked sternly and carried a big gun — a very, very big gun. "That's my buntline you're wearing isn't it?" "I guess it is." Dubbed the 'Buntline Special,' Earp's weapon
was said to be one of five custom-made Colt revolvers that writer Ned Buntline supposedly
bestowed on five the West's greatest gunslingers, all of them lawmen. The long firearms of the law reportedly had
12-inch barrels and the name Ned engraved on their grips. It seems fitting that as an icon of the Wild
West, Earp would own the Conestoga of smoke wagons. But was Buntline blowing smoke when he boasted
about handing Earp this specially made gun? In 1876, Colt rolled out a line of long revolvers,
but no foot-long version existed until 1957, when Colt sought to profit off of Earp's posthumous
popularity. Only 30 or so original revolvers existed,
and there's no evidence that Ned Buntline ever ordered one. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite
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