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Wyatt Earp Facts

Wyatt Earp Facts
Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) was a famous American frontier lawman who also engaged in criminal activity at different parts of his life. Earp is best known for his involvement in the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881 that left three people dead. Earp was widely traveled for the time and ended up in Hollywood, California, where he worked as a consultant on many early Western film, which served to enhance his reputation and ensured that he'd never be forgotten. He was born Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp on March 19, 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois to Nicholas and Virginia Earp. Earp had eight sibling, including Virgil and Morgan, both of whom he'd have many adventures with later in his life. The Wyatt family moved quit a bit for the time period, living in California before settling in Lamar, Missouri in 1868. Wyatt met and married Urilla in 1869, but she died of typhoid fever while giving birth to their child. Earp then embarked on a criminal life from 1870 to 1874, before moving to Kansas to hunt buffalo and eventually became a deputy US Marshall.
Interesting Wyatt Earp Facts:
Wyatt's first law enforcement job was as the town constable in Lamar, Missouri.
The death of Urilla led Wyatt to an approximately five year period of heavy drinking, womanizing, and crime.
Earp was accused of embezzling from the city of Lamar and horse theft in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in 1871. He escaped from a jail in Indian Territory, headed east to Peoria, Illinois, where he worked in a brothel for a time, and then headed west to Kansas.
Wyatt Earp was described by many as handsome yet intimidating. He stood about six-feet tall, which was tall for the time, and always wore a handle bar moustache.
He actually came to Wichita, Kansas to help his James run a brothel, before he headed to Dodge City where he met Doc Holliday.
Wyatt moved to Arizona in 1879. His brother was the town constable in the border town of Prescott.
The gunfight at the O.K. Coral involved Wyatt, Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp, and Morgan Earp against members of crime syndicate known as the "Outlaw Cowboys."
Doc, Virgil, and Morgan were wounded in the battle, while Outlaw Cowboys Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed.
Virgil and Morgan were later ambushed in retaliation for the gunfight, with Morgan being killed.
Wyatt and Doc Holliday eventually killed Jack Stillwell, Curly Bill Brocius, Johnny Barnes, and Florentino Cruz before calling it even and permanently leaving Tombstone.
Wyatt never remarried and had no children, but he had three common-law wives.
In his younger years, Wyatt worked as a boxer and boxing referee in Wyoming. After his deeds as a lawman made him famous, he was asked to referee the Bob Fitzsimmons and Tom Sharkey world title heavyweight boxing match on December 2, 1896 in San Francisco, California, making him quite possibly the world's first celebrity referee.
Wyatt Earp died on January 13, 1929 at the age of eighty in Los Angeles, California. Despite not being Jewish, he was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Colma, California because his long-term and common-law wife at the time, Josephine Sara Marcus, was Jewish.


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