40 Facts About The Legendary Wyatt Earp

Earp also had an older half-brother, who was the product of his father's first marriage. While Monmouth might not sound as romantic as Dodge City, Deadwood, or Tombstone, the Wyatt Earp Birthplace was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

This unit fought in the Mexican-American War, and Earp's father served as a sergeant in Stapp's regiment. There doesn't appear to be any record of what Captain Stapp thought of having the country's most famous lawman named after him.

But the 13-year-old Wyatt seemed to like the idea of being a military man more than he did farming. In fact, Earp ran away multiple times in the hope of signing up. His dad, however, caught up with him every time and marched him back to the farm.

Records show he officiated an 1869 fight between Professor Mike Donovan and John Shanssey — a bout that attracted 3,000 fans. He was still refereeing boxing matches almost 30 years later when a decision in the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey Heavyweight Championship bout cost him his reputation.

Earp awarded the world heavyweight championship to Tom Sharkey — even though opponent Bob Fitzsimmons had just knocked him down. Earp said it was a low blow, but almost nobody else agreed. Allegations were made that Earp had fixed the fight. The story became a press sensation and brought Earp to national attention.

Earp joined his family in Lamar and took over the reins as town constable — his first sortie into law enforcement. But the fact that Earp was the constable didn't stop him from getting into trouble.

Earp built a house for his wife on the outskirts of Lamar and set about starting a family. But, tragically, when Urilla was pregnant with their first child, she was stricken with typhoid and died. This was only nine months after the wedding.

Barton County accused Earp of misappropriating funds. He had apparently not handed the county $200 of Lamar license fees that were due to go to local schools. Cromwell accused Earp of owing him $75.

Earp was duly arrested for the horse theft by Deputy United States Marshal J. G. Owens. Earp was set to face trial... but he elected to forgo the pleasure of his court appearance by breaking out of jail and hightailing it to Peoria, Illinois.

Earp was also arrested in a brothel in Peoria in 1872 and again later that year in a floating brothel called the Beardstown Gunboat. On top of all that, Earp later ran a brothel in Nome, Alaska, during the Klondike gold rush.

But in 1876 an ex-marshal accused Earp of abusing his post to give jobs to his brothers. The two ended up engaged in a fight, with Earp emerging as the winner. Nonetheless, he was fined $30 and lost his position.

The pair had been attracted by a gold rush, but all of the land was already accounted for. So instead, Earp bought a load of timber and sold it for firewood, turning a handsome profit of around $5,000.

Hearing the racket, Earp went into the bar to be faced down by a pack of drawn shooters. Sitting at the back was Holliday, who grabbed Morrison and put his pistol to the man's head. Morrison's accomplices subsequently stood down, and Earp was off the hook. As a result, Earp and Holliday later became close buddies.

Josephine Earp — Wyatt's fourth and final wife — apparently convinced the author Stuart Lake to keep mention of Blaylock out of his popular biography of Earp. Her relationship was only later brought to the public's attention in the 1950s. Earp's relationship with her ended in 1881.

Earp seems to have performed the duties of his new role with distinction. "Wyatt has filled various positions in which bravery and determination were requisites, and in every instance proved himself the right man in the right place," one newspaper comments at the time.

A lynch mob gathered, but Earp played a part in dissuading them from killing O'Rourke. The report of this event included in Stuart N. Lake's 1931 biography, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, made it sound like Earp talked the mob around on his own. This may not be true, but the tale saw Earp's posthumous reputation as an effective lawman soar.

In the shootout, three of the Cochise gunmen were killed, while Morgan, Virgil, and Holliday were all slightly wounded. Earp, however, remained untouched. It's said that 30 shots were fired during the 30-second battle.

Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, insisted that he and his men had acted in self-defense. A judge later ruled that there was insufficient evidence for an indictment. The Earps and Holliday were in the clear, but they made plenty of enemies as a result of the fight.

Earp seemingly made a habit of bending the truth in his later years, however. The lawmen could have been taking credit for deaths attributed to his posse or simply inflating the numbers. We have no real way of knowing how many people Earp killed with his own hand.

The gang apparently tried to sell some gold bullion to a German called Ritchie. The catch was that these seemingly valuable items were actually just stones painted gold. Earp was trying to sell them for $2,000.

The gang included Texas Jack Vermillion and Shotgun John Collins. And although the mayor tried to negotiate, Earp wouldn't hear of it. The upshot was that Short was allowed to keep his bar open, and the war was settled without bloodshed.

After the dust had settled, though, Earp realized that a bullet had passed through his coat. Another slug had hit his saddle horn, and a third had left a hole in his boot heel. Yet Earp himself was unscathed.

His brief flirtation with retail came in 1898 when he traveled to Alaska on the trail of the Klondike gold rush. While in "The Last Frontier," Earp managed a store selling booze and smokes for the Alaska Commercial Company.

In the context of Nome and Alaska during the Klondike gold rush, this establishment was the most luxurious in the region. For the convenience of its patrons, the successful saloon's upper floor housed a lavishly furnished brothel.

Thomas Earp Junior had two sons that we know about — John and Joseph. He lived until 1720, and people have traced his ancestry through 12 generations in Maryland, Virginia, and all over the United States.

Nicholas turned his hand to being everything from a lawman to a bootlegger. He also found time to be a farmer, a teacher, and a wagon master. On top of all that, in 1864 he led a wagon train to California.

Earp could easily have taken the cash, but he didn't. As the Wichita Beacon put it, "[There] are but a few other places where that $500 bankroll would have been heard from."

Leading a posse, Earp set off in pursuit of the Cochise County Cowboys whom he believed were responsible. Eventually, the gang killed four of the Cowboys, with Earp directly responsible for at least two of the deaths.

In any case, Blaylock's life took a turn for the worse after the separation, and she became addicted to opium. Her 1888 death certificate, issued in Pinal, Arizona, bluntly states, "Suicide by opium poisoning."

Later, Earp spent a couple of years as a fully-fledged teamster, running a line from Wilmington, California, to Salt Lake City, Utah. This involved driving cargo over a wagon road some 720 miles.

Over the next nine years, Earp bought four saloons and gambling halls at a time when the local real estate market was thriving. It's apparent that Earp became a substantial man of property, sometimes making $1,000 in a night in his gambling halls.

His duties were seemingly rather unorthodox and included traveling to Mexico to capture and return criminals to L.A. His responsibilities apparently involved taking care of things "outside the law" — and he was good at it.

At one point during this operation, Earp fired his Winchester rifle into the ground in front of a government official. For this, Earp and his posse were all arrested. His mission to end the dispute was unsuccessful, too.

Subsequently, two of the best-known Hollywood cowboys of the day, Tom Mix and William Hart, became Earp's friends. The former lawman was also a regular visitor to director John Ford's movie sets.

Wayne was actually working for director John Ford as an extra when he met Earp. Wayne even later said that he imitated Earp's way of walking and talking in his portrayal of Wild West cowboys.

He added, "I detest it, and I never have put forth any effort to check the tales that have been published in which my brothers and I are supposed to have been the principal participants. Not one of them is correct."

Of the men who'd been involved in the 1881 shootout at the O.K. Corral, Earp was the last to die. He'd suffered from liver disease for some time, and chronic cystitis finished him off. Earp died childless.

She did this secretly, and after her 1944 death, she was buried next to him. An obituary in The Los Angeles Times called him "the last of the famous gang that brought law and order into the rough cow camps of the West."

The missing memorial subsequently turned up in a flea market and was later repositioned — only to be stolen again. Eventually, Josephine's descendants put in place the gravestone that stands today.

Others were not so kind. In fact, Earp's reputation since his death has been through many ups and downs. It doesn't help that some popular biographies of his were later proved to be largely fictional. But his fame has far outweighed his reputation.