Virgil Earp

Virgil Earp
Born	Virgil Walter Earp July 18, 1843 Hartford, Kentucky
Died	October 19, 1905 (aged 62) Goldfield, Nevada
Resting place	Portland, Oregon
Nationality	American
Occupation	Union soldier, lawman, farmer, rail construction, stagecoach driver, sawyer, mailman, prospector, saloon-keeper
Known for	Deputy U.S. Marshal, Tombstone, Arizona, and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Spouse(s)	Magdalena Rysdam Rosella Dragoo Alvira "Allie" Earp (common-law wife)
Children	Nellie
Parent(s)	Nicholas Porter Earp and his second wife, Virginia Ann Cooksey
Relatives	Wyatt, Morgan, Newton, Mariah Ann, James, Martha, Warren, Virginia Ann, and Douglas Earp

Virgil Walter Earp (July 18, 1843 – October 19, 1905) was both deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone, Arizona City Marshal when he led his brothers Morgan, Wyatt and Doc Holliday in a confrontation with outlaw Cowboys at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881. They killed brothers Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. All four lawmen were charged with murder by Ike Clanton, who had run from the gunfight. During a month-long preliminary hearing, Judge Wells Spicer exonerated the men, concluding they had been performing their duty.

But two months later on December 28, friends of the slain outlaws retaliated, ambushing Virgil. They shot him in the back, hitting him with three shotgun rounds, shattering his left arm and leaving him permanently maimed. The Cowboys suspected were let off for lack of evidence.^[1]:242 His brother Morgan Earp was assassinated in March 1882. Charges against those suspected were dismissed on a technicality.^{[clarification needed][2]} Wyatt Earp, appointed as deputy U.S. Marshal to replace Virgil, concluded he could not rely on civil justice and decided to take matters into his own hands.^[2][3] Wyatt assembled a federal posse that included their brother Warren Earp and set out on a vendetta to kill those they felt were responsible. Virgil left Tombstone to recuperate from his wounds in Colton, California where his parents lived.

Virgil married before he left to serve in the Union Army during the American Civil War. When he returned, his wife and child had left. He held a variety of other jobs throughout his life, though he primarily worked in law enforcement. His younger brother Wyatt, who spent most of his life as a gambler, became better known as a lawman because of writer Stuart N. Lake's fictionalized 1931 biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal and later portrayals of him in movies and fiction as Old West's "toughest and deadliest gunmen of his day."^[4][5] In 1898, Virgil learned that his first wife Ellen Rysdam and their daughter were living in Oregon and reestablished contact with them. After suffering from pneumonia for six months, Virgil died on October 19, 1905.

Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp
Earp at about age 39[1]:104
Born	Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp March 19, 1848 Monmouth, Illinois, U.S.
Died	January 13, 1929 (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, Colma, California 37°40′33″N 122°27′12.1″W
Occupation	Lawman, buffalo hunter, saloon keeper, miner, boxing referee, gambler, brothel keeper
Years active	1865–1898
Known for	Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match decision
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) at age 30
Opponent(s)	William Brocius Tom McLaury Frank McLaury Ike Clanton Billy Clanton Billy Claiborne
Spouse(s)	Urilla Sutherland (m. 1870) Sally Heckell (m. 1872) (common-law wife?) Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock (m. 1878⁠–⁠1881) (common-law wife) Josephine Sarah Marcus (m. 1882⁠–⁠1929) (common-law wife)
Parent(s)	Nicholas Porter Earp and his second wife Virginia Ann Cooksey
Relatives	Newton Jasper Earp (b. 1837) Mariah Ann Earp (b. 1838) James Cooksey Earp (b. 1841) Virgil Walter Earp (b. 1843) Martha Antha Earp (b. 1847) Morgan Seth Earp (b. 1851) Warren Baxter Earp (b. 1855) Virginia Ann Earp (b. 1858) Adelia Douglas Earp (b. 1861)
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Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an Old West lawman and gambler in Cochise County, Arizona Territory, and a deputy marshal in Tombstone. He worked in a wide variety of trades throughout his life and took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. He is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was the Tombstone City and Deputy U.S. Marshal that day, and had far more experience in combat as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier.^[2]

Earp was at different times a professional gambler, teamster, and buffalo hunter. Over his lifetime, he owned several saloons, maintained a brothel, mined for silver and gold, and refereed boxing matches. He spent his early life in Pella, Iowa. In 1870, he married Urilla Sutherland, who contracted typhoid fever and died in childbirth.^[3] During the next two years, Earp was arrested for stealing a horse, escaped from jail, and was sued twice. He was arrested and fined three times in 1872 for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame".^[4] His third arrest was described at length in the Daily Transcript, which referred to him as an "old offender" and nicknamed him the "Peoria Bummer," another name for loafer or vagrant.

By 1874, he arrived in the boomtown of Wichita, Kansas, where his reputed wife opened a brothel.^[5] On April 21, 1875, he was appointed to the Wichita police force and developed a solid reputation as a lawman, but he was fined and dismissed from the force after getting into a fistfight with a political opponent of his boss.^[6][7] Earp immediately left Wichita, following his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas, where he became an assistant city marshal. In the winter of 1878, he went to Texas to track down an outlaw, and he met John "Doc" Holliday, whom Earp credited with saving his life.

Earp moved constantly throughout his life from one boomtown to another. He left Dodge City in 1879 and moved with brothers James and Virgil to Tombstone, where a silver boom was underway. The Earps clashed with an informal group of outlaws known as the "Cowboys." Wyatt, Virgil, and younger brother Morgan held various law-enforcement positions which put them in conflict with Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, Ike Clanton, and Billy Clanton who threatened to kill the Earps on several occasions. The conflict escalated over the next year, culminating in the shootout at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881, where the Earps and Doc Holliday killed three Cowboys. During the next five months, Virgil was ambushed and maimed, and Morgan was assassinated. Wyatt, Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, and others formed a federal posse which killed three more Cowboys whom they thought responsible. Wyatt was never wounded in any of the gunfights, unlike his brothers Virgil and Morgan or his friend Doc Holliday, which only added to his mystique after his death.

As a lifelong gambler Earp was always looking for a quick way to make money. After leaving Tombstone, he went to San Francisco where he reunited with Josephine Marcus, and she became his common-law wife. They joined a gold rush to Eagle City, Idaho, where they owned mining interests and a saloon. They left to race horses and open a saloon during a real estate boom in San Diego, California. Back in San Francisco, Wyatt raced horses again, but his reputation suffered irreparably when he refereed the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match and called a foul which led many to believe that he fixed the fight. They moved briefly to Yuma, Arizona, before joining the Nome Gold Rush in 1899. He and Charlie Hoxie paid $1,500 (about $46,000 today) for a liquor license to open a two-story saloon called the Dexter^[8][9][10] and made an estimated $80,000^[11] (or about $2,459,000 today). The couple left Alaska and opened another saloon in Tonopah, Nevada, the site of a new gold find. Around 1911, Earp began working several mining claims in Vidal, California, retiring in the hot summers with Josephine to Los Angeles. He made friends among early Western actors in Hollywood and tried to get his story told, but he was portrayed only very briefly in one film produced during his lifetime: Wild Bill Hickok (1923).

Earp died on January 13, 1929.^[12] Known as a Western lawman, gunfighter, and boxing referee, he had a notorious reputation for both his handling of the Fitzsimmons–Sharkey fight and his role in the O.K. Corral gunfight. This began to change only after his death when the extremely flattering biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal was published in 1931, becoming a bestseller and creating his reputation as a fearless lawman. Since then, Earp has been the subject of numerous films, television shows, biographies, and works of fiction which have increased both his fame and his notoriety. Long after his death, he has many devoted detractors and admirers. His modern-day reputation is that of the Old West's toughest and deadliest gunman.