Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American Old West gambler, a deputy sheriff in Pima County, and deputy town marshal in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, who took part in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw cowboys. He is often mistakenly regarded as the central figure in the shootout in Tombstone, although his brother Virgil was Tombstone city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal that day, and had far more experience as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier in combat. Earp lived a restless life. He was at different times a constable, city policeman, county sheriff, deputy U.S. marshal, teamster, buffalo hunter, bouncer, saloon-keeper, gambler, brothel keeper, miner, and boxing referee. Earp spent his early life in Iowa. In 1870, he married his first wife, Urilla Sutherland Earp, who contracted typhoid fever and died shortly before their first child was to be born. During the next two years, Earp was arrested for stealing a horse, escaped from jail, sued twice, and was arrested and fined three times during the course of 1872 for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame". His third arrest was subject of a lengthy account in the Daily Transcript, which referred to him as an "old offender" and nicknamed him the "Peoria Bummer". By 1874, he had arrived in the cattle boomtown of Wichita, Kansas, where his brother had opened a brothel. On April 21, 1875, he was appointed to the Wichita police force and developed a solid reputation as a lawma