Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 - January 13, 1929), born in Monmouth, Illinois, was a sheriff in the Wild West. He was involved in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral along with Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp, and Morgan Earp.

Earp was elected constable of Lamar, Missouri, in 1870. A year later, in 1871, he married Miss Urilla Sutherland. He also joined the Wichita, Kansas police force, but he was discharged in April 1876, following an altercation involving him and another officer. Earp joined the police force in Dodge City and, in 1878, he was appointed assistant city marshal under Charles Bassett.

In September 1879, he left Dodge City and three months later reached Tombstone, Arizona, where he became a farmer. After Wyatt's brother, Virgil Earp became city marshal of Tombstone, he recruited Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp as "special deputy policemen."

Phineas Clanton, Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury sold livestock to Tombstone. Wyatt Earp was convinced that the Clanton and McLaury brothers had been selling stolen livestock, and had stolen one of his horses. Earp also came into conflict with sheriff John Behan because of a fight involving a woman.

During the O.K. Corral gunfight, Wyatt Earp shot Frank McLaury in the stomach.

Wyatt Earp in fiction

In the long narrative poem Wyatt Earp in Dallas: 1963 (www.seraphimeditions.com), Earp received a prophecy from a prisoner named 'Noah' who not only foretold the invention of television and environmental devastation but also the death of President Kennedy. Earp being transformed by this prophecy time-traveled to Dallas to prevent the assassination.

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