Biography
Wyatt Berry
Stapp Earp
March
19, 1848- Janurary 13, 1929
The majority of the following was taken from: Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind
The Legend, 1997, Casey Tefertiller, Wiley and Sons publishing.
On March 19, 1848, in Illinois, Wyatt Berry Stapp
Earp was born to parents, Nicholas Porter Earp and Virginia Cooksey Earp.
He was the fourth son of the couple. Nicholas Earp had enlisted in the military
around the start of the Mexican war. He served under the command of Wyatt
Berry Stapp. His military career ended abruptly with a kick in the groin
from a mule. He would return to Monmouth as a farmer, harness maker, and
sometimes justice of the peace, never finding any contentment while all that
land in the West seemed to be calling as his family continued to grow. In
honor of his captain, he named his fourth son after him.
In 1864, Wyatt, now 16 years old, moved with his family to California. Wyatt's
brother, Virgil, was fighting in the Civil War and brother James had returned
from the war injured. Wyatt would thus assume a man's role on the trip, serving
as a hunter and helping to fend off two Indian raids on the train of forty
wagons as various families traveled together for protection. (1) Wyatt was
not able to receive formal schooling, although he did learn reading and writing
along the trip.
Virgil returned from the Civil War and joined the family in southern California,
where Wyatt learned to hate plowing, hoeing, and everything else connected
to farming. He would join Virgil in working on freight wagons. He worked as
a swamper, helped with loading, and a few turns at driving the teams. (2)
Nicholas decided to once again move his family. In 1868, he took the family
back to Iowa and then on to Lamar, Missouri. In this midwestern farm town
he found a job more to his liking than farming was. For the first time, he
pinned on a badge. On March 3, 1870, he received the appointment of constable.
Two months earlier, he had married a local woman named Urilla Sutherland,
whose father owned the hotel in Lamar. (3)
Less than a year after his marriage- the exact date is unknown- Urilla died
suddenly. She is thought to have died of typhoid. Within a few months, Wyatt
would leave town. He would leave behind a mystery. James Cromwell charged
that he had paid Wyatt $75 for an execution of the court, and that Wyatt erased
the "7" and replaced it with a "5". The implication being that Wyatt pocketed
$20, a significant sum in those days. Cromwell brought charges against Wyatt
and his bondsman, James Maupin. When the court ordered the new town constable
to find Wyatt for a hearing, the family had sold their property and left
Lamar, never to return.
Maupin and brother James Earp, who also was charged, did show at the hearing,
and both were found not guilty. It has never been established whether the
legendary lawman was guilty or innocent of the charge. Wyatt never discussed
his Lamar days very much, even going to the extent of writing relatives not
to talk to biographer Stuart Lake about the events. He had a secret, and he
succeeded in keeping it. (4)
Wyatt Earp, now 22, left Lamar, grief-stricken over the loss of his wife,
and wound up in Indian Territory, now eastern Oklahoma. He would become entangled
in an incident that would trouble generations of researchers with the question
of whether or not the future lawman had stolen a horse. A warrant was issued
on March 28, 1871, charging that Earp, Edward Kennedy, and John Shown had
stolen two horses from the Key family. The three were arraigned April 14.
Earp and Kennedy would be indicted; kennedy stood trial and was acquitted.
Earp never went to trial. After Kennedy's acquital, the law lost interest
in prosecuting Earp. Wyatt may very well have engaged in certain dubious activities
after his wife's death.
The records are too ambiguous to be conclusive, and Earp never discussed
the incidents, but it seems likely that 23-year-old Wyatt Earp nearly found
himself bound for a career that would have landed him inside a jail cell instead
of guarding one. (5)
Wyatt would journey on to the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River in 1871, where
he met two young brothers, Ed and Bat Masterson, both future lawmen, and began
a friendship that would last for years to come. The three would hunt buffalo
for a season.
Wyatt would move on to Ellsworth, Kansas. Trouble would break out in Ellsworth
when Ben Thompson's brother Billy, shot Sheriff Chauncey Whitney. Whitney
would die from the wound. Ben, who was also armed, was told by Mayor James
Miller to surrender his arms as Billy was riding away to advoid arrest. Ben
kept his arms and the streets filled with armed Texans ready to defend him.
What happened next, is a great murky point in history. Stuart Lake would tell
a huge tale about Wyatt saving the day and facing off all the men. While Lake
no doubt added to the story, there is evidence to support that Wyatt was
indeed named a marshal of the town on the spot and disarmed Thompson and
defused the situation. The previous town marshal was discharged from duty
when he refused to confront Thompson and disarm him. (6)
By 1874, Wyatt and his older brother Jim along with Jim's wife, Bessie had
settled into Wichita, Kansas. Wichita deputy Jimmy Cairns would recall that
town marshal Bill Smith saw Earp and chose him for an officer because of his
physique and appearance. (7) The town had been having problems with the tough,
hard-nosed cattle herders and ranch hands coming into town.
As told by Wichita deputy Jimmy Cairns, Wyatt would meet a major test when
as a peacekeeper when a few cattle drovers decided to take out their revenge
on the town. Earp's attitude had angered the drunken Texans over a piano purchased
by brothel owner Ida May. After Ida May declined to pay off the debt owed
on the instrument, Wyatt and 4 other tough men had went to repossess the
piano and chastized the Texans for being too cheap to help their hostess pay
the debt. This lead to the patrons collecting the money and turning it over
to Wyatt. They decided to make Wyatt and the town regret them doing so. A
mob of nearly fifty men, cattle bosses and their men, banded together
in Delano, across the bridge from Wichita, while Earp and other officers
led a group of citizens to the bridge to protect Wichita. Mannen Clements,
a cousin of gunman John Wesley Hardin, served as leader of the cattlemen.
Clements was not known as a 'bad man', but was like most of the early day
cattle handlers who would use violence at times to get what they wanted. Both
sides spread out.
Any wrong move could have caused an all out deadly battle. Earp stood in
the center line of the defenders and calmly called for Clements to put away
his guns. When Clements failed to comply, Earp said, " Mind me now, Mannen,
put up those guns and go on home." Clements paused for a few moments, then
slipped his pistol in his belt and turned his horse around back across the
bridge.
The situation had been defused by Wyatt's steadiness under pressure and
calm in a tense situation. "Wyatt certainly had a way with men," Cairns would
say. Wyatt understood his job was to keep the peace and prevent trouble, not
ignite it. (8)
Deputy Earp piled up an impressive list of achievements during his tenure
as a Wichita lawman; and, most importantly, there were no major outbreaks
of violence or rowdyism. For the most part, cowtown violence flared up after
too much whiskey and too liberal a use of six-shooters. In May of 1875, Deputy
Earp called the bluff of a horse thief.
While making his usual nightly rounds, Earp ran across a man who he thought
fit the description of W.W. Compton, wanted for stealing two horses. Wyatt
questioned the man as to who he was, and Compton gave a fake name. Wyatt took
the man who called himself Jones, to a saloon to get a better look under lamplight.
The stranger turned and ran out. Earp paused and fired a warning shot. The
stranger stopped and gave up. He the admitted to being W.W. Compton. (9)
Wyatt earp's stint as a Wichita lawman had been impressive. Dick Cogdell,
who would later become police chief, said twenty one years later: " Earp is
a man who never smiled or laughed. He was the most fearless man I ever saw.....He
is an honest man. All officers here who were associated with him declare
he is honest, and would have decided according to his belief in the face
of an arsenal." (10)
Wyatt had proven to be tough and fearless in Wichita. And he never took
a life while enforcing the law in Wichita.
In 1876, Wyatt would head on to Dodge City, Kansas. Dodge was at this point
a lawless town. The police force had been weak. Mayor George Hoover, intent
on installing a tough, competant police force named 300 pound Larry Deger
as town marshal and Wyatt Earp as assistant town marshal. Deger seems to have
handled things on the political side, while Wyatt was the enforcer of the
town's laws. Earp said he insisted on the right to name his own deputies for
the cattle season and chose Jim Masterson, Bat's brother and retained Joe
Mason. About a week later, Bat Masterson arrived in town and had already received
some degree of fame for his role in the 1874 Indian battle at Adobe Walls,
where about twenty-eight buffalo hunters and traders held off the onslaught
of a combined force of Kiowas, Cheyenne, and Comanches at a small trading
post about 150 miles from Dodge City on the Texas Panhandle. (11)
In September of 1876, Wyatt says he left the force and traveled to Deadwood
with his brother Morgan. (12) By June, Dodge had a new assistant marshal-
Ed Masterson, another of Bat's brothers, had become Deger's enforcer. Earp
returned to Dodge City in July of 1877 to an endorsement by the Times:
Wyatt earp, who was on our city police force last summer, is in town again.
We hope he will accept a position on the force once more. He had a quite way
of taking the most desperate characters into custody which invariably gave
one the impression that the city was able to enforce her mandates and preserve
her dignity. It wasn't considered policy to draw a gun on Wyatt unless you
got the drop and meant to burn powder without any preliminary talk. (13)
By October, Earp was once again gone from Dodge. He left to chase train
robbers Mike Roarke and Dave Rudabaugh, perhaps as a free lance bounty hunter,
perhaps at the request of the Santa Fe Railroad. His exact role during this
period is unclear, but he did engage in hunting fugitives. The chase took
Earp into a little town called Ft. Griffin in Texas. Earp asked an old acquaintance,
John Shanssey, a saloon keeper, about Rudabaugh. Shanssey directed Wyatt to
a slender man, a dentist who spent more time at the card table than over a
dental chair. This would be the first meeting between Wyatt Earp and Dr. John
Henry Holliday. "Doc" Holliday would emerge as a legend even in his own lifetime.
Doc could be a gentleman one moment and then fly into a rage that would climax
in gunfire.
" Holliday had a mean disposition and an ungovernable temper, and under
the influence of liquor was a most dangerous man," Bat Masterson wrote in
1907. (14)
Holliday asked Wyatt many questions about Dodge City and seemed to consider
moving there.
Soon after Earp left town, Doc and his companion, Kate Elder, would head
on to Dodge City following some trouble Doc got into that ended with him knifing
Ed Bailey.
Wyatt had rode on in pursuit of the robbers. Wyatt followed the robbers
to Joplin, Missouri. Earp said he found a telegram waiting for him there
from Dodge City, Kansas. He was asked to return to the town that was being
overrun by lawless elements. Wyatt headed back to the call of the badge.
Dodge City had banned the carrying of firearms in the town limits to try
and get a hold on the violence in the town. Ed Masterson was shot and killed
by a drunken drover named Jack Wagner. Wagner's cattle boss, Alf Walker, had
also joined in with Wagner on the shooting. Wagner and Walker were both badly
wounded in the shootout as well. Wagner would die the next day while Walker
survived his injury. The shootout, happened between Bat Masterson and some
townsfolk after Ed stumbled into the saloon dying. Bat would later testify:
" I shot those parties who killed my brother there in 1878-in the spring
of 1878." (15)
The town council quickly approved Charlie Bassett to take over the marshal's
office. Wyatt would arrive shortly afterward. He was immediately appointed
asst. marshal by the mayor. Earp, Bat Masterson, and other officers in Dodge
developed the not so gentle art of head banging violaters in the head with
the blunt end of their six-shooter handle. They called it "buffaloing". It
would prove to be very effective and Wyatt would master the art. Wyatt and
the Masterson's were able to once again get the order restored in Dodge City
by being tough and fair. Earp met all challenges without blood shed and rarely
by drawing a pistol. He always had a way of calmly taking a situation and
cooling tempers before the situations exploded. By early June of 1878, Doc
Holliday was in town.
Earp would later say that Holliday saved his life after his arrival in Dodge
City. As the story can be pieced together, in late August a Texas herder named
Tobe Driskill, known to Earp in Wichita, and his partner, Ed Morrison, got
drunk and started making trouble. The two tried to take over the bar when
when Earp and another officer entered and began pistol-whipping the Texans.
One of them drew a gun and pointed it at Earp's back. Holliday yelled, "Look
out, Wyatt, " while drawing his own gun and fired. This scared the Texan
who then backed down. (16) This would begin a loyal friendship between Doc
and Wyatt that would last a lifetime.
That summer of 1878 would be the most memorable of Earp's Kansas cow-town
days. For the first and only time in Kansas, he may have drawn blood with
his pistol. On July 26, the usual nightly celebrations were in full swing.
George Hoy and some other Texans had began shooting and causing panic in the
town. Wyatt and Jim Masterson ran into the street with the Texans firing while
riding away. The two officers returned fire and young George Hoy was hit
in the arm. His wound would prove to be fatal. He hung on until August 27,
when he then passed away from the wound in the arm received that night of
July 26. There is no certainty whether it was the bullet of Earp or Masterson
that landed in Hoy's right arm. This was probably the first time, since the
Indian raids as a boy, that Wyatt Earp had shot a man. He had always found
other ways to deal with troublemakers, usually talking someone down and defusing
tense situations with calmness. This time, however, the shooting was unavoidable
and Wyatt's name would appear in the National Police Gazette. The paper which
printed stories and incidents involving law officers, gave an account of the
shooting of Hoy by Wyatt.
Just past his thirtieth birthday, Wyatt Earp had a touch of national praise
and attention. This would not be the last time that eastern readers would
find the name of Wyatt Earp in print. (17)
The next attempt on Earp's life, according to Wyatt, came when notorious
Texas gunman Clay Allison arrived, probably in early September, shortly after
Hoy's death. Allison was known as a killer, making him just the right man
to come and throw a scare into an overeager assistant marshal. It did not
quite work out that way. Earp said Allison arrived in town and behaved well
for the first day, but the next morning a policeman came and woke Wyatt up
with the word that Allison was carrying two six-shooters and was making threats
against him. Earp picked up his gun and located Bat Masterson, who retrieved
a shotgun he kept at the district attorney's office, near Wright's store.
Masterson stayed across the street, hiding the weapon and appearing unconcerned.
Other Earp allies stood casually in doorways, guns ready. Earp began his search
of the saloon's, first heading to Ab Webster's place. When he came out, he
stepped face to face with Clay Allison, perhaps the most dangerous gun-thrower
of the frontier. Allison said, "So, your the man that my friend Hoy." Earp
responded, "Yes, I guess I'm the man your looking for." Allison noticed Earp's
hand in his pocket where he was holding the tip of his six-shooter and then
noticed Bat in the doorway and said, "Well, I guess I'll step around the
corner." "I guess you better, " Earp replied, then watched the gunman turn
the corner. Masterson could see that twelve tough Texans had gathered to
cover Allison's escape. Bat signaled Wyatt who stepped back as Allison rode
up on horseback. "Come over here, Wyatt, I want to talk to you, " "I can
hear you fine from here," Earp responded. "I think you came here to make a
fight with me, and if you did, you can have one here right now." Earp said.
Bob Wright, who had brought Allison in to challenge Wyatt, came suddenly
running down the street. He had changed his mind after Bat quitely said to
him, " If this fight comes up, your the first person I'm going to kill." Wright
decided he had better call off Allison rather than be filled with lead. Allison
didn't care for Wright backing down and said to Wyatt, "These (Wright and
others) men brought here to make a fight with you and kill you. They have
backed down. I'm going to ride out of town and I wish you good luck." The
situation ended without incident.
Allison would return 10 days laterand sent a messenger to town asking Wyatt's
permission to come into town and attend to business. Wyatt allowed Allison
to do so. (18)
It is believed in 1879, in Dodge City, Wyatt settled in with a woman named
Celia Blaylock who would live with Wyatt as his common law wife. While in
Dodge, Earp forged friendships with Luke Short, the Masterson's, and Doc Holliday.
Wyatt was often excessively rough when keeping the peace, but keeping the
peace he did. In 1879, Dodge had begun to loose some of it's "snap" as Wyatt
would recall. Wyatt, bored again and ready to move on, as his father had
done so often, decided to head to Tombstone, Arizona. Tombstone was just beginning
to build a reputation as an exciting boom town.
In the final weeks of 1879, Wyatt and his brothers would arrive in Tombstone.
Wyatt was now 31 years old and had filled out into a lean, powerful man with
sandy blond hair. Before leaving Prescott, Arizona to join Wyatt in Tombstone,
Virgil Earp had received the commission of United States deputy Marshal. Wyatt
would become employed by Wells, Fargo inc. riding shotgun on the stage coaches
to protect the shipments. The Earp's set up residence on Freemont and First
Streets in three houses. James and Bessie Earp, Virgil and Allie Earp, and
Morgan and Louisa Earp all gathered in Tombstone seeking their fortune. Younger
brother Warren would arrive later.
As Arizona grew into more of a town, a new breed of badmen in the Arizona
backcountry grew into more of a problem. They were a loosely banded outfit
of cow herders and hands that would come to be known in Tombstone as "cow-boys".
Honest ranchers and respected men were refered to as ranchers. The word "cow-boy"
was only used for the rustler/criminal element. Among this element of rustlers
was such notable outlaws as Ike Clanton, Johnny Ringo, Curley Bill Brocius
and Pony Deal and the McLaury brothers, Tom and Frank.
In July of 1880, Pima County Sheriff Charlie Shibell, made Wyatt a deputy.
Wyatt covered the area around Tombstone. With brother Virgil holding the U.S.
deputy marshal appointment, the Earps were again back in law enforcement.
Wyatt would often assist Tombstone town marshal, Fred White with law enforcement
duties in town. Wyatt also dealt in faro, a popular card game, and kept purchasing
interests in mines and land around the area with his brothers and other associates.
In September of 1880, an old friend from Dodge City would arrive in Tombstone.
Doc Holliday had come to seek his fortunes in the boomtown after Wyatt had
told him the place was "buzzing" and that his services as a dentist were needed
there. On Oct. 10, 1880 Doc made his first trouble in town by arguing with
Johnny Tyler. They were gambling in the Oriental Saloon when the argument
broke out. Several men stepped between the two and Tyler left. Doc demanded
to be given his guns from behind the bar. Owner Milt Joyce declined to do
so. Doc left and then returned with a weapon and fired his pistol at Joyce
from about 10 feet away. Joyce leapt over the counter and crashed a pistol
into Doc's head. Marshal Fred White ran in and pulled Joyce off the fragile,
sickly dentist turned gunman. Doc had shot Joyce through the hand. Holliday
received a $20 fine. (19)
Johnny Behan had arrived in town in 1880 not long after the Holliday/Joyce
fight. He would become sheriff of the newly created Cochise County that included
Tombstone within it's county limits. Behan was more of a politician than a
law enforcer. He would befriend the rustler/outlaw element in town.
On Oct.28, 1880, just past midnight, a few rowdy sorts had gotten drunk
and began shooting up the town. City marshal Fred White went out to put a
stop to the shooting. White chased one of the shooters into a vacant lot.
The man turned out to be Curley Bill Brocius, a leader of the cow-boy crowd
and known as a dangerous man with a gun.
Wyatt Earp, unarmed as usual, had been at Billy Owen's saloon when he heard
three to four shots fired. Earp dashed into the street and saw the flash of
the gun. He found Morgan, his brother, and Fred Dodge. Wyatt borrowed Dodge's
pistol and chased toward the shooters. As Wyatt approached he heard Fred
White say. "I am an officer. Now give me your pistol." Curley Bill pulled
his gun from it's holster, and White grabbed the barrel. Earp said he threw
his arms around Bill to check for other weapons. White yelled out, "I'm shot!"
and clothes caught fire from the muzzle blast. Earp immediately crashed his
pistol into Curley Bill's head, knocking him to the ground. He stepped over
Curley grabbed Curley's gun, then grabbed Curley by the collar and ordered
him to get up. Wyatt would place Curley in jail to stand trial for the shooting.
This rough man-handling of Curley Bill is what sparked the first tensions
between the outlaw/cow-boy element, and the Earps.
It had been known by many that Curley had perfected a technique of twirling
a pistol around on his finger after presenting it to someone handle first.
While White stated before dying that it was an accident, many believed that
Curley had used this technique on marshal White and killed him. But, due to
the statements made by White himself before dying, Curley Bill was set free
and the charges dismissed.
Behan's finance, Sadie Marcus, would catch Wyatt's eye. He in turn would
catch hers. Although Wyatt and "Mattie" Blaylock still were living as husband
and wife, at some point, Wyatt and Sadie would nurture a friendship that would
grow into much more. This again created more tension between Behan and the
rustlers and the Earps and Holliday.
The rustler's continued to cause problems along the Mexican/ U.S. border
as well as in town. The political tensions between the Democratic rustlers
and Behan against the Republican Earps and law and order crowds grew more
each day.
These growing and mounting tensions would finally culminate in the shootout
near the O.K. Corral where Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan and Doc Holliday killed rusler/outlaw's
, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton. Ike who had started the trouble
by running around all over town threatening to kill the Earps and Holliday
on sight, ran away as soon as the fighting started. Ike always talked too
much and then ran fast and scared. His running would be the last thing brother
Billy ever saw of Ike as Billy was shot and killed by Morgan Earp and Doc
Holliday. (For a complete detailed account of the O.K. Corral shootout, go
to: https://www.angelfire.com/co4/earpgang/ok.html
)
Following the O.K. Corral shootout, Morgan would be killed and Virgil wounded.
Wyatt would band together a posse behind the authority of his U.S. marshal
deputy badge, and hunt down and kill those he deemed responsible for Morgan's
death. (For more info on Wyatt's Tombstone vendetta and the aftermath of the
O.K. Corral gunfight go to:
https://www.angelfire.com/co4/earpgang/vendetta.html
After the vendetta, Earp and Sadie Marcus would travel as husband and wife.
Mattie died some years later of a drug overdose. (For more info on Wyatt's
wives and all the Earp women, go to:
https://www.angelfire.com/co4/earpgang/women.html
John Henry "Doc" Holliday would travel on to Colorado where he eventually
would die of his illness. Doc and Wyatt remained devoted to their friendship
throughout their days. For an indepth biography about Doc Holliday go to:
https://www.angelfire.com/co4/earpgang/doc01.html
Wyatt and Sadie would travel and find adventures in Alaska, and Las Vegas
as well as southern California. Wyatt Earp died in 1929 in Los Angeles, California.
Wyatt had served as a lawman most of his career. While he had a reputation
for being tough and aggressive, Wyatt got the job done. While one may not
always agree with everything Wyatt did, he usually followed his morals and
beliefs. Wyatt Earp never believed he had killed the cow-boys in Tombstone
for anything other than a noble reason. To protect the town and avenge his
brother.
During the vendetta, the cow-boy element was put down. Wyatt killed Curley
Bill, Ike would once again run away and Johnny Ringo was found dead not long
after Wyatt left Arizona.Wyatt Earp had faced the first symbol of organized
crime in the U.S. along with his friend, Doc Holliday and supporters Turkey
Creek Jack Johnson, Texas Jack Vermillion, and Sherman McMaster and younger
brother Warren. It's safe to say, tough law enforcement won. It's leader,
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp would become a legend. Movies, books and tv shows would
eventually tell the story of Wyatt Earp and his adventures. Often telling
more myth than fact.
In 1993, another movie about Wyatt was released. Tombstone starred Kurt
Russell as Wyatt and Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. Six months later, Wyatt
Earp, with Kevin Costner was released in 1994. After the old t.v. shows of
the 40's and 50's and the movies of then and now had returned Earp's name
to prominence once again, a plaque was placed at the site of Earp's former
residence in Los Angeles in 1994, and city councilman Nate Holden served
as the main speaker. " Frankly, we could use Wyatt Earp in America today.
He was an incredible tall-in-the-saddle hero, a mixture of great myth and
fact, who should never be forgotten," Holden told the crowd.
John Clum, George Parsons, Clara Brown, Bat Masterson, and Florence Finch
Kelly might all say the same thing. In fact, they did.
Primary Source: Wyatt
Earp: The Life Behind The Legend, 1997, Casey Tefertiller, Wiley and Sons
publishing. To Purchase This Book: http://www.amazon.com/
Other Notes and Sources cited:
1). Mrs. J.A. Rousseau, "Rousseau Diary: Across The Desert to California
From Salt Lake City To San Bernardino in 1864," San Bernardino County Museum
Association Quarterly, 1958
2). Stuart Lake's notes, 1928-1931, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.
3). Gary L. Roberts, "Wyatt Earp In Kansas," p. 18 (quotes from June 16,1870,
Southwest Missourian).
4). Ibid.
5). Richard Erwin, The Truth About Wyatt Earp ( Carpenteria, Calif. : The
O.K. Press, 1992), pp. 24-26
6). Bertha Hancock, " William Box Hancock Ms.," University Of Oklahoma History
Collection, 1934 and Mabel Earp Cason, " She Married Wyatt Earp," C. Lee Simmons
Collection, Az. undated
7). Maurice Benfer, " Early Day Law Enforcement Problems In Wichita," Wichita
Eagle Sunday Magazine, Jan. 21, 1929, p.4, Gary L. Roberts collection.
8). Ibid.
9). Miller and Snell, Why The West Was Wild, pp. 146-148
10). Los Angeles Times, Dec. 4, 1896
11). Robert K. DeArment, Bat Masterson: The Man And The Legend ( Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1979), p. 9
12). Stuart Lake's notes, 1928-1931, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.
13). Miller and Snell, Why The West Was Wild, p. 153
14). Bat Masterson and Jack DeMattos, Famous Gunfighters Of The Western
Frontier ( Monroe, Wash: Weatherford, 1982), p. 76
15). Bob Palmquist, " Who Killed Jack Wagner ? " True West ( October 1993),
p. 14
16). Miller and Snell, Why The West Was Wild, pp. 154-155
17). National Police Gazette, August 10, 1878
18). San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 16, 1896.
19). Tombstone Nuggett, Oct. 18, 1880
