I think my favorites of this series are the "biographies," perhaps because they remind me of the old dime novels of yesteryear, and none more so than this one. I have to admit, however: this one seems like something of a guilty pleasure. The story of the O.K. Corral never seems to get old, and it's been the subject of one retelling after another, each version more fantastic than the last! They're still quite entertaining, however, even if most, as here, take a fair number of liberties with the facts. The omissions are even more striking, however.
Wyatt Earp is still largely a household name, at least in the Southwest. In short, he had everything going for him in terms of what makes an icon: his striking looks, complete with a much-renowned handlebar mustache, piercing eyes, a quick and some would even say vicious temper, and a notorious reputation. He was actually born in Illinois, but was raised in various places as his ever-growing family moved West. He had a reported seven siblings, most notably brothers James, a Civil War veteran, as the book here notes, Virgil, and Morgan, who often shared in his exploits. He also had another half-brother from his father's first marriage.
Toward the end of the Civil War, Wyatt's father, for whom he was named, packed up the family and headed for San Bernardino, California. A few years later, young Wyatt was hired by the Union Pacific Railroad and ended up in Wyoming. From a very early age, perhaps because it was what he had grown accustomed to, Wyatt became something of a wanderer, moving from West to East and back again. What the book omits is information about his first marriage to Urilla Sutherland, from Lamar, Missouri, which is a tragic story that definitely affected Wyatt's development in his formative years. She died only about eight months after their marriage,reportedly of typhoid, just before she was to give birth to their first child. The book glaringly omits Wyatt's descent after this tragic event, which even included legal issues with his former in-laws, among others. Wyatt and friends were even arrested and charged with horse theft while in Indian country at one point, demonstrating how far the young man had fallen.
Another episode which rightly didn't make it into a children's book was his arrest, along with his brother Morgan, in a "house of ill-repute," which he and several other men, including his brother, were charged with keeping. They were fined but apparently didn't have the money to pay. Wyatt had been living in a boarding house at the time. Some even argue that his claims of being a "buffalo hunter" were an attempt at a cover-up of the fact that he had essentially been a pimp, in both Illinois and Missouri. He also reportedly took up with a sixteen-year-old prostitute, who was once arrested with him, who referred to herself as his wife (but was likely the daughter of his boarding-house landlady).
The point here is: so many of these legendary characters (and their exploits) are "whitewashed," that it's unfortunately often difficult to tell fact from fiction. It's always striking, and not a little annoying, when slick marketing covers a multitude of sins, which really should be addressed, because they reveal the totality of the individual, demonstrating them to be deeply human - flawed, but real individuals with real foibles, as opposed to the fictional, cartoon-characters that this and other books often portray.
I also find it curious that Wyatt Earp was even one of the characters chosen as a subject of this series, because of all the controversy surrounding him and his family, which has an untold number of skeletons in the closet - literally. I concede that attitudes have definitely changed over the years, however, in that Wyatt Earp was lionized far more in previous decades than he is now - which is true of many of the figures featured in the series volumes. And, I get that they're children's books, so some content, even if accurate, like the paragraph above, may not be appropriate, but there are lots of other examples. Wyatt Earp was anything but the hero in the white hat, as is often portrayed.
Another example: it's long been acknowledged that his and his brothers' feud with the "Cowboys," the gang featured most prominently in the excellent but greatly biased 90s movie "Tombstone," were pretty much exactly that: feuding rival gangs. Even Wyatt's stint as a "lawman" is dubious, frankly. For example, he reportedly, while a deputy in Wichita, beat up a former marshal who accused him of nepotism, in that he had hired his brothers as lawmen during his tenure; Earp was fined $30, so the incident apparently had merit. The city council also voted against rehiring Wyatt Earp, on account of his repeated misdeeds, so he was forced to move on, next to Dodge City, which is addressed extensively in the book. Even Wyatt's brother got in on the action in Wyatt's former occupation, as it was reported that he and his wife also moved there, to open a new brothel.
Wyatt contained as an occasional "lawman" in Dodge City, but he wasn't exactly the choir boy he's made out to be in the book. He was reportedly also fined for assault in Dodge City, after slapping a prostitute. He garnered quite a reputation there, however, as the town was even more rough around the edges than he was, and he certainly seemed to have a way of keeping the miscreants who populated the burgeoning cowtown in line, if admittedly more by threat than actual violence.
The book also really misses the mark in terms of Wyatt's overall character, as it makes it seem that he tried to avoid violence whenever possible, and only shot one man in the "line of duty" in his time at Dodge City. In fact, the opposite seems to have been true: he reportedly was of the opinion, along with his brothers, that by 1879 "Dodge was beginning to lose much of the snap which had given it a charm to men of reckless blood, and I decided to move to Tombstone, which was just building up a reputation." Translation: Wyatt moved where the wind blew, often seemingly spoiling for a fight with just about anyone who was willing to give it to him.
Which is what he and his brothers found when they moved to Tombstone, along with his second wife Mattie (a known former prostitute and opiate addict), and close friend gambler/gunslinger John "Doc" Holliday (actually a dentist) and his common-law "wife," one "Big Nose Kate." (!) Colorful characters, these. The book describes their (mis)adventures in Tombstone, which is a fairly accurate rendering, aside from all the omissions which cast a fairly long shadow on Wyatt's reputation; for example, aside from his occasional forays into mining, he basically earned his living as a professional gambler. He was actually hired by Wells Fargo to guard their stagecoaches, which is apparently where he had his first run-ins with the Cowboy gang. Through a lot of twists and turns, the Earp brothers eventually engaged in not much less than gang warfare with this band of outlaws, culminating, of course, with the world-famous Shootout at the O.K. Corral, a thirty-second-long gun battle, if you can call it that, as only about 30 rounds were discharged, which occurred in October, 1881.
The event is perhaps the most well-known event in the history of the "Wild West," and clearly demonstrates the lack of any real sense of law and order in these frontier towns, whose inhabitants were of the opinion that pretty much anything goes. For example, the sheriff, Behan, was either a close friend of, or, more likely, was on the take from the Cowboys, and refused to take any legal action against them, even reportedly helping them escape if they were arrested and held in custody. Descriptions of the events surrounding the O.K. Corral incident are conflicting, with some media accounts blaming the Cowboys as the antagonists, and others the Earps. Both sides claimed self-defense, but no one was ever actually convicted for the events in which three Cowboys were killed and two of Wyatt's brothers seriously wounded. The worst was yet to come, when the Cowboys took revenge.
The events are fairly well covered in the book, so I'll spare readers the details. As stated above, I'm somewhat surprised that Wyatt Earp and company made it into this series, considering all the controversy, but I suppose it would have been more difficult to find all the gory details about the Earp clan, nearly all of whom (the brothers, at least) served alternatively as lawmen, pimps, gamblers and saloon owners, at some point, in the days before the internet. All in all, this was a fun read, I have to admit, if something of a guilty pleasure, but I think it should have been more balanced in terms of Wyatt's exploits, as there is a fair amount of content which could be included that isn't of the excessively salacious variety (i.e., his charge of horse theft and other misdemeanors), which makes him a much more complex and troubled figure than he appears in one-dimensional and highly biased biographies.
Wyatt Earp is still largely a household name, at least in the Southwest. In short, he had everything going for him in terms of what makes an icon: his striking looks, complete with a much-renowned handlebar mustache, piercing eyes, a quick and some would even say vicious temper, and a notorious reputation. He was actually born in Illinois, but was raised in various places as his ever-growing family moved West. He had a reported seven siblings, most notably brothers James, a Civil War veteran, as the book here notes, Virgil, and Morgan, who often shared in his exploits. He also had another half-brother from his father's first marriage.
Toward the end of the Civil War, Wyatt's father, for whom he was named, packed up the family and headed for San Bernardino, California. A few years later, young Wyatt was hired by the Union Pacific Railroad and ended up in Wyoming. From a very early age, perhaps because it was what he had grown accustomed to, Wyatt became something of a wanderer, moving from West to East and back again. What the book omits is information about his first marriage to Urilla Sutherland, from Lamar, Missouri, which is a tragic story that definitely affected Wyatt's development in his formative years. She died only about eight months after their marriage,reportedly of typhoid, just before she was to give birth to their first child. The book glaringly omits Wyatt's descent after this tragic event, which even included legal issues with his former in-laws, among others. Wyatt and friends were even arrested and charged with horse theft while in Indian country at one point, demonstrating how far the young man had fallen.
Another episode which rightly didn't make it into a children's book was his arrest, along with his brother Morgan, in a "house of ill-repute," which he and several other men, including his brother, were charged with keeping. They were fined but apparently didn't have the money to pay. Wyatt had been living in a boarding house at the time. Some even argue that his claims of being a "buffalo hunter" were an attempt at a cover-up of the fact that he had essentially been a pimp, in both Illinois and Missouri. He also reportedly took up with a sixteen-year-old prostitute, who was once arrested with him, who referred to herself as his wife (but was likely the daughter of his boarding-house landlady).
The point here is: so many of these legendary characters (and their exploits) are "whitewashed," that it's unfortunately often difficult to tell fact from fiction. It's always striking, and not a little annoying, when slick marketing covers a multitude of sins, which really should be addressed, because they reveal the totality of the individual, demonstrating them to be deeply human - flawed, but real individuals with real foibles, as opposed to the fictional, cartoon-characters that this and other books often portray.
I also find it curious that Wyatt Earp was even one of the characters chosen as a subject of this series, because of all the controversy surrounding him and his family, which has an untold number of skeletons in the closet - literally. I concede that attitudes have definitely changed over the years, however, in that Wyatt Earp was lionized far more in previous decades than he is now - which is true of many of the figures featured in the series volumes. And, I get that they're children's books, so some content, even if accurate, like the paragraph above, may not be appropriate, but there are lots of other examples. Wyatt Earp was anything but the hero in the white hat, as is often portrayed.
Another example: it's long been acknowledged that his and his brothers' feud with the "Cowboys," the gang featured most prominently in the excellent but greatly biased 90s movie "Tombstone," were pretty much exactly that: feuding rival gangs. Even Wyatt's stint as a "lawman" is dubious, frankly. For example, he reportedly, while a deputy in Wichita, beat up a former marshal who accused him of nepotism, in that he had hired his brothers as lawmen during his tenure; Earp was fined $30, so the incident apparently had merit. The city council also voted against rehiring Wyatt Earp, on account of his repeated misdeeds, so he was forced to move on, next to Dodge City, which is addressed extensively in the book. Even Wyatt's brother got in on the action in Wyatt's former occupation, as it was reported that he and his wife also moved there, to open a new brothel.
Wyatt contained as an occasional "lawman" in Dodge City, but he wasn't exactly the choir boy he's made out to be in the book. He was reportedly also fined for assault in Dodge City, after slapping a prostitute. He garnered quite a reputation there, however, as the town was even more rough around the edges than he was, and he certainly seemed to have a way of keeping the miscreants who populated the burgeoning cowtown in line, if admittedly more by threat than actual violence.
The book also really misses the mark in terms of Wyatt's overall character, as it makes it seem that he tried to avoid violence whenever possible, and only shot one man in the "line of duty" in his time at Dodge City. In fact, the opposite seems to have been true: he reportedly was of the opinion, along with his brothers, that by 1879 "Dodge was beginning to lose much of the snap which had given it a charm to men of reckless blood, and I decided to move to Tombstone, which was just building up a reputation." Translation: Wyatt moved where the wind blew, often seemingly spoiling for a fight with just about anyone who was willing to give it to him.
Which is what he and his brothers found when they moved to Tombstone, along with his second wife Mattie (a known former prostitute and opiate addict), and close friend gambler/gunslinger John "Doc" Holliday (actually a dentist) and his common-law "wife," one "Big Nose Kate." (!) Colorful characters, these. The book describes their (mis)adventures in Tombstone, which is a fairly accurate rendering, aside from all the omissions which cast a fairly long shadow on Wyatt's reputation; for example, aside from his occasional forays into mining, he basically earned his living as a professional gambler. He was actually hired by Wells Fargo to guard their stagecoaches, which is apparently where he had his first run-ins with the Cowboy gang. Through a lot of twists and turns, the Earp brothers eventually engaged in not much less than gang warfare with this band of outlaws, culminating, of course, with the world-famous Shootout at the O.K. Corral, a thirty-second-long gun battle, if you can call it that, as only about 30 rounds were discharged, which occurred in October, 1881.
The event is perhaps the most well-known event in the history of the "Wild West," and clearly demonstrates the lack of any real sense of law and order in these frontier towns, whose inhabitants were of the opinion that pretty much anything goes. For example, the sheriff, Behan, was either a close friend of, or, more likely, was on the take from the Cowboys, and refused to take any legal action against them, even reportedly helping them escape if they were arrested and held in custody. Descriptions of the events surrounding the O.K. Corral incident are conflicting, with some media accounts blaming the Cowboys as the antagonists, and others the Earps. Both sides claimed self-defense, but no one was ever actually convicted for the events in which three Cowboys were killed and two of Wyatt's brothers seriously wounded. The worst was yet to come, when the Cowboys took revenge.
The events are fairly well covered in the book, so I'll spare readers the details. As stated above, I'm somewhat surprised that Wyatt Earp and company made it into this series, considering all the controversy, but I suppose it would have been more difficult to find all the gory details about the Earp clan, nearly all of whom (the brothers, at least) served alternatively as lawmen, pimps, gamblers and saloon owners, at some point, in the days before the internet. All in all, this was a fun read, I have to admit, if something of a guilty pleasure, but I think it should have been more balanced in terms of Wyatt's exploits, as there is a fair amount of content which could be included that isn't of the excessively salacious variety (i.e., his charge of horse theft and other misdemeanors), which makes him a much more complex and troubled figure than he appears in one-dimensional and highly biased biographies.
