Americans, just like any other nation in this world, need their heroes, and in the early days of their history few names managed to stand out of what seems today to have been a true land of all opportunities. In a time when justice was made with gun in hand, the name Wyatt Earp seemed to pop up naturally and though the cause for much controversy, the truth remains that today he is a brand name for the Old West law and order... But was he really the righteous and law-abiding enforcer that everyone seemed to praise, or was he just a quick-tempered and a trigger happy man who seized opportunity when it arose? Read on and see for yourselves.

He was born to Nicholas Porter Earp and Virgina Ann Cooksley (his second wife) on March 19, 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois. The Earps were a large family, with Nicholas Porter Earp having several children from various marriages. Following his father's scandal of bootlegging and having their plot of land auctioned off to pay for the court fines, Wyatt and his family moved to Pella, Iowa. Shortly after, the Civil War broke out and Wyatt (who was 13 at the time) tried on several occasions to join the army, just like his older brothers, but he didn't get permission from his father who was now training companies back home. After the war was over, the Earps packed up and headed to California via a stagecoach.

The year was 1865 and Wyatt together with his brother Virgil were now drivers for the stagecoach service, which later led to Wyatt becoming a teamster, transporting cargo all the way to Arizona. His first contacts with the law were made in 1869, in Larnar, Missouri where he took the place of his father as constable after the latter got promoted to justice of the peace. In 1870 we see him marry his first wife, Urilla Sutherland, who died of typhus just a couple of months later. It was after her death that he actually began getting into trouble with the law, when he failed to bring a sum of money he was supposed to collect for building public schools. But the case was dropped when Wyatt left the state. On April first of that same year (1871), Wyatt found himself into trouble again, being accused along with two other men of horse theft and when he was found he was arrested and brought in front of a judge. Lack of evidence and the fact that he yet again fled the state, left the case unsolved.

From this point on, Wyatt seemed to have disappeared from the face of the Earth for a period of time, because there was no news of him until 1874 in Wichita, Kansas. Most probably, he spent all that time in the Great Plains, hunting buffaloes. This is the point in his life when he met his good friend Bat Masterson who was going to stick with Earp for a long time. Other accounts claim that all this time was spent running a prostitution business in Peoria, Illinois and there are records of an arrest being made in Peoria at that time in a house of ill repute and one of the men being Wyatt Earp. The next account of Earp comes from Wichita, where he again assumed the role of lawman, where he performed several acts of bravery and thus earned his reputation. However, this stint too came to an end when he took an interest in the post of town marshal and in an open argument with the former marshal, which resulted in a fist fight that forced him to leave town, again.

This time it was in Dodge town, another cattle ranch settlement where he was again appointed assistant marshal. Here he had several encounters with rough characters such as the one with George Hoy but being together with friends Bat Masterson and Doc Holiday (a young dentist and gambler he had met in Texas) he managed to stay alive. His fame rose even higher when he took part in bringing down the killer of actress Dora Hand in 1878. In reward for the services, all five men in the posse who had captured and killed Dora's murderer received a special issue of the Colt army pistol, a 30 cm barrel gun called the "Buntline Special" after Ned Buntline.

In 1879 we come to more familiar events, as portrayed in many movies later, the period that Wyatt spent in Tombstone, a silver mining town. He hand his brothers James and Virgil stake their claims and had also planned to run a stagecoach business but upon arrival they found two lines already up and working. Soon, two more of Wyatt's brothers joined him in Tombstone, Morgan and Warren, and later Doc Holliday also showed up. In 1880 a feud between the Earps and the McLaurys ensued after an incident involving some stolen army-owned mules. Wyatt was named deputy sheriff of Pima County and helped break up a fight that ended up in the killing of marshal Fred White. The accused was a friend of the McLurys whom Wyatt arrested, a fact which deepened the conflict between the two clans.

The famous O.K. Corral fight between the two families was brewing for a long time and the final drop was the arrest of two cowboys, friends of the McLurys on a suspected stagecoach holdup. Virgil Earp was the resident marshal at the time and he called in Wyatt, Morgan and Doc Holliday to help him with the shootout. After the final shot was fired, Wyatt walked away without so much as a scratch but Virgil, Morgan and Holliday were all wounded. From the other side, 3 people were killed. Later, the remaining survivors (Ike Clanton) filed murder charges against the Earps, which led to a full-on investigation. Some very shady circumstances in the testimony of Ike led the judge to think that the Earps had indeed acted within legal bounds and set them all free.

Following their defeat in court, the cowboys sought revenge in the street and Virgil was shot one night while walking into a saloon and Morgan was murdered in a pool hall, Wyatt barely escaping after being shot himself. The next day, the remaining brothers and some friends put Morgan's body on the train to California, on their old farm. They manged to kill one of the McClantons' party when they heard that they were planning to ambush the train as it passed through Tucson. They had now become wanted men and they decided to travel incognito, in rough country and off the beaten track. Looking for one of the killers at a camp they instead stumbled upon another one, Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz whom they also killed. After one more run in with another group of cowboys, they decided to move out of the territory for good.

Colorado was their new destination, where they set up camp outside the town Gunnison. After they saw their fortune being auctioned off to pay for taxes, including their mine staked claims, they moved to San Francisco, where Wyatt became involved with Josie Marcus, with whom he was going to spend the rest of his life. In 1893 he returned to Dodge City along with Bat Masterson to help a friend deal with a corrupt mayor that was trying to run him out of town. After that, he spent most of his time running saloons and casinos (gambling houses). Towards the end of the century, he too joined in the gold rush that was sweeping over Alaska, setting up gambling concession in the town of Nome.

The final years of his life were spent in Hollywood where he was given an honorary position as a sheriff in San Bernardino, California. An interesting fact is that while here he met a young John Wayne who was an aspiring extra back then. Wayne later confessed that he based his cowboy characters on the famous lawman. Wyatt Earp died at age 80 in his home in Los Angels in 1929. He was cremated and buried in a Jewish cemetery so that his wife could be buried beside him. For an avid lawman, Wyatt didn't have a spotless record, quite on the contrary, and that's why when it comes to his sense of justice people tend to be set into 2 categories: those who like him and those who disapprove. What do you guys think? Is the man worthy of the legend that was bestowed on him, or was he just the right man at the right time? IN or OUT?

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