FV. FRUTAS Y HORTALIZAS

History and Hollywood have cast the five Earp brothers—James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren—as classic heroes of the American frontier, standing firm against ruthless outlaws to make the Wild West a more civilized place. The truth, as usual, is rather different and is glimpsed more commonly between the lines, behind the stage settings and the clouds of gunsmoke that surround this famous family. The Earps were Illinois natives, James born in 1841, Virgil in 1843, Wyatt in 1848, Morgan in 1851, and Warren in 1855. James was badly wounded as a Union soldier in 1863, and the whole family decamped to California the following year. In the Golden State, Wyatt worked as a stagecoach guard, bartender, and gambler until 1871 when he was jailed for horse theft. Posting $500, he fled the state to hunt buffalo and then drifted to Wichita where James and wife Bessie ran a combination brothel and saloon. Bessie Earp appeared in Wichita police files as a known prostitute between May 1874 and March 1875; Earp critics note that her disap- pearance from official records coincided with Wyatt’s employment (in April 1875) as a Wichita policeman. Wyatt lasted 11 months on the job, was fired, and was fined $30 in March 1876 for assaulting William Smith, a candidate for city marshal.

Moving on to Dodge City, Kansas, Wyatt joined the local police force in May 1876, followed shortly by brother Morgan. James and Bessie soon arrived to

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Wyatt Earp led the group of brothers known in certain circles as “the fighting pimps.” (Author’s collection)

EARP brothers

Morgan Earp (top left) was murdered soon after the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, while Virgil Earp (bottom left) survived his wounds from the gunfight to help Wyatt avenge Morgan’s murder. Gunfighter and tubercular dentist John “Doc” Holliday (top right) joined the Earp brothers in various shady enterprises, while sometime lawman William “Bat” Masterson (bottom right) was another Earp ally in gambling casinos and brothels. (Author’s collection)

resume their familiar trade in flesh and liquor, while Wyatt and colleague William (“Bat”) Masterson pro- tected the action. Both were sworn policemen, but Dodge City residents knew them better as card sharks and procurers, dubbed “the Fighting Pimps.” Wyatt left Dodge City in May 1879 after he and Masterson beat two drunks so badly that “their own mothers would have had a hard time picking out their sons.” A stop-off at Mobeetie, Texas, saw Wyatt collaborate with outlaw/lawman Dave Mather to sell phony gold bricks before he was run out of town by the sheriff. Settled next in Tombstone, Ari- zona, Wyatt gathered his brothers as usual, enlisting tubercular gambler-gunman John “Doc” Holliday to help out with poker and gunplay. As historian John Faragher described the scene:

Southeastern Arizona at the time was torn by conflict between the Republican business community and the mostly Democratic ranchers of the arid countryside. The “Cowboys,” as the Republican Tombstone Epitaph labeled the ranchers, were led by Newman “Old Man” Clanton and his hot-headed sons and were backed by such violent gunmen as “Curly” Bill Brocius and Johnny Ringo. The trouble in Tombstone was just one episode in a series of local wars that pitted men of traditional rural values and Southern sympathies against mostly Yankee capitalist modernizers. As the hired guns of the businessmen in town, the Earps became the enemies of the Clantons.

Since most of the Earps wore badges, members of the Clanton gang soon found themselves unwelcome in Tombstone, unless they were spending their money in Earp-run saloons, casinos, and brothels. Both sides were suspected in a fatal stagecoach rob- bery outside town in March 1881, and violent clashes escalated until October 26 when the two fac- tions met in the infamous O.K. Corral shootout. Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded, along with Doc Holliday, while three members of the Clanton gang were dispatched to Boot Hill. Murder charges were filed against the Earps but then thrown out by a friendly judge. Morgan was killed in a local pool hall on March 17, 1882, and the resultant “vengeance ride” by Wyatt, Warren, Doc Holiday, and others claimed an uncertain number of lives before the last Earps departed Arizona.

Wyatt and Holliday returned to Dodge City in 1883, teaming with Bat Masterson, gambler-pimp

Luke Short, and others to create the “Dodge City Peace Commission.” In fact, the group was anything but peaceful, launching a reign of terror against reformers who had vowed to close Dodge City’s brothels and gambling dens. After successfully defending the corrupt status quo, Wyatt moved on to Idaho Territory, running various saloons with brother James and lending his hand to a claim-jumping gang. Tiring of those pursuits, Wyatt drifted back to Cali- fornia and remained there for the rest of his life, except for four years spent in Alaska (1897–1901), where he banked $80,000 as a gold-rush bartender. Warren Earp returned to Arizona as “a cattle detec- tive” in 1900, but a gunfight in Wilcox claimed his life months later. Virgil died of pneumonia at Prescott, Arizona, in 1906, and James survived another 22 years in San Francisco.

By that time, Wyatt had begun work on his autobiography with author Stuart Lake. He died on January 13, 1929, and thus never saw his strange life become the stuff of all-American legend, revised and inflated beyond all recognition through a long series of novels, films, and television shows. Nor was the process of mythologizing focused solely on Wyatt. Brother Morgan was credited with killing gunman William Brooks at Wichita in 1880 when, in fact, Brooks was lynched for rustling in July 1874. Within a quarter-century of Wyatt’s death, the Earp crime family had been transformed into rugged heroes, while their gang war with the Clanton crowd was enshrined as an epic triumph of Good vs. Evil.