The "Fighting" Earps and their Tombstone Sattelites

Wyatt Earp Virgil Earp Morgan Earp "Doc" Holliday Jim & Warren Earp Wyatt's Vigilante Posse The Earp & Holliday Women

HISTORY PAGES Part II, Coming Soon! PROFILES

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp Born: Mar. 19 1848, Monmouth, Illinois Died: Jan. 15 1929, Los Angeles, CA. Trade: Gambler, Lawman, Prospector

The Lion of Tombstone. Wyatt has become one of the most enigmatic figures in American Western history. He has been lauded as the ultimate lawman of America's Boomtowns and vilified as a con-man, murderer and thief hiding his dirty doings behind the badge. Whatever the character of the man, Wyatt Earp has become an American icon. No other American Hero has received as much interest. Hundreds of books, dozens of movies and scores of television shows have been directly or indirectly influenced by the Legend of Wyatt Earp. And to give due credit, this website would not exist if it weren't for Wyatt's popularity... and my great, great, great uncle Frank missing! Wyatt outlived all of his brothers. One of the legends has it that when he died, the coroner reported that Earp had no bullet scars.

Virgil Walter Earp Born: Jul. 18 1843, Hartford, KY. Died: Oct. 19 1905, Goldfield, NV. Trade: Lawman, Gambler

The true lawman of the Earp family. Unlike Wyatt, Virgil actually was a frontier Marshall. Much of what Wyatt has been credited with as a Tombstone lawman was actually done by Virgil. Numerous accounts show that Virgil had attempted to diffuse the situation on October 26, 1881, all the way up to the streetfight. In the bloody wake of what began with the shootout, Virgil was victim of an assassination attempt, resulting in the crippling of his left arm. Some speculation has it that Frank and Tom's older brother, Will McLaury, was involved in the ambush, either directly or monetarily.

Morgan S. Earp Born: 1851, Pella, IA. Died: Mar. 18 1882, Tombstone, AZ. Trade: Stagecoach guard

The younger brother of the "Fighting Earps". Morgan has been characterized as quick to laugh and quick to anger. One account (Mrs. M.J. King) during the trial revealed one of the Earps, later identified as Morgan, saying "Let them have it" to which Doc Holliday replied, "All right." Morgan was badly wounded from the fight but fell to an assasin's bullet less than 5 months later. Although Will McLaury had long since left Tombstone for his home in Fort Worth, he was still suspected of being involved.

John Henry Holliday   aka: Doc Holliday Born: 14 August 1851 in Griffin, GA. Died: 8 November 1887 in Glenwood Springs, CO. Profession: Dentist, Gambler, Shootist.

Dentist, Gambler, Drunkard, Killer with tuberculosis and a deathwish. Doc Holliday came to Tombstone with a trunk full of reputations. He had made dozens of enemies by the time he got there and one friend; Wyatt Earp, whose life he had once saved. The Cowboy side of the streetfight story has it that Holliday and Morgan were first to draw. If Tom really had been unarmed at the fight, it can be said that Doc Holliday was the only murderer of the day.

James Cooksey Earp Born: Jun. 28 1841, Hartford, KY. Died: 1926 Trade: Bartender, Gambler

Warren Baxter Earp Born: 1855, Pella, IA. Died: 1900, Willcox, AZ. Trade: Bartender, Gambler

Jim Earp: Elder brother of the Tombstone Earps, Jim did not participate in most of the events his brother's were involved in. With a bad arm from a Civil War injury, Jim earned his living tending bar. Warren Earp:The youngest of the Earp boys. Warren rode with his brother in revenge for Morgan's death. Warren was shot down trying to control an unruly drunk.

The Riders with Wyatt on his Ride of Vengeance

"Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson: "Texas" Jack Vermillion: Sherman McMasters: Cowboy turned Earp ally, McMasters true fate has yet to be uncovered. After being part of Wyatt's Vigilantes of Vengence, it was rumored that McMasters died in the Phillepines during the Spannish American War. But another clue supplied by Will McLaury in an 1884 letter to his father indicates McMaster had been killed as part of the Cowboy revenge: "And now of the results have been satisfactory. The only result is the death of Morgan and crippling of Virgil Earp and death of McMasters."

The Earp / Holliday Women

Josephine "Josie" Sarah Marcus: The sultry vixen that raised the Tombstone testosterone to fighting frenzy. Entered Tombstone "married" to Johnny Behan but left and became the lifetime companion of Wyatt. Josie died in 1944. Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock: Dumped by Wyatt, Mattie became a laudanum-abusing prostitute. Mattie died in 1888 from a drug overdose. Alvira "Allie" Sullivan: Third wife of Virgil Earp. A fiesty little Mormon out of Missouri. Louisa "Lou" Houston: Morgan's wife. She escorted her murdered husband to Colton, CA. for burial. Bessie & Hattie: Bessie was Jim Earp's wife and Hattie, his step-daughter. Hattie was alleged to have been sneaking out at nights to see a "cowboy". One of the McLaury brothers was mentioned as a possible suitor. "Big Nose" Kate Elder: Doc Holliday's on-again, off-again woman. Big Nose Kate played her part in the Tombstone story by claiming Doc Holliday had told her he had been part of an attempted stagecoach robbery which resulted in two deaths. A statement she later recanted.

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