Biography of Wyatt Earp

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Recommended: Gun fight at the OK Corral

Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois Monday, March 19, 1848 and died Friday January 13, 1929 in Los Angeles, California of the flu. Wyatt Earp is mostly famous for his gun fight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona 1881. But, there are more interesting facts about his life and you will hear them today.

In 1876 Wyatt Earp was hired as an assistant Marshall in Dodge City, Kansas, one of the worst places in America at the time. In Dodge City daylight muggings and nighttime shootings were an everyday thing. When Wyatt became a lawman there he was able to stop the crimes without killing anybody, he put them in jail. One of his techniques was called ?buffaloing? where he would knock a criminal on the head with his favorite weapon, the Colt 45.

In 1878 Wyatt met Doc Holliday. They became friends when Doc shot a man who was aiming at Wyatt?s back. Doc was also involved in the battle at the OK Corral. Doc suffered from Tuberculosis and went from 200 pounds to 122 pounds in the year after the gunfight. He died in 1883.

The gunfight at the ok Corral started and ended in thirty violent seconds, but, it must have felt like thirty minutes to the fighters. Eight people were ready to fight. On one side were Wyatt, his brothers and Doc Holliday. On the other side were the Clantons and their gang of Cowboys (horse thieves and cattle rustlers of the time). They all had no intention of being disarmed. Frank McLaury, a Cowboy, had the best aim of the group. He was shot by Wyatt and was the first to die. Everybody started fighting. In the end, almost all the cowboys died, Ike Clanton begged for his life and was thrown in jail. Morgan Earp was shot in the shoulder. Virgil Earp was shot in the leg. Doc was shot in the hip. Only Wyatt came out unharmed.

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