Wyatt Earp has been portrayed by a number of very famous actors in very famous movies; usually as a hero, often as something closer to a wild west superhero. Wyatt Earp is most famous, of course, for taking part in the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. History has judged that particularly iconic event in American history as a case of the good guys shooting down the bad guys. As is usually the case, of course, that history was written by the winners. Recent investigations have shed a much more complex and ambiguous light on what really happened near the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, and although the whole truth will never be known for sure, it has been determined that in all likelihood the so-called good guys shot first.
Wyatt Earp had the extraordinary good fortune of outlasting the Clantons and all the other victims of his cowardly habit of coming up behind and cold-cocking those with whom he had a beef. As a result, almost every single movie, as well as the very popular television series of the 1950s, based on Earp’s life is based on his autobiography. Well, heck, if I could get someone to make movies based on my version of historical events, I guess I’d come off looking like a hero, too. And I’m actually more heroic than Wyatt Earp ever was; or, at least, I’m not as villainous. Let’s put aside the events known as the gunfight at the OK Corral for just a second. Wyatt Earp was a lawman. Normally, that would mean fighting for truth, justice and the American way. What Earp basically viewed as being a lawman was closer to Alberto Gonzales than Andy Taylor. Guns were actually outlawed in the town of Tombstone, where Wyatt’s brother was John Law, and Wyatt merely a deputized assistant. If Wyatt Earp even imagined that you were carrying a gun, concealed or not, down the dusty streets of Tombstone, he would sneak up behind you and hit you over the head with his pearl-handled revolver. This less than heroic manner of dealing with the unsavory or even just the suspected unsavory elements in Tombstone might even have been acceptable if Wyatt wasn’t also taking advantage of his position to engage in graft and cheating at the poker table. By the way, you might also be interested in knowing that Wyatt Earp got off on a charge of rustling thanks to having a family friend in law enforcement.
Now about that gunfight near the OK Corral. The official ruling absolved the Earps and Doc Holliday of any wrongdoing and for over a century the Clantons have been on the dark side of a battle royale between good and evil. Recent studies into the science of what took place that day based on the positioning of the participants and the wounds suffered have indicated that Doc Holliday more than likely shot first and that at least one of the Earps more than likely shot a Clanton when he was physically incapable of firing back. Later, Wyatt Earp would gun down at least one man in cold blood.
History has proven to be unbelievably kind toward Wyatt Earp. It is a truism that the winners get to write history. Fortunately, that does not mean that the rest of can’t rewrite history to reveal the actual truth behind the web of lies woven by the winners.
