ID #1073

This question comes from WEFAQs visitor John and it's a good one.  The answer, however, isn't that easy.

No one can say with certainty as to the number of men who fell victim to Wyatt Earp's gun.  We know, for example, that three men died from gunshots at the infamous O.K. Corral street fight, but there is no evidence as to who killed whom -- ballistics and forensics weren't yet a way of the West.

The same can be said for other killings.  We believe that Wyatt killed Curly Bill Brocius (Wyatt said so himself) but no body was ever produced as proof.  In fact, cowboys denied that Curly Bill was killed by anyone that day.  We believe that Wyatt killed Frank Stilwell in Tucson but in an interview with the Gunnison, Colorado, Daily News-Democrat on June 4, 1882, he coyly said he had "heard that Stillwell [sic] had been killed," without admitting of doing so.  And the stories go on and on.

There is an interesting inset on page 264 of Wyatt Earp Speaks (Fern Canyon Press, 1998) entitled "Wyatt's Body Count."  In it are several quotes.  Among them (with emphasis added),

"...he killed not less than eight of the assassins."  -- National Police Gazette, July 21, 1883 (speaking of Wyatt's retaliation for the killing of his brother Morgan)

"Wyatt Earp is credited with ten men, one of them his own brother-in-law."  -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 22, 1900

"[Wyatt Earp] Has killed more than a dozen stage robbers, murderers, and cattle thieves."  -- G. W. Caldwell in the introduction to his interview with Wyatt, 1888

"[Wyatt] Earp has a cemetery which he has stocked with over 30 men, and no one seemed desirous of questioning his word."  -- Los Angeles Tribune, June 2, 1888

We suppose that when one hears of the "legend" of Wyatt Earp, one can only respond with "Indeed!"

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