Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend

by Casey Tefertiller

  "I was in Denver at the time, and he wired me to come to Kansas City at once, which I did," Masterson wrote in 1907. "We talked the matter over when we met and concluded to go up to Topeka and place the matter before the Governor. The next day we did so. The Governor denounced the conduct of the Dodge City authorities, but said that he could do nothing as the local authorities at Dodge had informed him that they were amply able to preserve the peace and did not desire to have state interference."

  Short filed a petition with Governor George Glick requesting protection for his return to Dodge. W. E Petillon, court clerk for Ford County, was called to the capital and attested to the truth of Short's charges, and Glick wired Sheriff George Hinkle for a report on the problem. Hinkle responded that no problems existed:

  Mr. L. E. Deger our mayor has compelled several persons to leave the city for refusing to comply with the ordinances. No mob exists nor is there any reason to fear any violence as I am amply able to preserve the peace. I showed your message to Mr. Deger who requests me to say that the act of compelling the parties to leave the city was simply to avoid difficulty and disorders. Everything is quiet here as in the capital of the state and should I find myself unable to preserve the present quiet will unhesitatingly ask your assistance.

  Hinkle's message proved unsatisfactory to an angered governor. Glick responded quickly with a long letter on May 12 displaying his intense interest in the situation. It read in part:

  I am glad to be assured by you that you are able to preserve the peace in Dodge City, and of your county. The accounts of the way things have been going there are simply monstrous, and it requires that the disgrace that is being brought upon Dodge City, and the State of Kansas, by the conduct that is represented to have occurred there, should be wiped out. Your dispatch to me presents an extraordinary state of affairs, one that is outrageous upon its face. You tell me that the mayor has ordinances. Such a statement as that if true, simply shows that the mayor is unfit for his place, that he does not do his duty, and instead of occupying the position of peace maker, the man whose duty is to see that the ordinances are enforced by legal process in the courts starts out to head a mob to drive people away from their homes and their business.... It is represented to me by affidavits, and by statements, that the best men in Dodge City have been threatened with assassination, and with being driven away from their homes, if they raised their voices against the conduct of this mob. Now if this is true, it is your duty to call to your assistance a respectable number of people, sufficient to enforce the law, and protect every man in Dodge City, without any reference to who he is, or what his business is, and if he is charged with crime, or the violation of law, to see that he has a fair trial before a proper tribunal, and that the sentence of the law is executed by you or by the authorities, according to the command of the court.51

  Glick continued at length to lay out the charges he had heard and to instruct Hinkle that his duty was to protect all citizens from government gone amuck. The governor called on Hinkle to form a citizens' committee to defend the law and offered arms and ammunition. If Hinkle could not do his job, then a train of militia would be on the way to do it for him. According to Short, Governor George Glick advised him to return to Dodge. He was not foolish enough to go alone, and Masterson returned to Colorado to recruit an old friend to join them. That friend, of course, was Wyatt Earp.

  Hinkle and the governor continued to heat up the telegraph wires between Dodge and Topeka, with Hinkle and Deger seemingly oblivious to the threat posed by the governor. They were even less aware of the more serious threat that would be arriving in the next few days. The May 15 Kansas City Journal reported Masterson's return, saying he preceded by twenty-four hours "a few other unpleasant gentlemen who are on their way to the tea party at Dodge. One of them is Wyatt Earp, the famous marshal of Dodge, another is Joe Lowe, otherwise known as 'Rowdy Joe;' and still another is 'Shotgun' Collins; but worse than all is another ex-citizen and officer of Dodge, the famous Doc Holliday." The Journal called Doc a "famous 'killer.' Among the desperate men of the West, he is looked upon with the respect born of awe, for he has killed in single combat no less than eight desperadoes." As for Wyatt, "Wyatt Earp is equally famous in the cheerful business of depopulating the country. He has killed within our personal knowledge six men, and he is popularly accredited with relegating to the dust no less than ten of his fellow men."

  Rumors of the members of the band reached the absurd, with "Black Jack Bill," "Cold Chuck Johnny," "Dynamite Sam," "Dirty Sock Jack," and numerous other sobriqueted sharpshooters expected to join the raid on Dodge. Just about every great nickname in the West, short of Buffalo Bob the puppeteer, was rumored to be in the gang. Holliday, of course, remained behind in Colorado. The legion of dangerous nicknames posed a mighty threat, more implied than actual, to the safety of Dodge.

  Hearing the news of the gathering storm, Sheriff Hinkle frantically wired Topeka. "Are parties coming with Short for the purpose of making trouble? Answer quick." Glick's answer has been lost, but Short said the governor refused to send the militia and advised Hinkle to form his own posse.52 Hinkle, with a posse, met the trains and found no Short, and no notorious band. Short and Masterson were in Topeka, meeting with Glick at the time. The governor sent Attorney General Thomas Moonlight to Dodge City to investigate.

  When the real force came together in the Kansas town of Caldwell, it did not include Doc, Rowdy Joe, or the many other members of the society of sobriquets. Instead, it was made up of former Kansas lawmen Frank McLain, Charlie Bassett, Neal Brown, and a few other dangerous characters. "It was decided that if a fight was all that would satisfy the mayor of Dodge-a fight he would have," Masterson wrote. Bat said the strategy was for Wyatt to arrive in Dodge first, while several other members of the band would gradually filter into town to be prepared for action should the need arise.

  As Earp told the story, his train arrived in Dodge at 10 A.M., and he marched up Front Street followed by an armed posse of Johnny Millsap, Shotgun Collins, Texas Jack Vermillion, and Johnny Green, called "Crooked-Mouth" because a bullet had passed through his cheek, distorting the appearance of his mouth. When the district attorney approached, he said, "My God, Wyatt, who are these people you've got with you?"53

  Earp responded calmly, "Oh, they're just some bushwackers I've brought over from Colorado to straighten you people out." Earp said he met Ab Webster a few yards down the street. Earp's little party filed into Short's saloon, where they were all sworn in as deputies by constable "Prairie Dog" Dave Morrow, a Short supporter. The badges legitimized the Earp party carrying guns.

  Webster and Deger quickly convened a meeting of the town council and asked Wyatt his intentions. Earp said, "I told them that I wanted Luke Short and Bat Masterson to return to Dodge at their pleasure. I added that if this were accomplished peacefully I would be so much better pleased, but that if necessary I was prepared to fight for my demands." The council offered a compromise-they would allow Short to return for ten days to complete his business. Masterson could not enter town. Earp simply walked out of the room without responding.

  Again the council summoned Earp, and he assured them there would be no compromise-Masterson and Short must be permitted to live in Dodge as long as they desired, provided they obeyed the laws. Earp then wired Short to meet him in Kingsley, Kansas, thirty miles from Dodge. The two decided to return together and agreed that if the fighting started, it would be Deger's men who initiated the action. Earp and Short carried shotguns as they jumped off the train before it reached the platform, expecting to catch their attackers by surprise if a posse awaited their arrival. They met no opposition. They looked around town and found no force ready to fight on Short's return, so Earp wired for Masterson to join them the next day.

  Bat arrived the following morning. A deputy sheriff asked Bat for his shotgun, which he would not surrender. Wyatt joined Masterson, and after great difficulty convinced him to join him for a walk to shake hands with his old adversary Webst
er, and probably Deger as well. There would be no battle. Earp had used tact, as well as the intimation of force, to avoid battle between the two sides, both of which considered Wyatt something of a friend. Hinkle and other Webster supporters had signed the petition for Wyatt's release in Tombstone just nineteen months earlier. 54

  The so-called Dodge City War, filled with bluster, bluff, and braggadocio, but fortunately free of bullets, had ended. Masterson wrote a tongue-in-cheek note to the Kansas State Journal on June 9:

  I arrived here yesterday and was met at the train by a delegation of friends who escorted me without molestation to the business house of Harris & Short. I think the inflammatory reports published about Dodge City and its inhabitants have been greatly exaggerated and if at any time they did "don the war paint," it was completely washed off before I reached here. I never met a more gracious lot of people in my life. They all seemed favorably disposed, and hailed the return of Short and his friends with exultant joy. I have been unable as yet to find a single individual who participated with the crowd that forced him to leave here at first. I have conversed with a great many and they are unanimous in their expression of love for Short, both as a man and a good citizen. They say that he is gentlemanly, courteous and unostentatious-"in fact a perfect ladies' man." Wyatt Earp, Charley Bassett, McClain and others too numerous to mention were among the late arrivals, and are making the Long Branch saloon their headquarters. All the gambling is closed in obedience to the proclamation issued by the mayor, but how long it will remain so I am unable to say at present. Not long I hope. The closing of this "legitimate" calling has caused a general depression in business of every description, and I am under the impression that the more liberal and thinking class will prevail upon the mayor to rescind the proclamation in a day or two.

  The antiprostitution proclamation had this time been enforced against all parties. It soon was voted out, and Short was back in business. Wyatt, Bat, and Luke met with the council and Short received several concessions. In the second week of June, Wyatt and his friends visited a Dodge City photographer for one of the most famous pictures of frontier history. Eight men, most holding cigars, gazed into the camera at the Conkling Studio. Along with Wyatt, Short, and Masterson were Bill Harris, Petillon the clerk, Frank McLain, Charlie Bassett, and Neal Brown. Six weeks later this picture ran in the National Police Gazette, labeled the "Dodge City Peace Commission," surrounded by a story detailing the events. "All the members of the commission, whose portraits we publish in a group, are frontiersmen of tried capacity," the Gazette wrote. Earp said later that "Crooked-Mouth Green and my other henchmen did not figure in this group as they felt sensitive about submitting their physiognomies to the fierce light of frontier history."55

  The size and makeup of the real band commanded by Earp and Masterson remains a mystery. Certainly Bassett, Brown, and McLain were there. Collins, Milisap, Texas Jack, and Green also were on the scene but chose not to be photographed, Earp said. As for the rest-Dynamite Sam, Dirty Sock Jack, and the other so-called dangerous bushwackers-they may have been waiting outside town or just have been the creations of rumor to help convince the townsmen of the futility of a fight against Earp and the others. Few would want to go toe to toe with Dirty Sock Jack. These unknown dangerous characters may even have been inventions of the press. In any case, the Dodge City War ended peacefully. Luke Short happily went back to running his gambling house, with the "singers" making their own kind of music. Wyatt Earp would be listening to another song, chasing the disappearing frontier.

  Wyatt Earp left Kansas behind for the life of a sport and sometime celebrity. With Sadie at his side, he spent much of the next decade running saloons and gambling concessions and investing in mines in Colorado and Idaho, with stops in various boomtowns. He would spend far more of his life as a saloonman and a gambler than he had as a lawman. Earp would bring to the card tables the same knack for handling people that carried him through the tough Kansas cowtowns. Bat Masterson would recall one such incident that probably occurred in late 1882 or early '83, while Earp was still in Colorado.

  As Masterson told the story, a gambler named Ike Morris, with a reputation as a bad man with a gun, ran a game in Gunnison and decided he would pay a call on Earp's game while Wyatt was away from his gambling house. Morris put a roll of bills on one of the cards and told the dealer to turn the card. The dealer made his turn and won the bet, then deposited the bankroll in the drawer. Morris noisily claimed he had been cheated and demanded his money be returned. The dealer would not comply and advised Morris to wait for Wyatt's return. When Wyatt came back, Morris informed him of the dispute and asked for a refund. Wyatt asked him to wait and went into conference with the dealer, who assured him the bets had all been fair.

  By this time a rumor had circulated through town that Earp and Morris would likely have a set-to, and a crowd gathered in anticipation. In a surprise move, Wyatt told Morris the dealer had admitted cheating him, and Wyatt would like to return the money but could not. Wyatt said, "You are looked upon in this part of the country as a bad man, and if I was to give you back your money you would say as soon as I left town, that you made me do it, and for that reason I will keep the money."

  Earp caught Morris completely off guard, and Morris had no idea how to respond. Wyatt had not accused the gambler of lying, which would have forced a fight; he simply left Morris in a position where he could not find a way to resolve the problem. Morris said no more about the matter and invited Wyatt to join him for a cigar. A few days later Morris left Gunnison.

  Masterson praised Earp's unusual handling of the situation: "The course pursued by Earp on this occasion was undoubtedly the proper one-in fact, the only one ... [that would] preserve his reputation and self-respect. It would not have been necessary for him to have killed Morris in order to have sustained his reputation, and very likely that was the very last thing he had in mind at the time, for he was not one of those human tigers who delighted in shedding blood just for the fun of the thing. He never, at any time in his career, resorted to the pistol excepting in cases where such a course was absolutely necessary. Wyatt could scrap with his fists, and had often taken all the fight out of bad men, as they were called, with no other weapon than those provided by Nature." Masterson was referring to Earp's fists.56

  The Gunnison incident says much about the unusual way Earp handled his affairs. It was the verbal equivalent of the slap in the face to Tom McLaury on the streets of Tombstone-so unexpected that the adversary did not know how to respond. A credo of the best early-day frontier lawmen was to use the element of surprise as the primary weapon, before your fist or six-shooter, and Earp was a master at this. Had he denied cheating Morris, the gambler would have branded Wyatt a liar throughout the camp. Earp instead confused the situation by creating such a bizarre turn of events that Morris could not figure out an answer. It was the same type of ploy he and Masterson used with their rumored army of ghost sobriquets during the Luke Short affair, and a style Earp employed most of his life. He was always more an innovator and a scrapper than a gunfighter; the guns came only when fists, talk, and courts had failed.

  Wyatt and Sadie continued their wanderings through the West, usually turning cards or trying to hit the ultimate jackpot with a mining venture. The Earps were boomers, following the next big strike, hoping their fortunes would come in a mining camp where selling whiskey, dealing cards, and dabbling in claims could yield big returns.

  Early in 1884, Wyatt arrived in northern Idaho with Sadie and his brother Jim for the short-lived Coeur d'Alene rush. The Earps landed in the snowy little town of Eagle City, a flat spot where a small creek ran into Eagle Gulch. Newly thrown-up tents and freshly hewn log cabins filled quickly with miners who arrived almost daily. The Earps purchased a round circus tent, 45 feet high and 50 feet in diameter, for $2,250 and started a dance hall. Later, they opened the White Elephant Saloon, which an advertisement in the Coeur dAlene Weekly called "The largest and finest saloon in the Coeur d'Alenes."
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  It had almost become a pattern in Earp's life that he came to town to make a fortune but instead would find himself in the middle of trouble. In Idaho, it happened again.

  A. J. Pritchard discovered gold in the Coeur d'Alene region in the fall of 1882 and set about filing claims to tie up much of the land. This was always a touchy situation in mining boomtowns: local courts had to determine just how many claims one miner could file. Local mining law also dictated it illegal to file by proxy for someone living outside the region, which Pritchard had done. The Earps, along with partners Danny Ferguson, John Hardy, Jack Enright, and Alfred Holman, formed their own land syndicate and set about locating claims and challenging Pritchard's right to tie up extensive holdings. Wyatt and his associates wound up as regular defendants in the Eagle City courts, battling claimjumping charges and arguing miners' rights.

  Pritchard sued and won on a mining lot he claimed the Earps jumped. William S. Payne sued Earp and associates over possession of some town land in Eagle, alleging that two men armed with revolvers had forcibly taken possession of the land. Payne received a $25 judgment, which the judge trebled, and regained possession of the land. Oddly, Payne showed up in another legal suit siding with Wyatt. The Earps also won a suit for a mining claim they had allegedly jumped. Wyatt Earp was listed as locator on four mines-the Consolidated Grizzly Bear, the Dividend, the Dead Scratch, and the Golden Gate, while Jim located the Jesse Jay.

  Between running a saloon, bringing legal actions, and locating claims, Wyatt Earp took another job. The exiled U.S. marshal became deputy sheriff of Kootenai County. The new mining territory was on land claimed by both Shoshone and Kootenai counties, and the legislature had not yet determined the proper authority. Shoshone County stationed both the sheriff and a deputy in Eagle City, while Kootenai was represented only by part-time deputy Earp.57