Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend

by Casey Tefertiller

  Sharkey rested about half an hour in the dressing room, weakly shaking hands with a reporter and saying, "I'd have licked him if he hadn't hit me that way." When asked about his condition, he said he felt "awful bad." He said he was certain of winning the fight and was growing stronger and more confident as Fitzsimmons wore down. "I am certain that Fitzsimmons fouled me deliberately. He did it to save himself from defeat. It was getting plain to him that I was growing in strength, while he was going down hill, so to speak, and rather than be knocked out, he thought he would lose on a foul. Had he not delivered that nasty blow which crippled me, I would certainly have finished him in that round.... I was for a moment paralyzed when I received that blow, and was wholly unable to protect myself. I felt myself sinking to the floor, and I was doubled up in such a way, that I could not guard myself from the last upper-cut which he sent in-I suppose as a finisher. I am sorry that the question of supremacy was not settled on its merits, rather than in this way."14

  Then something very odd happened. Dr. Daniel D. Lustig, the official medical examiner for the National Athletic Club, and four other physicians came to call on Sharkey and were refused admission to his room. Lustig protested at length, to no avail, and the doctor charged with determining the severity and legitimacy of the injury was barred from seeing the prize patient. It was a deliberate act-or a mistake-that would make Fitzsimmons's claims seem far more plausible.

  After about half an hour in the dressing room, the seconds lifted Sharkey onto a stretcher to carry him to the Windsor Hotel, followed by a string of reporters. Dr. Benjamin Lee was called to attend the fighter, an unusual choice because he was not one of the club doctors. Lee immediately certified the injury and said, "Mr. Sharkey is without doubt in great pain from the result of a blow in the region of the groin. He is badly swollen and may have to remain in bed two or three days."

  Reporters frantically scrambled around the pavilion, putting together stories that would try to clarify the bizarre turn of events. Hearst's Examiner devoted six heavily illustrated pages to the contest, viewing it from all angles and interviewing just about anyone with an opinion. The Examiner printed fifty-four spectator statements, with twenty-eight saying no foul had been committed, seventeen viewing a foul, and nine saying they could not clearly see and were uncertain. Of course, this probably reflected their bets more than their vision, and most boxing fouls are not clearly seen by much of the crowd.

  Earp was quoted at length in both the Chronicle and the Examiner, describing the fight and defending his position. According to the Examiner, he said:

  When I decided this contest in favor of Sharkey I did so because I believed Fitzsimmons had deliberately fouled him, and under the rules the sailor was entitled to the decision. I would have been willing to allow half-fouls-that is, fouls that might be considered partly accidental -to pass by with only a reprimand, but in such a case as this I could only do my duty.

  Julian approached me before the contest, and said he had heard stories to the effect that I favored Sharkey. We talked a few moments and he went away, apparently satisfied that everything was on the square. Any talk to the effect that I was influenced in any way to decide wrongly against Fitzsimmons is rubbish. I saw Sharkey but once before in my life, and that was when he boxed with Corbett. I had no reason to favor him. If I had allowed my feelings to govern me, my decision would have been the other way.

  I am a pretty close observer, and under most conditions I think I am cool. I went into the ring as referee to give a square decision and, so far as my conscience speaks, I have done so. It made no difference to me who won; the victory should be to the best man.... I feel that I did what was right and honorable and feeling so I care nothing for the opinion of anybody. I saw the foul blow struck as plainly as I see you, and that is all there is to the story.... No man until now has ever questioned my honor. I have been in many places and in peculiar situations, but no one ever said, until to-night, that I was guilty of a dishonorable act. And I will repeat that I decided in all fairness and with a judgment that was as true as my eyesight. I saw the foul blow.15

  In the Chronicle interview, Earp said he had been introduced to Fitzsimmons by Masterson, "the best friend I have on earth. If I had any leanings they would have been toward Fitzsimmons, for I know that Bat Masterson, who is in Denver tonight, had every dollar he could raise on Fitzsimmons."

  The next morning the papers screamed the decision around San Francisco. The Call, making no pretense of fair coverage, headlined, "FITZSIMMONS WAS ROBBED," then followed with dropheads of "REFEREE EARP GAVE A RAW DECISION" and "The Cornishman Was Warned Against Accepting the Ex Faro Dealing Sharp."

  It was rumored locally that Call editor Shortridge had bet heavily on Fitzsimmons, and his loss, combined with the simmering feud against the Examiner, gave Shortridge an outlet to attack both Earp and the rival paper. The Call would long continue the attack with vindictive bias. The furor continued in San Francisco on Thursday morning when a Bulletin reporter called on Sharkey at the Windsor Hotel and filed his report in time for the afternoon editions:

  No one who saw the doughty sailor rolling on the platform gasping with agony, could doubt that he was badly hurt in some tender spot. And all doubts on this point are forever set at rest by Sharkey's condition this morning.

  Tom Sharkey passed a sleepless night. It was almost noon to-day before he shut his eyes for a slumber. Dr. Benjamin Lee, who was called in immediately after the fight, remained at his bedside all night and administered to his injury. About 10 o'clock this morning Dr. Rottanzi and Dr. Ragan called at the Windsor and examined the disabled pugilist. There is no gainsaying the fact but what Sharkey is horribly crippled. There was an immense swelling in his groin about 5 o'clock. Then it perhaps reached a climax. By means of leeches and hot applications the swelling was reduced almost one-half. Hot cloths were continuously applied for twelve hours; the leeches were not used until daybreak. Accompanying the swollenness there is, of course, more or less inflammation, but this was nearly allayed before Sharkey went to sleep.

  Sharkey displayed his bruised groin, and the Bulletin wrote, "People who saw the fight and who entertain doubts about the Cornishman striking below the belt should visit the sailor's room and make a personal examination. Should they do so they will be convinced that there was a foul blow struck by none other than Mr. Robert Fitzsimmons.... The old maxim that 'the best test of the pudding is the eating' might in Sharkey's case be worded, 'the best proof that he was foully hit is the seeing."' Unfortunately, Sharkey chose not to stand atop Lotta's Fountain and display his bruised and swollen scrotum. Even if it would not have stopped public debate, it certainly would have provided another dandy San Francisco story for the ages.

  The Bulletin reporter remained in the room when Wyatt Earp came to call and reported the scene:

  He stayed a few seconds. The swollen groin satisfied Mr. Earp that he did not err in giving the prize to Sharkey. "It was the most deliberate foul I ever saw struck," said the referee. "Fitz hit him squarely below the belt. I can understand how many could not see where the blow landed. It was an upswoop, which to many not near the ring looked as if Fitzsimmons struck him in the stomach, when in reality it was clear below the belt. Of course Fitz was the favorite in the betting, and he carried more money. You know how it is at the racetrack when they tip over a favorite well played. Won't a roar go up to the clouds especially if the judges disqualify the favorite for fouling?"

  The roar had only begun. Once again, Wyatt Earp would find himself in the middle of a tempest of press attention that would be carried across the nation on telegraph wires, with debates on both coasts as to whether Earp threw the fight. New York sports took the news badly, raging en masse that the fight had been thrown or the call had been blown. Sharkey received challenges from around the country, including one from Jim Corbett, the real owner of the title, and another from John L. Sullivan, the aging former champ.

  On Thursday Dr. Lustig further exacerbated the issue with an an
gry letter to the Examiner outlining the events that followed the fight, when he and a team of physicians were not let into Sharkey's room. Lustig said he was not allowed to examine the patient until late the next afternoon when Groom asked him to check Sharkey's condition. Lustig and several other doctors performed full examinations and met in another room for consultation. They agreed there was swelling and discoloration in the groin, but did not give a cause. Lustig said Dr. D. F. Ragan had told him the swelling had increased in the fourteen hours since he had first seen it, and Lustig said dramatically: "in my judgment had it been due to a blow such as he complains of having received I think the swelling and discoloration would be far greater than it is at present.... I am unable to understand why, if Sharkey was suffering such severe pains as were attributed to him, none of the physicians at the Pavilion were called upon to attend him or even permitted to see him."

  Lustig hinted the disabling blow may have been committed after the fight, when Sharkey's associates realized there was no choice other than to really injure their fighter. Lustig certainly appeared slighted by the Sharkey group, and he struck out against them.

  An Examiner reporter tracked down police commissioner Gunst, who owned a chain of cigar shops and was a political appointee with no law enforcement background. Gunst had told Fitzsimmons of the fix rumors before the fight, and he showed his anger in the interview: "Fitzsimmons was robbed by an unjust decision and honest sport in this city has been struck a blow from which it will not recover for a long time. The decision of Earp was deliberate robbery, and I have reason to believe that I was rightly informed when I was told before the fight that the referee had been 'fixed,' and that the fight would be given to Sharkey. I expected such a decision much earlier in the contest. I am not at liberty to tell my informant's name, but he is thoroughly reliable and, as events proved, quite as well informed. I was sitting in the Baldwin restaurant shortly after 6 o'clock when my friend approached me and asked me if I had bet anything on the fight. I told him that I had not.... My friend surprised me and I asked him why he had asked such a question. He replied that the fight had been 'fixed,' and that a 'crooked' decision would be given in Sharkey's favor. This information was given positively without rumor or insinuation."16

  With a police commissioner and the National Athletic Club physician questioning the result, the accusation of a fix now seemed far more plausible than it had twenty-four hours earlier when Fitzsimmons and his dapper trainer were doing most of the ranting. Something had definitely started to stink in San Francisco, and Wyatt Earp stood directly in the middle.

  SADIE EARP SAID SHE DID NOT LEARN until late on the day of the fight that Wyatt would be the third man in the ring, and that night she waited at home for Wyatt to return. "When at last Wyatt did come home, I knew at once something was seriously wrong. He seemed tired and depressed," she wrote.17 Wyatt explained the events of the fight, and how he had been carrying a gun to protect against robbery. Sadie asked why her husband had not removed the gun, and she recalled that Wyatt answered, "I am certainly sorry I didn't, but I was so excited about having to referee the fight that I forgot it was there. Wearing it all day I don't feel the weight of it and am no more conscious of its being there than of my coat or my vest. I wouldn't have had it happen for anything. Even though it was an accident it will be hard to convince some people that it was, in view of the way the decision went.... I am sorry I was ever drawn into it, but I did what I knew was right and I'm not sorry about my decision, It's all I could do."

  Wyatt Earp had more trouble Thursday, as the aftermath of toting a gun into the prize ring. Earp left for the race track early in the morning, apparently unaware that he was supposed to appear in court on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, and officers were alerted to watch for him. That evening, Captain Wittman sent officer Frank W. Riley to the Pup Rotisserie on Stockton Street, where Earp was known to take his meals. At about 7 P.m., the former U.S. marshal walked in to have dinner.

  "You are wanted at police headquarters," Riley said, according to the Examiner.

  "All right," Earp replied. The two boarded a streetcar and were soon at headquarters.

  "I have been looking for you all day, and had begun to think that I would not be able to find you," Wittman said.

  "Very sorry to have troubled you," Earp responded. "I may as well confess that I went to the Ingleside track early this morning for the purpose of avoiding persons that might desire to discuss last night's fight. I am now, however, entirely at your service."

  "You will have to answer to a charge of carrying concealed weapons," Wittman said.

  "Very well. What is the bail?"

  "Fifty dollars."

  "I did not expect to be arrested or I would have surrendered myself," Earp said, according to the Call.

  "I would have arrested you at the fight, but fearing trouble I concluded to wait until today," Wittman said.

  "You did not think I would run away?" Earp asked.

  "I knew where to get you," Wittman answered, smiling. "You could not have avoided us very long."18

  Earp attended to the procedures before returning downtown. The next morning, Wyatt Earp and attorney Frank Kelly walked into police court to face charges of carrying a concealed weapon and obtained a continuance before sitting down for a conversation with a Bulletin reporter.

  A quiet, determined-looking man is Wyatt Earp. Not the fierce desperado that many unjust rumors have pointed out, by any means. He looks peaceable enough, even kindly, though he has a steel blue eye that is the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual temperament of a man not to be trifled with. Tall, and of an athletic, agile build, he looks like a man who has been in training all his life. He is courteous, too. During his conversation with the Bulletin representative his hand did not wander once toward his hip pocket.

  "I am asking for a continuance of this matter," he said, because I have not yet decided what I shall do. I want time to think it over.

  "You see, I make no pretense that I did not have a gun. I had it all right, just here," slapping that hip pocket. "It was foolish of me to have it, of course. But I gave it up when called upon. It happened in this way. I am out at the races all day, and when the last race is run I have to cross over from the stables to the cars after everybody has gone, and I do not reach home sometimes until 8 or 9 o'clock. I never know whom I am going to meet, so I deem it right to protect myself.

  "Now on the night of the fight I got in very late from the races, much later than I expected, and had to go straight out to Mechanics' Pavilion. If I had any place to leave my gun I'd have put it away, but I hadn't; so I just clambered up into the ring with it on. It was foolish of me, of course.

  "But there is another consideration which makes me uncertain as to whether I should plead guilty and take my fine or whether I should demand a hearing. I'll decide by Tuesday. This is a new experience to me. I was never arrested like this before."

  Earp was most unwilling to talk about the fight. "I've said enough, and have been reported to have said more than I have. My attorney, Mr. [Frank] Kelly, advises me that the less I say the better. So I'll await results."19

  Earp returned to court to plead not guilty, then went to trial on December 10. Wittman took the stand and produced the Colt, "fully a foot long," according to the Bulletin. Earp again said he needed the gun for protection because of late dealings at the track, adding that released convicts all over the West had vowed to have his life on sight and he was not inclined to die a martyr at their hands, the Bulletin said. When Earp said that recent robberies had shown the need for protection, Judge Low remarked that there was greater danger of losing money at the track. According to the report, everyone laughed except Wyatt. Jesse Hardesty, formerly a district attorney in Arizona, appeared as a character witness and said many rustlers in the Tombstone area had vowed to shoot Wyatt if they ever saw him again.20 Low ruled that Earp had committed a "technical violation" of the ordinance against concealed weapons and fined Earp $50, or 25
days in jail. Earp paid with the $50 he had already put up for bail, and the incident ended. But the uproar over the fight had been growing all during the week that Wyatt Earp struggled with his legal problems.

  The very character of Wyatt Earp became subject to passionate debate in the saloons and sporting halls of San Francisco. Earp clearly disliked the situation and apparently was ready to fight to protect his honor. By one account, he confronted Frank McLaughlin, chairman of the state's Republican Committee, and asked him to explain why he had called Earp's decision unsavory. Onlookers expected an encounter, but Earp's friends pulled him away before a fight broke out.21

  Julian and Fitzsimmons, through their attorneys, filed a formal complaint the morning after the fight against Sharkey, the National Athletic Club, and others supposedly involved in the alleged fix, but did not name Earp. A restraining order was granted, preventing Sharkey from collecting the $10,000 prize. And the newspapers continued their clamor. The Call carried the cudgel of rabid anti- Earpism, with the Chronicle and the Bulletin trying to establish balance, and the Examiner reporting in depth as it attacked the Call.

  Manager Julian stood as the most outspoken Earp critic. He told the Bulletin he had heard Earp was looking for him. "He ought to have little trouble [finding] me. Everybody knows where I am stopping. Mr. Earp may be an expert with a gun, but there are others."22

  Julian and the Call continued anti-Earp diatribes as both sides prepared for a hearing. Probably the most inflammatory accusation concerned a telegram trainer Danny Needham was alleged to have sent to an Eastern sport on December 2 supposedly saying: "Place all your money on Sharkey. Will explain further." Needham denied ever sending such a telegram. The ever inquisitive Bulletin sent a reporter to the Postal Telegraph Company, where manager L. W. Storror confirmed the trainer's comment. Storror told the Bulletin: "We sent no such dispatch. The printed dispatch is a fake upon the face for there is no destination mentioned. We are not in the habit of sending messages without having the destination stated expressly in the 'head.' 1123