Hildreth Halliwell, Allie Earp's relative, said the family always believed a house of ill repute operated above the Dexter, although family stories vary as to Wyatt and Sadie's involvement. Peggy Greenberg, Sadie's niece, recalled a story that Sadie became angry when she learned of a whorehouse above one of Wyatt's saloons.2 In her unpublished manuscript, Sadie made a point of denying that the rooms were used as a brothel.3
The first three years were relatively quiet for the Earps in Alaska. In the winter, when the mines were unworkable, they would spend time in San Francisco or Seattle. They welcomed the new century in San Francisco, with Wyatt renewing acquaintances with some of his old sporting friends. According to the Cal, on April 28, 1900, he wandered into the Peerless saloon, where he ran into sport and brawler Tom Mulqueen:
Wyatt Earp, gun-fighter and all around bad man was knocked down and out late Saturday night by Tom Mulqueen, the well-known racehorse man. The trouble ... was precipitated by Earp. Both men had been drinking at the bar, when Earp brought up the subject of a recent scandal at the Tanforan track. He made several disparaging remarks about a jockey who is on very friendly terms with Mulqueen. When called down he became belligerently indignant and threatened to wipe the floor with the horse owner. Instantly Mulqueen grabbed him and after throwing him against the bar landed a blow on the gunfighter's face, knocking him out.
John Farley, the proprietor of the saloon, fearing serious trouble between the two men, managed to induce Mulqueen to leave the place. Earp, after recovering from the effects of the blow, was also led from the saloon and placed aboard a passing street car. Earp was not armed at the time, having left his trusted "gun" with a friend shortly before the occurrence.
Mulqueen was around as usual yesterday but refused to discuss the affair... .
Earp first came into prominence in the city when he officiated as referee in the fight between Fitzsimmons and Sharkey several years ago and gave the decision to the sailor on an alleged foul after he had been knocked out, a decision that created general dissatisfaction.4
The tale was picked up and ran in papers throughout the West. Surprisingly, the story is not mentioned in other San Francisco papers. But there is no record of Earp's denying this story, as he did with the many false rumors that circulated. When papers picked up a far-fetched tale about Earp being knocked out by a midget mountie in Dawson, Yukon Territory, Earp squawked and accurately said that the incident had never happened and that he had never even visited Dawson. The incident in San Francisco only served as the beginning of what would be a most eventful summer.
He returned to Alaska soon after the Mulqueen affair. A brawl started on Front Street in Nome on June 29, when drunks Dan Kane and E. P. Lopez engaged in a tussle. Two deputy marshals arrested the men and started to march them toward the barracks that served as a jail. According to the Nome Daily News, several men, including Wyatt Earp and Nathan Marcus, Sadie's brother, came forward, apprarently to interfere with the arrest.
Wyatt Earp was ... taken into custody; he is charged with interfering with an officer while in the discharge of his duty. Kane is now confined in jail. Earp, upon reaching the barracks, asserted that his actions had been misconstrued and that he had interceded to assist the deputy marshal.'
Earp was released without charges. A few weeks later, he received some deeply troubling news. On July 6, a range foreman named Johnnie Boyett shot and killed 45-year-old Warren Earp in Willcox, Arizona. The early reports connected the killing to the previous problems between the Earp brothers and the cowboys, although it seems more likely that Warren had been taunting Boyett, who responded with lead. News took weeks to reach Alaska, and the Arctic Weekly Sun reported on August 5 that Wyatt "seems inclined to break the record and die a natural death."6 Because it took so long to travel to Arizona Wyatt had no recourse but to remain in Alaska, making great profits at the Dexter, and leave Boyett to another justice.
Down in the States, Earp still had enough of a reputation to merit frontpage coverage in the New York Tribune, even if the story strayed far from the truth. On July 15, 1900, the Tribune ran the headline, "Wyatt Earp Shot at Nome; The Arizona 'Bad Man' Not Quick Enough With His Gun." The report said Earp had been the terror of Nome "because of his reputation as a dead shot. He bullied every one, and he was particularly offensive" in his own saloon, the Dexter. After Earp quarreled with a customer, Earp reached for a gun, but the customer drew more quickly and fired, wounding Earp in the arm. There is no other record of Earp taking a bullet in Nome, and it is extremely unlikely any such event ever took place. But there it was, on the front page of a New York newspaper.
The press was rarely kind to the marshal turned gambler. That summer of 1900 was a big season for Earp press coverage, most of it remarkably inaccurate. The Seattle Pont-Intelligencer reported the "Death of Virgil Earp," confusing Virgil with Warren, then picked up the Charles Hopkins fable that had Wyatt's sister marrying Ike Clanton and Wyatt killing him. The Chicago InterOcean ran a bizarre Tombstone tale of a young Englishman who came to town and complained about the tamales in an eatery owned by one of the Earps' Chinese friends. Virgil grew angry and had the cook make the spiciest hot tamales imaginable, then forced the Englishman to eat them at gunpoint. The stories kept growing wilder and wilder, and the Earps' reputation continued to grow, fed not by facts but by fables.?
The Seattle story did include a note on Wyatt's winter stays in the area: "During his residence in Seattle, he was one of the most quiet citizens, but it is not of record that any bluff was put up against him that went uncalled. It is known that in an unostentatious manner he promptly and severely rebuked the few attempts made to hand him what is technically known as the 'con,' and his manner was always such as to instill a wholesome respect in the minds of his immediate associates."'
Wyatt probably never knew of his New York notoriety or the other strange tales, but he did know about Warren's death, and it must have had a major effect on him. On August 30 he sat down with two old friends from Tombstone for a long talk. Diarist George Parsons had come to Alaska on business and joined Earp and John Clum, there on post office duties. Parsons wrote: "John Clum ... and I had an oldtimer with Wyatt Earp tonight at his place, a regular old Arizona time, and Wyatt unlimbered for several hours and seemed glad to talk to us who knew the past. It was a very memorable evening. He went home with us." The next day he added in his diary: "We had such a seance last night. That evening with Wyatt Earp would have been worth $1,000 or more to the newspapers."
On September 10 he again met with Parsons. "Wyatt Earp and I had a little confab today. This reputed badman from Arizona is straight and fearless I believe and is a good friend of mine and respects me and I him, even though he runs perhaps the biggest drinking and gambling places here. It's well to have such a friend here and let the thugs see it."
In brawling, bawdy Nome, trouble could come with the next patron through the door. Wyatt and his brother-in-law, Nathan Marcus, became involved in a major fight. On September 12, the Daily News reported their latest difficulty.
COMMISSIONER'S COURT: The Principals in a fracas which occurred in the Dexter Saloon, were arraigned before Commissioner Stevens this morning. The accused parties were Wyatt Earp, N. Marcus and Walter Summers. About 12 o'clock last night Patrolman Vanslow of the U.S.A. arrested Summers for disorderly conduct. The soldier, while performing this duty, was assaulted and beaten by Wyatt Earp and N. Marcus. The latter is a porter in the Dexter Saloon. Assistance was rendered to the officer, and eventually the apprehension of Summers, Earp and Marcus was effected. Summers, at a trial this morning, established his innocence, and he was accordingly discharged. The cases against the other two prisoners were continued at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, and in the meantime the defendants are at liberty upon cash bonds of $20 each.9
The disposition of the case is unknown, but Earp was back at the Dexter quickly.
Wyatt traveled with fast company in Nome. He met playwright Wilson Mizner, cattleman Charlie Welsh, and two no
velists who would become famous, Rex Beach and a kid named Jack London. Beach wrote of the Nome rush in his book The Spoilers, which told of corrupt local officials making their fortune through trickery.
Earp also had a chance to do a favor for an old friend when Lucky Baldwin and David Unruh showed up to start a gambling house and bar. Baldwin could never come up with a satisfactory location, and he headed back to San Francisco, leaving Unruh to close the operation down. Much to Unruh's surprise, local officials slapped a claim for $2,500 against him and held the equipment, worth about $10,000.
Unruh said he went to Earp for advice, and Wyatt responded by getting two of his business friends to arrange the bond. Unruh took the bond to the marshal, who informed him that it was not valid and instead demanded $20,000 in gold dust. Unruh said, "I went back to Earp. He was mad. But he got together the $20,000 worth of gold and gave me a man to lug it to the marshal's office, where I got a receipt and the property was released. Then I sold the stuff for a profit of between fifty and sixty thousand dollars. Wyatt Earp refused a cent of pay for his accommodation. He said he was more than satisfied to put a crimp in the grafting of that crowd of crooks."10
Sadie also received some acclaim in Alaska that summer, leading a relief effort to raise funds for victims of a violent ocean storm that flooded parts of Nome. But these were not always good times for the couple. Wyatt would later complain to his friend Charlie Welsh that Sadie had gambled heavily on the boat trips to Alaska. Sadie would later say that Wyatt had affairs with other women. It is likely that there were separations and disruptions during the Alaska years.'
Wyatt and Sadie returned to Alaska for the last time in 1901. While it is unconfirmed, the family legend is that they left Alaska with $80,000, a virtual fortune in those times. It would be enough to stake them through various business ventures for the next few years.
While passing through southern California in 1901, Earp spoke briefly with a reporter for the Los Angeles Express:
Wyatt Earp, the well-known sporting authority, passed the day in Los Angeles with his wife. He has just returned from Nome, where he has mining properties sufficient to make him financially comfortable for the rest of his life. He states that the inland prospects at Nome are proving rich and that practical miners who apply themselves steadily are taking out good money.
Mr. Earp has not retired from the world of sport. He states that he intends to enjoy the roped arena and other characteristic sports for some time yet, although the criticism he received from the decision in the Sharkey-Fitzsimmons fight was unfair, he alleges.
"I easily can explain the attack of certain newspapers," said Mr. Earp. "I had been doing work for the Examiner for three months previous to the fight. At that time both the Call and Chronicle were bitterly fighting the Examiner, and when I refereed the mill, I was their chance to get back at their rival over me. However, a referee is always open to attacks of newspapers, friends of either fighter and to incompetent sporting editors who have exalted opinions of themselves."
Mr. and Mrs. Earp will continue their journey south tomorrow and will return to Nome the coming season.12
They did not return to the Alaska gold fields. Instead Wyatt and Sadie would follow the booms in Nevada for the next decade, often traveling back to join the Marcus and Lehnhardt families in San Francisco and Oakland or spending time in Los Angeles.
In 1902 the Earps moved to Tonopah, Nevada, where Wyatt and partner Al Martin ran a saloon called "The Northern," with "Wyatt Earp, Prop." on the sign over the false-front wooden building. He took out an ad in the local paper proclaiming: "A Gentleman's Resort, Lower Main St., Tonopah; Only the choicest wines, liquors and cigars are passed over the bar; Courteous Mixologists and kind treatment to all patrons When thirsty sample the goods at 'The Northern."'
During the brief silver boom, Wyatt also served as a deputy U.S. marshal under Marshal J. F. Emmitt, a job that primarily meant serving summonses in federal court cases. John Hays Hammond, a famed mining engineer, hired Earp to lead a private police force to run off claim jumpers, and he gave Wyatt explicit instructions:
"You will not shoot except in self-defense," Hammond told Earp.
"O.K., but I must be the judge when the self-defense starts," Earp responded, leaving Hammond with little recourse but to agree. Earp had always acted in self-defense; it was just a matter of judgment when self-defense started.l3
For unexplained reasons, Sadie spent much of this period back in Oakland with her family. If the stories of the old-timers are to be believed, the marriage continued to have rough periods, with occasional separations where one or the other would move out. 14
Back in Los Angeles in 1903, the tale of Wyatt's being bashed by a midget mountie in Dawson appeared in the Herald. The story ran under the headline "The Taming of Wyatt Earp, Bad Man of Other Days," and told of the drunken Wyatt bullying the townsfolk in a gambling hall, then backing down when the mountie politely threatened him. Earp reacted angrily to the accusation by writing an articulate response, which the Los Angeles paper published:
Editor Herald: An article published in your Sunday edition entitled, "The Taming of Wyatt Earp, Bad Man of Other Days," does me an injustice. It relates an experience I was reported to have had in Dawson City in which I was said to have attempted to "shoot up the town" and to have been subdued by one of the Canadian Mounted Police.
The falsity of the article is shown by the fact that I never was within 1,000 miles of Dawson City.
I wish to say that neither I nor my brothers were ever "bad men," in the sense that term is used nor did we ever indulge in the practice of "shooting up" towns. We have been officers of the law and have had our experiences in preserving the law, but we are not, and never have been, professional bad men. In justice to me and my friends and relatives I would like to have you make this statement.
Wyatt Earp 15
A day later, George Parsons wrote the Herald in Wyatt's behalf:
Editor Herald: As an old Tombstoner and one who knew the Earps in the stormy days of the early '80s, I wish, in simple justice to the family in general and Wyatt Earp in particular, to confirm his statement in yesterday's Herald that they were not "bad men" in the common acceptance of the term, but were ever ready to discharge their duty as officers of the law, and did it so effectively that they incurred the enmity of the rustlers and desperadoes congregated in that lively town and section of the country and were always on the side of law and order.
There was one exception. When their brother Morgan was assassinated, Virgil Earp shot and Wyatt Earp's life attempted, then they took the law into their own hands and did what most anyone would have done under the peculiar circumstances existing at the time, and what anyone reading the Virginian would consider their right to do.
I speak of a time I am familiar with for I lived in Tombstone during the entire stay of the Earps, chased Apaches with them, and have seen them, and particularly Wyatt Earp, defending and enforcing the law in the face of death. To call such men "bad men," when the better element was siding with and supporting them morally and financially, is to deal in terms misapplied; and I feel today as I felt in Nome, Alaska, where I saw Wyatt Earp, that if anybody was undeservedly ill-treated and particularly an old Tombstoner, he would find a champion in the same Wyatt Earp, who is older now but none the less gritty, I believe. I state this in justice to a much maligned man who, as a public character, was a benefit and a protection to the community he once lived in.
G. W. Parsons16
A few days later Parsons ran into his old friend on the streets of Los Angeles and returned home to write in the diary he still kept religiously: "Met Wyatt Earp, Arizona's 'bad man' according to the Herald's ideas, and he thanked me for my defence of him. He has killed a few but they ought to have been killed and he did a good job. I may be yet called "Bad Man" myself because I knew him and chased Apaches with him and would have done more if occasion re- quired."17 Wyatt Earp still had his defenders, even if the old stories had already begun
spinning beyond control.
Stories as far back as the Dodge City Peace Committee credited Earp, Masterson, and the rest with far more bloody deeds than they could have even imagined. Most Earp-tales refer to nebulous numbers of outlaws he blasted at different times. Reputations expanded through word of mouth, with stories growing as they passed along the way. In 1886, a Chicago reporter visiting Silverton, Colorado, ran into two self-proclaimed acquaintances of Doc Holliday who claimed to know of eleven killings he had committed. The reporter then found Holliday, who said that he had been blamed for numerous murders when he was not within five hundred miles of the gunfire. Holliday said: "When any of you fellows have been hunted from one end of the country to the other as I have been, you'll understand what a bad man's reputation is built on. I've had credit for more killings than I ever dreamed of.... The claim that I make is that some few of us pioneers are entitled to credit for what we have done. We have been the forerunners of government. As soon as law and order were established anywhere we never had any trouble. If it hadn't been for me and a few like me there never would have been any government in some of these towns. When I have done any shooting it has always been with this in view."18
IF A FEW OF THE OLD STORIES ARE TO BE BELIEVED, even age did not take the fight out of Wyatt Earp. Former police officer Arthur M. King said that he served as Earp's assistant on a series of special missions for the Los Angeles Police Department that were not strictly within the law. King said that he and Earp illegally chased fugitives into Mexico and brought them back to stand trial.
Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend Page 50
