The exploits of Wyatt Earp, real or otherwise, always have overshadowed those of his brothers. Now, for the first time, Donald Chaput removes the eldest brother, Virgil Earp, from that shadow and tells in detail the story of the real leader of the Earp clan. As a peace officer in Prescott, Arizona, Virgil experienced his first street shootout, and it was there he met his future nemesis, Johnny Behan. In 1880 Virgil's brothers joined him in Tombstone, Arizona. Acting as both the town marshal of Tombstone and a U.S. deputy marshal, he led the Earp gang to the fateful gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Most records of Virgil Earp stop here, but Chaput fleshes out the rest of Virgil's life in California, Nevada, and other western states as a peace officer, gambler, miner, Republican politician, and rancher.

Virgil Earp: Western Peace Officer

Chaput, Donald

History

Univ of Oklahoma Pr

François X. Aubry: Trader, trailmaker and voyageur in the Southwest, 1846-1854 (Western frontiersman series)

A.H. Clark Co

Modest Fortunes: Mining in Northern Baja California (Baja California Travels Series)

Mason, William

Loperena, David Zarate

Americas

Natural History Museum of Los

Most readers of the Wild West know Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, and Morgan Earp for the famous shootout on the streets of Tombstone, Arizona. But few know the later years of the close-knit Earp family, which revolved around patriarch Nicholas Earp, and their last push at a major monetary coup in Los Angeles. By 1900 a newly established Old Soldiers' Home was in place at Sawtelle (between Santa Monica and Los Angeles), with thousands of veterans earning monthly pensions, but in an environment where alcohol was prohibited. Enter the Earps and their "blind pig" (illicit alcohol sales) scheme. Two of the Earps, Nicholas and son Newton, were enrolled in the Soldiers' Home, and Newton's far more famous half-brothers Wyatt and Virgil showed up from time to time, but the star of the operation was older brother James. Booze would flow, the pension money would be "dispersed about," and jails were sometimes filled, as the Earps and several other men on the make competed for the veterans' money. We are also reintroduced to Old West figures such as "Gunfighter Surgeon" Dr. George Goodfellow, "Silver Tongued Orator" Thomas Fitch, millionaire George Hearst, detective J.V. Brighton, Lucky Baldwin, and many other well-known westerners who touched the lives of the Earps.

The Earps Invade Southern California: Bootlegging Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and the Old Soldiers’ Home

Biographies & Memoirs

de Haas, David

Historical

University of North Texas Press

Affiliated Writers of Amer

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Books by Chaput, Donald