BOOK title please on Wyatt Earp-Tombstone

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Catherine

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I would like to find a good book about Wyatt Earp and his life. I have done internet searches and found out various information on him. Some say one thing and others say another. I am not even talking about the movie Tombstone where they say things are right/wrong in that movie! Wow!

I remember the television show when I was a kid in the 1950's and on.

I recently saw the movie 'Tombstone' AGAIN with Kurt R., Sam Elliot (Oh! Sam Elliot! My heart be still. Grin.), Val K. who played Doc H., etc. The one actress from China Beach, short dark hair, played the singer in Tombstone.

Is it really TRUE that they put up a sign NOT allowing any guns in Tombstone after those incidents and in that one scene? Did it happen like that in REAL LIFE?

I have been on a western movie kick and saw OPEN RANGE again with Robert D. and Kevin C. - I love that movie! Great scenery and gun scenes. Nice plot.

I saw a new rental for 99 cents and immediately in the movie... the FBI gets information on some internet credit card scam. They said and it is not verbatim:

Oh stolen password, cards, porn and a watch purchase by the son for his Father. Then they see that the man has '3 semi auto guns and an assault weapon' on their FBI computer screen... after they quote THAT ___ DRIBBLE about the guns that he owns registered - bought legal - they say:

Oh yes... that has GOT to be him. So the FBI woman calls SWAT and tells them about the internet crime and to go BREAK DOWN the door, etc. SWAT goes to break down the door.

They catch the man and his teen, hacker, scam son.

In the end of this movie (?!?) the FBI woman is saved by her gun. I guess it was OK for her to lock up her gun in her house - they show this. OK for her to have the gun to defend herself out of her house anywhere. NOT too cool in the very beginning to be so ANTI GUN that when they see HE has 4 guns including that evil AW gun... yes! Oh yes! That has to be HIM.

What a waste of 99 cents for a new overnight rental release. UGH.

Now... back to Wyatt Earp. Any information on real history would be appreciated by me along with some good book titles. THANK YOU!

Catherine
 
Kevin costners wyatt earp was a more accurate bio movie

My darling clementine inaccurate movie except for henry fondas actions as earp way he moved etc. as the director John Ford actually new earp

as far as books go I've read several but for the life of me can't remember the titles I post later after my clin path test
 
Thank you!

I want to rent Kevin C.'s version again too.

I love Henry Fonda and I may have seen his version MANY years ago.

Catherine
 
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All of the popular movies and television shows about the (so called) Gunfight at the O.K. Corral are fictional. Good entertainment but poor history. If you really want to know the truth – or at least as close as we can get to it – buy a copy of a little known book; The O.K. Corral Inquest, edited by Alford E. Turner. It may be out of print, but I think Amazon has copies in their used book section.

Following the fight the Earp brothers and Doc. Holiday were charged with murder. At the time Tombstone was a fairly large city with a fully functional court system. The first step in the legal process was a Preliminary Hearing to determine if they should be bound over for a full trial. This hearing was held in Tombstone’s Justice Court about a month after the fight, and took testimony over almost four weeks. A hand-written record was kept.

Mr. Turner obtained a type-written copy of the original one, crossed checked it with other sources for accuracy, and then had it printed in a book that was completely faithful to the court transcript, but annotated with footnotes to help the reader.

So instead of depending on fictional accounts, you can read the eyewitness testimony concerning the fight and the events that led up to it, by people (around 30 some) who were actually there. Of course not all of the witnesses were fully truthful, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide who might have been fibbing, and why.
 
There's a very good fictional book about Wyatt's life you might want to check out: Robert B. Parker's "Gunman's Rhapsody." You can get a paperback copy through Amazon if your local library doesn't have it.

I might be biased because I'm a huge Parker fan and have probably read every word he's ever written, but I'm also a big fan of the western as well. I went to Tombstone a few years ago, and it was really neat to see the actual places where these guys hung out. Parker did his research by going there a few times as well.
 
Non fiction books?

Streetfight in Tombstone Near the OK Corral
by Mike Hickey

The Tombstone Chronicles
by Ben Traywick

And Die In The West
by Paula Mitchell Marks

I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp
by Glenn Boyer
 
Is it really TRUE that they put up a sign NOT allowing any guns in Tombstone after those incidents and in that one scene?
Click to expand...

Many frontier towns had ordinances requiring turning in your firearm so that you wouldn't go to the saloon, get drunk and start "hurrahing" the town.
 
My gut level suspicion is that the Earps were what we would refer to as "Jack Booted Thugs" today
Click to expand...

I doubt it. They were too interested in making money not in lording power over everyone. The Law Enforcement angle was merely a way to finance their true vocation which was to make money whatever way they could, gambling, saloon games, mining.
Virgil could be a real stickler though. He once arrested Wyatt for fighting (Wyatt ended up paying a $5 fine) and fined his friend and then mayor John Clum for riding his carriage too fast through town.
 
Best of the scholarly bios is Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend, Casey Tefertiller,Wiley: 1997. Check out 93 copies currently available online @ abebooks.com starting at $8.32 + s&h.
 
Catherine

Another movie you might want to see sometime is "Hour of the Gun", with James Garner as Wyatt Earp, Jason Robards as Doc Holiday, and Robert Ryan as Ike Clanton. The movie actually begins with the shootout at the O K Corral, and follows the events that happen after that, including the various trials and the search for Clanton's hired killers. Garner is particularly good as Wyatt; very quiet, very focussed, almost stoic, in his portrayal of the lawman.
 
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Another movie you might like is Crossfire Trail. Worth every minute.
~~~~~

I saw that movie last winter again. I really liked it. Thanks for the tip though. I love movies with a plot, nice scenery, where the bad guys go bye, bye and the good guys triumph!

Catherine
 
Quote:

Is it really TRUE that they put up a sign NOT allowing any guns in Tombstone after those incidents and in that one scene? = Catherine

Quote:

Many frontier towns had ordinances requiring turning in your firearm so that you wouldn't go to the saloon, get drunk and start "hurrahing" the town.

~~~~~

Wow! I did not realize that there were that many of those types of towns! It makes me wonder about that sign being put up now. Wyatt complained about it to his brother in the 'movie'. I did NOT like that part of the movie. ; . (

Thank you for the information and to everyone else here.

Sincerely,

Catherine
 
Many years ago (over 30) when I was a kid my grandparents took me to Tombstone and we went to the OK corral. Actual a empty lot next to it where the shoot out took place. I remember thinking in that tight a place how was it that everybody did not get shot. We also went to old Tuscon which blew old westerns for me for years. :)
 
You should also lok at "Murder in Tombstone: the Trial of Wyatt Earp" by Stephen Lubet. The author did a very thorough review of all the Court transcripts of the trial (actually a preliminary hearing) of the Earps for murder following the gunfight. It's interesting because the transcripts allow both factions (the "Cowboys"/Clantons/McLauries and the Earps) to speak for themselves. Many of the Earp bios are based on interviews Wyatt and his friends and supporters gave to the authors or alternately on interviews that the Earp's enemies gave to the authors. As such, these bios tend to be biased in one direction or the other. The trial transcripts let you see what people (some of whom didn't belong to either Tombstone faction) said under oath less than a year after the gunfight.

Oh, and the Tefertiller book is good too.
 
+1 on Casey Tefertiller's book, and on "the OK corral inquest"
Wyatt Earp is one of my personal interests, I have read all the books and seen all the movies. Can't reccommend anything by Traywick, or Boyer. Nothing against them, just didn't like their stuff.
The thing to remember when reading about Wyatt Earp is that most folks didn't take notice of him untill after he died. Then everyone was asking questions at his graveside. His friends were remembering a passed friend and eulogizing about his fortrightness, and his courage. This was taken as gospel and set him up to be pilloried later. Wyatt was a man, the same as the rest of us, he had his faults and his personal failings.
The best of the movies is undoubtedly "Tombstone", if you want to watch how Wyatt acted, watch any John Wayne movie, Wyatt trained him
 
Worth Reading

My gut level suspicion is that the Earps were what we would refer to as "Jack Booted Thugs" today
Click to expand...
The Real Wyatt Earp: A Documentary Biography by Steve Gatto, published by High Lonesome Books.

Also published by High Lonesome Books and closely related: John H. Behan: Sacrificed Sheriff by Bob Alexander.

Many people don't fully appreciate how many of Arizona's early conflicts, including the fight to control of Tombstone, were Republican versus Democrat. Arizona was a Democratic territory, which had sided with the Confederacy, and the Earps were Republican "interlopers."
 
Book

Just finished a book that, in exhaustive detail, discusses all of the top movies featuring Wyatt Earp -- but can't remember the title at this moment.
A very good read -- I'll get back to you.

By the way, it details the inaccuracies in each film, and seems to prefer Tombstone, as far as accuracy goes.
 
There was a book written by one of the other Earp's wives in the early 20th century that I really enjoyed. I am currently having a hard time recalling the title, or which Earp wife wrote it though.

Ah, the wonders of the internet:

The Earp brothers of Tombstone : the story of Mrs. Virgil Earp by Frank Waters

I concur with a previous posting that although Russell/Kilmer's Tombstone is a better movie to watch, Costner/Quaid's Wyatt Earp was more historically accurate.
 
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