Wyatt Erp - Life After Tombstone

Life After Tombstone

The gunfight in Tombstone lasted only 30 seconds, but it would end up defining Earp for the rest of his life. After Wyatt killed Frank Stilwell in Tucson, his movements received national press coverage and he became a known commodity in Western folklore.

After killing Curly Bill, the Earps left Arizona for Colorado. They stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they met Deputy U.S. Marshal Bat Masterson, Wyatt's friend. The Earps, Sherman McMasters, and Holliday rode with Masterson to Trinidad, Colorado where Masterson owned a saloon. Wyatt dealt Faro for several weeks before he, Warren, Holliday, and several others rode on to Gunnison, Colorado.

Holliday headed to Pueblo and then Denver. The Earps and Texas Jack set up camp on the outskirts of Gunnison, Colorado, where they remained quietly at first, rarely going into town for supplies. Eventually, Wyatt took over a faro game at a local saloon.

After Morgan Earp's assassination, Wyatt's left his common-law wife Mattie Blaylock their house in Tombstone, but she waited for him in Colton where his parents and Virgil were living. She eventually accepted that Wyatt was not coming for her and moved to Pinal City, Arizona where she resumed life as a prostitute. Mattie struggled with her addictions and committed "suicide by opium poisoning" on July 3, 1888. Wyatt went to San Francisco and joined Josephine Marcus and his brother Warren in late 1882. Josephine was his common-law wife for the next 46 years. Earp spent the next decade running saloons and gambling concessions and investing in mines in Colorado and Idaho, with stops in various boom towns. He also owned several saloons outright or in partnership with others. Josie, or Sadie as he called her, and Earp left San Francisco for Gunnison, Kansas, where Earp ran a Faro bank until he received a request for assistance from Luke Short in Dodge City.