I may have mentioned before but as a younger man and lover of all things American I was mildly obsessed with The History of The Wild West for the longest time and have a number of books on the subject (many illustrated) a small library if you will and with a specialist section on the 500 Nations of the indigenous native peoples of North America (books on Edward S Curtis’ work and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee etc) but also sought out the truth regarding the great famous ‘cowboys and outlaws’ (I thought films like 'Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid' were close to reality 🙄 and the Long Riders was close to real life as it was possible to get!! Custer’s last stand as pictured in Little Big Man and folks like Jay Silverheels, Will Sampson, Chief Dan George amongst my favourite actors. I LOVE a great Western movie, Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josie Wales etc etc. Sitting Bull one of my all time great heroes . . . . so this explains this direct quote from the legendary lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp about his compatriot in the Shoot Out at the OK Corral [in under a minute in an alleyway down the side of a photographic studio (sic) 3 men were shot dead, 3 wounded, 2 ran away and one got away free. Earp and his ‘deputies’ were tried and found to have acted lawfully]!
“Doc was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long lean ash-blond fellow nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time the most skilful gambler and the nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a gun that I ever knew.”
– Wyatt Earp
Doc die of TB aged 36 and his last words to his nurse were said to be glaring down at his bare feet “This is funny!” as he fully expected to die from a gunshots with ‘his boots on’ as it were
Earp married three times and lived until he was 80, though more by sheer luck than any judgement on his part!
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