Virgil Earp: Western Peace Officer

About this book

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 Virgils 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 Virgils life in California Nevada and other western states as a peace officer gambler miner Republican politician and rancher.