I'm no historian by any stretch, just an avid reader of Old West Frontier history books. I've read quite a few on Wyatt Earp and Co., and what you say is mostly true. Most of the Upstanding-Never-Compromise-Lawman persona was dictated to 3 different authors by Wyatt himself. The most famous is "Wyatt Earp:Frontier Marshall" by Stuart Lake. This "biography" mostly formed the basis for what we know in popular culture as the Unflinching Lawman. He took great steps to erase parts of his past that painted him in a less than flattering light. Like the fact he ran a brothel. Or that used his position as Deputy Sheriff to enrich himself as the job allotted him 10% of taxes collected. Or that he made a deal with Ike Clanton to capture the perpetrators of the ?Bisbee? Stage robbery. Wyatt would give Ike the reward money and Wyatt himself would receive the fame for the capture. But the suspects were killed before Wyatt & Ike could enact their plan, which led Ike into a paranoid panic, which led to the hot tempered Earps to get riled up. This event was one of many that led to the infamous O.K. Corral Gunfight. Most of the time, Wyatt and the "Cowboys" (who were NOT an organized crime unit and not all the bad guys Wyatt portrayed them as later in life) were on pretty good terms. Later-life Wyatt exaggerated his accomplishments by either making it up completely, or most commonly---he took credit for other people's deeds. Many of Wyatt's more famous events were actually not Wyatt at all. Notably, his older brother Virgil was the Tombstone Deputy Marshall, not Wyatt. He was sorta deputized before the gunfight, but he most certainly was NOT in charge of the situation. He wasn't the one calling the shots, Virgil was. The event in the Costner movie where Wyatt stands down a lynch mob protecting Tommy Behind-the-Deuce (in actuality Johnny Behind-the-Deuce, too many Johnny's in the movie I guess)---there were many people protecting him, but Wyatt wasn't one of them.
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