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VIRGIL EARP is my HERO
by Shiloh "Danni" Eldridge
As originally published in the January 2003 issue of Tombstone Times.
After watching the 1993 movie, Tombstone, and living right here in Tombstone, I must admit that I am tired of everybody glorifying Wyatt and leaving Virgil out of the picture. As one Earp author, Glenn Boyer, says and I quote: "If Virgil had not died in 1905, the 'hero' we know from the Tombstone today would probably be him.
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He was a Deputy United State's Marshal and Tombstone Police Chief when the shooting occurred and thus was the primary law enforcement officer in the incident." As for the OK Corral gunfight, it was Virgil who was disgusted with Sheriff Behan's weakness and for his constant protection of the 'cowboys' states another author, Don Chaput, in his book, "Virgil Earp, Western Peace Officer". It was Virgil who yelled at the cowboys to put their hands in the air, not Wyatt as he didn't want a gunfight if he could have avoided it, the same way law enforcement thinks today.
I definitely concur with Mr. Boyer as do a lot of locals and tourists I have spoken with. I do believe if Wyatt had never met the old western movie actor, William S. Hart, and had never gotten involved in the 'Hollywood atmosphere', the movies made about Tombstone would not have him in the star role. Virgil was involved in law enforcement, one way or another, most of his life and also fought in the Civil war for three years. In my book, he is the 'hero' of Tombstone.
During his lifetime, Virgil farmed, drove a stagecoach, drove a mail route, was a prospector and always involved with marshals, sheriffs and constables in one capacity or another. When he and Allie lived in Prescott, AZ, prior to moving to Tombstone, he worked occasionally in law enforcement. Then they moved to Tombstone. When the Marshal was killed, the city council appointed him as City Marshal on Oct. 30, 1880 until the next election took place. Then he was the Marshal from June 18, 1881 until Oct. 29, 1881, three days after the OK Corral gunfight when he and his deputy, Wyatt, resigned. During the gunfight, Virg was shot in the leg. Then on Dec. 28, 1881, he was ambushed, shot at by a shotgun and hit, leaving his left arm permanently crippled.
That didn't stop Virgil. He and Allie moved to Colton, CA, where he became the first Marshal there. In 1900 he was nominated to run for Sheriff of Yavapai County in AZ on the Republican ticket but due to poor health, he dropped out of the race. Virgil Walter Earp was working as a Deputy Sheriff in Esmaralda County, Nevada, when he died of pneumonia on Oct. 19, 1905.
Yessiree, my 'hero' of Tombstone, AZ, is Virgil Earp.
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