Wyatt Earp gun sells for $225,000 at auction

Still a lot of debate as to what he used that day. Most of the experts are saying it was the Colt at the OK coral but also say they think he owned both the Colt S/A as well as the S&W shofield.
 
@sgms A S&W American model. NOT a Schofield.

And yes, nobody really knows what gun he used at the fight.
 
Bat Masterson sold several Colt SAAs as "The One" he carried. I suspect Earp did own this one, but it was not the one he used "that" day.
 
Wyatt before he died, 1929, left all of his personal stuff,guns included , to his long time friend, John H. Flood Jr. Flood was a personal friend and business partner of Wyatt's for 25 tears.(1904-1929)
Wyatt was one of those people who saved everything,reciepts, tickets, news clippings, etc.. Among these effects was a 1869 American S&W ,8 inch barrel in 44 cal. This was given to Wyatt as a gift from Tom Clum, Tombstone mayor, and editor of the Tombstone Epitath.
Flood claims that Wyatt told him that is was the gun he carried, the day of the OK corral gunfight. If Wyatt was going to a gun fight, it would stand to reason he may well take the S&W because it was so easy to reload, compared to the colt.
As far as I know that S&W is in John D. Gilcheriese collection which one of the largest collections in existance regarding Wyatt Earp. John D. Gilcheriese also owns an unpublished auto biography of Wyatt Earp, that was written by Flood.
For whatever reason it wasn't published, I don't know. But it was it may help clean up all the conjuncture surrounding Wyatt's guns, especially the Buntline that he was supposed to own, that Colt didn't build.
Aren't these tales of the old west great. Thats what many of them are, just tales:D
 
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Bat Masterson was a con artist, at least later in life. His sideline moneymaker when retired back east in the early 20th century was to scrape pawn shops of the crappiest old-west-era guns he could find and resell 'em a week later as -=OWNED BY NONE OTHER THAN BAT MASTERSON!!!=-

:)

He was also part of a gang of poachers at Adobe Walls and yes, Billy Dixon shot a *game warden* that day...sigh.
 
Jim March - thanks for the information. I got a chuckle out of it.

Just for the record I would have no problem with him buying stuff and selling it as having been owned by 'Bat Masterson'. Today he'd probably have an agent and be selling autographs at gun shows, giving 'motivational speeches' and might even have a reality TV show in the works.
 
I think it was. But if you really want to get a different view of the events at Tombstone you need to look at the trial transcripts and depositions of Wyatt and others in the court cases that followed the OK Corral event. Which is online and hosted by, get this, descendants of the Clantons.

http://clantongang.com/oldwest/ganginto.html

Very...interesting. Honestly, Wyatt doesn't look good based on his own words...and Doc Holliday was a nutcase :).
 
Jim--About the Clanton website

Not being really well versed in the conflict between the Clantons and the Earps, it appears that the Clanton descendants are very interested in "clearing" the family name. There is a lot of opinion as to Doc's character being less than stellar. And some say the Earps were equally outside the law compared to the Clantons. But from my limited reading on the people, the Clantons were pushing the envelope at every opportunity. Also, there were not a lot of "men of character" with enough grit to become LEO in the wild and wooly days of the West. Just my humble opinion.
 
Mercury Poisoning??

Doc Hollady was not an MD, he was a dentist.

Some of the dentists way back in the day suffered from Mercury poisoning. It's been said the term mad as a hatter actually refers to Mercury poisoning as well. Way back when they would mix the silver and Mercury in the palm of their hand to make Amalgam.
Hmm, pure conjecture on my part, but interesting nonetheless.
 
There is a lot of opinion as to Doc's character being less than stellar.
Click to expand...

Lots of sources say he was completely bonkers :).

The mercury theory is interesting. He also had tuberculosis which may have contributed to recklessness? Why worry about bullets at that point, right?

I understand the Clantons were probably worse, but the trial testimony doesn't appear to be edited and the modern Clanton who is running that site appears to want an acting career so I would assume he's not going to edit historical documents and risk becoming a laughingstock as a result.
 
I understand. It was the commentary by the modern day Clantons that could be a bit less than unbiased. That era was for the mentally tough. Characters like the Clantons were more likely to move out west and scrap over land and territory than more "civilized" people.

Interesting how people idolized characters like Doc and Wyatt. I read that the actor Tom Mix cried when Wyatt passed.
 
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