Wyatt Earp: Horse Thief

Añadido: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]155 years ago on April 6th, 1871, a deputy US marshal by the name of JG Owens arrested three young men on the charge of stealing two horses. It was a serious charge. In the Wild West, the mere accusation might leave you hanging at the end of a rope at the hands of a local vigilance committee. But two of these three men would skip town and never face trial for the charge. It was an interesting start for the storied career of a then 23-year-old young man named Wyatt Herp. Now, if you're a Wyatt Herp afficionado, you probably are already familiar with Wyatt Herp's dark side. But if you only know Wyatt Herp from the movies and TV shows, well, they seem to have left a bit of his history out. History that deserves to be remembered.

[00:00:52]that Wyatt Herp passed away at age 80 in 1929 in Hollywood illustrates how his life stuttled eras. At his death, he was already famous for his escapades in the Wild West. And yet, he'd lived a different life at the end. The Los Angeles Times noted how his passing represented the end of an era, calling him the last of a famous band that brought law and order into the rough cow camps of the Wild West with 45 caliber bullets, but noting that he made his home in Los Angeles for a number of years, occupy himself with his mining properties, horses, and love of sports.

[00:01:25]The transition from the actual wilds of the West to the ones of legend showed in the fact that famous film stars Tom Mix and William S. Hart were among his pawbearers. The Times noted that Bill Hart, two gunmen of the movies, and other producers of western films, often sought out Wild Herp for technical advice and local color for their productions.

[00:01:45]It must have been surreal for the man who had seen so much of the violence of the West to be called upon to provide local color to Hollywood films. The United Press noted that for 40 years he led a peaceful life before death took him. Although newspaper illustrator Arthur Buell, who had known Herp in his earlier days, implied that there was still some of the old Wyatt. Wyatt in his later years dealt Pharaoh down in Los Angeles in one of those high tone gambling joints. You may have seen him pulling his cards from the case. The Times probably best summed up the contrast in Herp's life. When he gave up law enforcement, there remaining no hot spots in the Far West requiring his service, he devoted his time to his copper mine and four oil wells. At middle age, he looked like a capitalist and dressed like one. Herp's obituaries are telling in a number of ways.

[00:02:32]Certainly, his legend was already well established. Journalist Fred Sutton wrote in the Kansas City Journal that he was the soul of honor in his dealings, and his word was as good as a rich man's bond. If the writer could make his epitth, it would be, "Here lies, a man."

[00:02:47]Not every writer was so uncritical, but even for those who saw him with a more jaundest eye, there's a notable gap in the reporting. Many recalled the days of Tombstone and his famous or infamous, depending upon perspective, refereeing of the 1896 heavyweight boxing match between Bod Fitz Simmons and Tom Shy. A couple remembered back to his days in Dodge City, but of the time before that, there was no mention that I could find, save for this bit from the times. Herp was born on March 19th, 1848 at Monmouth, Illinois, and Early joined the migration to the west with his family.

[00:03:20]He reached Dodd City and settling there became city marshall in 78 or 79.

[00:03:26]It seems a rather scant telling of his first 30 years of life, especially that part where he was at least accused of being a lowown scoundrel.

[00:03:34]Dodge City was not, in fact, the beginning of Wyatt Herp's law enforcement career. Before Tombstone, before Dodge City, the Herp family settled in Lamar, Arkansas in 1869 with his parents and brothers Virgil, Morgan, and Warren. His father, Nicholas, became town constable, and in November 1869 was appointed town judge. Wyatt, just 21 years old, was elected town constable to replace his father. Wyatt was the town constable when the town was officially incorporated the following year. Also, in 1870, he married a woman named Urilla Sutherland. The couple were married by Wyatt's father, and it was Wyatt's only recorded marriage. No marriage records have been found for his other marriages.

[00:04:15]Natalie Cook notes in True West magazine that we don't know much about her, but we do know from her gravestone in Lamar that she died in 1871, about 9 months after the wedding. Cook writes, probably in childbirth and perhaps of typhus.

[00:04:28]Despite the brevity of the marriage, her death apparently had an effect on young Wyatt. Joshua Hston and Lisa Livingston Martin on their website Dark Ozarks a pine. The saying goes that things change a man and grief can drive a man crazy and certainly it seems to have done so with 22-year-old Wyatt Herp. Again, there is some disagreement between sources or exactly what happened next and the timing. But in 1871, a suit was filed against Wyatt for mismanagement of fonts. The gist of the suit seems to be that as constable, he had collected fees but not returned the money to the county. A second suit was also filed, an allegation that he had falsified documents with regards to collection of a fine that ultimately led to a financial judgment against him. It's unclear whether Wyatt had abandoned his job as constable before the lawsuits or whether he was removed from the position as a result of the suits. But before these cases were even brought, a more serious charge arose. Andrew C.

[00:05:21]Eisenberg, author of the book Wyatt Herp, a vigilante life, explains in True West magazine that deputy US Marshal Jacob Owens filed a bill of information accusing Wyatt and two other men on the 28th day of March AD 1871 in the Indian country in said district did feloniously willfully steal, take, and carry away two horses each of the value of $100.

[00:05:44]The property goods and chattles of one William Keys. The alleged theft had occurred in Indian territory and thus was a federal offense. The case came because the aforementioned Keys was a persistent man. After two of his horses were stolen, he continued a long pursuit, eventually coming upon a wagon to which his two horses were tied. And on that wagon were three men, Wyatt, Ed Kennedy, John Shon, and a woman. Shown's wife, Anna.

[00:06:10]Eisenberg writes that Herp and Kennedy blamed Shonne for the horse theft, while Mrs. Shown claimed that Wyatt and Kennedy had gotten her husband drunk and coerced him into the theft and even threatened Shown if he testified against them. This incident was first uncovered in a 1963 book entitled Wyatt Herp 1848 to 1880 the untold story by author Ed Bartholomew and has since Eisenberg writes long troubled some of her defenders. Owens Posi captured the three men and returned them to the courthouse for the Western District of Arkansas, then in Van Beern, and unable to make bail, the men were held there.

[00:06:46]At this point, you might be concerned, wasn't the movies have made clear, horse theft, a hanging offense? Tom Cora writes on the website of Net Posi, a business specializing in returning stolen horses, that to me, one of the lowest life forms on Earth, is a horse thief. And I'm not alone these days, but it's nothing new. Many folks in the Old West thought so. After all, being a foot in the West meant a ruin or death. Back then, a horse was not a pet. He was a tool and just maybe companion. But for certain, a horse could definitely be a part of your livelihood.

[00:07:19]It is true that horse thieves might be hanged by a local vigilance committee.

[00:07:23]The website of the Texas State Historical Association writes that in sections of the Texas frontier where courts and jails had not been established or where officials and juries could not be depended upon.

[00:07:32]Vigilance committees were often formed to stamp out lawlessness and rid communities of desperados. They operated against murderers, horse thieves, cattle wrestlers, and those who held up stage coaches and trains. The website notes a particular incident where a horse thief was hanged in Dennis, Texas in 1874.

[00:07:48]And a notorious vigilance committee called Steuart's Stranglers in Montana hanged numerous horse thieves. An 1884 report in the Livingston Daily Enterprise explained colorfully of one noted horse thief. At last accounts, his body was still swinging in the free mountain breezes, bearing a placarded horse thief. He has a brother who is likely to meet the same fate.

[00:08:11]But in reality, Arizona state historian Marshall Trumbull explains in True West magazine, horse theft was not a capital offense legally. Despite the legendary myth about horse theft being a hanging offense in the West, we can't recall an instance of a horse thief being hanged by a legal court. The young Wyatt was likely not in danger for his neck, but it was a significant offense facing, according to Eisenberg, likely a 5-year prison sentence. At this point, there's some disagreement over what came next.

[00:08:40]What we do know is that Wyatt never faced the charges in court. Mark Borman writes in True West magazine in 2024 that he jumped bail while Eisenberg explains that he was part of a 10 prisoner jailbreak, prying off the rafters of their cell and escaping across the jail house roof. You can take your pick, but the jailbreak is definitely the more exciting story. In any case, Wyatt Herp did not make his trial for horse theft, and the charges in Lamar were never answered either, with Dark Ozark saying that the suit was vacated, as Wyatt and his father had evidently left the area.

[00:09:11]It may come as a shock to people who only knew Wyatt Herp as the hero of television and film, who at his death was eulogized in papers as the soul of honor in his dealings, had possibly both embezzled from his first town in which he served as a lawman, and been party to horse theft, and then fled after a daring jailbreak, never to face the justice that he so famously brought to others. Or maybe not. One of the purported thieves, Ed Kennedy, did in fact come to trial and was acquitted for lack of evidence. Eisenberg notes that the court of the Western District of Arkansas had a low conviction rate. As a result, he writes, of the large number of cases that had started as false arrests. Marshalss, it seems, got paid for bringing people in, not whether they were found guilty, and so false arrest was a money maker. Eisenberg also implies that they embezzled as well, exaggerating expenses.

[00:10:02]Was Wyatt Herp an embezzler and a horse thief? Eisenberg says of the theft, "The historical record offers more questions than answers." And Dark Ozark's notes that it's impossible to know if the allegations of embezzlement against Wy were true or not. But the charges may not be so surprising. As Dark Ozark notes, these events all happened shortly after his loss of his young wife and unborn child. It's easy to see the potential indiscretions in Lamar as being the result of grief, and the theft of the horse is a desperate act for a young man who needed to pay off those indiscretions. It also would not be a surprise for a famous law man to have also been an outlaw. It was in fact rather common for men to operate on both sides of the law. While Bill Hitchcock famously acted on both sides of the law, as did White Wide's compatriate, Doc Holiday, two members of the notorious Dalton gang, bank and train robbers that were almost the prototypical Wild West outlaws had been deputy marshals in Indian territory before turning to crime. But where does White Herp fit on that spectrum? It isn't clear. For much of his life, Wyatt made his money in saloons via gambling and/or prostitution. These were common in the American West and operated on the fringe of law. Wyatt and his brothers were frequently arrested for crimes such as keeping and being in a house of ill fame. Roger Jay writes on the website History Hit in 2006 that Wyatt and brother Morgan were arrested several times in the city of Peoria, Illinois in the summer of 1872 as part of a campaign launched by the new mayor and his superintendent of police, Samuel Gil, to plate the moral element among their constituents by putting well publicized pressure on the flesh trade. The fines assessed, Jay explains, suggests that the arresting officers considered them to be pimps and charged them as such.

[00:11:41]But how serious was the crime? Kathy Wiser Alexander explains on the website Legends of America. By the 1860s, prostitution was a booming business.

[00:11:50]Though it was illegal almost everywhere, it was impossible to suppress. So, the law generally did little more than to try to confine the parlors and brothel to certain districts of the community.

[00:11:58]Others regularly find the brothel and painted ladies as a type of taxation.

[00:12:03]But otherwise, the business thrived with little intervention from the law. It's hardly horse theft and maybe a more a representation that he was a man of his time and circumstance.

[00:12:14]But was herp a violent man? He certainly had a temper. In 1876, while working as a police officer in Witchah, Kansas, a man named William Smith, ran against Wyatt's boss, Michael Maguer, for the position of town marshall. When Smith made disparaging comments about Mer in front of Wyatt, Wyatt beat him up in a fist fight. Merger won the election, but Wyatt lost his job. The editors of history.net Net explained a Witchah commission decided that Wyatt's violent behavior was unacceptable and did not rehire him as a police officer. Still, the town newspaper noted it is but justice to her to say that he is made an excellent officer.

[00:12:51]And of course, the most serious charge against Herp was murder. Again, that has moved into the realm of myth. However, as a lawman, her preferred to buffalo offenders, meaning striking them over the head with the barrel of his pistol rather than shoot them. Even that has become myth with a 1931 biography by Stuart Lake saying that he used a buntline special, a special colt revolver with a 16inch barrel specifically for that purpose. The story is however questioned by historians.

[00:13:17]David McCair writes on the website of outdoor lifestyle company Meate Eater.

[00:13:21]According to Lake, dime novelist Ned Buntline commissioned Colt for the production of five long barrel revolvers that were named Buntline specials after the author. Lake says the guns were then presented to five law men in appreciation for their help with Bunt Lines stories, including one going to Herp. The problem is the guns most likely never existed. There's no secondary source for any Buntline special before Lakes's book was published, let alone one in Herp's possession. In fact, Irk typically used a standard Colt Army single action with a 7 and 12 in barrel, although he was also known to use a Remington and a 44 caliber Scoffield revolver. The most serious charge Wyatt faced was after the famous October 16th, 1881 gunfight at the OK Corral, which of course did not occur in the OK Corral. The website of the Denver Public Library notes, "What is often glazed over in these accounts is the judicial hearing that followed the fight. On October 29th, 1881, Ike Clanton, brother of Billy Clanton, who perished in the battle, filed murder charges against the Herps and Holiday.

[00:14:20]On November 7th, Wyatt and Doc Holiday were arrested and carted off to jail.

[00:14:24]Justice of the peace Wells Spicer presided over the preliminary hearing.

[00:14:28]After a month of testimony, Spicer concluded, "The evidence taken before me in this case would not, in my judgment, warrant a conviction of the defendants by trial jury of any offense whatsoever.

[00:14:40]I do not believe that any trial jury that could be got together in this territory would, and all the evidence taken before me, with a rule of law applicable thereto given them by the court, find the defendants guilty of any offense." If Spicer's decision was controversial, it was not challenged by a grand jury. But Wyatt was not just exonerated for the crime. His testimony shows something else. KP Daws writes on the reed site EPCO of Wyatt's testimony at the hearing. After the events in Tombstone, Wyatt Herp was never the same again. Not for the loss of his brother Morgan, although that too had a profound effect, but more so for the shootout at the corral. Up until the end of his life, he never made peace with what had happened. He carried that burden always.

[00:15:21]In reading his testimony, it's difficult not to get a sense of the weight on Wyatt Herp's shoulders. He did what he had to. There was no other choice. For being one of the Wild West's most famous gunmen, Wyatt Herp was no cold-blooded killer.

[00:15:36]But he did continue killing in the famous Vendetta ride in March to April of 1882. The website Southern Arizona Guide writes, "Perhaps charitably, under the circumstances, he had to make a choice. He could stay within the law while the cowboys hunted and killed him and the remainder of his family. Or he could become the hunter and track down and kill those who had wounded Virgil and assassinated Morgan. Wyatt chose family over the law. But in any case, the vendetta ride is also steeped in myth. Peter Bran lists 10 different myths about the Vendetta ride in an issue of True West magazine, including the movies would have us believe that Wyatt and his posi killed large numbers of cowboys during the ride, but the facts show that only two men, Frank Stillwell and Florentino Cruz, were probably murdered by the Herp posi. A third victim, Curly Bill Burches, was claimed by her and his men, but his body was never found and formally identified.

[00:16:27]Herp and members of the Posi were charged with the murder of Frank Stillwell, but fled to Colorado, and the governor refused extradition. The question of was it murder was again unanswered in a trial. And again, the record leaves more questions than answers.

[00:16:44]Wyatt Herp is one of the most popular of the Wild West legends. And yet, that legend, which he himself helped to write in Hollywood film, doesn't always match the facts. You might be surprised to find out that he wasn't the straightlaced lawman that Hugh O'Brien represented it for six years in the television program the life and legend of Wyatt Herp, but others have been discussing his dark side for decades.

[00:17:09]But despite dozens of biographies, including at least one that he supposedly authorized himself, as well as many dozens of films, television programs, even comic books, as with many characters of the Wild West, in trying to tell the story of Wy, it becomes difficult to separate the legend from the man.

[00:17:27]I hope you enjoyed watching this episode of The History Guy. And if you did, please feel free to like and subscribe and share the history guide with your friends. And if you also believe that history deserves to be remembered, then you can support the history guy as a member on YouTube, a supporter on our community at locals, or as a patron on Patreon. You can also check out our great merchandise shop or book a special message from the history guy on Cameo.