The Ghost of Wyatt Earp: Huanting the Streets of San Diego

One of the most famous figures to emerge from the colorful 19th-century history of the American West, Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) was known first and foremost for his participation in a notorious gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881. Both before and after that date, Earp moved from town to town across the West, earning his living as a saloonkeeper, gunslinger, gambler, miner and frontier lawman, alongside his brothers. Late in life, he settled in California, and collaborated on a largely fictionalized account of his life that made him a popular hero when it was published in 1931, two years after he died.Wyatt Earp & The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral In 1879, Earp and his longtime companion, the former prostitute Mattie Blaylock, left Dodge City for Tombstone, Arizona. The town was booming after a silver rush, and most of the Earp family had gathered there. Virgil was working as the town marshal, and Wyatt began working alongside him. In March 1881, while pursuing a group of cowboys who had robbed a stagecoach, Wyatt struck a deal with local rancher Ike Clanton, who had ties to the cowboys. Clanton soon turned against him, however, and began threatening the Earp brothers. The feud escalated, and finally exploded into violence on October 26, 1881 at the O.K. Corral.In the gunfight, Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday faced off against the Clanton gang (Ike, his brother Billy, and Tom and Frank McLaury). Morgan, Virgil and Holliday were all wounded, but survived; Billy and the McLaurys were killed; and Wyatt Earp escaped without injury. Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the Earp brothers and Holliday, but a judge cleared them in late November. Wyatt Earp’s Post-Tombstone Life and Legend After leaving Tombstone, Wyatt Earp moved around the West, eventually settling in California with Josephine Marcus, with whom he would spend the next 40 years. Over the years, he made a living by gambling, saloon-keeping, mining and real estate speculation. He also worked with a personal secretary, John H. Flood, to write his memoirs, which received a poor reception during his lifetime. Earp died in Los Angeles in January 1929, at the age of 80.This is a book of fiction. Any similarity of character and or business names other than historical figures and places are purely coincidental.The Author lived in San Diego and surrounding cities and towns for more than fifty-years, beginning in 1947 as a member of the U S Navy.Since Earp’s death in January of 1929, his ghost has been walking the Streets of San Diego and Golden Hill, looking for instances of crimes being or about to be committed, many times saving a life or lives in the process.Hundreds of San Diego’s crimes and about to be committed crimes have been solved or stopped by Earp’s ghost intervention since his death in 1929.Fear of being ridiculed by the media, keeps law enforcement personnel from identifying Earp’s assistance in the many cases he has helped solve or stopped from being committed. Never visible to the victim or perpetrator, Wyatt’s ghost leaves an Ace of Spades playing card at the scene of the crime.