Old West Lifestyle & Stories

Warren Earp

C2C Warren EarpAs we shall see this week, it’s tough being a little brother…Especially if your older brothers are famous, and you’re still living at home with mom and dad.

    Imagine you’re the youngest of five brothers living at home with your parents in Colton, California, while your older brothers James, Morgan, Virgil and Wyatt are having fun in a wild town named Tombstone. That was exactly Warren Earp’s situation.

But, in 1880, at the age of 25, he got a chance to go to Tombstone. Virgil was a lawman at the time, and Warren got to guard prisoners and join in posses. Unfortunately, in July of 1881 Warren got shot in a ruckus with some Mexicans, and went back to Colton to recuperate. And, wouldn’t you know it, while he was still at mom and dad’s, he missed out on the O. K. Corral shootout.

Warren returned to Tombstone after brother Virgil was shot, and was there when Morgan was killed. Warren finally saw action as he accompanied Wyatt seeking revenge against the cowboys. Bitter, disillusioned, and deep in the bottle, he returned to Colton.

With Warren regularly getting into trouble, his father got fed up with him and sent him packing. Warren ended up in Willcox, Arizona where he did a little cowboying and a lot of drinking. On July 6, 1900, Warren got crossways with a John Boyet. Some say it was because of a woman, others say it was a carry-over from the Tombstone days. In a confrontation, Warren kept pushing Boyet, until Boyet finally pulled his gun and killed him. This was a case of bringing a knife to a gunfight. For, it was discovered that Warren didn’t have a gun. But he did have a knife.

It seems that, to his dying day, Warren was trying to live up to the reputation of his brothers Wyatt and Virgil by being able to buffalo a man, and disarm him

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *