Josephine Earp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sarah Josephine Marcus (probably born in Brooklyn, New York in 1861; died on December 20, 1944) was a professional dancer, actress and prostitute ^{citation needed} who became best known as the wife of famed Old West lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp. Her birthdate or place of birth is not exactly known; some records show that she may have been born in Brooklyn in 1861, but this has never been proven.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Johnny Behan and Tombstone, Arizona 3 Relationship with Wyatt Earp 4 Gunfight at the OK Corral 5 Later life 6 References

[edit] Early life

Marcus and her family moved to San Francisco when she was very young. Marcus wanted to become an actress, so, at the age of eighteen, she and her friend Dora Hirsh ran away to join a theatrical company, where the two girls were hired as dancers.

As members of Paulina Markham's travelling theater company, Marcus and Hirsh travelled all over Arizona. Records show that the Markham group tour reached Tombstone in December of 1879, after which they headed out for Prescott.

[edit] Johnny Behan and Tombstone, Arizona

While on their way north to Prescott, Josephine Marcus, who was in reality a beautiful woman, met Johnny Behan, who was by then a Yavapai County sheriff, and who was on the same route, following the trails of three fugitive robbers. Marcus caused quite a stir in Behan's heart, and he left the persecution to spend time getting to know the woman with whom he had fallen in love. Soon after, however, Marcus became homesick and returned to San Francisco.

Johnny Behan followed her, to ask her to marry him. But Marcus declined, and he returned to Arizona. Marcus, however, soon changed her mind and returned to Tombstone, where she lived with a lawyer for some time, while working as a homemaker for Behan and his ten year old son. This version of her return has been disputed, as some believe that she was really living with Behan all along after her return to Tombstone, while other versions indicate she was working as a prostitute for the lawyer.

Johnny Behan saw other women besides Marcus, and this was well known by her. She wrote a letter to her father, who sent her $300 so she could return to San Francisco. Marcus instead was convinced by Behan to use the money to build a house and "Josie," as she was known to friends and family, pawned a diamond ring to help raise money to construct the house, deciding to stay in Tombstone instead of returning to California.

[edit] Relationship with Wyatt Earp

In 1881, Behan became involved in a romantic relationship with another woman and Marcus then left him for good, becoming enamored instead of Wyatt Earp. Behan suffered public embarrassment because of this: in Tombstone, everyone thought that Marcus and Behan were legally married and her breakup from him and her arrival into Wyatt's life were publicized by the "Tombstone Epitaph", a leading newspaper of the day. At that time, Earp was involved romantically with Mattie Blaylock, who at the least was his common law wife, and with whom he had been involved since around late 1873. The two women had at least two verbal altercations over the Earp/Marcus affair. Mattie Blaylock, during this time and afterward, referred to herself as Mattie Earp. [1] [2]

The embarrassment suffered by Behan was one of many events that inadvertently led up to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Numerous other events between Wyatt Earp and Ike Clanton, and others of the Clanton clan, actually sparked the gunfight. The feud between Behan and Earp was little more than a side show, and Behan did not take part in the actual fight.

[edit] Gunfight at the OK Corral

On October 26, 1881, Josephine Marcus was at her home when she heard the sound of gunshots. Unknown to her, the O.K. Corral gunfight would take place on that day. Marcus got on a wagon and was transported to the gunfight scene. To her great relief, she saw Wyatt standing and uninjured. By 1882, Josephine Marcus had adopted the name of Josephine Earp. The couple left Tombstone that same year.

[edit] Later life

Following what has been dubbed as the Earp vendetta ride, and Wyatt Earp's alleged revenge on the remaining members of the Cowboys organization, he and Josie hunted for gold through various states, ran horse races in San Diego and ended up operating saloons in Alaska.

The two Earps became gamblers during this period. Josephine Earp became friends with millionaire Lucky Baldwin, from whom she received money in return for her jewelry. Eventually, she would give almost all of her jewelry to Baldwin in exchange for gambling money. Although popular legend depicts them as the love of one anothers lifetime, which they very well may have been, they are known to have argued frequently.

One biographer, Stuart Lake, learned that Wyatt and Josephine were hostile to each other during their relationship when he went to collaborate with Wyatt his autobiography. Wyatt Earp became critically ill in 1928 and died in 1929; and the book was released shortly after. There were many negative things said about Josephine Earp in this book and she subsequently tried to have it rewritten.

Lake knew many secrets Josephine Earp did not want to be public knowledge, such as the fact that she had worked as a prostitute while in Tombstone and that Wyatt Earp had abandoned his commonlaw wife Mattie Blaylock Earp when he fell in love with Josephine. Mattie Blaylock Earp died of a laudanum overdose in 1888. In 1930, Josephine Earp traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to try to convince the publisher to stop the release of the book.

In 1939, Josephine, then 79, tried to stop 20th Century Fox from making a film based on the book, a movie which would have been called "Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal". She almost succeeded; but the movie was later released, under her condition that her husband's name be removed from the title, as "Frontier Marshal".

Josephine Earp spent her last years in Los Angeles, where she suffered with depression and other illnesses. One of her few consolations towards the end of her life was the correspondence she kept with Albert Behan, Johnny Behan's son, whom she had grown to love like a son.

In Los Angeles, she became friends with many stars, including Cecil B. DeMille and Gary Cooper, and she received part of the money made by Stuart Lake's book about her husband as well as from the 20th Century Fox production. She also wrote a book entitled I Married Wyatt Earp; The Memoirs of Josephine Sarah Earp. She approached several publishers for the book, but backed out several times due to their insistence that she be completely open and forthcoming, rather than slanting her views to her favor. She consulted with Wyatt's sisters, Mabel Earp Casin and Vinolia Earp Ackerman, but both women later claimed that she would allow them to be completely forthcoming, then after reading what they had recorded she would say "We can't print this, they'd think I was a bad woman". Ownership of the book, following her death, eventually fell to Glenn Boyer, following his obtaining rights from relatives of Marcus. [3]

She was buried next to Wyatt Earp at the Hills of Eternity Cemetery in Colma, California.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ Pogash, Carol. "Colma, Calif., Is a Town of 2.2 Square Miles, Most of It 6 Feet Deep", The New York Times, December 3, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.