Wyatt Earp's fame and reputation has varied through the years. While alive, he had many admirers and detractors. Among his peers near the time of his death, Wyatt Earp was respected. His deputy Jimmy Cairns described Earp's work as a police officer in Wichita, Kansas. "Wyatt Earp was a wonderful officer. He was game to the last ditch and apparently afraid of nothing. The cowmen all respected him and seemed to recognize his superiority and authority at such times as he had to use it."[2] He described Wyatt as "...the most dependable man I ever knew; a quiet, unassuming chap who never drank and in all respects a clean young fellow..."[3]
Among the general public, Earp was likely more well known for the controversy that engulfed him after the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey match in San Francisco than for the gunfight in Tombstone. His Associated Press obituary gave prominent attention to his officiating of the boxing match, while describing him as a "gun-fighter whose blazing six-shooters were, for most of his life, allied with the side of law and order". Public perception of his life has varied as media accounts of his life have evolved.
After the shootout in Tombstone, his pursuit and murder of those who attacked his brothers, and after leaving Arizona, Wyatt was often the target of negative newspaper stories that disparaged his and his brothers' reputation. His role in history has stimulated considerable ongoing scholarly and editorial debate. A large body of literature has been written about Wyatt Earp and his legacy, some of it highly fictionalized. Considerable portions of it are either full of admiration and flattery or hostile debunking.[4]
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