The Real Wyatt Earp: A Cowardly Villain Rather Than the Hero Hollywood Made Him Out to Be

Wyatt Earp has been portrayed by a number of very famous actors in very famous movies; usually as a hero, often as something closer to a wild west superhero. Wyatt Earp is most famous, of course, for taking part in the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. History has judged that particularly iconic event in American history as a case of the good guys shooting down the bad guys. As is usually the case, of course, that history was written by the winners. Recent investigations have shed a much more complex and ambiguous light on what really happened near the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, and although the whole truth will never be known for sure, it has been determined that in all likelihood the so-called good guys shot first.