More Than Just a Crisis.....

6130 · 08-14-2021, 04:44 PM

One of the most significant deviations from the truth in that movie, is the portrayal of Wyatt's common-law "wife", Josephine. A lot of that is because she went to great lengths to conceal her life.

In the movie, she arrives in Tombstone after the three Earp brothers, and is portrayed as a star of the stage.

In reality, she was a juvenile runaway from San Francisco, in Tombstone years prior to the arrival of the Earps. She was an underaged prostitute living under an assumed name, and was at the time shacking up with Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, who was about twice her age. She left Behan before "the Shootout at the OK Corral", and may not even still have been living in Tombstone when that incident occurred. Josephine and Wyatt hooked up later elsewhere, and they lived together for 46 years afterwards, until his death in 1929. Wrestling promoter Stuart Lake's fictional book about Wyatt came out 2 years later, in 1931.

08-14-2021, 04:44 PM	#15
6130 Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Texas Posts: 409 Likes: 295 Liked 117 Times in 50 Posts	Re: More Than Just a Crisis..... One of the most significant deviations from the truth in that movie, is the portrayal of Wyatt's common-law "wife", Josephine. A lot of that is because she went to great lengths to conceal her life. In the movie, she arrives in Tombstone after the three Earp brothers, and is portrayed as a star of the stage. In reality, she was a juvenile runaway from San Francisco, in Tombstone years prior to the arrival of the Earps. She was an underaged prostitute living under an assumed name, and was at the time shacking up with Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, who was about twice her age. She left Behan before "the Shootout at the OK Corral", and may not even still have been living in Tombstone when that incident occurred. Josephine and Wyatt hooked up later elsewhere, and they lived together for 46 years afterwards, until his death in 1929. Wrestling promoter Stuart Lake's fictional book about Wyatt came out 2 years later, in 1931. Last edited by 6130; 08-14-2021 at 05:01 PM.