You Slapped Wyatt Earp and Lived to Tell?

That historical honor goes to U.S. Marshall Albert Lowe of Nome, Alaska in the late 1890s, who reportedly slapped an intoxicated saloon keeper and took his gun away after the barkeep threatened to demonstrate how guns were handled “down Arizona way.” The former Tombstone shootist never got the chance to demonstrate as Lowe disciplined and disarmed Wyatt Earp. In 1896, folks in San Francisco would have liked to slap him too. Wyatt refereed the Tom Sharkey-Bob Fitzsimmons prizefight in that city with a purse of $10,000. Wyatt created quite a controversy by allegedly wearing a six-gun into the ring and by awarding the fight to Sharkey on a foul—a decision critics claimed was made so he could collect his bets. At least that’s what they report in The Old West Quiz and Fact Book.

What do you think?

JANA BOMMERSBACH

Arizona’s Journalist of the Year, Jana Bommersbach has won an Emmy and two Lifetime Achievement Awards. She also cowrote and appeared on the Emmy-winning Outrageous Arizona and has written two true crime books, a children’s book and the historical novel Cattle Kate.