Earp was involved in the gunfight at the O. Corral , during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. Marshal and Tombstone City Marshal that day and had considerably more experience in law enforcement as a sheriff, constable, and marshal than did Wyatt.
Virgil made the decision to enforce a city ordinance prohibiting carrying weapons in town and to disarm the Cowboys.
Wyatt was only a temporary assistant marshal to his brother. In , Earp arrived in the boomtown of Wichita, Kansas , where his reputed wife opened a brothel. Wyatt was arrested more than once for his presence in a brothel where he may have been a pimp. In late , he went to Texas to track down an outlaw, Dave Rudabaugh , and met John "Doc" Holliday , whom Earp credited with saving his life.
Throughout his life, Earp moved between boom towns. He left Dodge in and moved with his brothers James and Virgil to Tombstone where a silver boom was underway.
The Earps clashed with a group of outlaws known as the " Cowboys ". The conflict escalated, culminating in the shootout at the O. During the next five months, Virgil was ambushed and maimed, and Morgan was murdered. Wyatt, Warren Earp , Doc Holliday, and others formed a federal posse that killed three more Cowboys whom they thought responsible.
