Was Wyatt Earp a Pimp?

In 1872 Wyatt Earp and his brother Morgan were arrested in Peoria, Illinois, for being aboard a floating bagnio (a brothel). Wyatt was arrested more than once, and newspaper reports described him as an “old offender.” While in Kansas several arrested prostitutes gave their last name as Earp. To the Texas cowboys who landed in Wichita and Dodge City, Wyatt and his brother were known as the “fighting pimps.” Several of the Earp men married “sporting women”: Morgan’s wife Louisa, James’s wife Bessie and two of Wyatt’s wives were alleged “residents of horizontal houses.” The long arm of the law, indeed.