96 Facts About Josephine Earp

Josephine Sarah "Sadie" Earp was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp, a famed Old West lawman and gambler.

Josephine Earp met Wyatt in 1881 in the frontier boom town of Tombstone in Arizona Territory, when she was living with Johnny Behan, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona.

Josephine Earp ran away, possibly as early as age 14, and traveled to Arizona, where she said she went "looking for adventure".

Josephine Earp may have arrived in Prescott, Arizona, as early as 1874.

The book I Married Wyatt Josephine Earp, based on a manuscript allegedly written in part by her, describes events she witnessed in Arizona that occurred before 1879, the year she claimed at other times to have first arrived in Tombstone.

Later in life Josephine Earp described her first years in Arizona as "a bad dream".

Josephine Earp wrote that she met Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan when she was 17 and he was 33.

Josephine Earp promised to marry her and she joined him in Tombstone.

Josephine Earp left Behan in 1881, before the gunfight at the OK.

Josephine Earp went to San Francisco in March 1882 and was joined that fall by Wyatt, with whom she remained as his life companion for 46 years until his death.

Josephine Earp Sarah Marcus was born in 1861 in New York City, the second of three children of immigrants Carl-Hyman Marcuse and Sophie Lewis.

Josephine Earp struggled to make a living in New York City and read about the growing city of San Francisco.

Later that year, Josephine Earp's half-sister Rebecca Levy married Aaron Wiener, an insurance salesman born in Prussia, as her parents were.

In I Married Wyatt Earp, author Glen Boyer states that Josephine took dance lessons and had a maid.

Josephine Earp said that she matured early and developed large breasts.

Josephine told Earp's biographers and others that Earp did not drink, never owned gambling saloons, and that his saloons did not offer prostitutes, which all have been documented.

When Frank Waters was writing Tombstone Travesty, originally published in 1934, he returned from a research trip to Tombstone to learn that Josephine Earp had visited his mother and sister and threatened court action to prevent him from publishing the book.

At one point in their contentious relationship, Josephine Earp described Lake's book as made up of "outright lies".

Josephine Earp worked hard to conceal Wyatt's prior relationship to his common-law wife and former prostitute Mattie Blaylock, with whom Wyatt was living when Josephine Earp first met him in 1880.

Josephine Earp met a gambler from Arizona who asked her to marry him.

Josephine Earp asked Wyatt for a divorce, but Wyatt did not believe in divorce and refused.

Josephine Earp ran away with the gambler anyway, who later abandoned her in Arizona.

Josephine Earp said that she had believed Behan was planning to marry her, but he kept putting it off, and she grew disillusioned.

Josephine Earp did not include them in the book, but he did write about them in letters during 1929.

Josephine Earp likely enjoyed the social life and independence that accompanied her role.

Josephine Earp had to walk past the brothel every day on her way to school.

Josephine Earp often appeared on stage and in publicity photos wearing a corset and pink tights: shocking attire for the 1870s.

Josephine Earp wrote that Dora was hired as a singer, and she was hired as a dancer.

Josephine Earp said the girls arrived with the troupe in Tombstone on December 1,1879, for a one-week engagement.

Josephine Earp said she left the acting troupe in February 1880, just after the Markham troupe ended its initial run of performances in Prescott.

Ray says that Josephine Earp didn't have a friend named Dora Hirsch.

Josephine Earp's real name was Leah Hirschberg, whose mother was a music teacher.

Josephine Earp enjoyed some brief success as a juvenile actress on the San Francisco stage during the 1870s.

Josephine Earp began using the name Sadie after she arrived in Arizona.

Josephine Earp told the Earp cousins that Pauline Markham had a maid named Julia.

Josephine Earp said that Sieber and his scouts led her stagecoach and its passengers to a nearby adobe ranch house.

Josephine Earp was the step-daughter of Yavapai County Sheriff John P Bourke.

Josephine Earp had a "relationship with" Sadie Mansfield, likely the same girl who had traveled with Hattie Wells' prostitutes from San Francisco.

Josephine Earp lost an election for Mohave County deputy sheriff in Gillet in 1879, but was elected as Mohave's representative to the Tenth Territorial Legislature.

Josephine Earp opened a small business catering to miners and joined a few posses pursuing bandits.

In retelling her life story, Josephine Earp Marcus retold many elements of her experience that corroborated facts in Sadie Mansfield's history.

Josephine Earp said Weiner used a connection he had in Prescott to help Josephine get home.

The opening date of the Baldwin Hotel is much earlier than the date Josephine Earp said she left for Arizona with the Pauline Markham Troupe in 1879.

Josephine Earp said Behan asked her to marry him and persuaded her parents to approve their engagement.

Josephine Earp said Behan told her family that he could not leave his livery stable business long enough for a wedding in San Francisco.

Later in life, Josephine Earp was not a practicing Jew and did not seem to care whether her partners were Jewish.

Josephine Earp thought Johnny's marriage proposal was a good excuse to leave home again.

Josephine Earp lived about two blocks from the family, so he likely already knew the family.

In reconstructing her life story, Josephine Earp said years later that she actually lived with Kitty Jones and her husband, a lawyer, while working as a housekeeper for Behan.

Rather than leave Tombstone, Josephine Earp later wrote that Behan convinced her to use the money to build a house for them and continued their relationship.

In early 1881, Josephine Earp returned to Tombstone after a trip to San Francisco.

How and when she and Wyatt Josephine Earp began their relationship is unknown.

Josephine Earp had a small, trim body and a meneo of the hips that kept her full, flounced skirts bouncing.

Writer Alan Barra suggests that Behan and Josephine Earp knew of their mutual attraction to the same woman before the Gunfight at the OK.

The next month, in July 1881, Josephine Earp Behan was reported to be leaving Tombstone by stage.

Josephine is quoted in I Married Wyatt Earp as saying that on October 26,1881, the day of the shootout at the OK.

Josephine's life after Tombstone and with Wyatt Earp is not well known, although it isn't as obscured by stories of her life in Tombstone that she told to hide facts.

The San Diego Union printed a report from the San Francisco Call on July 9,1882, that Virgil Josephine Earp was in San Francisco and that Wyatt was expected to arrive there that day.

Josephine Earp developed a reputation as a sportsman as well as a gambler.

Josephine Earp was reputed to own a six-horse stable in San Francisco, although it was learned later that the horses were leased.

At Santa Rosa, Josephine Earp personally competed in and won a harness race.

Josephine Earp developed a reputation as a sportsman as well as a gambler.

Josephine Earp held onto his San Diego properties but their value fell, but he could not pay the taxes and was forced to sell the lots.

Josephine Earp continued to race horses, but by 1896 he could no longer afford to own horses, but raced them on behalf of the owner of a horse stable in Santa Rosa that he managed for her.

Josephine Earp maintained a relationship with Johnny Behan's son, Albert Price Behan, whom she had grown to love as her own son.

Josephine Earp knew his wife preferred the name "Josephine" and detested "Sadie", but early in their relationship he began calling her 'Sadie'.

Josephine Earp frequently griped about Wyatt's lack of work and financial success and even his character and personality.

Josephine Earp attributed the highly exaggerated stories about Wyatt Earp to Josephine.

Josephine Earp was known to disappear for days at a time "to see property", the family euphemism for a drinking binge, and Earp was his regular partner.

Director John Ford said that whenever Josephine left town for religious conventions, Earp would come into town, play poker, and get drunk with the cowboy actors.

Josephine got pregnant at the same time, and she thought she could persuade Earp from heading to Alaska.

Josephine Earp was in agreement, but Josephine, who was 37, miscarried soon after.

Josephine Earp managed a small store during the spring of 1899 in St Michael on the Norton Sound, a major gateway to the Alaskan interior via the Yukon River.

Josephine Earp gambled so recklessly that Wyatt cut her off and asked other gambling houses to do the same.

Josephine Earp gambled on the boats to and from Alaska.

Considine tried to keep Josephine Earp from succeeding, and arranged for his establishment to be raided.

On June 14,1900, Wyatt and Josephine Earp were bound for Nome, Alaska.

Wyatt and Josie Josephine Earp summered in Los Angeles and lived in at least nine small Los Angeles rentals as early as 1885 and as late as 1929, mostly in the summer.

Josephine Earp loved to play poker and developed a serious gambling habit, losing heavily at times.

Josephine Earp eventually sold virtually all of her jewelry to Baldwin.

Josephine Earp was addicted to gambling on horse racing and her wagering increased until Wyatt gave her an ultimatum.

Josephine Earp was furious about her gambling habit, during which she lost considerable sums of money.

Josephine Earp called a foul on Fitzsimmons that no one saw, and Wyatt was widely accused of taking a bribe.

Eager to escape the controversy over the boxing match dogging him, Josephine Earp gave up managing race horses in San Francisco and on December 20,1896, he and Josie left for Yuma, Arizona.

Josephine Earp gambled away the filing fees and lied to Wyatt about what happened to the lease, which later turned out to be valuable.

Josephine Earp said that during the last years of Wyatt's life, Josephine received an allowance from her family and gambled it away, often leaving Wyatt hungry.

Josephine Earp was apparently too full of grief to assist or to attend the funeral itself.

In 1939 Josephine sued 20th Century Fox for $50,000 in an attempt to keep them from making the film titled Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal.

Josephine Earp received some royalties from the movie and one-half of the royalties earned by Stuart Lake's book about her husband.

When Wyatt died in 1929, Josephine Earp had his body cremated and secretly buried him in the Marcus family plot in the Jewish Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, California.

Josephine Earp's body was cremated and buried next to Wyatt's remains.

Josephine Earp paid for a small white marble headstone which was stolen shortly after her death in 1944.

Josephine Earp approached several publishers for the book, but backed out several times due to their insistence that she be completely open and forthcoming, rather than slanting her memories to her favor.

Josephine Earp wanted to keep what she viewed as their tarnished history in Tombstone private.

Josephine Earp was in need of money, and tried to sell a collection of books to Lake while he was writing the book.

Josephine Earp finally changed her mind and asked Wyatt's cousins to burn their work, but Cason held back a copy, to which Glenn Boyer eventually acquired the rights, and is in the custody of the Ford County Historical Society in Dodge City.