Suppressed Murder of Wyatt Earp [Library Binding]

Glenn G. Boyer (Author), Glenn G. Boyer (Illustrator), Jane Coleman (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

This book, originally published by the Naylor Company in 1967 was a watershed publication that astounded Western Buffs with the revelation that "not all that was known about Wyatt Earp was already between book covers or had been published in magazine articles." (In succeeding years, further extensive publications by its author have revealed that the opposite was more nearly true.) In any case, this erroneous conviction was so firmly impressed in the public mind that editors at first refused to credit this book's authenticity, particularly since it was allegedly based largely on formerly "closely held" family revelations. Worse yet, family members were cited of whom the public had never heard and were introduced with detailed information of whom they were. For example relatives of Wyatt’s Secret Second Wife, Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock. Not even Mattie was more than tentatively established as a real person, so relatives were a little much to toss into the confusing picture. The author had to overcome many misconceptions to find a publisher, which he finally did by submitting item after item of irrefutable documentation in the originals, most of which are cited in the book.

In addition many photos of Earps appeared for the first time, including those of Wyatt’s parents, grandparents, secret second wife, his sister’s family, many still living at that time, and some of the author’s informants whom the public was astonished to learn had known both Wyatt and his last wife very well indeed and were, moreover, still very much alive. This points up one aspect of overcoming skepticism of editors who all seemed to think the Earp Saga was as ancient as Washington crossing the Delaware – how could there be living witnesses to such "ancient" events? Well, they weren’t that ancient.

Such a book naturally arrived like a bombshell in the Western History field. Critics rushed in, even attacking it’s allegorical title, obviously without having read the book, since they failed to perceive that its title didn’t imply that the man Wyatt Earp had literally been murdered, but that he’d been figuratively "killed off" by writers and replaced by a glowing myth, whom the author dubbed "Super Marshal" or "St. Wyatt the Just."

This publication also in due time revived interest in a Wyatt Earp legend that was being sent down the tube by specious debunking. It polished the tarnished Wyatt Earp image so that his restored fame revived the town of Tombstone, Arizona. The big draw there today as a result is, of course, Wyatt, his brothers, Doc Holliday, and the misnamed Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Moreover, advance knowledge of this forthcoming book reversed the original intent of Hollywood to portray Wyatt as a psychopathic klller in the forthcoming HOUR OF THE GUN, since the author met the Director in Tombstone and learned what he intended. Hollywood was dissuaded from more debunking by the author’s informing them that Wyatt had living close relatives who might land on them like a ton of bricks if they distorted the image of their beloved "Uncle Wyatt." Interestingly a new Director showed up in the credits.

Even the author's severest critic held this book up at a meeting of Western historians and said every Earp Buff should read it. Very true! Also the public at large should read it and learn not to be too smug and placid in making assumptions about possessing ultimate knowledge. It is not unreasonable to suppose it should be used in college history courses, even if the Earp imbroglio is not considered academically respectable, since, respectable or not, Wyatt’s strange apotheosis demonstrates the universal historical process of "Myth Making." The tracks of the myth makers in Wyatt’s case were still clear to read when author Boyer came on the scene.

This is a republished hard cover version, almost similar in every respect to the original, with an added new Introduction by the author that is, itself, worth the price of the book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Much controversy tends to obscures the above truth - which is probably the intent of those at the root of the controversy. Since they are all later researchers and writers, or aspiring writers, one might suspect the purity of their motives. Their main contention is that Boyer "faked" a great deal of his work. The record, if fully examined, which these people refuse to do in detail, doesn’t support the contention. But, as Boyer says, "Who cares?" I’m not a historian trying to protect a reputation, I’m a novelist who stumbled across some interesting material and tried to preserve it, as Mark Twain did in Roughing It and Life on the Mississippi, and even Huck Finn, which is underrated as social commentary on an era."

Boyer himself, is a Depression kid, a survivor of WWII - as he says: "no big deal since they never let me get out of the U.S. (for which I earned a "Residential Citation")." He, and the Air Force, survived his 22 year flying career following WWII, and he retired in 1965 as a Lt. Colonel and command pilot.

He was born in a log cabin, the family home, built by his father, on a subsistence farm in the Wisconsin "Cutover." At age 80 he can truly say, "It's was a world closer to the American Revolution than the Space Age. We didn't know we were poor and deprived. How can anyone be deprived when they met the last of the Civil War vets, the trail drivers, even a few gunfighters such as Jeff Milton and Frank Hamer?" Further we had access to the world’s greatest inexpensive medical treatment, bed rest and time. Doctors were free, since we couldn’t afford one. They were recognized as necessary only as a last resort: for broken bones and severe bleeding. And, on that subject, since it could be sociologically significant, Preventive Medicine wasn’t a cause of skyrocketing medical costs and premature death from experimentation – we had never heard of it. Am I kidding? Not entirely!"

Product Details

• Library Binding: 135 pages
• Publisher: Historical Research Associates, Incorporated; 2nd edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890670073
• ISBN-13: 978-1890670078
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,949,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of the genesis of the Earp Myth, May 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Suppressed Murder of Wyatt Earp (Library Binding)

This book was written at the urging of the niece of Wyatt Earp, who wished the picture set straight on her uncles, Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan and Jim whose reputations were being sent down the drain by such debunkers as Frank Waters (see reviews of his book, THE EARP BROTHERS OF TOMBSTONE) and Ed Ellsworth Bartholomew. In view of the family's concern, this is the first Earp book that had the input from formerly closely held family information. All of this author's subsequent books revealed for the first time what had been family secrets about an enigmatic man.
This is also the story of Wyatt's secret second wife, whom he deserted for his third (a much younger and prettier woman), who would herself, one day, write of her husband - see I MARRIED WYATT EARP.
The story is told here of the suicide of the deserted wife, an incident which, if known, would have prevented the Wyatt Earp Myth from ever getting off the ground.
A must book for Western Buffs and researchers planning a book on the Earp story.
Many photos of Earps never before seen.
Without this restoration of Wyatt's reputation we would have seen few if any movies about him (at least not lauditory ones) and Tombstone, Arizona, which thrives on the Earp reputation might be a dusty little town, rather than a tourist mecca and bonanza.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The resurrection Mattie Earp, October 23, 2009

By 

Marvin D. Pipher (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suppressed Murder of Wyatt Earp (Library Binding)

This little book (67 pages of text & 56 pages of appendices) was first published in 1967, at which time it must surely have caused some consternation in "Earpiana." For at that time and in the wake of Stuart Lake's historical novel, "Frontier Marshall," Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was viewed by many as something of a western superhero who had no faults and could do no wrong. Then, this book came along: concentrating on and fully documenting what, in all likelihood, is the worst "wrong" Wyatt Earp ever committed -- that being his abandonment of his second wife, Celia Ann Blaylock, AKA "Mattie" Earp, for a much younger woman. To make matters even worse for Wyatt's reputation, as the book also proves, the distraught Mattie turned to prostitution and later killed herself.

All this, to be sure, took nothing away from Wyatt's reputation as a lawman, but it certainly didn't do much for his otherwise sterling reputation as the all American hero. Strangely enough, however, now, forty some-odd years after the book's initial publication; these facts are well known by most of those who care about such things, have been assimilated into a more correct version of the life and times of Wyatt Earp, and still Wyatt Earp stands tall among America's true Western heroes.

But now, Celia Blaylock, for better or for worse (as the old marriage ceremony goes), is part of Wyatt's story. For this book not only killed the myth of the all-perfect "Frontier Marshall," as the author intended, it also resurrected Mattie Earp almost 80 years after her death.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The cornerstone of all Earp research, May 27, 2004

By 

John Rankin (Longwood, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suppressed Murder of Wyatt Earp (Library Binding)

In this work Boyer successfully deconstructs the Earp Myth perpetrated by early writers, and removes the false mantle of sainthood cast on Earp's reputation. The Suppressed Murder of Wyatt Earp is still the cornerstone upon which all Earp research is built, and is revolutionary in its own right in that it was written by one who had intimate knowledge of his subject through close personal contact with Earp descendents. This is a study of a man balanced against his own time and place. It could easily have been an academic dissertation, both in text and content, yet Boyer's writing is engaging, not pedantic, and will appeal to any reader. The metaphoric title, appropriately chosen, represents not the actual murder of Earp but the unwilling transmogrification of his life from ordinary man to saint. This book, supplemented by numerous appendixes, sets the record straight and restores Earp to the man he actually was and to his proper place in history. It is highly recommended reading.