Gunfight at the O.K. Corral during the American Civil War and in 1877 became a police officer in Prescott, Arizona. He followed that with a job as a night watchman before he became a constable. Wyatt had held two jobs as a police officer in the cattle-drive towns of Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas. James, Virgil, and Wyatt Earp, together with their wives, arrived in Tombstone on December 1, 1879, during the early period of rapid growth associated with mining, when there were only a few hundred residents. Virgil was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal shortly before he arrived in Tombstone. In the summer of 1880,
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral go to trial. The prosecution was led by Republican District Attorney Lyttleton Price, assisted by John M. Murphy, James Robinson, and Benoodrich. They were joined by William McLaury, Frank and Tom's older brother, he also being an able attorney, who played a key role on the prosecutor's team. The Earps' attorney Thomas Fitch was an experienced trial lawyer and had earned a reputation as the "silver-tongued orator of the Pacific." Spicer took written and oral testimony from a number of witnesses over more than a month. Accounts by both participants and eye-witnesses were contradictory. Those loyal to one side or