Gunfight at the O.K. Corral After Wyatt Earp first arrived in Tombstone, his business efforts yielded little profit, and he took a job as a stagecoach shotgun messenger for Wells Fargo, guarding shipments of silver bullion. On July 28, 1880 Wyatt was appointed Pima County Deputy Sheriff. He held this position for only three months until after the election of November 9, 1880, when he resigned. When Virgil was maimed by an assassination attempt, Wyatt was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal in his place. He held that position until he left Cochise County in April 1882. Wyatt Earp was an imposing, handsome man: blond, tall, weighing
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral day. Though usually opposing each other in their reporting of events, reporting by both the "Epitaph" and the "Nugget" initially supported the lawmen's version of events. Woods, the publisher of the pro-Cowboy "Nugget", was out of town during the hearings, and an experienced reporter, Richard Rule, wrote the story. The "Nugget" staff had a close relationship with Sheriff Behan, but Rule's story, as printed in the "Nugget" the day after the shootout, backed up the Earps' version of events. This varied widely from Behan's and the Cowboys' later court testimony. Subsequent stories about the gunfight published in the "Nugget" after