Wyatt Earp: A Different View

Wyatt Earp

With our sincerest apologies to Wyatt Earp, who is undoubtedly spinning in his grave at America's relentless curiosity about him, we sent a sample of the old marshal's handwriting to a nationally known graphologist and asked him to analyze it without knowing who wrote it.

Mark Hopper, president of a Phoenix company called Handwriting Research Corporation, makes a living studying handwriting for various clients.

He's often asked to check out prospective employees to see if they possess the skills for a particular job. Sometimes he's hired by individuals wanting to learn more about a grandparent they've never met, and he gets occasional calls from police baffled by a kidnapping note.

Hopper's work yields a comprehensive psychological and emotional profile, which, in Wyatt's case, helps to answer a number of frivolous but fascinating questions.

If Wyatt were suddenly plucked out of the 19th century and brought forward to our own time, how would he function? What would it be like to know him socially? To come in conflict with him? What kind of work would he be suit-ed for? The answer to that last one will give you a chuckle. But first here's an overview of the psychological makeup of the brave marshal, drifter, miner, boxer, womanizer, gold-rusher, and posthumous movie idol.

It comes with a warning to those whose view of Wyatt is based on Hugh O'Brian's television portrayal of him in "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp."

"I'd be scared of this guy," said Hopper. "This is a nasty profile. The guy is like an animal, a bull running loose."

But what about brave, courageous, and bold, as the TV show's theme song declared?

"The most striking aspect is the list of social weaknesses this person has," said Hopper. "This is a blunt, aggressive individ ual to whom criticism means nothing.

-ual to whom criticism means nothing."

Ah, yes. A lone wolf. Strong and true, a straight-shooter who can be trusted no matter what, right? Not exactly.

"He's also insincere, which means his honesty is low," Hopper said. "That, along with the mental-strength side, his intelligence, and shrewdness, tells me this personwould manipulate to achieve whatever it was he was trying to do.

"If he feels it's appropriate or just, he'll say whatever it takes. The fact that he has to lie is secondary. He's a very cagey, cunning personality, and not sophisticated. He's crude. His profile looks like a con man's."

Con man? How could that be? It sounded like Hopper was one of those Earp haters who live to debunk the myth created in Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal, Stuart Lake's sanitized 1931 biography, which set the tone for America's view of the man.

Actually, as it turned out, Hopper knew very little about Wyatt. He was familiar with the O.K. Corral shoot-out but only in vague outline.

And he knew nothing of Wyatt's personal life, his relations with women, his compulsive gambling, or his habit of drifting from one Western boomtown to another.

I asked Hopper a few specific questions, with a mind toward these significant aspects of Wyatt's life. For instance, his infamous revenge ride in 1882, following the murder by Tombstone cowboys of his little brother, Morgan, and the wounding of his older brother, Virgil.

Asked Hopper about women, Hopper said that his wife was likely to be either totally submissive or a tiger.

It was the latter. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, with whom he stayed for nearly 50 years, was almost as aggressive and cocksure as Wyatt. They fought like mad.

His intense, emotional personality ties in with his gambling, too. "People who can't manage their emotions find an outlet that often leads to compulsive behavior," said Hopper. "Gambling might have been an emotional outlet for him. And because he was materialistic, I suspect he also looked at it as a cheap and easy way to make money."

Hopper said the man could never have survived a conventional job because of his artistic personality. But that doesn't mean he would've made a great painter.

"By artistic I mean he scored high in unpredictability, creativity, and volatility," Hopper explained. "He would need an unstructured environment. Anything that we today consider a job, 8:30 to 5:30, this person wouldn't last a week.

"And any job related to customer service, he'd be terrible at. He thrives on power and telling people what to do. That's his interest with people, not helping them."

So, what line of work did Hopper believe Wyatt would be suited for today?

"He could be the president of an insurance company," Hopper said. "They test feisty, cocky, and unpredictable. Bank presidents, CEOs, and entrepreneurs profile this way, too. They're materialistic, conceited, and tenacious, but they usually don't have this much anger.

"He could be a sports coach, too. We've tested some and, boy, do they test hostile."

But what about lawman's work? After all, it was Wyatt's service behind a badge in Dodge City and Tombstone that won him acclaim as an international folk hero.

"I'd never recommend it," Hopper said. "He's way too aggressive. This is a pirate, a rebel, a revolutionary."

None of this after-the-fact probing is likely to change our view of the man. But it raises an interesting question: If Wyatt had taken Hopper's advice, would Stuart Lake have even bothered to write his biography?

Probably not. Who would read the book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Insurance Agent?