On Oct.18, 1957, two Peninsula teens out on an evening joyride in San Mateo County crashed straight into a piece of Wild West history. Their car, they told police, struck something as they were driving along Crystal Springs Road. When they climbed out to inspect the damage, they discovered a massive granite slab engraved with the name Wyatt Earp. Turns out It was the tombstone of the legendary frontier lawman that had gone missing from his grave in Colma more than three months earlier.
The 300-pound granite headstone had been stolen over the weekend of July 6 from the Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, where Earp and his wife, Josephine, were buried, according to an article published by the Peninsula Times Tribune. Earp, famed for the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, had been laid to rest on the Peninsula in 1929. After gaining notoriety in Arizona, he settled in San Francisco in the late 1800s and would reportedly frequent Redwood City to see his wife perform at the Alhambra Theater. The duo moved around a lot, but Josephine’s family lived in San Francisco, and so that’s why the Bay Area became his final resting place.
Santa Clara County Sheriff Earl Whitmore classified the case as grand theft, though police had no clues, no suspects and no motive. Across the county newspapers pondered the whereabouts of Earp’s monument for weeks. Theories swirled that Earp enthusiasts from Tombstone who had long wanted to bring him to Boot Hill Cemetery, even against his family’s wishes, had something to do with the theft. But officials in Tombstone flatly denied any involvement…