Doc Holliday: The Life and Times of the Wild West’s Deadly Dentist
Reading Time: 25 minutes Doc Holliday was a skilled dentist, a gambler, and a gunfighter. He traveled with and befriended Wyatt Earp during the wild and woolly days when the American Frontier was still considered the Old Wild West. Doc was highly intelligent and a deadly gunfighter with a fierce temper that thundered across the Old West like a tornado.
Doctor John Henry “Doc” Holliday earned his degree from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery when he was quite young. Doc Holliday settled in Atlanta, where he practiced dentistry. But the adventurous call of destiny rang loud in the sounds of gunshots and poker chips scattering across the table. Stricken with tuberculosis—the same disease which took his mother’s life—he abandoned his career and ventured West seeking a drier climate to improve his condition. However, it seemed that destiny placed him in the Wild West not only to find his infamous friends, but to find his deadly reputation there as well.
Doc Holliday became a fearsome name throughout the Wild West. He was known for participating in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral alongside the Earp brothers. Living life surrounded by poker games and gun duels. Surviving on moonlight and the sound of tuberculosis ripping through his lungs.
The Old West was known for its lawlessness. It was in this land of drifters and desperados that the legend of Doc Holliday was born.
From Southern Gentility to the Rugged Frontier: The Early Life of Doc Holliday
John Henry “Doc” Holliday was born August 14, 1851, to an upstanding family in Griffin, Georgia. His father, Henry Burroughs Holliday, fought in the Mexican-American War as well as the Civil War, and endured the toll it took on him silently. His mother was Alice Jane Holliday, who raised young John until she died of tuberculosis when he was 15 years old. Out of that tragedy grew in him an intense desire to succeed that helped him throughout school and into his acceptance and graduation from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1872.
Doc found living up to being a Southern gentleman easy. But the specter of tuberculosis, the disease that had taken his mother and sister, began to shadow him. Fear of that dreaded diagnosis swung Doc’s life away from Georgia’s polite society and into the wild American West.
The merciless disease that was creeping upon him sent him from the dental parlors to the gaming halls, from the parlors of polite society to the bars of low whiskey joints. Searching for a dry climate in Dallas, Texas.
Triumph and Tribulation: Doc Holliday’s Dentistry and Duel with Destiny in Texas
Doc Holliday started his adventures in Texas as a dentist before transitioning into gambling and gun-slinging. While he lived in Dallas for a short time, he proved himself an excellent dentist. He graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery and headed west to Dallas, where he joined up with family friend Dr. John A. Seegar.
Both doctors took to dentistry professionally and proudly. Holliday and Dr. Seegar’s work ethic was noticed by those around Dallas and eventually caught the attention of the dental community as well. Doc Holliday would later win “Best set of teeth in gold”, “Best in vulcanized rubber”, and “Best set of artificial teeth and dental ware” at the Annual Fair of the North Texas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Blood Stock Association hosted at the Dallas County Fair.
Doc Holliday’s future wouldn’t be in dentistry, though. Tuberculosis began to interfere with Holliday’s ability to perform his job effectively. Holliday would often find himself hacking up a lung at inappropriate times. Patients began to turn away from him due to his illness, and his profitable dental practice began to slow to a halt.
Doc Holliday had to find another way to make money while struggling with tuberculosis. Gambling turned from a hobby into a way of life for Doc Holliday while living in Texas. It was the only thing keeping Doc Holliday working despite his bad health.
1874 proved to be a year that would eventually lead Doc away from dentistry. On May 12th, Holliday was indicted, along with eleven other people, for illegal gambling in Dallas. The law had already made its mark on Holliday, and this was going to be a taste of things to come during his future run-ins with both the law and assorted gunfighters.
Later that month, in January of 1875, Holliday exchanged shots with a saloon keeper, Charles Austin. No one was killed during this event, and Holliday was found not guilty, but these events foretold his future. After being fined for gambling, Holliday eventually left Texas for good.
Nomadic Gambler: Doc Holliday’s Journey Through Fortunes and Feuds
After leaving Texas, Doc Holliday continued his restless wandering ways. Once arriving in Denver, Colorado, he drifted along the mining and stage routes throughout Colorado’s mountain cities and gambling towns while spending his nights gambling in cow towns and army forts. The summer of 1875 found him established in Denver, Colorado, working as a faro dealer and going by the alias of “Tom Mackey” at John A. Babb’s Theatre Comique at 357 Blake Street.
Peace was short-lived for Doc, however, as after getting into a knife fight with a gambler named Bud Ryan, Ryan ended up seriously injured, and Doc Holliday was on his way again. Reports of gold in Wyoming had reached his ears. Doc arrived in Cheyenne on February 5, 1876.
Doc soon took employment again as a faro dealer working for Thomas Miller, who owned the Bella Union Saloon. Like many others, Miller moved his establishment to Deadwood, South Dakota. Living life during the Gold Rush of the Dakota Territory, Holliday followed.
Doc returned to Cheyenne in 1877 and soon after went back to Denver, Colorado. He then traveled to Kansas to visit relatives. Spending a short while with his aunt, Holliday could no longer resist the urge to gamble and ended up in Breckenridge, Texas. While here on July 4, 1877, Doc got into an argument with a gambler by the name of Henry Kahn. Kahn got insolent with Holliday, and before you knew it, Holliday beat Kahn over the head with his cane, causing serious injuries. Both men were arrested and simply fined for their wrongdoing.
Kahn vowed revenge, and after spotting an unarmed Holliday later that day, Kahn shot Holliday in the back, causing serious injury. The incident was so serious that the Dallas Weekly Herald printed Holliday’s obituary on July 7.
Doc Holliday’s cousin, George Henry Holliday, packed his bags and headed west to help take care of Doc. Spending quality time with family, nearly dying, and the loyal six-shooter by his side, things were never boring for Doc Holliday. Death had glanced at Doc Holliday for the first time, but it wouldn’t get him just yet. Holliday still had a long way to wander before his story came to an end.
A Dance of Fate: The Meeting of Doc Holliday, Big Nose Kate, and Wyatt Earp in the Texan Frontier
After his turbulent life had been momentarily cleansed by the harsh winds of Texas and his injuries and brush with death had healed, Doc Holliday returned to Fort Griffin, Texas.
Doc frequented John Shanssey’s Saloon, where he shuffled cards among whiskey bottles and amidst drunken dancing patrons. It was there that he met Mary Katharine “Big Nose Kate” Horony, a woman just as wild as himself.
Kate was an educated woman who became a dance hall girl and allegedly sometimes earned money as a prostitute. She refused to live by the era’s societal rules and lived her life as she pleased. Doc Holliday and Kate found something kindred in each other and became friends.
Later in October 1877, “Dirty” Dave Rudabaugh and his gang robbed a Santa Fe Railroad construction camp in Kansas. Rudabaugh fled south into Texas, and Wyatt Earp, who had been temporarily appointed as a U.S. marshal, headed south from Dodge City tracking the outlaw. Wyatt followed Rudabaugh across country to Fort Griffin. He tracked Rudabaugh to the Bee Hive Saloon owned by John Shanssey.
Shanssey told Wyatt that Doc Holliday had recently had a card game with Rudabaugh. Earp questioned Holliday about Rudabaugh’s whereabouts. Holliday, sorting a deck of cards as smoke drifted lazily about the room, told Earp that Rudabaugh had probably returned to Kansas. Little did Wyatt Earp know that the man he had just met would soon become a great friend of his.
Wyatt returned to Fort Clark and, sometime around the beginning of 1878, became assistant city marshal of Dodge City, working for Charlie Bassett. Meanwhile, Holliday and Kate also arrived in Dodge City during the summer of 1878, boarding at the Deacon Cox house under the name Dr. and Mrs. John H. Holliday. Holliday was eager to resume practicing dentistry. In the Dodge City newspaper, he placed an advertisement for “J. H. Holliday, Dentist, Room No. 24 Dodge House”. Unsatisfied customers could get their money back, Holliday told them. Doc was very confident about his dental skills.
After a relatively quiet summer, trouble rolled into Dodge City on two drunk cowboys. They were Tobe Driscall and Ed Morrison. Both of these cowboys had been chased out of Wichita by Wyatt Earp some time before. They rode into Dodge City with a gang of thugs behind them and proceeded to terrorize the locals down Front Street, before entering the Long Branch Saloon and shooting up the place.
Wyatt Earp heard the commotion and ran into the saloon, only to find every man looking at him with a gun in his face. In the back stood Doc Holliday smoking a cigar with a Colt’s Single Action Army revolver held up to Morrison’s head. Doc had all the marauders disarm while Wyatt slunk away from certain death.
There are many different stories about this gunfight. Most have been exaggerated or completely fabricated since the incident. However, all of the stories tell of how Doc saved Earp’s life. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday soon struck up a friendship that would change their lives forever.
The Unyielding Horizon: Doc Holliday’s Journey with the Earps to Tombstone
Near the end of 1878, Doc and his new girlfriend Kate Horony entered the small town of Las Vegas, New Mexico, just before Christmas. The 22 hot springs located outside of town were rumored to cure tuberculosis, so Doc may have been drawn to Las Vegas by the promise of respite from his enduring ailment.
Doc reopened his dental practice there despite the holiday lull, but continued gambling. Little occurred during that cold winter other than that Holliday earned very little from both gambling and practicing dentistry.
The following March, Holliday faced unexpected setbacks when the New Mexico Territorial Legislature banned gambling statewide. As a result, Holliday was indicted and fined for “keeping [a] gaming table.” The cold temperatures and statewide ban on gambling forced Holliday and Horony to quickly depart for Dodge City during the spring.
The fall of 1879 brought another separation between Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. Earp resigned from his job as Dodge City assistant marshal and headed westward towards Arizona Territory with his common-law wife, Mattie Blaylock, his brother Jim, and Jim’s wife, Bessie Booth. After spending some time in Dodge City, Holliday and Horony decided to return to Las Vegas, New Mexico. However, the roads that carried Holliday and Wyatt Earp westward would cross one last time before ultimately bringing the two together in Prescott, Arizona. Holliday, Horony, and the Earp family reunited in Prescott in November.
As Holliday adjusted to life in Prescott, Arizona, another chapter of his life was soon about to intertwine with the West. After arriving back in Las Vegas, Holliday spent some time in the small boomtown that sprang up near the railroad tracks. During one particular summer afternoon in 1879, Holliday found himself in the midst of a gunshot battle that would end the life of one man.
Holliday and former Dodge City marshal John Joshua Webb sat inside a saloon when the front door was kicked open. At that moment, Mike Gordon, a former U.S. Army scout, walked in and shot at Webb. Holliday returned fire, shooting Gordon several times. Gordon would die the next day as a result of his wounds. Doc Holliday and John Joshua Webb soon opened “Doc Holliday’s Saloon,” a small clapboard establishment.
Wyatt Earp would run into Doc Holliday on October 18, 1879, and tell Holliday stories about rich silver mines in the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Wyatt’s words were enough to persuade Doc Holliday and Horony to join the Earp group as they slowly made their way to Prescott, Arizona Territory. When the Earps arrived in Prescott, Arizona Territory, Wyatt, James, and Warren decided to continue on to Tombstone while Holliday opted to stay in Prescott and get acquainted with the area’s gambling scene.
Doc Holliday quickly became the talk of the card tables in Prescott; however, the call of camaraderie and new adventure beckoned. As summer gave way to fall in 1880, Doc Holliday rode out to meet the Earps in Tombstone. Holliday arrived in Tombstone during the month of September.
Turbulent Tombstone Tenures: Doc Holliday’s Early Brush with Frontier Justice
Doc Holliday had been living with Kate Horony; though their relationship was rocky, both Doc and Kate were known for arguing constantly. On one sweltering day in Tombstone, Doc Holliday drunkenly kicked Kate out into the street. Unknown to Holliday at the time, this action would set into motion events that would nearly end his career in Tombstone.
Quickly capitalizing on this opportunity, Johnny Behan, the County Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, and a member of the Ten Percent Ring, along with associate Milt Joyce, began crafting a scheme to trap Doc into some criminal charges. Behan and Joyce added more alcohol to Kate’s evening and got her to sign an affidavit claiming Doc had attempted to rob and murder a Wells Fargo silver bullion stage headed by Kinnear and Company on March 15, 1881.
On March 15, 1881, the stagecoach Doc was accused of robbing came under deadly attack with the perpetrators leaving behind a trail of blood and gunpowder. Bob Paul, running for Sheriff of Pima County at the time, was the shotgun messenger for Wells Fargo and served as a substitute for Eli “Budd” Philpot, who was ill on the day of the robbery. Highwaymen attempted to rob the stagecoach between Tombstone and Benson, Arizona. When they were met with resistance from Paul, gunshots rang out.
Paul bravely fought off the stage robbers to protect the silver bullion that the stagecoach was hauling. Unfortunately, passengers Peter Roerig and driver Eli Philpot were shot and killed in the exchange of gunfire. A cowboy named Bill Leonard also participated in the stage robbery; he was a friend of Doc Holliday’s from back east in New York. Because of this affidavit, sworn out of anger and scheming, Judge Wells Spicer issued a warrant for Doc Holliday’s arrest for his alleged participation in the hold-up, fueling gossip that Holliday was in fact responsible.
Doc walked into Joyce’s saloon drunk after hearing of his arrest warrant later that day. Words were exchanged between Holliday and Joyce; Holliday was called names and told he could not have his gun in the establishment. Shots were then fired by both parties. During the shootout, Joyce was shot through the palm of his hand, and Parker, Joyce’s bartender, was shot in the toe. Joyce pistol-whipped Doc until he was no longer able to fight back. As a result of the confrontation, Doc was convicted of assault.
Doc Holliday reached out to the Earp brothers for legal help. Witnesses came forward testifying that Doc could not have been at the stage robbery as he was in Tucson at the time. Kate Horony, now sober, stated that she was influenced by Behan and Joyce into framing Doc. Judge Spicer overturned Doc’s arrest, and the District Attorney ruled the case “ridiculous”. Horony was given money by Doc and a ticket out of town.
The stage robbery and drunken encounter in Joyce’s saloon increased tensions between Holliday and the individuals attacking the Earps. The Earps stuck up for Holliday when he was framed for the stage robbery, and in return, Holliday trusted the Earps even more. Talk of frontier justice was already beginning to permeate through town.
The OK Corral: A Crossfire of Law and Outlaw
October 26, 1881, began like any other day in Tombstone. Temperatures were cool, and a tense feeling hung in the air among citizens and lawmen. There had been talk among cowboys in town that they would seek revenge on the Earps and Doc Holliday. Cowboys were walking the streets armed, despite an ordinance requiring them to check their guns at the entrances to saloons or stables.
Virgil Earp, deputy U.S. marshal and police chief of Tombstone at the time, felt that trouble was about to happen. He deputized Doc Holliday and enlisted the help of his brothers Wyatt and Morgan. Virgil ran into Cochise County Sheriff Behan and was told or hinted that the cowboys had already deposited their weapons. Virgil gave the short coach gun he had borrowed from the Wells Fargo office to Doc Holliday to hide under his long coat and took Holliday’s walking stick instead. Together, the three approached the cowboys who Virgil suspected were meeting near Fly’s boarding house to ambush Holliday.
The small group moved onto Fremont Street and ended up standing in an alley between Fly’s boarding house and the Harwood house. Virgil suspected the Cowboys were hiding in the alley waiting to ambush Holliday because he was stopping at Fly’s boarding house that night. What happened next is legend. The truth of the story is often changed depending on who tells it. The “Gunfight at the OK Corral” began, and there was confusion as to who shot first. Some witnesses said Holliday whirled and fired his signature nickel-plated pistol. Others say a longer gun was fired first, a bronze-colored gun that could have been the coach gun.
Doc Holliday shot and killed Tom McLaury with a shotgun blast to the chest. Shots were fired back, and Holliday was hit. It is said that Holliday was shot by Frank McLaury. After being shot, Holliday stood in front of his shooter, and Frank McLaury yelled, “I got you now!” Holliday yelled back, “Blaze away! You’re a daisy if you have.” Frank McLaury was shot through the stomach and back of the ear and died from his wounds. Another story tells that Holliday shot Billy Clanton as well.
Investigators quickly learned details of the gunfight that pieced together movements that may suggest either Holliday or Morgan Earp fired the deadly shot, which struck McLaury on Fremont Street. Doc Holliday stood to McLaury’s right, and Morgan stood to his left. Because McLaury was shot through the right side of his head, many accounts credit Holliday with striking the killing shot, though Wyatt had fired a shot that struck McLaury in the torso earlier. This wound would have been enough to kill McLaury.
Whoever fired the killing shot, the ripples of this momentary barrage would continue to play out in courtrooms for years. Findings from the month-long preliminary hearing deemed that the actions of the Earps and Holliday fell within their duties as lawmen of Tombstone, but Ike Clanton’s desire for vengeance was not satisfied.
Gunfire erupted and quickly died down in the cool October air of Tombstone. Doc Holliday and the Earp Brothers would live on in legend, retold through books and movies about the Wild West forever. The OK Corral itself became a symbol of the Old West. Set against the backdrop of the sprawling Arizona desert, the OK Corral remains as iconic as it comes.
The Aftermath of the OK Corral Shootout
Tombstone’s criminal element was fuming after the gunfight at the OK Corral. Tensions rose even further after Virgil Earp was ambushed and crippled in December 1881. Morgan Earp was then killed in an ambush in March 1882. Witnesses were quick to implicate various Cowboys in shooting Virgil Earp on December 27, 1881, and assassinating Morgan Earp on March 19, 1882.
Eyewitness testimony was just the start. Considerable circumstantial evidence also implicated them. Wyatt Earp became deputy U.S. marshal after his brother was crippled. He deputized Doc Holliday, Warren Earp, Sherman McMaster, and “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson.
Wyatt Earp began writing the story of revenge when he and the other three deputies rode Virgil Earp and his wife, Allie, to the railroad, where they boarded a train to Colton, California, to live with Wyatt’s father while Virgil healed. Destiny had other plans.
On March 20, 1882, in Tucson, Wyatt and his posse surprised Frank Stilwell and perhaps Ike Clanton, who were spying around the railroad cars with guns in hand. Wyatt and the others believed the two were up to no good, namely, shooting Virgil Earp. The following morning, Stilwell was found dead along the side of the railroad tracks, shot through with buckshot and bullets. Wyatt would later claim that he pumped buckshot into Stilwell through his shotgun.
Charles Meyer, a justice of the peace in Tucson, responded to complaints by issuing warrants for the arrest of five of the Earp party, including Holliday. The group returned briefly to Tombstone on March 21 and was joined by Texas Jack Vermillion and perhaps others. The following morning, Earp’s faction rode out to Pete Spence’s ranch, followed by a stop at a wood-cutting camp.
According to woodcutter Theodore Judah, the Earp posse arrived at about 11 a.m. They asked about Spence and where Florentino “Indian Charlie” Cruz was. When told Spence was jailed, they went looking for Cruz. After a round of gunshots, Cruz was found dead from riddled with gunshot wounds the next morning.
Gunfight at Iron Springs
The posse arrived at Iron Springs in the Whetstone Mountains on March 24. This location was designated for meeting Charlie Smith who was to drive up with $1,000 contributed by friends from Tombstone. Wyatt and Doc Holliday were sent ahead and found eight cowboys camped by the springs.
It was now or never. Curly Bill drew first and fired, having recognized Wyatt. His action served as a signal, and all the Cowboys present wheeled and drew their guns. There followed a brisk exchange of gunfire with Wyatt dismounting and grabbing for his shotgun. “Texas Jack” Vermillion’s horse had been shot from underneath him and fell on top of him, pinning him to the ground with his rifle underneath him.
Holliday, Johnson, and McMaster found no place to take cover, so they withdrew. Wyatt returned Curly Bill’s shotgun blast, delivering a shotgun slug through Bill’s chest, nearly splitting him in half. (According to Wyatt’s biography) Bill was later found dead next to the spring. A constant volley of bullets was sprayed in the direction of Wyatt. Vermillion’s horse was the sole casualty as a result of this exchange. Wyatt, still holding his pistol, fired a bullet into Johnny Barnes’ chest. Another bullet hit Milt Hicks’ arm.
Vermillion attempted to stand to retrieve his rifle, which left him in full view of the Cowboys, shooting bullets everywhere. Holliday covered Vermillion and assisted him into cover. Wyatt was attempting to mount his horse when he discovered his cartridge belt had slipped down and was now between his legs. During the shootout, a bullet went through Wyatt’s long coat, his boot heel was struck, and another bullet touched the saddle horn. Wyatt finally mounted his horse and rode away with McMaster, who was also struck by a bullet.
Death of Johnny Ringo
By all indications, the story of revenge seemed to continue elsewhere after Johnny Ringo was found dead on July 14, 1882. Ringo was found shot through the right temple with his revolver dangling off of his finger in West Turkey Creek Valley near Chiricahua Peak in the Arizona Territory.
Officially ruled a suicide by the coroner, rumors of another story soon circulated. In the book I Married Wyatt Earp, author Glenn Boyer claimed Wyatt and Holliday stopped through Arizona around the first week of July. The pair supposedly located Ringo in West Turkey Creek Valley and shot him. Boyer’s book has since been discredited, but the story was carried over into the film Tombstone, which shows Holliday as Ringo’s killer.
Actual proof of Doc Holliday being elsewhere when Ringo was killed is inconclusive at best. Documentation from the Pueblo County courthouse in Colorado states that Holliday and his attorney showed up in court on July 11. They returned to court that same month on July 14 in regard to “larceny”.
On the other hand, a July 11 capias suggests Holliday may have skipped court. Also, Holliday was in Salida, Colorado, on July 7 (550 miles away from where Ringo’s body was found) and Leadville on July 18. In addition, according to his biographer Karen Holliday Tanner, there was an outstanding murder warrant for Holliday out in Arizona. This makes it fairly unlikely that he would have traveled to Arizona at this time.
Covered as it is with swaths of mystery, conjecture, and few dependable records, Ringo’s murder continues to fascinate, as does Doc Holliday’s eventful life, which was nothing short of a tranquil ride through the calm valleys of his native Georgia.
The Unyielding March of Justice: Holliday’s Struggles Post Arizona
Doc and four other members of his group still had outstanding warrants for Frank Stilwell’s death, and decided it was time to leave Arizona behind and head to the calmer climates of the New Mexico Territory with Colorado as their final destination. The friendship between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had begun to sour during the ride west, and while traveling through Albuquerque, New Mexico, they had a violent falling-out and parted ways, guns holstered but words still flying as they traveled under the New Mexico sun, taking different trails.
Upon their arrival in Colorado, both Wyatt and Doc were happy to put some distance between themselves and their past, but it wasn’t long before Holliday was arrested by the authorities in Denver, Colorado, on May 15, 1882, on the warrant that had been issued in Tucson for his involvement in Stilwell’s death.
When Wyatt heard that Holliday had been arrested, he feared what the outcome would be for Doc if he had to stand trial in Arizona. Wyatt contacted his old friend, Bat Masterson, who at the time was the chief of police in Trinidad, Colorado, and asked for assistance. Masterson bought some time by working up bogus bunco gambling charges against Holliday, so he wouldn’t have to face Judge Barnes in Arizona.
Doc Holliday’s extradition hearing was scheduled for May 31, 1882, but Masterson desperately asked Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin for a meeting at his mansion late on May 30. Governor Pitkin normally did not receive anyone after nine o’clock at night, but E.D. Cowen, capital reporter for the Denver Tribune and a friend of Masterson, was also politically connected. Masterson explained to Governor Pitkin that the extradition papers were rife with errors and that Doc also had a pending warrant for his arrest in Colorado.
Cowen rode back into Denver and told E.H. Ratley, editor of the Denver Tribune, about the meeting, and Ratley published the story in the morning paper. Governor Pitkin denied Arizona’s request and allowed Doc to stay in Colorado.
Bat Masterson rode Doc Holliday to Pueblo, Colorado, where he was released on bond 14 days after his arrest. Wyatt reconnected with Doc in Gunnison, Colorado, in June 1882. Wyatt had worked very hard behind the scenes to prevent Holliday from being convicted of murdering Frank Stilwell. During his stay in Colorado, Doc Holliday got into his last known gunfight in Hyman’s Saloon in Leadville, Colorado.
It started out as just another day in the life of Doc Holliday, only this time Holliday was penniless. The famed gambler had hit bottom and found himself in desperate need of money. According to William J. “Billy” Allen, he loaned Holliday $5 sometime before February 8, 1884.
Allen claimed Holliday promised to repay the debt, but when the time came, Holliday begged off, promising to return the cash later. Allen said he wasn’t buying it and threatened Holliday. Fearing for his life, Doc swore he would “fix” Allen if he continued to bother him. Later that evening, Holliday ran into Allen at Hyman’s Saloon. Shots were fired, and another body hit the floor. Doc Holliday was arrested and charged with assault with intent to kill.
Doc was tried for his life on April 23, 1884, with self-defense being his only chance of walking out of the courtroom with his life. He was acquitted of the crime on March 28, 1885. After the trial, Doc looked older and thinner. The toll of living life on the run and being diagnosed with tuberculosis was beginning to take its toll on the gunman’s body.
Doc’s poor health continued to plague him for the rest of his life in Colorado. The high altitude of Leadville did not agree with his already weakened body. Rumors have it that Doc’s gambling skills were never the same, and the further along he got in the deterioration of his body, the more he drank and drowned himself with doses of laudanum.
Fading Embers: Doc Holliday’s Final Draw
Doc Holliday’s wilder days began to fade after he was acquitted of the shooting in Leadville. As sickly and bad-luck-ridden as Doc was, he was a formidable man in the eyes of many who lived during his lifetime. He was either feared or admired, and his life’s stories would travel through history. Guns and excitement were slowly replaced with Doc’s slow and lonely fight with death.
On December 21, 1886, Doc Holliday visited old friend Wyatt Earp at the Windsor Hotel in Denver. According to Sadie Marcus’s later recollection of Holliday’s appearance, “His knees trembled and refused to support him. He had to use his hands. His cough was terrible, hacking and rattling in his throat as he sat and talked of bygone days.” Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp sadly shook hands and said their goodbyes.
In the spring of 1887, a sickly and prematurely-aged Doc Holliday traveled to the Hotel Glenwood near Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Holliday planned on taking advantage of the healing powers of the mineral springs there and trying to fight his advanced tuberculosis. During his time there, he found that the hot springs he soaked in were more sulfurous than he liked, which aggravated his cough. He stayed briefly in Glenwood before traveling to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Holliday died of tuberculosis on November 8, 1887. According to a story told by his companion, John Henry Pace, before his death, Doc declined a shot of whiskey on his deathbed, whereupon Holliday glanced at his bootless feet and said, “This is funny.” Doc Holliday always believed that he would die in the middle of a gunfight with his boots on. Kate Horony allegedly sat vigil at Doc’s bedside the last few hours before he died. Kate Horony, which was reported by several sources.
Wyatt would not learn of Doc’s death until months after it happened. He heard about Holliday’s death through reading a newspaper article.
Doc Holliday was always the cowboy, outlaw, and gambler. He was known to shoot first and ask questions later, as well as count cards like few could in his time.
Doc Holliday’s exploits were made into legend at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the Earp Vendetta Ride. Doc Holliday was an impressive shot. During one of his told tales, he bragged about many arrests, attempted hangings, and ambushes.
Doc Holliday’s tuberculosis didn’t stop him from packing heat and shooting to kill. He was seriously ill for most of his life, but that didn’t stop him from gambling and shooting with the best of them. Holliday was rumored to have killed many men, although there are only accounts of four or five he actually killed. Holliday liked his reputation as a killer and never denied or confirmed any of these stories. He understood that his reputation alone would gain fear from others in the West. Virgil Earp told the Arizona Daily Star, “Doc Holliday had that many facets to him.”
“There was something very peculiar about Doc Holliday. He was gentlemanly, a good dentist, a friendly man, and yet outside of us boys I don’t think he had a friend in the Territory. Tales were told that he had murdered men in different parts of the country; that he had robbed and committed all manner of crimes, and yet when persons were asked how they knew it, they could only admit that it was hearsay and that nothing of the kind could really be traced up to Doc’s account.”
Virgil Earp – March 1882 interview with the Arizona Daily Star
Doc Holliday was a true contradiction. He was a southern gentleman, a dentist, a gambler, and an excellent killer. Doc left a legacy on the Wild West that will never be forgotten, like two clouds of smoke from his Colts on the orange sunset.
Featured Image Attribution: tifoultoute, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
