John Henry "Doc" Holiday B. 08/14/1851 D. 11/8/1887
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people
that had a part in Tombstone, AZ history
(Scroll down page for
story)
About Doc Holiday
About
Wyatt Earp
About Virgil Earp
About Morgan
Earp
About James Earp
About Warren
Earp
About Newton Earp
About William "Curley Bill" Brocius (outlaw)
About Billy Claiborne (outlaw)
About
Pete Spence (outlaw)
About
Ike Clanton (outlaw)
About Phin Clanton (outlaw)
About Johnny Ringo (outlaw)
About "Old Man" Clanton" (outlaw)
Frank
Stillwell (outlaw)
About Frank McLaury (outlaw killed at the OK Corral)
About
Tom McLaury (outlaw killed at the OK Corral)
About Billy Clanton (outlaw killed at the OK Corral)
About
Johnny Behan (Sheriff)
William Breckinridge (Deputy Sheriff)
About Fred White (Marshal)
About George Parson
About Wells Spicer (Judge)
About George Goodfellow MD
About Nellie Cashman (Angel Of Mercy)
About Big Nose Kate (prostitute & Doc Holiday's girlfriend)
About Ed Schieffelin
About
John Clum (editor/publisher of Tombstone Epitaph)
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Morgan
Earps Death In The Tombstone Epitaph
Tombstone Epitaph Story The Day After
The OK Corral Shootout
Tombstone Pioneers Burial Places
Mistakes In The Movie
Tombstone
For fallacies in the movie Tombstone please visit this web site: http://www.ferncanyonpress.com/tombston/movie.shtml
This is an original photo. Not retouched.
"I found him a loyal friend and good company. He was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean blonde fellow nearly dead with consumption and at the same time the most skillful gambler and nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew."
– Wyatt Earp speaking of Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday's
father, Henry B. Holliday was a trained pharmacist who served in several
wars, including the Cherokee
Indian War, the Mexican War, and as a Major in the Confederate Army. After
serving in the Mexican War, he returned to his home in Griffin, Georgia with
an orphaned Mexican boy named Francisco Hidalgo. On January 8, 1849, Major
Holliday married Alice Jane McKay and within just year had a daughter,
Martha Eleanora, who died in infancy. On August 14, 1851, John Henry (Doc)
Holliday was born.
In 1857, Major Holliday inherited a piece
of land in Valdosta, Georgia and moved Alice, John, and Francisco to Lowndes
County where John Henry attended grade school at the Valdosta Institute,
studying Greek, Latin and French. Major Holliday quickly became one of the
town's leading citizens, serving two terms as Mayor, acting as Secretary of
the County Agricultural Society, a Member of the Masonic Lodge, Secretary of
the Confederate Veterans Camp, and the Superintendent of local elections.
When John (Doc)
was just fifteen, his mother died on September 16, 1866 of consumption
(later called tuberculosis.) This was a terrible blow to the teenager, as
his relationship with his mother was very close. Compounding this loss, his
father remarried only three months later.
The family’s
status in the community, as well as the fact that his cousin, Robert
Holliday, founded the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, probably
encouraged John’s choice of profession. In 1870 he enrolled to the college
in Philadelphia and on March 1, 1872, he was conferred the degree of Doctor
of Dental Surgery, along with twenty-six other graduates. Shortly after
graduation, Doc Holliday began work as a dentist in the office of Dr. Arthur
C. Ford in Atlanta.
Though an educated
and respected man, John Henry was a hot-tempered Southerner and quick to use
a gun. On one occasion, there were “Negros” swimming in his favorite
swimming hole and the outraged Doc started shooting over their heads. While
one of the Negroes shot back, no one was killed. This seems to be the first
account of Doc’s love affair with the six-shooter.
Shortly after starting
his dental practice, Doc Holliday discovered that he had contracted
tuberculosis – most likely from his mother before she died. His adopted
Mexican brother was also diagnosed with the disease and later died from it,
so he may have contracted it from his as well.
Doc consulted a number
of physicians, was told he had an only a short time to live, and encouraged to
move to a dryer climate to extend his life. So, in October 1873, Doc Holliday
packed up and headed for Dallas, Texas, which was the end of the railroad at the
time. Initially, Doc worked with another dentist by the name of Dr. John A.
Seegar in Dallas. However, as the coughing spells wracked his body during
delicate dental procedures, his business declined and Holliday was forced to
find another way to earn a living.
Out West, Doc was a most unusual character,
being an extremely educated and refined man, where such things were uncommon.
He was fluent in Latin, played the piano very well, was a “nappy” dresser, and
displayed the manners of a Southern gentleman.
His intelligence made
him a “natural” at gambling and this quickly became his means of support, where
he was both an active participant, as well as a poker and
Faro dealer.
However, Doc was also miserable, with the knowledge of his impending death. He
was moody, a heavy drinker, and with no fear of death, perhaps was more prone to
the life he ended up living.
The thin and weakened
doctor knew that a career as a gambler was a dangerous profession, requiring
that he have the means to protect himself. Dedicated, he started practicing
with a six-shooter and a long, wicked knife, honing his skills.
The first account of a gunfight occurred on January 2, 1875
when Doc and a local saloonkeeper named Austin, had a disagreement, which
quickly turned to violence. While several shots were fired, neither man was
struck and both men were arrested, which was reported in the Dallas Weekly
Herald. At first, the local citizens thought the gunfight was amusing, until
just a few days later when Doc again got into a disagreement, this time killing
a prominent citizen with two carefully aimed bullets. Fleeing Dallas, with a posse right
behind him, Holliday headed to Jackson, Texas, a wild and lawless cowtown near
an army post. Doc found a job dealing Faro , now carrying a gun in a shoulder
holster, and another on his hip, along with the knife. Having become an expert
shot, he was involved in three more gunfights in a short amount of time. Though
he left one man dead in these gunfights, no action was taken against him in the
lawless cow town.
However, in the summer of 1876, disagreement
again led to violence, resulting in Doc’s killing a soldier from Fort
Richardson, which brought the United States Government into the investigation.
A reward was offered for his capture, and he was aggressively pursued by the
Army, Texas Rangers, U.S. Marshals, local lawmen, and simple citizens anxious to
collect the bounty.
Aware of the imminent hanging if captured, Doc
fled for his life to Apache country in Kansas Territory (now Colorado). Making
stops along the way in Pueblo, Leadville, Georgetown and Central City, he left
three more dead bodies in his wake. Finally, settling down in Denver, he
assumed the name of Tom Mackey, while dealing Faro
at Babbitt’s House. Relatively unknown
for a while, that changed when he got involved in an argument with Bud Ryan, a
well-known gambling tough. A fight ensued and Doc nearly cut Ryan’s head off
with his lethal knife. Though Ryan survived, his face and neck were terribly
mutilated. Public resentment forced Doc to run again, first to Wyoming, then New
Mexico, and finally back to Texas, where at Fort Griffin, he would meet both
Wyatt Earp and “Big Nose” Kate.
While dealing cards at
John Shanssey’s Saloon, Doc met Mary
Catherine Elder Haroney, who went by many names but was most often known as “Big
Nose” Kate. While the dance hall girl and prostitute was attractive, she did
have a prominent nose. Kate was tough, stubborn, and with a temper that matched
Doc’s.
She said she worked the business because she liked it, belonging to no man, nor
to any house!
Wyatt Earp, traveling
from Dodge City, was on the trail of a train robber by the name of
Dave Rudabaugh.
After having been issued an acting commission as U.S. Deputy Marshal to pursue
the outlaw out of state, he followed Rudabaugh's
trail for 400 miles.
Wyatt
visited the largest saloon in town, Shanssey’s asking about Rudabaugh.
Owner John Shanssey said that Rudabaugh had been there
earlier in the week, but didn’t know where he was bound. He directed
Wyatt
to Doc Holliday who had played cards with Rudabaugh.
Wyatt
was skeptical about talking to
Holliday,
as it was well known that Doc
hated lawmen. However, when
Wyatt found him that evening at
Shanssey’s, he was surprised at Holliday’s willingness to talk.
Doc
told Wyatt
that he thought that Rudabaugh
had back-trailed to
Kansas. Wyatt
wired this information to Bat Masterson, Sheriff in
Dodge City,
and the news was instrumental in apprehending
Rudabaugh. The unlikely pair formed
a friendship in Shanssey’s that would last for years.
In 1877,
Doc
was dealing cards to a local bully by the name of Ed Bailey, who was accustomed
to having his own way without question. Bailey was unimpressed with
Doc's
reputation and in an attempt to irritate him; he kept picking up the discards
and looking at them. Looking at the discards was strictly prohibited by the
rules of Western Poker, a violation that could force the player to forfeit the
pot.
Though Holliday warned
Bailey twice, the bully ignored him and picked up the discards again. This
time, Doc raked in the pot without showing his hand, nor saying a word. Bailey
immediately brought out his pistol from under the table, but before the man
could pull the trigger, Doc's
lethal knife slashed the man across the stomach. With blood spilled everywhere,
Bailey lay sprawled across the table.
Knowing that his actions were in self-defense,
Doc
did not run. However, he was still arrested and incarcerated in a local hotel
room, there being no jail in the town. Bully or no, a vigilante group formed to
seek revenge on Holliday. Knowing that the mob would quickly overtake the local
lawmen, “Big Nose” Kate devised a plan to free
Doc from his
confines. Setting a fire to an old shed, it began to burn rapidly, threatening
to engulf the entire town. As everyone else was involved in fighting the fire,
she confronted the officer guarding Holliday with a pistol in each hand,
disarmed the guard and the two escaped.
Dodge City
Hiding out during the night, they headed to
Dodge City on stolen horses in the morning, registering at Deacon Cox’s Boarding
House as Dr. and Mrs. J.H. Holliday. Doc so appreciated what Kate did for him,
that he was determined to make her happy and gave up gambling, hanging up his
doctor’s shingle once again. In return, Kate promised to give up the life of
prostitution and stop hanging about the saloons.
However, Kate couldn’t
stand the quiet and boredom of respectable living. She told Doc that she was
going back to the bright lights and excitement of the dance halls and gambling
dens. Consequently, the two split up, as they were destined to do many times
during the remainder of Doc's life.
Doc went back to gambling, frequenting the Alhambra and dealing cards at the Long Branch Saloon. Though Dodge City citizens thought the friendship between Wyatt and Doc was strange, Wyatt ignored them and Doc kept the law while in Dodge City.
One night, while Doc was dealing Faro in the Long Branch Saloon a number of Texas cowboys arrived with a herd of cattle. After many weeks on the trail, the rowdy cowboys were ready to “let loose.” Leading the cowboy mob was a man named Ed Morrison, whom Wyatt had humiliated in Wichita, Kansas, and a man named Tobe Driskill. The cowboys rushed the town, galloping down Front Street with guns blazing, blowing out shop windows. Entering the Long Branch Saloon, they began harassing the customers.
When Wyatt came through the front door, he came face to face with several awaiting gun barrels. Stepping forward, Morrison sneered “Pray and jerk your gun! Your time has come Earp!”I
Suddenly, a voice sounded behind Morrison.
“No, friend, you draw – or throw your hands up!” It was Doc, his revolver to
Morrison’s temple. Doc had been in the back room his card game interrupted by
the havoc out front. “Any of
you bastards pulls a gun and your leader
here loses what’s left of his brains!" The cowboys
dropped their arms. Wyatt
Dodge City
Jail.
Wyatt never forgot the fact that
Doc Holliday
saved his life that night in Dodge City. Responding later Wyatt said
"The only way anyone could have appreciated the feeling I had
for Doc after the Driskill-Morrison business would have been to have stood in my
boots at the time Doc came through the
Long Branch
doorway."
Later, Kate
and Doc, in their constant love-hate relationship, had another of their
frequent, violent quarrels. Furious, Doc saddled his horse and headed out,
winding up in Trinidad, Colorado. Shortly after he arrived, he was goaded into
a fight by a young gambler, known as “Kid Colton”. The “Kid”, either wishing to
make himself a reputation, or very unaware of Doc's gunmanship, wound up in the
dusty street with two bullets.
Not wanting to linger, Doc rode on to
Las Vegas,
New Mexico, where, in late summer of 1879, he hung out his shingle for the last
time. However, this idea was short lived and only a few weeks later he bought a
saloon.
In late August, 1879 Doc got into an
argument with a local gunman, named Mike Gordon. The two took the argument to
the street where Doc politely invited Gordon to start shooting whenever he felt
like it. Gordon obviously accepted this invitation and wound up dead with three
shots in his belly.
Again, a lynch mob formed with plans to lynch
Holliday and
Doc headed
back to Dodge City. However, he arrived only to find that
Wyatt had gone
to a new silver strike, in a place called Tombstone,
Arizona.
Big Nose Kate
was also nowhere to be seen in Dodge City. There being nothing to hold him
there, Doc
struck out West,
bound for
Tombstone
.
Tombstone
Unknown to
Doc,
“Big Nose” Kate
was also enroute to the new boom town of Tombstone and
the two ran into each other in Prescott,
Arizona.
Doc was
winning heavily at the tables and pocketing $40,000 in winnings,
Kate was happy
to keep him company. In the early summer of 1880, the two reached
Tombstone.
When
Doc arrived in
Tombstone, not
only did he find
Wyatt, but all of the
Earp brothers
including
Morgan from Montana,
James who traveled with
Wyatt from
Dodge City, and
Virgil from Prescott, where he had
just been made a Deputy U.S. Marshal. Wyatt and his brothers were mining silver
and James was dealing
Faro
at Vogan’s Saloon.
Virgil appointed
Wyatt as the
acting City Marshal, and also swore in
Morgan as an officer.
When the Earps had arrived in Tombstone, the outlaw Clanton Gang had been running roughshod over the territory and immediately resented the Earps arrival. "Old man" Clanton, his sons, Ike, Phin, and Billy, the McLaury brothers, Frank and Tom, Curly Bill Brocius, John Ringo and their followers lost no time in expressing their displeasure. Holliday was a welcome addition to the Earp's fight with the "Cowboy" faction.
Shortly afterwards, Kate was running a boarding house in Globe, Arizona, some 175 miles away from Tombstone. However, she was known to often stay with Doc when she visited.
In October, 1880, Doc had a dispute with a man by the name of Johnny Tyler in the Oriental Saloon. Though Tyler quickly high-tailed it out of the saloon, Doc and the saloon owner, Milt Joyce, continued to argue.
As usual, the argument turned violent and Doc, who was drunk at the time, fired several shots hitting Joyce in the hand and his bartender, Parker, in the toe of his left foot. In retaliation, Milt struck Doc on the head with a pistol. Doc was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, found guilty and fined $20 for assault and battery plus $11.25 court costs.
Many times when “Big Nose” Kate visited Holliday, they were known to have frequent arguments, most of which were not serious until Kate got drunk. Often, her drunkenness would escalate to abuse, and in early 1881, Doc had finally had enough and threw her out.
On March 15, 1881, four masked men attempted a hold up on a stagecoach near Contention and in the attempt, killed the stage driver and a passenger. The Cowboy faction immediately seized upon the opportunity and accused Doc Holliday of being one of the holdup men. The sheriff who was investigating the hold-up, found Kate on one of her drunken binges, still berating Doc for throwing her out. Feeding her yet even more whiskey, the sheriff persuaded her to sign an affidavit that Doc had been one of the masked highwaymen and had killed the stage driver.
While
Kate was
sobering up, the
Earps were rounding up witnesses who could verify
Doc's
whereabouts on the night in question. When
Kate realized
what she had done, she repudiated her statement and the charges were thrown out.
But, for Doc,
this was the “last straw” for
Kate, and
giving her some money, he put her on a stage out of town.
Throughout the summer of
1881, the threats against the
Earp
Brothers by the
Clantons increased. The
Cowboys, as they were referred to, were often heard
telling bar room stories of how they were going to send
Wyatt Earp to
Boot Hill.
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, Ike Clanton spent the day getting drunk, moving from one saloon to the next, and making threats against the Earps and Holliday to any who would listen. That night, he made his way to the Occidental Saloon for a card game with Tom McLaury.
An angry Doc Holliday, who had heard of the boasts, confronted him. "I heard you’re going to kill me, Ike," he said. "Get out your gun and commence." Virgil, a U.S. Deputy Marshall, Wyatt, an appointed an acting city marshal by Virgil, and Morgan, also a sworn officer, were present during this confrontation. Virgil told Doc and Ike that he would arrest both of them if they continued the argument. Though boasting violence throughout the day, Clanton was unarmed and finally, Virgil drew Holliday away. But Clanton followed, promising "to kill you tomorrow when the others come to town."
Spotting Wyatt on the streets, the fired-up Clanton continued. "Tell your consumptive friend, your Arizona nightin’gale, he’s a dead man tomorrow!" To which, Wyatt just turned and replied "Don’t you tangle with Doc Holliday -- he’ll kill you before you’ve begun."Ike's parting word was "Get ready for a showdown!"
Wednesday, October
26, 1881 was an overcast windy
day. The
Earps,
in anticipation of trouble, woke early. As
Virgil watched from his hotel
window, he saw
Billy Clanton ride into town, accompanied by friend
Billy Claiborne. They met the
McLaury brothers and
Ike Clanton
on Allen Street.
Ike
was looking for
Holliday but before he could find him,
Virgil and
Morgan confronted him.
Ike,
bracing a shotgun, exchanged words with the two but when Clanton raised his
rifle.
Virgil subdued him, impounded his rifle, and
dragged him before Justice of the Peace Wallace, who fined
Ike
$27.50 for carrying firearms in the city.
Wyatt and
Tom McLaury, both hearing what had happened, met at the judge’s door at the
same time, literally bumping into each other. Though
Wyatt
apologized,
McLaury insulted him and, in return,
Wyatt brought
his gun down on
McLaury's head.
Later that morning, the
Cowboys met at Spangenbergs, a gunsmith shop. Then
Frank McLaury rode his horse onto the boardwalk,
frightening pedestrians off its path outside the gunsmith shop.
Wyatt grabbed
the reins of the horse, leading it to the streets as
McLaury yelled profanities. After this latest
confrontation, the outlaws retreated in a group around the corner off Allen
Street. With all of the tension, there was bound to be a fight. Several
members of the town’s Citizens’ Committee offered their assistance to the
Earp
brothers, but thanking them,
Wyatt said it
was his and his brothers’ responsibility as law officers.
Then
John Behan, the County Sheriff, appeared pronouncing, "Ike
Clanton and his crew are
on Fremont Street talking gun-talk." Evidently,
Ike Clanton, the two
McLaurys,
Billy Clanton and
Billy Claiborne were meeting in a vacant lot
planning to bushwhack
Doc
Holliday, who passed that way every morning.
Virgil, as Chief Marshal, agreed to go down there
to break them up, but contended that
Behan should accompany him.
Behan only laughed. "Hell, this is your fight, not mine."
However, the
Cowboys were surprised when the
Earps
showed up and Doc
was with them. As they made their way to the
O.K. Corral, witnesses said that the three
Earp brothers were all dressed in black
with firm, mean grimaces on their faces while
Doc was
nattily clad in grey and was whistling. Where the two forces finally met was
actually 90 yards down an alley from the
O.K. Corral. The actual gunfight took place off Fremont Street between
Fly’s Photo Gallery and Jersey’s Livery Stable. The
Earps passed by the
O.K. Corral, but cut through the alley where they found the troublemakers
waiting at the other end.
"You are under
arrest for attempting to disturb the peace,"
Virgil announced. As senior officer, he displayed
only a non-threatening walking stick, having given his shotgun to
Doc
to carry. The rustlers tightened and
Morgan and
Doc
simultaneously braced for action. "Hold on, I don’t want that!" cried
Virgil.
What happened next
was a blur, occurring in about 30 seconds. The shooting started when
Billy Clanton and
Frank McLaury cocked their pistols. It is not really
known who fired the first shot, but
Doc’s bullet
was the first to hit home, tearing through
Frank McLaury's belly and sending
McLaury's own shot wild through
Wyatt’s
coattail. Billy
Clanton fired at
Virgil, but his shot also went astray when he was
hit with
Morgan's shot through his rib cage.
Billy Claiborne ran as soon as shots were fired and
was already out of sight.
Ike Clanton, too,
panicked and threw his gun down, pleading for his life. "Fight or get out
like Claiborne!"
Wyatt yelled and watched
Ike
desert his brother Billy, as he ran towards the door of the photography shop.
But,
Ike
then withdrew a hidden gun firing one more round towards
Wyatt before
disappearing. The sound distracted
Morgan, enough so that
Tom McLaury sent a bullet into
Morgan's side.
Doc instantly
countered, blowing
Tom away with blasts from both barrels of his shotgun. Desperately, wounded
and dying,
Billy Clanton fired blindly into the gun smoke
encircling him, striking
Virgil's leg.
Wyatt responded
by sending several rounds into Billy.
Then it was silent and the townspeople ran
from their homes and shops, wagons were to convey wounded
Morgan and
Virgil to their respective homes, and doctors
followed.
The 30-second shootout left three
Billy Clanton,
Frank McLaury and
Tom McLaury dead. Virgil
Earp took a shot to the leg and
Morgan suffered a shoulder wound. As
Wyatt stood,
still stunned, Sheriff
Behan appeared advising him he was under arrest. The
Earps and
Doc
Holliday were tried for murder but it was determined that
the Earps acted
within the law.
On January 17, 1882, a supposedly famous
confrontation took place between
Wyatt,
Doc and
John Ringo. Many writers would say
that
John Ringo challenged the
Earp brothers
and Holliday.
But, this cannot possibly be true as
Virgil and
Morgan were incapacitated with
painful wounds from the shoot-out. So, while
Ringo might have offered the
challenge, he obviously wasn't running much risk as there was little chance that
they could accept. The
Earps also knew
that
Ringo had been drinking
heavily and that the whiskey was talking.
On March 18, 1882, the cowboy gang struck
again while
Morgan Earp was playing pool at
Campbell and Hatch's
Saloon. A shot was fired from the darkness of the alley striking
Morgan in the back.
Morgan's body was dressed in one of
Doc
Holliday's suits and shipped to the
parents in Colton,
California
for burial.
Just two days later, the
Earp party
encountered
Frank Stilwell and
Ike Clanton at the Tucson
Railroad Station and
Wyatt
chased
Stilwell down the track, filling him full of holes. A Coroner's Jury named
Wyatt
and
Warren Earp,
Doc
Holliday,
"Texas Jack
Vermillion", and
Sherman
McMasters as the men who had killed
Stilwell and warrants were issued for their arrest.
Earp sought
vengeance on the men who shot
Virgil and killed
Morgan and killing
Stilwell was just his first step and
Doc
Holliday rode beside him all the
way.
Wyatt
heard that Pete Spence was at his wood camp in the Dragoons and on March 11,
1882, he and his men quickly headed out, finding not Pete Spencer, but
Florentino Cruz.
The frightened Cruz named all the men who had
murdered
Morgan, himself included. Earp
and his men filled Cruz with bullet holes. The
Earp “posse”
rode out once again and on March 24, 1882, they ran into Curly Bill Brocius and
eight of his men near Iron Springs. A gunfight ensued where Curly Bill was
killed and Johnny Barnes received a wound from which he eventually died.
In just over a year, the
Earp “posse”
along with
Doc
Holliday eliminated
"Old Man" Clanton,
Billy Clanton,
Frank McLaury,
Tom McLaury,
Frank Stilwell, Indian Charlie, Dixie Gray, Florentino Cruz, Curly Bill, Johnny
Barnes, Jim Crane, Harry Head, Bill Leonard, Joe Hill, Luther King, Charley
Snow, Billy Lang, Zwing Hunt, Billy Grounds and Hank Swilling. Pete Spence
turned himself in to the authorities where he could “hide” in the penitentiary.
In May, 1882,
Wyatt and
Doc left
Tombstone,
swearing they would never return,
but still vowing vengeance on
Ringo, Clanton, Spence and Swilling if they could
ever find them. Riding their horses to
Silver City,
New Mexico, they
sold them, rode a stage to Deming, and boarded a train for Colorado.
Shortly after his arrival in Denver, Doc
was arrested by a man named Perry Mallan. Some people thought that Perry
Mallon was actually a brother to Johnny Tyler, a foe of Holliday and a
would-be gunman that Doc ran out of
Tombstone.
On May 22, 1882, while Doc was in jail, the Denver Republican printed
the following: "Holliday has a big reputation as a fighter, and has probably
put more rustlers and cowboys under the sod than any other one man in the
west. He had been the terror of the lawless element in
Arizona, and
with the Earps was the only man brave enough to face the bloodthirsty crowd
which has made the name of Arizona
a stench in the nostrils of decent men."
Mallan
told the paper that he was standing along side when Curly Bill Brocius was
killed. Doc related his thoughts as to that: "...eight rustlers rose up from
behind the bank and poured from thirty-five to forty shots at us. Our escape was
miraculous. The shots cut our clothes and saddles and killed one horse, but did
not hit us. I think we would have been killed if God Almighty wasn't on our
side. Wyatt Earp turned loose with a shotgun and killed Curly Bill. The eight
men in the gang which attacked us were all outlaws, for each of whom a big
reward has been offered...If Mallan was along side Curly Bill when he was
killed, he was with one of the worst gangs of murderers and robbers in the
country."
Finally, Doc's
troubles concerning extradition to Arizona
ended. On May 30, 1882, the Rocky
Mountain News printed: "Doc
Holliday's case was finally disposed of by Governor Pitkin yesterday, his
Excellency deciding that he could not honor the requisition from Arizona. The
District Attorney's Office was represented by Honorable I.E. Barnum, Assistant
District Attorney, who was accompanied in his visit to the Governor by Deputy
Sheriff Linton and Sheriff Paul of Arizona.
Among others present were Deputy Sheriff Masterson (Bat) of Trinidad and several
friends of Holliday."
Doc left Denver,
supposedly traveling to Pueblo, Colorado. However, on
July 14, 1882 when Doc Holliday was
allegedly still in Colorado,
John Yoast, a teamster in Arizona
Territory, discovered a
body intertwined among the branches of an oak tree east of the Dragoon
Mountains. A bullet had entered the head in the right temple and exited through
the top of the head. The body turned out to be
John Ringo, sworn
enemy of Doc Holliday. Though
Bat Masterson,
Warren Earp and some newspaper friends attempting to
create an alibi, claimed that Doc had never left
Colorado,
the truth was Wyatt Earp
and Doc Holliday had returned to
Arizona. While
there, they met up with some of their friends - Fred Dodge, Oregon Smith, Johnny
Green, John Meagher and probably Lou Cooley.
Ringo had been
spotted by the group and next he was found dead.
Doc then headed to Leadville,
where he led a quiet and uneventful life until the afternoon of August 19,
1884. Doc learned that two old Tombstone enemies, Billy Allen and Johnny Tyler,
had arrived in Leadville, armed and making threats. Around 5 PM on August 19,
1884, Doc strolled into Hyman's Saloon and placed himself at the end of the
bar.
t wasn’t
long before Billy Allen entered and Doc leveled his pistol, sailing a bullet
over Allen’s head, barely missing him. Allen turned, intending to flee but
tripped over the threshold, and pitching forward landed on his hands and knees.
Reaching over the tobacco counter, Doc fired again, hitting Allen in the right
arm. Holliday would have shot him again, but the bartender rushed up from
behind and clamped down on his gun hand. In a news report only days later, the
Leadville Daily Democrat August 26, 1884, stated, in part, the following: “The
public sentiment, which has nothing to do with the law, is largely in favor of
Holliday. The manlier class of the community not only appreciate this, but have
little criticism to make as to his actions in connection with his trouble with
Allen.”
Holliday faced a long
legal process, his popularity notwithstanding, but on March 28, 1885, a jury
found him not guilty of the shooting or attempted murder. The courthouse in
Leadville today still shows the arrests of the infamous
gunfighter and
gambler, Doc Holliday
in its jail records.
There was one more flurry of activity during the last week of October, 1885, when word on the street told of more gunplay. But the Leadville police kept a strict watch out for concealed weapons and no violence came to pass. By the winter of 1885, Holliday fearing a bout of pneumonia in the city in the clouds migrated to Denver. Though he did not improve in Denver, he was able to see his old friend, Wyatt Earp in the late winter of 1886, where they met in the lobby of the Windsor Hotel. Sadie Marcus described the skeletal Holliday as having a continuous cough and standing on “unsteady legs.”
Holliday’s health continued to deteriorate. As a realist, Doc was not one to believe in miraculous cures, but hoping that the Yampah hot springs and sulfur vapors might improve his health, he headed for Glenwood Springs, Colorado in May, 1887. Registering at the fashionable Hotel Glenwood, he grew steadily worse, spending his last fifty-seven days in bed at the hotel and was delirious fourteen of them.
On November 8, 1887, he awoke clear-eyed and asked for a glass of whiskey. It was given to him and he drank it down with enjoyment. Then, looking down at his bare feet he said, "This is funny", and died. He always figured he would be killed with his boots on.
Doc
Holliday had come West years before, knowing
his days were numbered. He never believed that he would die in bed. He often
said that his end would come from lead poisoning, at the end of a rope, a knife
in his ribs, or that he might drink himself to death.
His obituary, appearing in
the Leadville Carbonate Chronicle on November 14, 1887, stated the
following:
“There is scarcely one in the country who had
acquired a greater notoriety than
Doc Holliday, who enjoyed the
reputation of being one of the most fearless men on the frontier, and whose
devotion to his friends in the climax of the fiercest ordeal was
inextinguishable. It was this, more than any other faculty that secured for him
the reverence of a large circle who were prepared on the shortest notice to
rally to his relief.”
The Glenwood Springs cemetery sits high upon a steep hill
overlooking the valley below. But at the time of his death, the steep road was
too icy so they buried him at the bottom of the hill with the intention of
moving his body when the ice thawed. But, they never did. Many years later, a
housing development was built at the base of the hill and though a marker sits
in the cemetery, his actual remains are probably buried in someone’s back yard.
Doc
Holliday claimed he almost lost his life a
total of nine times. Four attempts were made to hang him and he was shot at five
times.
How many men Holliday killed
is unknown.
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