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 Jacksboro, 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
the 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!”
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 rapped Morrison over the head with
his long barrel Colt, then relieving Driskill and Morrison of their
arms he ushered them to the 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 shot 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, 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.
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.
It 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.
