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Doc Holliday | Doc's Tombstone |
Wyatt Earp Virgil Earp Morgan Earp
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Big Nose | Johnny Ringo |
 | The losers at the O.K. Corral Gunfight; Billy Clanton along with Frank and Tom McLaury |
John Henry Holliday was born near Griffin, Georgia. Griffin used to be in Henry County, which now has changed to Spalding County. It is unclear the exact day of his birth for sure because one of two reasons. One is that they did not keep good birth records back then. Another is that when General Sherman marched through the South on his fire march, he did not leave out little Griffin. The only records that are available are his baptismal records. The records show March 21, 1852, as the date of John Holliday's baptism as an infant. Now that date means he was born either towards the end of 1851, or the beginning of 1852. Some sources place his date of birth on August 14, 1851. His mother's name is Alice Jane McKey, and his father's name is Major Henry Burroughs Holliday. On January 8, 1849, Henry Holliday married Alice McKey. Young John Holliday was very close to his mother. Tragically, on September 16, 1866, his mother died, leaving a 15-year-old boy in shackles. To add to his pain even worse, his father found another bride within three months, killing any relationship John may have with his father. Young John would never be the same again. Henry Holliday married Rachel Martin, a 24 year old that was probably a war widow. This marriage occurred on December 18, 1866.
Soon after the marriage, the Holiday's moved to Valdosta, Georgia. Here, John met the love of his life. It was his first cousin Mattie Holliday. She was a very religious little Catholic girl when they met. Also in Valdosta, John fired his first ever reported shots at people. He went to a swimming hole with friends in the Withlacoochee River, and found a few Negro boys already swimming there. He told them to leave because at that time it was not acceptable for Negro's to be swimming in a white's territory. When they refused to leave, he changed their minds with a hail of gunfire. It is uncertain whether he hit and/or killed any of the Negros. It became a small town matter for a short period when John's family had to make a public statement that he killed nobody.
The year was now 1870. John was in need of a career. Having no good schools around Valdosta, he headed north to the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. This school went on to become incorporated into the University of Pennsylvania. John goes to this Pennsylvania school planning to get his degree, then to come home and earn some money with it so that finally he and Mattie could get married. He takes sixteen months of classes in Philadelphia, which takes about two years. What happens in these two years is the backbone of his whole life.
In college, while getting a degree, John learned his second and main career of drinking and gambling. John learns about gambling and alcohol here, and he seems to take to them well. Playing poker and drinking is what he did in his spare time. He graduated on March 21, 1872, as Doctor John Henry Holliday, and had a degree in dental surgery. Thus he returned home to start up his practice. Dr. Holliday began work as an assistant for Dr. Arthur C. Ford in Atlanta. After a few months in Atlanta, Doc began having health problems. He thought it might have just been because he was in the city, so he moved back to Griffin. After a bit longer, the health problems were showing up still. So Doc called for a Doctor of medicine. That house call is when he got the news that would change his life. The doctor diagnosed John Henry Holliday with consumption. He said that it was not something that just popped up, but that it had been prevalent for a while now. If Doc stayed in that area, according to the doctor he would only live a few more months. The doctor advised him to go west where the climate was drier so that he could possibly live for another year or two. A new life for Doc Holliday was just beginning. The disease even affected his beloved Mattie. She joined a convent over the affair, in which she became a Sister of Charity. She would be the only link Doc has with his old life, as they would write to each other over the years.
Doc's first pit stop on his eventual settlement out west was Dallas, Texas; For, it was the end of the railroad track at that time. Once again, in September of 1873, he began his dental practice, this time with Dr. John A. Seegar. To start, Doc was a well-respected businessman. The coughing events he had lessened his character to other people though. Even while working on people, he would have coughing fits. Obviously the fits would hurt one's reputation as a dentist. At the same time, Doc was getting more in to the gambling scene. He would often go out to play poker and drink a lot of liquor. He became accustomed to this way of life. Doc was able to hold a lot of alcohol and still keep his composure while trying to make money playing poker. Playing poker back then is not just a matter of getting the right cards. The skill is who can cheat the best. A lot of times a round of excellent poker players would all play each other, but the person who cheated the slyest was the winner. It was a profession back then. Poker was all some people did for money back then. So when somebody happens to lose a lot of money in a game, things might get out of hand, meaning violence. A guy that loses everything is going to try anything to get it back, including killing somebody if that is the case. So a good poker player must carry a gun with him to defend himself from the less than professionals out there. Doc, not having much speed with a six-gun, decided to practice. He was a decent shot, but if it came down to people drawing on one another at a table, the quicker draw would win. So for months, Doc practiced drawing with his Colt.45 until he got the speed he desired. A knife was also something he tooled with because sometimes it might be faster to stab somebody, or if you do not have your guns available, a knife will be all you have.
Doc was pretty safe for awhile at the poker table. Sooner or later with his ability to drink and his attitude of not taking crap from anybody, he had to become caught up in something somewhere. By this time, word of the incident years before with the Negro boys in Valdosta had somehow gotten to Dallas. Over time it had escalated into a deliberate massacre. An incident happened on January 1, 1875, with a saloonkeeper in his saloon. The guy's name was Austin. The article the next day in the Dallas Herald read "Dr. Holliday and Mr. Austin, a saloon keeper, relieved the monotony of the fire-crackers by taking a couple of shots at each other yesterday afternoon. The cheerful note of the peaceful six-shooter is heard once more among us. Both shooters were arrested." All the shots taken by the two individuals hit nothing; therefore, no injury or bloodshed occurred. A few months later is a different story. This time he got into a gun battle with an unknown man, but hit his target this time. The man was a well-liked guy in Dallas, so they did not take it lightly. A posse gathered to get Doc, but Doc was already on his way out of town. So with no looking back, he traveled another hundred miles west to Jacksboro, the county seat of Jack County.
He did not make a straight shot to Jack County. In between Dallas and Jacksboro, he stopped in Indian Territory. Because it was United States property, the local Marshals had no jurisdiction on him there. He also learned to live off the land from this experience. Doc settled down for a little while in Jacksboro. He got himself a job dealing a card game called Faro, which was another big card during this time. He still kept to his routine of drinking and poker. He kept cool in Jacksboro for over a year. In the late spring of 1876, he got into another fight. This time it was a member of the Sixth Cavalry Regiment, United States Army. This kill was a mistake because the United States did not care whether or not he knew it was a Cavalryman, they wanted him either way. They were on Doc's trail now. It is a little bit harder to run from the U.S. Cavalry than it is from a town marshal. The entire state of Texas is involved now. So staying in Texas was out of the question.
Doc got as far away from there as he could as fast as he could. He trekked a good eight hundred miles all the way to Pueblo, Colorado. He dealt Faro there for a short time and then went on the move. Doc traveled to Denver, Central City, Black Hawk, Boulder, Georgetown, Rosita, and finally ended up in Cheyenne. On the way, Doc took out another two or three men. He was not in Cheyenne too long. Cheyenne was as far north as he went though. Then he started back down towards Denver. Something had changed since the last time he had been there though. In August of 1876, Colorado became a state. Statehood meant there would be a bunch of Federal offices there, who may be looking for 'Doc Holliday' still. So Doc changed his name temporarily to Tom MacKey while in Denver. This name probably came from his mother's maiden name 'McKey.' Doc stayed the winter in Denver, and dealt more Faro while there. At the end of his stay in Denver, a man named Budd Ryan came at him with a gun. Doc did not have a pistol on him because local ordinances said there is no carrying of firearms within city limits. So Doc complied by only carrying a knife. Mr. Ryan was friends with the local law. They did not mind some locals carrying guns since they knew them. Well, the saying that Doc is quicker with a knife than a man with a gun comes to show. Doc sliced up his face and neck, but did not kill him. This encounter caused Doc to pack up once again and high tail it out of town, leaving behind 'Tom MacKey.'
After leaving Denver, Doc traveled along the Pecos Valley in New Mexico. He was able to learn from people crossing back and forth between there and Texas that he was no longer in danger in Texas. In the fifteen months since he had been there, there had been many other crimes that interested the law more. So Doc went to Fort Griffin, Texas. Doc began going to a saloon owned by John Shanssey. They got to know each other well, and he began dealing cards there every once in awhile. Shanssey, was a retired boxer that, one time in 1867, went one-on-one with a champion fighter named Mike Donovan. He got beat pretty badly, so he quit boxing and ended up a saloonkeeper. While Doc played cards one evening, he met a prostitute name "Big Nose" Kate Elder. He became very friendly with her, and eventually she was his sidekick. Doc also met in Fort Griffin his closest friend he would ever have. That man of course was Wyatt Earp. Wyatt was on the trail of a stagecoach robber named Dave Rudabaugh. He tracked him to Fort Griffin from Dodge City. He happened to walk into Shanssey's saloon. Coincidentally, Wyatt was the referee in Shanssey's ill-fated boxing match 10 years before. Since Wyatt called the fight, and in essence saved Shanssey, they became friends. When Wyatt asks about Rudabaugh, Shanssey tells him to talk to Doc. Wyatt talks to him, reluctant at first because of Doc's reputation, and they befriend each other. By the way, Wyatt did catch Rudabaugh from Doc's advice.
Doc, in the fall of 1877, must leave town yet again for a quarrel that involved him. This time Doc actually did not do anything wrong. It started while he was playing poker with a few people, including one Ed Bailey. If somebody catches another person cheating in poker, the cheater gets a warning to "play poker." Of course if somebody has an attitude and catches a cheater, they might draw their gun on the cheater. Doc did not want any trouble because he just wanted to play poker. So after catching Bailey cheat, he told him to "play poker." Bailey continued to cheat. Doc warned him one more time. The third time he caught him cheating, Doc put down his hand, and collected the money from the pot. The rules say that Doc can do that since he did catch him cheating numerous times, but Ed Bailey did not agree with what Doc did. So Bailey pulled out his pistol and waved it around threatening Doc. Before Bailey could pull the trigger, Doc leaped out of his chair while drawing his knife with his left hand, and stabbed Bailey in the gut killing him right there. Doc was at no fault because Bailey started the fight, and Doc defended himself. So instead of leaving town right away, he stuck around for the Marshal to get there. The Marshal arrested Doc, and took him to jail. He was just waiting to get the case thrown out, since he did nothing illegal. There was one thing he did not count on, and that is the lynch mob that formed against him because Ed Bailey was a well-liked man in Fort Griffin. The deputies did the best they could to defend Doc, but sooner or later the mob would probably get to him. So Doc's sidekick, Kate, came to his rescue. She took her gun and a gun from a friend to town to bust out Doc. She could not fight off the mob obviously, so she set a barn on fire so that the mob would leave to go save the barn. Everybody in town went to put out the fire, except for Doc and one marshal. So Kate held the marshal at gunpoint while freeing Doc. She gave him the other gun, then they hid out for a short time, and eventually jumped on horses and rode four hundred miles to Dodge City.
When Doc got to Dodge City with Kate, they checked in to a hotel under the names Dr. and Mrs. J.H. Holliday. Doc decided to settle down for a while. Since there was no dentist in Dodge City, Doc went into practice again. Kate did not want to live a "boring life" as she called it. So she packed up her things for the first of many times, and left to go back to the saloon atmosphere. Doc worked dentistry for only a short time. His health was problematic for it, and also he just was not all too motivated to work on teeth. So Doc was back on the gambling "circuit," as cowboys called it. On May 8, 1878, Doc and Wyatt met up with each other once again. Wyatt came to town because a rustler shot and killed Marshal Ed Masterson, and Wyatt wanted his job. He did not make it back in time, but he did become a deputy. One night a band of cowboys marched into town expecting to do some damage. When they came up to Wyatt, he was virtually helpless with around twenty rustlers all with guns in front of him. Doc was in a saloon across the street at this time. Word got to him that trouble was brewing for Wyatt, so he hustled down to where Wyatt was. He found two cowboys named Morrison and Driscoll with guns cocked and pointed at Wyatt. Not to mention there were another twenty guys behind them. So Doc came up with guns in hand screaming at the cowboys. He blurted a very mad speech of profanity at them. When they turned to Doc, Wyatt pistol-whipped Morrison in the head, dropping him. At this point, Doc had all of the cowboys covered because nobody wanted to be a hero and try to shoot, at first. While everybody else had dropped their guns, one guy in the back pulled up to shoot at Wyatt. While screaming to Wyatt to watch out, Doc drew his pistol and shot the guy in his shoulder saving Wyatt's life again. Then they escorted all of them to the jail. This incident made their friendship even stronger.
Doc and Kate had another argument in the late spring of 1878, and this time she took off somewhere. Doc used this opportunity to travel the circuit a little more, instead of staying in Dodge City all the time. Doc moved all around the West for the next few months. He spent a short spell in Leadville as it was booming, but kept on moving. Doc settled down temporarily in Las Vegas, New Mexico. This is not to be counfused with Las Vegas, Nevada because the Las Vagas in Nevada was nothing back then. He, for the last time, opened up Dr. Holliday Dentistry there. That business did not last too long at all. He closed down the dentist business for good and bought a casino in Las Vegas. In mid-summer of 1879, while in his casino, he got mad at a fellow named Mike Gordon, and asked him out into the street for a duel. Doc beat him there, and then got out of town to avoid being arrested. Doc returned once again to Dodge City. He surprisingly found that Wyatt had quit the deputy job, packed up, and headed for Tombstone because of the silver discovery there. So Doc left and made a stop in Las Vegas again to take care of selling his casino. The ways of the West had forgotten about the killing of Mike Gordon not too long ago. Also while in Las Vegas, he heard Charlie White was in town. Doc had a run in with White in Dodge City, and had some unfinished business with him. He walked into the casino where White was bar tending. When White saw and recognized Doc, they drew on each other. After an exchange of shots, White fell to the floor behind the bar. Doc thought he had killed him so he left. Really he had just grazed his head knocking him on the ground. So without hesitation, Charlie White packed up his things and headed East to his home in Boston so that Doc would never bother him again. After Doc finished his business in Las Vegas, he headed for Tombstone.
On the way to Tombstone, Doc met up again with Kate Elder. Kate joined him at the poker table while Doc was up some forty odd thousand dollars. So they headed on to Tombstone. While in Tombstone everything was same old same old, except Wyatt was a guard for Wells Fargo wagons. When the owners of the Oriental saloon approached Wyatt with an offer in early October 1880, he quit Wells Fargo. The Oriental was a very popular place. So all the other saloon owners got together to pay a man named Johnny Tyler, and his friends, to run business away from the Oriental by raising havoc there. So the owners of the Oriental offered Wyatt a quarter interest of the Oriental if he got rid of Tyler. So he headed to the saloon to do the job. Doc went with him to give him some back up. Wyatt walked in, grabbed Tyler by the ear, and threw him out of the saloon. Tyler had a dozen friends in there that may have normally shot Wyatt in the back while he threw out Tyler, but Doc was there holding his nickel-plated Colt .45 pistols at them so they would stay calm. Tyler went straight home to get a gun for revenge. When he confronted Wyatt and Doc back in the Oriental, he challenged Doc to a fight. He told Doc to come out in the street for a fight. Doc said why not right here, and gave him a crazy look. He kept taunting Tyler till he ran away. Everybody burst out laughing. Milt Joyce, the bartender at the saloon, did not like Doc at all. He told Doc to leave. When Doc came back for his gun, they got in a scuffle, and Joyce hit Doc on the head with the butt of a gun. The Judge charged and convicted Doc with assault and battery. He was fined twenty dollars along with eleven dollars and twenty-five cents for court costs. Having part of the Oriental got the Earps and Doc in the middle of things in the town because everybody went to the Oriental. A bad group of rustlers that worked like future organized crime came to town. They spread out and controlled the law wherever they were. If somebody killed any of these rustlers, nicknamed "The Cowboys," they received a death sentence from the clan. The Cowboys felt threatened for power with the presence of the Earps and Doc Holliday, all who had made a name for themselves throughout the West.
The Cowboys started raising a lot of problems in Tombstone. When they robbed a stagecoach, and killed the two men on it, they named Doc as a guilty party. Doc denied it and gave an alibi. Nothing ever happened with it. Then things turned bloody on October 27, 1880, when the Cowboy leader, William "Curly Bill" Brocius, shot Tombstone Marshal Fred White while being disarmed. Wyatt quickly buffaloed Bill with his gun and took him to jail. The Earps were once again getting into law enforcement. Tension built between the two sides over the next year with conflicts here and there between the parties. In mid-October of 1881, tension was very tight, and numerous episodes occurred. Ike Clanton, a high-ranking member of the Cowboys, went on a couple drunken rages. He and Doc got into verbal fights threatening each other. Ike stayed up all through the night drinking. He boasted that friends are coming to town, and that they are going to kill the Earps and Doc Holliday. Ike was pistol whipped and dragged to jail by Virgil while walking the streets. They let him out the next day, October 26, 1881.
Indeed friends had come; Billy Clanton, Frank McLowry, Tom McLowry, Wes Fuller, and Billy Claiborne. At about two o'clock in the afternoon is when the Earps and Doc meet up to figure out what to do. The five Cowboys were standing around in a lot behind the O.K. Corral. They finally decided to walk down there together to disarm them. Virgil Earp, the Marshal, gave Doc his shotgun and Doc gave Virgil his cane. They thought that Virgil holding a cane instead of a shotgun might look better. Doc had a cane that particular day because he was feeling rather badly. The four men, in a two by two formation, walked down the street towards the lot. Fuller fled before they got there. When they got there, they exchanged a few words while Billy Claiborne ran off, and then started shooting. Billy Clanton was the first to draw, but Wyatt went for Frank McLowry first because he knew he was a better shot. Then he shot Billy. The nineteen-year-old Billy managed to shoot Virgil in his leg after being shot in his own chest and wrist. Doc waited for the opportunity to shoot Tom McLowry, and then took it. Then he threw away the shotgun, which he did not like, and pulled out his Colt .45's. He unloaded into Billy Clanton to finish him off. Before he went down, he got a few shots off hitting Morgan in his shoulder. The only Cowboy left standing was Frank McLowry, and he already had a wound in his gut from Wyatt. Frank raised his gun to Doc as they faced each other. Almost all at the same time, Doc, Morgan, and Frank all fired at the same time. Doc hit Frank right through his heart, while Morgan's shot found Franks head. Franks last shot grazed Doc's belt. In around thirty seconds of gunfight, three men died, and two more had injuries. Frank McLowry, Tom McLowry, and Billy Clanton died from gunshot wounds. The Cowboys had shot Virgil in his leg and Morgan in his shoulder. Doc's only damage was a scratch from a bullet that whizzed by his belt. Wyatt made it through the gunfight without even being grazed. Ike Clanton ran away after the fight had started. He seemed to not have a gun on him, so that was why they did not shoot him. That decision turned out to be the biggest help in not convicting the Earps and Doc for the killings. By not shooting Ike, it showed that they only shot armed men trying to shoot them.
Things calmed down for a short bid. Then, on December 28, 1881, the Cowboys shot Virgil in an ambush. He lived, but the shotgun shattered the bones in his arm leaving it limp for life. Then on January 17, 1882, Doc, Wyatt, and Johnny Ringo almost got into a fight, but Billy Breckenridge stopped it. Ringo was a leader of the Cowboys, and Breckenridge was the deputy sheriff of Cochise County. On March 18, 1882, yet another attack on the Earps occurred. The Cowboys shot Morgan in the back while he played pool. They shot at Wyatt too, but missed. It hit on the wall just above his head. The shot killed Morgan right there. From then on out, Doc, Wyatt, and their posse went out on a revenge crusade to kill all of the Cowboys. The posse included Wyatt, Doc, Turkey Creek Jack Johnson, Texas Jack Vermillion, and Sherman McMasters. Two days later at the train station in Tucson, the posse came across Ike and Frank Stilwell. Stilwell was a suspect in the shootings of both Morgan and Virgil. So right there Wyatt gunned down Stilwell in the middle of the tracks. He emptied both pistols he had into him, and both barrels of his shotgun. This shooting caused warrants to be put out for the arrests of Wyatt, Doc, and the rest.
Stilwell was only the first of many killings this group would act upon. They roamed the countryside looking for Cowboys to shoot. This hunt went on for over a year. Wyatt and Doc's gang kept on going until there was nothing left to shoot. In all, the list of dead Cowboys was "Old Man" Clanton, Billy Clanton, Frank McLowry, Tom McLowry, 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, Johnny Ringo, and Hank Swilling. The Cowboy gang was extinct.
So, Doc and Wyatt left Tombstone for good, they headed to Colorado. When Doc got to Denver, a Perry Mallan arrested him. This Mallan character was possibly the brother of Johnny Tyler. Mallan arrested Doc for the killing of Frank Stilwell back in Arizona. Because of Bat Masterson's actions, Doc's release happened on May 29, 1882. Bat got Colorado Governor Pitkin to nullify the requisition from Arizona so that Doc's extradition could not occur. So Doc left Denver and went to Leadville once again, after stopping in Pueblo for a spell. While In Leadville, he came across two enemies. They were Billy Allen and Johnny Tyler. On August 19, 1884, Doc sat down in a saloon where he knew Billy Allen would be. People informed him of the threats that Allen had made towards Doc. So he sat waiting for Doc to walk in the saloon. When he did, Doc put a round right in his arm. Allen's gun dropped to the floor. Then somebody took Doc's gun from him. The court acquitted him of the shooting in May of 1885.
Two years later, in May 1887, Doc checked into the Glenwood Springs Sanitorium, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He stayed there until his death. The hot spring's air is normally good for patients, but it did not help Doc at all. It tore up the remainder of his lungs. The last two months of his life he did not get out of bed, and the last two weeks he was delirious. At about ten o'clock in the morning on November 8, 1887, Doc awoke to speak for the last time. He asked for a glass of whiskey, which was promptly drunk. He looked at his feet and said, "This is funny," then died of consumption.
What Doc meant in his dying words was that he thought that it was funny that he died with his boots off. Doc, his whole life, expected to be shot, stabbed, or hung. The reasons he acted the way he did are because he did not care if he died because he faced death in the mirror every morning. He could die at any moment, so why not do what you want. It is amazing that he lived as long as he did after leaving Georgia given the fact they thought he had only two years left at most. He lived for another fifteen years, fifteen years of heavy drinking, smoking, and gambling. It was not too rare of an occasion that Doc would sit up all night in a saloon gambling, smoking, drinking, all the way through till the next night. Wyatt Earp said of Doc one time of the whiskey he drank, "Two or three quarts of liquor a day was not unusual for him, yet I never saw him stagger with intoxication?[sometimes] it would take a pint of whiskey to get him going in the morning." Doc's final resting-place is at the Linwood Cemetery in Glenwood Springs. When Wyatt heard of Doc's death years later, he was quoted as saying "Doc was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean ash-blonde fellow nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time the most skillful gambler and the nerviest, speediest, deadliest, man with a six-gun I ever knew." Let that stand as Doc's epitaph, written by a man who prized him.
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Doc Holliday | Doc's Tombstone |
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Big Nose | Johnny Ringo |
| The losers at the O.K. Corral Gunfight; Billy Clanton along with Frank and Tom McLaury |