A close friend and associate of lawman Wyatt Earp, Holliday is best known for his role in the events leading up to and following the Gunfight at the O. He developed a reputation as having killed more than a dozen men in various altercations, but modern researchers have concluded that, contrary to popular myth-making, Holliday killed only one to three men. Holliday's colorful life and character have been depicted in many books and portrayed by well-known actors in numerous movies and television series.
He set up practice in Griffin, Georgia, but he was soon diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same disease that had claimed his mother when he was 15, having acquired it while tending to her needs while she was still in the contagious phase of the illness.
Hoping the climate in the American Southwest would ease his symptoms, he moved to that region and became a gambler, a reputable profession in Arizona in that day. Over the next few years, he reportedly had several confrontations. He saved Wyatt Earp, a famous lawman and gambler, while in Texas. Afterwards they became friends. In Tombstone, local members of the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys repeatedly threatened him and spread rumors that he had robbed a stage. Holliday continued with his dental career in his new home, but the Dallas nightlife, especially its drinking and card games, called to him.
Soon, his gambling habits directed his life. By the mids, he'd already developed a strong reputation for card playing and fighting. After escaping a charge of murder in Dallas, Holliday went on the move. He relocated to a number of different cities before settling down in Dodge City, Kansas, a hot spot for gunfighters and the city where he befriended Wyatt Earp. He later followed Earp to Tombstone, Arizona, a booming mining and frontier town near the Mexican border. It was in Tombstone that the Holliday legend that would be passed down from one generation to the next was made.
More than 30 shots were fired in a second battle that came to be known as the shootout at the O. It's arguably the most legendary gunfight ever fought in the American West. The battle left three men dead and several others wounded, including Holliday. Both Holliday and Earp were arrested for murder but quickly released of the charges. Holliday accompanied his friend on the ride, which went well into and saw an assortment of killings. 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, , 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. The Earps also knew that Ringo had been drinking heavily and that the whiskey was talking. A shot was fired from the darkness of the alley striking Morgan in the back.
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 21, , 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. A gunfight ensued where Curly Bill was killed and Johnny Barnes received a wound from which he eventually died. In May , 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, , while Doc was in jail, the Denver Republican printed the following:.
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 alongside when Curly Bill Brocius was killed. Our escape was miraculous. The shots cut our clothes and saddles and killed one horse, but did not hit us. 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 alongside Curly Bill when he was killed, he was with one of the worst gangs of murderers and robbers in the country.
Doc left Denver, supposedly traveling to Pueblo, Colorado. However, on July 14, , 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. Ringo had been spotted by the group and next, he was found dead. Leadville, Colorado in by William Henry Jackson. Doc then headed to Leadville , where he led a quiet and uneventful life until the afternoon of August 19, 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. 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, , 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 , 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 , 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 , where they met in the lobby of the Windsor Hotel.
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 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, , he awoke clear-eyed and asked for a glass of whiskey. It was given to him and he drank it down with enjoyment.
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, , stated the following:.
Then, to goad him ever further, he told Ike that his big mouth had caused his old man to be killed and that he Holliday had had the pleasure of pulling the trigger. Furthermore, he would take much enjoyment in doing the same to Ike! In shock, Ike Clanton left and went to the Grand Hotel. Big Nose Kate was visiting Doc at the time, and Mrs. Fly told her that Clanton had been there trying to find Holliday.
Plenty of damage was done in that short time. Three days later, Ike Clanton, who had run away when the shooting started, filed a complaint.
Retaliation from the Cowboy faction was sure to come, and it did. Near midnight on December 28, , Virgil Earp, on his way from the Oriental Saloon to the Crystal Palace, was ambushed by three men with shotguns.
Two out of the five shots fired struck Virgil, one badly shattering his left arm, the other entering his left side and back. These wounds crippled Virgil for the rest of his life. Some of the men were arrested and brought into court. A number of Cowboy witnesses swore that those charged with the crime were in Charleston at the time that Virgil was shot. The judge had no alternative but to release the defendants.
On January 17, , Ringo confronted Holliday. Many writers would have us believe that Ringo challenged all the Earps, too. Not true. Morgan and Virgil were still incapacitated with painful wounds and were not yet out and about.
Wyatt was present, but Ringo was not running much of a risk as there was little chance that his challenge would be accepted. Wyatt knew that Ringo had been drinking heavily and that the whiskey was talking.
Besides, Wyatt already had troubles enough in the aftermath of the October gunfight. Holliday, though, was quite eager to accommodate Ringo in any kind of fight he wanted. James Flynn, the acting town marshal, grabbed Ringo and held him while Wyatt hustled the struggling Holliday away. That was the extent of the confrontation.
On March 18, , assassins struck again. In a wild rage, he went through the town, kicking in doors, searching for the men he suspected. Wyatt Earp, of course, was none too pleased, either. He had seen Virgil shot and crippled for life and the ambushers go free.
And now, Wyatt knew the law would do nothing again. Consumed with hatred and frustration, Wyatt wanted revenge. Then Stilwell boasted that he had fired the shot that killed Morgan. He might as well have written his own death sentence. Either Wyatt, Holliday or both would certainly come for him before long. The Earp party encountered Stilwell at the railroad station in Tucson on March Wyatt chased him down the track and filled him full of holes.
Holliday shot him twice more for good measure, even though Stilwell was already dead. They did not find Spencer, but they came upon Florentino Cruz.
When Cruz fled, the posse shot him to pieces. Two days later, the Earp party was riding along a deep wash near Iron Springs when Curly Bill Brocius and eight of his men opened fire on them. Wyatt Earp slid down from his horse and killed Curly Bill with a blast from a double-barrel shotgun. They had been riding over the countryside in the hopes of encountering Ringo, Clanton, Spencer or Swilling.
Arizona Territory made an attempt to extradite Holliday from Colorado. Sheriff Behan and his Cowboy cronies would have been overjoyed to have had Doc delivered to them unarmed and handcuffed. The body was sitting in the intertwined limbs of oak trees. A bullet had entered the right temple and exited through the top of the head. The dead man was one of the more famous Cowboys — John Ringo. Yoast quickly notified the sheriff of his grisly find.
They did not agree on who had shot him, only that someone had. A short time later, they all had taken the trail toward Galeyville. Ringo had been spotted while camped on Turkey Creek, and when he ran up a canyon, Wyatt had shot him. The body had then been placed between the oak trees. Bat Masterson, Warren Earp and some newspaper friends helped establish alibis for Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday — things they said and wrote made it appear as if Wyatt and Doc had never left Colorado.
Once back in Colorado, Holliday decided to go to Leadville. He was living quietly there until he ran into old enemies — Johnny Tyler and Billy Allen. Friends advised Holliday that Allen was armed and making threats. As Billy Allen crossed the threshold, Holliday leveled his revolver and fired, hitting Allen in the right arm. Allen fell to the floor, screaming, and Holliday rushed behind the cigar case, leaned over and fired again. Doc leveled his revolver once more, but bystanders seized him and disarmed him.
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