Tales from the Wild West part two: The Deadly Dentist

[privatehudson]

Two photographs of Doc Holliday

John Henry ‘Doc’ Holliday is one of the most enigmatic figures from the Wild West. Was he a gambler and gunman who murdered many a man in his time and was involved in many illegal acts, or was he an educated southern gentleman, a true friend and good man, driven to bend the law for the greater good? This article attempts to address something of that enigma, to understand a little more one of the most complex of Wild West people. The man, the legend and this is his story.

His life

John Henry Holliday was born on August 14, 1851 in Griffin, Georgia to relatively rich parents. His father was a talented and educated man, having made a living as a pharmacist, lawyer and plantation owner whilst also finding time to fight in the civil war where he served as a Major in the southern armies. The Holliday family were well educated, well bred southern gentlemen and John Henry was no exception. There was an expectation, almost a demand that he would enter a profession, and he did. In 1870 he enrolled in Dental School and studied there for two years, writing a thesis on “the disease of the teeth” before going on to be conferred the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1872. He moved to Atlanta and began practising dentistry, but fate had another life in store for him.

Whilst in Atlanta, John Henry contracted tuberculosis, a terrible debilitating illness that ruined his lungs and caused coughing fits at the most inopportune moments. He sought advice from doctors who told him he had months to live, but may live a little longer if he moved to a drier climate. This disease, that would eventually be the one to lay him low, was the turning point of his entire life, from respectable southern gentleman with a career to a hard drinking, hard gambling gunman of the highest quality.

‘Doc’ moved west at this point, arriving in Dallas in October of 1873 where he made another attempt to enter the dentistry profession again, but soon found his business dwindling when word of his coughing fits got around. He soon turned to one of the few other things he knew he was good at, gambling. A former slave back when he was younger had taught him the skill of skinning cards (a way of determining the likely outcome of a game) and Doc was good at it. One of the things a professional gambler always had to be aware of in those days was the danger of being attacked during a game, and any sensible person pursuing this line of work made sure they knew how to defend themselves with both knife and pistol.

At this time, around 1875 Doc would be involved in one of his earliest gunfights, but certainly not a great indication of his future talents! He argued with a saloon owner in Dallas called Charlie Austin and a firefight began, though neither side actually managed to hit the other before it was broken up. Both were arrested, but later released, but doc’s reputation in Dallas had taken a beating and he left soon afterwards. Doc drifted for some time, never spending long in any one town, always gambling, often in trouble, though it’s difficult to determine just how many men he might have killed during this time.

In Fort Griffin, sometime in 1877 he met a 26-year-old educated woman of Hungarian descent named Kate Elder and the two hit it off pretty much straight away. Kate was known to the Earp family, as she and Bessie Earp (James Earp’s Wife) were fined in 1874 for running a “sporting house” (read brothel) in Kansas. Doc and Kate would live together on and off throughout the rest of Doc’s turbulent life. It was at Fort Griffin that Doc first met with Wyatt Earp and the two became friends. His stay in the town though was short. During one of the many gambling games Doc ran in the Cattle Exchange Saloon, Doc was playing poker with a man called Ed Bailey.

Big Nose Kate

Bailey, the story goes was “Monkeying” (Looking at the discarded cards pile which is a form of cheating) and Doc warned him a number of times. The next time he did it Doc took the pot without showing his hand, something that was common in gambling “ethics”. Bailey pulled out his gun, only for Doc to disembowel and kill him. Though he claimed self defence, the marshal confined him to house arrest to determine the events. The people of the town though were set on hanging Doc, so Kate set a fire to distract the town and broke Doc out. The couple fled to Dodge City Kansas, arriving in early 1878.

Doc began his time in Dodge practising dentistry once more, but soon reverted to form, though this time he did manage to stay out of trouble. During the time though, he reformed a friendship with Wyatt Earp who had arrived in the town and soon took upon the role of Assistant City Marshal. It was during this period though that the friendship of Wyatt was cemented fully. The stories vary wildly, but generally speaking Wyatt was cornered by a number of Cowboys, one of whom had the drop on him. Holliday came up behind this cowboy and hit him hard, taking him down. Wyatt would forever remember that night and his debt to the thin southern gentleman gambler.
Holliday was never one to settle down though and he drifted, to Las Vegas (New Mexico) and set up a Saloon which he part owned. He then moved onto Prescott Arizona, lured by the ideal of a gold strike further along the trail, but won big on the gaming tables there and returned to Las Vegas again. It was here that Doc would re-encounter Charlie White employed as a bar- tender. In 1878, the two had a confrontation and Doc had run White out town. White had not forgotten about the incident because when Doc came in the saloon, White drew his gun and started shooting. Doc returned fire and dropped White to the floor. Thinking he had killed White, Doc decided it was time to get out of town. Meanwhile, White had only been grazed by the bullet and headed out of town for Boston not wanting to chance another encounter with Doc.

Doc moved back to Prescott and then onto Tombstone in 1880 at the suggestion of Wyatt who said the town needed a new dentist. On the trail though he split from Kate and arrived single, though she would periodically turn up in Tombstone. At tombstone Doc would once again revert to his old self, drinking and having trouble trail around after him. His first problem occurred soon after his arrival when Wyatt threw Johnny Tyler out of the oriental saloon whilst Doc berated him, only for Tyler to return armed and attempt to take revenge, issuing a challenge to Doc. Fortunately both were relieved of their weapons before anyone was hurt, but Doc was unhappy. The weapons were taken by Milt Joyce, the Saloon Keeper, who put them behind the bar, but Doc wanted them back. He returned armed, and in the ensuing drunken scuffle he shot and wounded Joyce and his assistant before being pistol whipped into submission and arrested. He was later fined damages and costs.

Soon afterwards Doc was accused of having held up a stagecoach and killing two men on it, and arrested by County Sheriff Behan on the drunken testimony of Kate, whom had recently rowed with Doc. The charges were later thrown out for lack of evidence which I will deal with in more depth in the Shootout article (part 3). The mud stuck though, and Doc left for Tuscon in October of 1881. he didn’t spend long there though as Morgan Earp turned up after four days, saying that Wyatt needed help once more. Doc returned straight away, just in time.

The trouble that had gradually been brewing with the Cowboy faction in the town was about to boil over completely. They had gotten into a number of scrapes with both the Earps and Holliday prior to this, and this finally culminated in the shootout at the OK Coral on the 26th October 1881, at which Doc was a prominent figure, shooting Tom McLaury dead with a shotgun whilst himself only being grazed during the 30 second fight.

This incident sparked off a period of violent warfare between the Earps and the cowboys. Though the Earps and Holliday were charged with murder, they were acquitted and the cowboys vowed revenge. Johnny Ringo, one of the cowboys deadliest members challenged Doc and possibly Wyatt first, and Doc responded, but both men were disarmed before any harm could come. Tragedy struck later though when the cowboys first wounded Virgil Earp and then assassinated Morgan Earp. This would begin what has become known as the Tombstone vendetta. Wyatt's brother Warren, Doc Holliday, Turkey Creek Jack Johnson, Texas Jack Vermillion, and Sherman McMasters would ride in a posse with U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp and hunt down those Wyatt believed responsible and kill them. Including Curley Bill Brocius, who Wyatt shot at Iron Springs and Frank Stilwell the friend of Ike Clanton .

After the vendetta Doc and the Earps left for Colorado, arriving in April 1882, possibly to avoid any trumped up charges of murder during the vendetta. In Denver this problem became reality and Doc was arrested and was due to be sent back to Tombstone, but Wyatt managed to pull strings and get Doc off the hook. Doc once again drifted, turning up in a number of towns including Dodge once more and then Leadville. It was there that he ran into two old enemies from Tombstone, Billy Allen and Johnny Tyler. Friends advised Doc that Allen had threatened him and was looking for him with a pistol. Around 5 PM on August 19, 1884, Doc strolled into Hyman's Saloon, and placed himself at the end of the bar near the cigar lighter. As Billy Allen crossed the threshold, Doc leveled his pistol and fired creasing Allen's head. Reaching over the tobacco counter, Doc shot him again through the left arm below the shoulder. Holliday would have shot him again, but bystanders disarmed him. Allen was much larger than Doc and had obviously threatened him publicly so Doc was acquitted of the shooting charges.

Time was running out for Doc now though and he was becoming increasingly ill. By 1887 he retired to Glenwood Springs Colorado on doctor’s advice, but it was too late. The last 57 days of his life he spent bedridden, and for 14 of those he was delirious. On November 8th 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 he said, "This is funny", and died, he was just 36 years old.

The Hotel in which Doc died

Doc’s Grave

 

[privatehudson]

The Myth

As with any great legend of the Wild West, myth and rumour surrounds Doc Holiday, and some of this I shall attempt to dispel here:

Some believed Doc to have been racist, citing an example from early in his life where he shot over the heads of a number of black children who were using “his” waterhole amongst other things. This story is often blown out of all proportion in the retelling, but is unlikely to have been anything more than a minor event for those times. With lack of more concrete evidence, it seems unlikely that Doc was any more or less racist than anyone else of his time.

A number of murders are also attached to his name, some of them false, and some exaggerated. For example, a story appeared a month after he died claiming that in 1875 he almost decapitated a gambler in Denver. Careful research though shows that this story is a total fabrication, despite on of Doc’s acquaintances, Bat Masterson repeating it. Authors have placed a death toll of between 16 and 50 on Holliday’s shoulders, but many of these have little or no evidence such as the above one, or Holliday’s alleged involvement in the murder of Kid Colton and two other men between Dodge and Colorado, even though no newspaper account or court or similar record even mentions these men at all!

Doc’s real total will never be known, it’s certainly unlikely to be as high as most people assume. For all his faults, Doc did have a strong sense of right and wrong, and murdering people was just not his style.

Tombstone

Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone

In the past I have said that Tombstone was very accurate, unfortunately though, I feel obliged to mention that whilst the movie is the most accurate one done so far, it is not totally accurate. A number of events either did not happen, or were twisted for a better storyline. The movie added a number of events, for example, there was never an attack on a Mexican wedding party during that period, nor was Josie (Wyatt’s future wife) ever held up on a stagecoach, nor for that matter did an actor die on one in that area. Unfortunately, for those who delighted in the Holliday-Ringo arguments during the film, the film completely messes up Ringo’s death.

Firstly, Sherman McMasters (who in the film is killed to make Wyatt a challenge) survives to move to Colorado with Doc and Wyatt. Secondly, at the time of Ringo’s supposed murder, both Doc and Wyatt were in Colorado, whereas Ringo died near Galleyville in Arizona. The Earps and Holliday had been forced to leave Tombstone area just prior to this. Most of the evidence in the case of Ringo suggests suicide (for motives unknown other than heavy drinking), and Doc certainly could not have done the deed, for he was in court around then! Records show that he and his attorney appeared in court 3 days before Ringo was found and was likely to have been present on the following days also. So as tempting as it is to have a showdown between Ringo and Doc, the chances are slim to none.

Real life Ringo (above) and Movie Ringo (below) played by Michael Biehn

Other events are altered slightly to give a better story, for example, Wyatt never held off a bunch of cowboys after pistol-whipping Curly Bill for killing Marshal White. In fact, the killing certainly looked like a mistake as Wyatt spoke up for Curly Bill later about it. Curly Bill didn’t even start the problem initially either, unlike in the film. Wyatt certainly did not visit Doc just prior to Doc dying, in fact Wyatt didn’t even know for 8 years! Doc also did not die in a sanatorium as he died in a hotel. In this respect the film probably played a little too much on the friendship between the two as obviously, at some point the two parted towards the end of Doc’s life.

The movie also makes too much of the vendetta period, as it shows probably 15 people being killed during it. Official figures put the death toll of the cowboys at somewhere between the 4 confirmed and a possible dozen. Wyatt himself never commented officially. Also the shootout in the river where Curly Bill died occurred near a river, but with the cowboys ambushing from behind a rise, not the other bank. No-one was hanged either.

A number of incidents were also altered for movie reasons. To avoid time problems, Virgil and Morgan are shot on the same night, right after the shootout in the Coral. In reality the events were separated in total by 5 months! Probably for time reasons, one of the main events leading to the shootout was also left out, namely an issue related to Doc being blamed for a stagecoach robbery. This would have added considerably to explaining Ike and the Cowboys motives on that day though.

What tombstone does do and does well though is the feel of the period and characters. Reading about Doc, the ill but fine southern gentleman, you'd find that Val Kilmer really did play Doc well. Though some of the events in the movie are inventions, nevertheless, they are in keeping with the atmosphere of the period. Somehow the fact that Ringo and Doc never had a Latin duel doesn't matter, you could imagine they did, it was just never recorded! Tombstone goes the furthest to be accurate, and at least in it's innacuracies it remains totally faithful to the feel of the period, and the feel of the characters.

And damnit it has to be good because it has two Aliens veterans in it

Doc’s Sayings

Doc was often heard saying “I’m your huckleberry” or similar. There are two possible explanations for this. Either it’s derived from “Hucklebearer” which was a southern Pallbearer (someone who carries a coffin at a funeral) or it means “I’m the man for the job”. Both could be valid as Doc could be saying to Ringo (for example) that he was the man to finish him off, to send/carry him to his grave in the first instance. In the second he’s merely saying “Here I am, I’m the one you want”. Given that Ringo would be unlikely to understand the Hucklebearer reference, it seems likely to have been the second.

The “daisy” remarks are harder to determine as there is no clear account from the time as to what it might mean. Some claim it meant “sweetheart” and was an insult, others that it meant something like a superior person. The latter seems likely as that means his “Blaze away you’re a daisy if you do” remark during the shootout was to say “go on then, you’re a real man IF you can”, and the remark “you’re no daisy” to Ringo was an insult, as if to say “you’re not as good as you’re supposed to be, not at all” It’s mere conjecture though in this case.

Finally, from the movie comes the infamous “latin” duel between Ringo and Holliday, it goes as follows (even though technically it never happened):

Doc: In vino veritas.
Ringo: Age quod agis
Doc: Credat Judaeus Apella, non ego.
Ringo: Iuventus stultorum magister.
Doc: In pace requiescat.

Doc opens with “In wine there is truth” (in response to someone saying he’s drunk) and during it drinks from his glass. Doc is quoting an old Roman belief that when drunk, people say what they really mean and think. Ringo replies with “do what you do” which is thought to be Ringo saying “cut the talk and do what you do best”. Doc then says “let Appella the Jew believe, not I”, which roughly is Doc saying “yeah yeah, tell it to someone else, I’m not buying it” (the quote is from a roman poet Horace who visits a shrine where the locals try and convince him miracles occur).

Ringo replies “Youth is the teacher of fools” saying to Doc that he might think that he knows enough and is experienced enough to take on Ringo, but he isn’t. Doc ends the sequence with “may he rest in peace”, which could be a way of saying “this is to the death", but some believe otherwise. Because the quote also appears in Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, they think it has an underlying meaning. The story is one by Poe that suggests the idea that some people are linked in a very real way to others who are alike to them. Their fates intertwine and both are doomed to similar problems. In this way, the duel has an even deeper meaning.

Finally, the most infamous of Doc's sayings is of course his final words. Sometimes wrongly quoted as "Well I'll be damned" he actually said "well this is funny" according to one of the nurses that treated him. Doc had always sworn he would never die in bed with his boots off, but from drinking or in a gunfight. He had looked down the bed he lay in and saw that despite all his events, he was dying, and his boots were off.

So what was Doc Holliday really like?

What can be said for him was that Doc was a man that defended himself in the most lethal of ways. Doc was not well built, or strong, therefore nearly every fight he got into usually resorted in gunplay at some point or another. The recorded incidents where he killed people though are without exception done in self defence. Doc was only ever charged with murder once, for the OK Coral incident and acquitted.

This was hardly surprising considering the events in the OK Coral. Briefly, the Earps and Holliday went to disarm a number of violent cowboys who had made repeated threats against their lives. All three of the Earps were lawmen (though technically Wyatt was deputised only just prior to it), and well within their rights to do so, the cowboys were illegally carrying weapons inside the town limits. A fight broke out, probably more from the tension than anything else. The Earp/Holliday faction were well within their legal right to do what they did, Holliday was standing by a friend, we cannot blame him for this, in fact it says much of his character.

However, other accusations hovered around Doc. He was accused whilst in Tombstone of being involved in the stagecoach robbery, despite a total lack of evidence and the fact that he was very obviously put up by the cowboy faction, Behan accepting this without question. Some (including Ike Clanton) accuse him of initiating to OK Coral fight because of this, but other eye-witness reports deny this and common sense would say no also.

The other supposed dubious event Doc got involved in was the Vendetta against the Cowboy faction. The vendetta struck right to the heart of the Cowboy ring, shattering it’s hold on Tombstone, but proved unpopular with the locals and Behan the county Sherrif. Behan was always pro-cowboy, and the locals feared retaliation and further violence at the hands of surviving Cowboys. It was this that drove Doc and Wyatt out of the town to Colorado. However, in their vendetta the Earps and Holliday did good, destroying what was essentially a gang of thugs, thieves and murderers, though their motives were more revenge for Morgan Earp. Doc mainly seemed to join the Vendetta for personal reasons, namely his support and friendship of Wyatt. It certainly didn’t do his health much good, which is one thing that the movie did get right.

Doc was a complex person with equally complex motives and aims. It’s been conjectured that he was something of a fatalist. Knowing you will die in pain and bedridden from tuberculosis tends to give you a whole new look on life, after all, why worry about dying quickly from a bullet any more? He lived what remained of his life in the west to the fullest, enjoying himself and his chosen careers where he could. It’s hard to say that Doc was a bad person, he was certainly no angel, but at the same time he certainly was loyal to his friends, and would support the law most of the time… that is unless he was the one bending it!

He was what you might term no-nonsense. There was no messing about with Doc, if you challenged him or threatened him, you had better be prepared to go through with it, because he would. He played, as tombstone said “for blood” because he had little to loose. One wonders if he had not caught Tuberculosis if he would have done the same things. He certainly was a good dentist and could easily have made a career of it. You could almost imagine him living to a ripe old age in Georgia. Somehow though, Doc is hard to shake off, the west would have been a much duller place without him, and probably a much more lawless place.

It’s not possible to say whether he was a good or bad person fully, and in fact it hardly matters. Doc wouldn’t care what history thought of him in the slightest, he did what he did by his own morality, for his own reasons, and any attempt by us now to excuse him or denounce him is almost irrelevant. Doc Holliday, was simply Doc Holliday.

So ends the second in this series, I hope you enjoyed it The next will be a brief article on the events surrounding the shootout at the OK Coral and the shootout itself.

 

[dgfred]

You are the "MAN" p h !!! . Great reading-you should
be a writer if you aren't already . Thanks..... Doc is the coolest .

And again to you! Regards, Greg

 

[privatehudson]

You're welcome, Doc is something of a favourite of mine too I am as you once said "you're Huckleberry"

And I'm not a writer, mainly because I can't spell, and don't have a good grasp of Grammar I do like writing about my pet topics though

You know, maybe you should make an avatar for yourself out of a Doc picture, either real or Kilmer

 

[mrtn]

An interesting read.

 

[dgfred]

In my mind Kate is alot better looking , but I should
have known better since her nickname was "Big-Nose" . I've always
wondered if Doc would have been the way he was if not for the TB. It seems he sort of had a death wish and wanted to go out
in a gunfight or something of that nature, instead of dying in bed . Maybe
that is what he meant by "this is funny". I always thought Doc was
but the movie cemented my thoughts on the man .

 

[Zeekater]

Kudos, a very interesting read

 

[sabo]

Doc Holliday and John Wesley Hardin are two of my favorite old west cowboys, thanks
privatehudson for a good read!

 

[privatehudson]

In my mind Kate is alot better looking , but I should have known better since her nickname was "Big-Nose"

I kind of get the impression that Doc liked her more for her intellectual nature than her looks. She was by no means ugly, that picture is from later in life.

I've always wondered if Doc would have been the way he was if not for the TB. It seems he sort of had a death wish and wanted to go out
in a gunfight or something of that nature, instead of dying in bed

Someone else described Doc as not exactly wanting to die, but more looking for something worth dying for. In that respect, in the Earp's and their cause, Doc finally found something worth fighting for and living for. He probably wasn't as careful with his life as others, but I don't think he didn't care about his life.

Doc Holliday and John Wesley Hardin are two of my favorite old west cowboys, thanks

IIRC the two were distantly related too

 

[jonatas]

nice article... the old west is not one of my normal interests but im finding your articles very interesting... i really admire the rakish character of doc holliday... he seems to have been a complex character- both gentleman and scoundrel...

 

[privatehudson]

It's nice to see that my articles are liked by those who wouldn't normally like the period Thank you for everyone's comments

And yes, that's a good short summation of Doc, he's one of the most complex and yet likeable characters of the Wild West, much more so IMO than Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp or Billy the Kid. Doc had style, he brought a touch of that to the period that's sorely lacking at times

 

[dgfred]

Doc Holliday and John Wesley Hardin are two of my favorite old west cowboys, thanks
privatehudson for a good read!

I remember the commercial for Wild West Gunfighters: "John
Wesley Hardin, who was so mean, he once shot a man for snoring"

 

[privatehudson]

Hmmm..... I might have to look into that

 

[dgfred]

Hmmm..... I might have to look into that

Yeah, that is kind of going Mean Overboard!

 

[Ancient Grudge]

Just Chimmin' in, a very intresting read. Never really got into the whole wild west but i might start reading up in my spare time, cheers PH

 

[privatehudson]

Yes it's a fascinating period I think It's inspired me to dig out my old Wild West miniatures and refight some gun battles

 

[dgfred]

Yes it's a fascinating period I think It's inspired me to dig out my old Wild West miniatures and refight some gun battles

When I was young I would wear my toy gun belt and a poncho, like
Clint Eastwood in The Good, B and U . I would even
cut up a piece of wood or cardboard and make a cigar . Loved it!!!

I wasn't saying earlier the Big Nose was ugly, I was just saying that in my
mind she was really FINE!

"What, no bussel (sp)?????"

She was surely a 'DAISY'!

 

[privatehudson]

Pah, childish games Some of us have progressed onto errr... playing with model figures... uhmmm never mind

And I believe the line is "Why Kate, you're not wearing a bussel, how lewd!"

 

[dgfred]

Pah, childish games Some of us have progressed onto errr... playing with model figures... uhmmm never mind

And I believe the line is "Why Kate, you're not wearing a bussel, how lewd!"

Thanks for saying it right! I have not memorized everything
yet , but I'm working on it .

As a child I would have massive battles with army plastic figures:
Throw things at them, blow up with firecrackers, burn them, etc...

 

[privatehudson]

Ahh, well these are a wargame with dice