108 Facts About Doc Holliday

John Henry Holliday, better known as Doc Holliday, was an American dentist, gambler, and gunfighter who was a close friend and associate of lawman Wyatt Earp.

Doc Holliday 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.

At age 20, Doc Holliday earned a degree in dentistry from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.

Doc Holliday set up practice in Griffin, Georgia, but he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same disease that had claimed his mother when he was 15 and his sister before his birth, having acquired it while tending to his mother's needs.

Doc Holliday saved Wyatt Earp's life during a saloon confrontation in Texas, and they became friends.

On October 26,1881, Doc Holliday was deputized by Tombstone city marshal Virgil Earp.

Wyatt Earp learned of an extradition request for Doc Holliday and arranged for Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin to deny Doc Holliday's extradition.

Doc Holliday spent the few remaining years of his life in Colorado.

Doc Holliday died of tuberculosis in his bed at the Hotel Glenwood at age 36.

Doc Holliday was baptized at the First Presbyterian Church of Griffin in 1852.

Doc Holliday graduated five months before his 21st birthday, so the school held his degree until he turned 21, the minimum age required to practice dentistry.

Doc Holliday lived with his uncle and his family so he could begin to build up his dental practice.

The earliest mention is by Bat Masterson in a profile of Doc Holliday he wrote in 1907.

Some family members thought it best that Doc Holliday leave the state, but other members of Doc Holliday's family dispute those accounts.

Shortly after beginning his dental practice, Doc Holliday was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Doc Holliday was given only a few months to live, but was told that a drier and warmer climate might slow the deterioration of his health.

When he arrived in Dallas, Holliday partnered with a friend of his father's, Dr John A Seegar.

Meanwhile, Doc Holliday found he had some skill at gambling and he soon relied on it as his principal income source.

Doc Holliday was arrested in Dallas in January 1875 after trading gunfire with a saloon keeper, Charles Austin, but no one was injured and he was found not guilty.

Doc Holliday moved his offices to Denison, Texas, but after being fined for gambling in Dallas, he left the state.

Doc Holliday headed to Denver, Colorado, following the stage routes and gambling at towns and army outposts along the way.

Doc Holliday got into an argument with Bud Ryan, a well-known and tough gambler.

Doc Holliday left when he learned about gold being discovered in Wyoming.

Doc Holliday found work as a dealer for Babb's partner, Thomas Miller, who owned the Bella Union Saloon.

In 1877, Doc Holliday returned to Cheyenne, then Denver, and eventually to Kansas, where he visited an aunt.

On July 4,1877, after a disagreement with gambler Henry Kahn, Doc Holliday beat him repeatedly with his walking stick.

Doc Holliday is the only woman with whom Holliday is known to have had a relationship.

Shanssey suggested Earp ask gambler Doc Holliday, who had played cards with Rudabaugh.

Doc Holliday told Earp that he thought Rudabaugh was headed back to Kansas.

Doc Holliday sought to practice dentistry again, and ran an advertisement in the local paper:.

In both stories, Doc Holliday was playing cards in the back of the room and upon seeing the commotion, drew his weapon and put his pistol at Morrison's head, forcing him and his men to disarm, rescuing Earp from a bad situation.

Whatever actually happened, Earp credited Doc Holliday with saving his life that day, and the two men became friends.

Doc Holliday was still practicing dentistry from his room in Fort Griffin, Texas, and in Dodge City, Kansas.

Doc Holliday reportedly engaged in a gunfight with a bartender named Charles White.

Miguel Otero, who would later become governor of New Mexico Territory, said he was present when Doc Holliday walked into the saloon with a cocked revolver in his hand and challenged White to settle an outstanding argument.

Bat Masterson reportedly said that Doc Holliday was in Jacksboro, Texas, and got into a gunfight with an unnamed soldier whom Doc Holliday shot and killed.

Historian Gary L Roberts found a record for a Private Robert Smith who had been shot and killed by an "unknown assailant" on March 3,1876, but Holliday was never linked to the death.

Doc Holliday developed a reputation for his skill with a gun, as well as with the cards.

Doc Holliday opened a dental practice and continued gambling as well, but the winter was unseasonably cold and business was slow.

On March 8,1879, Doc Holliday was indicted for "keeping [a] gaming table" and was fined $25.

In Dodge City, Doc Holliday joined a team being formed by Deputy US Marshal Bat Masterson.

Doc Holliday remained there for about two and a half months.

Doc Holliday refused and Gordon left the building "shouting obscenities", followed by Holliday.

Doc Holliday told Holliday he was headed for the silver boom going on in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

Doc Holliday left Prescott in the spring of 1880 to return to Las Vegas and resolve old legal and business matters.

Doc Holliday finally joined the Earps in Tombstone in September 1880.

Doc Holliday quickly became embroiled in the local politics and violence that led up to the Gunfight at the OK.

Doc Holliday signed an affidavit implicating Holliday in an attempted robbery and murder of passengers aboard a Kinnear and Company stage coach on March 15,1881, carrying US$26,000 in silver bullion.

Doc Holliday had taken the reins and driver's seat in Contention City because the usual driver, a well-known and popular man named Eli "Budd" Philpot, was ill.

Doc Holliday was a good friend of Leonard, a former watchmaker from New York.

Rumors flew that Doc Holliday had taken part in the shooting and murders.

Joyce refused and threw him out, but Doc Holliday came back carrying a revolver and started firing.

Joyce pulled out a pistol and Doc Holliday shot the revolver out of Joyce's hand, putting a bullet through his palm.

When Joyce's bartender, Parker, tried to grab his gun, Doc Holliday wounded him in the toe.

Joyce picked up his pistol and pistol-whipped Doc Holliday, knocking him out.

Doc Holliday gave Horony some money and put her on a stage out of town.

Doc Holliday received reports that cowboys with whom they had had repeated confrontations were armed in violation of the city ordinance that required them to deposit their weapons at a saloon or stable soon after arriving in town.

Doc Holliday was boarding at Fly's house and he possibly thought they were waiting there to kill him.

Cowboys' witnesses testified that Doc Holliday first pulled out a nickel-plated pistol he was known to carry, while others reported he first fired a longer, bronze-colored gun, possibly the coach gun.

Doc Holliday killed Tom McLaury with a shotgun blast in the side of his chest.

Doc Holliday was grazed by a bullet possibly fired by Frank McLaury who was on Fremont Street at the time.

McLaury was shot in the right side of the head, so Doc Holliday is often given credit for shooting him.

Doc Holliday deputized Holliday, Warren Earp, Sherman McMaster, and "Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson.

Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday left the only record of the fight.

Doc Holliday was finally able to get on his horse and retreat.

Wyatt and Doc Holliday, who had been fast friends, had a serious disagreement and parted ways in Albuquerque.

On May 15,1882, Doc Holliday was arrested in Denver on the Tucson warrant for murdering Frank Stilwell.

Doc Holliday had a bullet hole in his right temple and a revolver was found hanging from a finger of his hand.

Kyner had heard that a gunman named Doc Holliday had been hired before by a group of men who wanted to drive off others who had staked claims to the same nearby coal deposit that they were claiming, which gave him the idea of hiring Holliday to make his troublemakers leave.

Kyner was staying at the Glenwood Hotel and when Doc Holliday was pointed out to him one day, he initiated a discussion about it.

Doc Holliday replied "Oh, they moved," and without another word Kyner paid him the $250.

Doc Holliday's last known confrontation took place in Hyman's saloon in Leadville, Colorado, in 1884.

On his way to Hyman's, Doc Holliday bumped into Marshall Harvey Faucett and explained his situation.

Faucett testified later that Doc Holliday replied, "I'll get a shotgun and shoot him on sight," showing his intent.

Doc Holliday went on to Hyman's where he stashed a gun near the door under the bar and waited for Allen to appear.

Doc Holliday leaned over the cigar case and, almost on top of the man who'd been the hunter only seconds earlier, fired again.

Doc Holliday increasingly depended on alcohol and laudanum to ease the symptoms of tuberculosis, and his health and his skills as a gambler began to deteriorate.

In 1887, prematurely gray and badly ailing, Doc Holliday made his way to the Hotel Glenwood, near the hot springs of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Doc Holliday hoped to take advantage of the reputed curative power of the waters, but the sulfurous fumes from the spring might have done his lungs more harm than good.

The Glenwood Springs Ute Chief of November 12,1887, wrote in its obituary that Doc Holliday had been baptized in the Catholic Church.

Doc Holliday himself was later to say that he had joined a Methodist church in Dallas.

Contemporary newspaper reports explicitly state that Doc Holliday was buried in the Linwood Cemetery, but the exact location of his grave is uncertain.

Doc Holliday maintained a fierce persona, as was sometimes needed for a gambler to earn respect.

Doc Holliday had a contemporary reputation as a skilled gunfighter which modern historians generally regard as accurate.

Doc Holliday was grazed by a bullet fired by Frank McLaury and shot back.

Doc Holliday was part of Earp's federal posse when they killed three other outlaw Cowboys during the Earp Vendetta Ride.

Doc Holliday reported that he had been arrested 17 times, four attempts had been made to hang him, and that he survived ambush five times.

Doc Holliday was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean blonde fellow nearly dead with consumption and at the same time the most skillful gambler and nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew.

Physically, Doc Holliday was a weakling who could not have whipped a healthy fifteen-year-old boy in a go-as-you-please fistfight.

Masterson wrote that Doc Holliday was quick to go for his gun when threatened.

Doc Holliday's tuberculosis did not hamper his ability as a gambler and as a marksman.

Doc Holliday was gentlemanly, a good dentist, a friendly man, and yet outside of us boys I don't think he had a friend in the Territory.

Biographer Karen Doc Holliday Tanner found that Doc Holliday had been arrested 17 times before his 1881 shootout in Tombstone.

Wyatt Earp recounted one event during which Doc Holliday killed a fellow gambler named Ed Bailey.

The story of Doc Holliday killing Bailey first appeared nine years after Doc Holliday's death in an 1896 interview with Wyatt Earp that was published in the San Francisco Enquirer.

Doc Holliday caught Bailey "monkeying with the dead wood" or the discard pile, which was against the rules.

When Bailey made the same move again, Doc Holliday took the pot without showing his hand, which was his right under the rules.

Bailey immediately went for his pistol, but Doc Holliday whipped out a knife from his breast pocket and "caught Bailey just below the brisket" or upper chest.

Doc Holliday is quoted as saying that Holliday's girlfriend, "Big Nose Kate" Horony, devised a diversion.

Doc Holliday procured a second pistol from a friend in town, removed a horse from its shed behind the hotel, and then set fire to the shed.

Doc Holliday found no contemporary newspaper articles or court records to support the story.

Doc Holliday found evidence to support that Holliday was being held in his hotel room under guard, but for "illegal gambling", and that the story of Horony starting a fire as a diversion to free him was true.

Doc Holliday lived in a rooming house in front of Fly's photography studio.

Doc Holliday is one of the most recognizable figures in the American Old West, but he is most remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his role in the Gunfight at the OK.

Doc Holliday is typically portrayed in films as being loyal to his friend Wyatt, with whom he sticks during the duo's greatest conflicts, such as the Gunfight at the OK Corral and Earp's vendetta, even with the ensuing violence and hardships that they both endured.

Together with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday has become a modern symbol of loyalty, brotherhood and friendship.

The home of Doc Holliday's uncle is marked with a historical marker located in Fayetteville, Georgia.

Doc Holliday was nationally known during his life as a gambler and gunman.