February 20, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, much of what America and the world know about Doc Holliday comes from movies and television. But historians agree that no movie portrayal has ever done justice to the real Doc Holliday—until now. Here to tell the story of Doc Holliday is Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier.
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Much of what.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
America in the world knows about Doc Holiday comes from
movies and TV, but historians agree no movie portrayal has
done real justice to his story. Roger McGrath is the
author of Gunfighters, Hollyman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier,
a US marine and former history professor at UCLA. He's
a regular contributor for US here at Our American Stories.
(00:38):
Here's McGrath with the story of DC Holiday.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Doc Holliday was not only one of the most colorful
characters in the Old West, but also one of the
most feared. He acquired the nickname of Gawk, honestly earning
degree in dentistry and practicing in several towns. However, he
eventually nearly all his time as a professional gambler and
occasionally as a gunfighter. He had a vicious temper and
(01:06):
feared no man, perhaps because tuberculosis had already given him
a death sentence. Doc Olay was born John Henry Holiday
in eighteen fifty one in Griffin, Georgia, about forty miles
south of Atlanta. His parents are of South Carolina pioneer
stock of Scotch, Irish and English ancestry. Doc's father, Henry Holiday,
(01:29):
is an attorney who fights the Indians in eighteen thirty eight,
the Mexicans in eighteen forty six, and the Yankees in
eighteen sixty one, rising to the rank of major in
the Civil War before being forced by illness to resign
his commission. Doc has a comfortable middle class childhood and
receives a good education. His mother, Alice, is a classic
(01:53):
Southern bell. She teaches him manners and etiquette, while his
father regales him with the wars, stories and tales of survival.
Doc is only nine years old when the Civil War
erupts in eighteen sixty one. Three years later, the family
fleets General Sherman's March to the Sea and moves farther
(02:14):
south to Valdosta, where Doc is enrolled in the Valdosta
Institute and studies all the subjects common to classical education,
including rhetoric, history, and Latin. He wishes that instead of
studying he was fighting the Yankees. Nonetheless, Doc is a
(02:34):
good student and receives an excellent education. Considering the Civil War,
which by the fall of eighteen sixty four is ravaging Georgia.
Here's Doc Holiday biographer Gary Roberts.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
He was popular, He was good on the dance floor,
He learned all the proper social graces. He was polite,
and he seems to have gotten along with most people.
But he also had an ornery side. They tell a
story that a boy challenged him to a duel. Now,
(03:12):
all of the friends, the people of these two boys
assumed it would be was going to be a fake duel.
They were going to load the pistols with powder and
shoot powder at each other, and it was just going
to be a make believe duel. But John Henry, they said,
showed up with a loaded revolver and said he would
use his own gun for the duel. Well, needless to say,
(03:34):
the other boy backed down very quickly, so he had
a streat kin.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
In September eighteen sixty six, after two years of painful suffering,
Doc's mother dies to preclosis, known then as consumption. Here's
Old West historian Jeff Moray and Victoria Wilcox, author of
Southern Son, The Saga of Doc Holliday.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
They called it consumption because it sort of consumed you.
It was very long, slow, disease, and it would really
eat you away from the inside out. The classic weight
of die of consumption was really to suffocate.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
From eighteen hundred and eighteen seventy one on five deaths
in America was attributed to consumption.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
He has always been close to his mother, and her
death comes as a great blow. His bad temper, which
he inherited from his father, worsens. The blonde hair, blue
eyed boys looking fifteen year old John Henry Holiday is
not physically imposing, but as other boys learn, he is
no one to trifle with. In eighteen seventy, Doc is
(04:40):
off to the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, considered one
of the best dental schools in the nation. At just
twenty years of age. Doc graduates in eighteen seventy two,
near the top of his class, and begins practicing in
Atlanta during the summer. Here's Professor Arnette Gaston in Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
He graduates so early in age that it was difficult
for him to set up practice because he wasn't old
enough yet.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
A clear testimony to his achievement, his critical thinking skills,
and he was good.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Doc Holliday was the epitome of a Southern gentleman, which
meant that he was mannerly and likely also hot tempered,
all those things that go along with living in the
South during the Civil War and reconstruction.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
There's a story that a gold crown he made for
a girl's moler was still in place when she died
at the age of one hundred and two in nineteen
sixty seven. Here's Old West historian Stephen Shaw, who came home.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
They opened up his own practice with another gentleman. Here's
a young man twenty one, twenty two years of age,
six foot taller, almost a doctor, very good looking, according
to the records, a good catch for any woman.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Docword of Marriat a genteel woman, and started a family.
He would sit by the parlor fire in is comfortable
Georgia home, and he would die in old age surrounded
by loved ones. Instead, Doc Holiday starts coughing. Doc begins
to rapidly lose weight, has night fevers, weakness, and is
(06:17):
coughing up of blood. Begins to interfere with this practice.
He goes to a doctor and is found to have,
like his mother, tuberculosis at the time, a fatal disease.
The cause isn't known and there is no cure. He's
given six months to live. However, he is told that
(06:38):
the drier climate of the American West might prolong his
life by as much as two years. Rather than die bedron,
Doc begins packing a family is upset no one more
than his cousin, Mattie Holiday, a beautiful blonde who has
had a crush on Doc for years. She will correspond
(07:00):
on with cock and pine for him.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
The biggest problem, if this is a case, was that
while first cousins marrying was very common, it was not
common among Catholics, and she was Catholic.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And when we come back, we'll continue with the story
of Doc Holliday here on our American Stories. Folks, if
you love the great American stories we tell and love
America like we do, we're asking you to become a
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(07:40):
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Go to our Americanstories dot com now and go to
the donate button and help us keep the great American
Stories coming. That's our Americanstories dot Com. And we continue
(08:11):
here on our American Stories and the story of Doc Holiday.
Let's return to Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Matty eventually enters the Sisters of Merry Convent in Savannah.
Doc Holiday boards a train for Dallas, Texas, to as
they say, die with his boots on. But first Doc
opens a dental practice. Although he does excellent dental work,
his coughing fits again cause his practice to decline more
(08:44):
and more. Doc turns to gambling for income and a
surprising success. He gives a memory for cards dealt, can
quickly calculate odds, and can handle a deck with extraordinary dexterity.
He also possesses an excellent poke. The knowledge of his
imminent death make it easy for him to hide his
(09:04):
emotions and draw the next card, or, where necessary, draw
his gun. On New Year's Day eighteen seventy five, Doc
gets into his first documented shootout. It's with the proprietor
of a saloon, Charles Austen, who goes by the nickname
Champagne Charlie for the popular song of the time. The
(09:30):
song is lighthearted, and so is the report in the
Dallas newspaper. Doctor Holliday and mister Austin, a saloon keeper,
relieve the monotony of the noise of firecrackers by taking
a couple of shots at each other. Yesterday afternoon, the
cheerful note of the peaceful six shooter is heard once
(09:52):
more among us. No one has said gnol is forgiven.
Doc decides it's a good time to leave the state
and pursue the roving life of a gambler, chasing the
next big pot from Boom Down to Boomtown across the west.
He arrives in Denver during the summer of eighteen seventy five.
(10:13):
It goes to work as a pharaoh. Do you learn
John bab saloon. It's not long before he gets into
a close quarters fight with Bud Ryan, both men drawing
eyes and slash away. Both are wounded Ryan seriously. On
the fourth of July eighteen seventy seven, in Breckenridge, Texas,
(10:35):
Doc gets into a fight with another gambler, Henry Con
Here again is Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And according to this story, Holiday pulled a cane and
hit him, and Can pulled a gun and shot Holiday.
We don't know which man was in the right or
the wrong. We don't even know what they were fighting about,
or whether they were both just drunk and disorderly. But
the newspaper went on to say that Holiday had been
killed and can disappeared from town. We know the report
is at least a little bit inaccurate, because of course
(11:03):
Holiday was still alive and he actually returned back to Dallas.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Doc slowly recovers and when healthy, moves to Fort Griffin,
Texas to dial gards at pugilist John Shaughnessy's saloon. Well
in Fort Griffin, he meets and falls for Mary Catherine Harony,
a curvaceous twenty six year old better known as Big
Nose Kate. Well, Kate doesn't actually have a big nose,
(11:29):
but her nickname comes for a nosy nature. Hungarian born,
Kate works as a dance old girl and occasionally as
a prostitute. She's described as highly intelligent, tough, stubborn, and fearless.
It's also at Fort Griffin where Doc meets a man
who will change his life. From Dennis and Gambler to legend,
(11:52):
thirty year old White Herb is serving as a deputy
US Marshal and has come down from Dodge City, Kansas,
looking for an outlaw, Doc and Wyatt hit it off immediately.
It's the start of the Wild West's most famous friendship.
One evening in eighteen seventy eight, while in Fort Griffin,
(12:13):
Doc is arrested for killing a bully during a guard game,
although it has done in self defense. Doc has jailed
and a lynch mob begins to form outside, but Doc
has an ally. Kate intervenes, setting fire to a barn
in the center of town. While everybody runs to put
out the fire, she puts a gun on the jailer
(12:35):
and tells him to open the door. Doc and Kate
escape north to the biggest boom down on the mall,
Dodge City, also known as Hell on the Planes, and
joins up with Wyatt, who is working as the assistant
city marshal. Here's Old West's historian Andrew Nelson.
Speaker 7 (13:00):
Of the eighteen seventies was one of the most notorious.
A frontier town. It was a town with no law
where buffalo hunters, soldiers, vagrants made hay of the town
every night.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
To Doc establishes a dental practice, but spends more of
his time gambling than drilling and filling teeth. He's dealing
cards at the Long Branch Saloon. When the end of
the saloon come a half dozen wild characters, a ragtag
gang of cattle wrestlers, stagecoach Mannetts, and thuggish outlaws led
by Ed Morrison, a man who has been humiliated by
(13:35):
Wyatt in which Doc soveral years earlier and has been
itching to get even. They begin shooting their guns into
the air and harassing customers. Here in the gunfire, Wyatt
runs into the Long Branch only to find six deadly
characters with their guns leveled at him. Morrison warns him,
(13:55):
pray and jerk your gun. Your time is comerb Whyatt
reckons he's dead, but Doc steps up behind. Morrison, puts
a gun to the outlaw's head and tells him and
his boys to drop their guns. They comply. Wyatt says
Doc saved his life that day, and Wyatt never forgets
(14:17):
what Doc has done for him. When work comes of
a silver strike a tombstone in Arizona Territory, several of
Dodge City's gamblers and gunslingers head west. Doc travels with
Kate along the way. They spend some time in Las Vegas,
New Mexico, where Doc decides to open his own saloon.
(14:37):
Here's Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Of course, Doc was in trouble with the law again
because Las Vegas had laws just like all Western towns did,
against operating gambling games in houses of spiritus liquors. So
he just did what other businessmen did and paid the
fines and went right on operating his gambling games. He
also had arrests for carrying a deadly weapon, which was
(15:01):
also part of business in a saloon because a saloon
owner was expected to police his own business and had
to be armed to protect his patrons from violence.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
One of the patrons is former army scout Mike Gordon.
After a dispute, Gordon steps out into the street and
fires a couple of rounds into the saloon, gun in hand,
Doctor comes running outside in drills Gordon. He's mortally wounded
and dies the next day. By September eighteen eighty, Doc
(15:33):
arrives in the violent moodown in Tombstone, Arizona, joining the
IRBs in what is a factional fight to control the town.
The heart of the Tombstone story has to do with
the growing animosity between the IRB faction and what's called
the Cowboy Faction. The Cowboys run a lucrative operation, rustling
(15:55):
cattle and robbing stagecoaches. They are all handy with guns,
including William Brochus, but are known as Curly Bill who
shoots to death. Tombstone City Marshal Fred Whitett, Johnny Ringo
and Frank Stillwell are also members of the Cowboy Faction,
with reputations for fast and fancy shooting. Leading the Rustling
(16:18):
are old Man Clanton and three of his sons, Ike,
Finn and Billy, and their close friends the mac Lowery brothers,
Tom and Frank. The Cowboy faction has Cochise County Sheriff
Johnny Bean County Supervisor Mike Joyce, and the bubblisher of
the Daily Nugget, Harry Woods on his side. The York
(16:42):
faction consists of the five her Brothers Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan,
James and Warren and Doc Holiday, Judge Wells Spicer, Tombstone
Mayor and bublisher of the Tombstone Epitaph, John Clum, and
several prominent business US virtual URP is both a Deputy
(17:03):
US Marshal and the City Marshal of Tombstone. The IRP
faction could be called the law and Order faction, but
the RBS and associates are as much concerned about their
business interests and who controls the town has about law
and order.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath telling the real
story of Doc Holliday. And by the way, he's doing
his best to synthesize many of the stories that are
out there, but in a far greater depth and detail
than we ever experience while just watching a movie or
watching a TV version of the story. And when we
continue the rest of the remarkable story of the life
(17:48):
of Doc Holliday here on our American Stories, and we
(18:10):
continue with the story of Doc Holiday here on our
American Stories, how we return to Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Various members of the cowboy faction are fond of drinking
in Tombstone saloons, firing their guns, and generally raising hell.
They've also been heart threatening to kill the RBS and Holiday.
Virgil gets the city council to pass an ordinance stating
that upon arrival in Tombstone, cowboys must deposit their guns
(18:42):
at various locations in the city. The countdown to the
most famous gunfight in Western history begins in a bar
several of the cowboys arrive in town on October twenty fifth,
eighteen eighty one, and begin drinking and gambling. Doc Holliday,
who's also drinking heavily, gets into an argument with Ike
(19:05):
Clinton in the Alhamber Saloon. Four turns deadly. Others interfere,
and Wyader walks Doc to his quarters and tells him
to sleep it off. Here again is Garry Roberts.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
The next morning, after a peculiar thing happened, and that
is that Ike Clinton and Virgil Irt stayed up most
of the night playing cards with each other in the
same card game. But the next morning, while before Virgil
or anybody else had gotten up, Ike Clinton is already
walking the streets looking for the Irt brothers.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Ike stays in the saloons and around mid morning retrieves
his guns from the West End Corral where he had
deposited them. Mike's still drinking, and now he's threatening him
to kill Holiday when he sees him. Upon hearing this,
Doc crawls out a bed, sharpens his fatalistic wit cracks, Honey,
(20:01):
if God lets me live long enough to get my
clothes on, he shall see me. Virgil is alerted and
taking Morgan or his deputy with him. They find Ike
with a revolver on his hip and a Winchester in
his hand. Morgan confronts Ike while Virgil approaches from behind.
(20:22):
With the drunken Ike focusing on Morgan, Virgil knocks him
senseless using a revolver as a club. Morgan and Virgil
disarm Mike and drag him to the courthouse, where he's
fined twenty five dollars for violating the city ordinance. He's
told you who can retrieve his guns when he is
leaving town. Here's Jeff Moray.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Would have been justified in killing Klan. And I think
it's a mistake that the IRBs make. They're too lenient
with Ike. Basically, what they do all morning long is
allow Ike to build a head of steam. He gets
angry and angrier. What's bizarre about it is it seems
the more you ignore this fellow, the angrier he gets.
(21:08):
They keep thinking he's gonna finally drink enough, go to sleep,
and he'll be out of their hair, and it never happens.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
All this is going on, Wyatt Earth Pistol whips Tom
mclowry and leaves them bleeding in the street. Early afternoon
finds Ike Clinton and Tom mclowarry in a doctor's office
getting their head wounds stitched. At the same time, Billy
Clinton and Frank mclowry right into town and stop at
(21:38):
the Grand Hotel. They learn of the beatings of their
brothers and don't deposit their guns. Within minutes they join
up with They're wounded and unarmed brothers on Fremont Street,
not far from the Okay crowd. The day is cold
and windy. There's a dusting of snow in places. ViRGE
(21:59):
alert gathers his forces. Wyatt and morganerb but not Doc.
Where are you going, says Doc. We're going to make
a fight, replies Wyatt. Well, you're not going to leave
me out of it, are you. This is none of
your affair. That is a hell of a thing for
you to say to me. It's going to be a
(22:21):
tough one. Tough ones are the kind I like. Here's
old West historian and gunfighter Drew gomber.
Speaker 8 (22:30):
Accompany in the irp's down to the Oka craw was
a big deal because you know he didn't have to go,
which would indicate loyalty in the extreme, the risk of
your life for your friend.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
All are armed with revolvers, but Virtual gives his East
In the Wold, Doc holiday a Wells Fargo ten geege
double barreled shotgun to hide under his overcoat. He also
deputizes Doc good Boy. Here's Old West historian Tom.
Speaker 9 (23:00):
Virgil had other deputies. He doesn't take those deputies. He
takes his brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, and then he drags
along Doc Hardy. This is like bringing a match to
a party full of gas cands.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
The Fort lawman walks shoulder to shoulder down the center
of Freemont the Street and find the cowboys in a small,
fifteen foot wide, dusty vacant lot next to Fli's photography studio.
Here again, it's true Gomber.
Speaker 8 (23:29):
This is only a fifteen foot wide alley that contained
nine men and two horses. They were so close that
when they initially entered the alley, Doc took his shotgun
and pressed it right into Tom mcclowry's belly. Then he
took a few steps back. So these guys it was
up close and personal. Book Everybody.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Virgil calls for Billy Clinton and Frank mcclowry, the only
two cowboys arm to surrender their guns. They refuse. What
happens next is a matter of where. Ba Whiter probably
fires first, hitting Frank mclowry in the stomach. Billy Clainton
fires at nearly the same time. Unarmed Tom mcclowry tries
(24:12):
to take cover behind a horse and reach for a
rifle in a scabbard on the horse, but Doc Holliday
steps to the side and lets both barrels of the
shotgun roar. Tom mclowry staggers into the street and collapses. Unarmed,
Eyke Claanten takes off running. Meanwhile, Virgil Irp fires around
(24:33):
that hits Billy Clainton in his gun hand. Billy gamely
switches his gun to his other hand and fires, drilling
Virgil in the leg. Morganer fires around that hits Billy
in the chest. Despite suffering several wounds, Billy Clatton and
Frank mclowarry continue firing. Morganerp is hitting the shoulder and
(24:54):
Doc Holliday in the hip. Wyater is untouched, finds himself
looking down the burel of Frank mclarry's pistol. Mclowry says,
I've got you now. Doc's Tom response is characteristic, lays away.
You're a dazy if you do. Mclarry fires and a
(25:15):
bullet rips through Doc's coop. Doc fires and a bullet
rips through mc lowry's head, killing him instantly. Both Billy
Clinton and Tom mclarry are barely clinging to life. They're
carried into a nearby house and within minutes are dead.
Analysis of Doc's movements at the ok Krawl show him
(25:38):
to be a master in tactical combat. Here again is
Jeff Moray.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
His job is to protect the flank, not to let
the cowboys out a lot so that they can thank
their brothers. What's peculiar about Doc's performance in the gunfight
is how much walking he does. He traverses more ground
than any other participating.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
It takes just thirty shots in thirty seconds of gunfighting
at the ok Corral to write another chapter in American history.
When the gun smoke clears, three cowboys are dead. Here
again is Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
The story of the gunfight went out across the telegraph
wires and hit all the newspapers in America and made
instant celebrities of all the participants in a country that
was enamored with all things wild West. This was the
most iconic Western battle of them all.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
The event is highly controversial in Tombstone, and the brothers
and Doc Holiday are put through a month long hearing
before Judge Wells Spicer. Testimony from witnesses is wildly contradictory.
The Tombstone Epitaph argues the Herbs and Holiday were only
doing their duty as lawman. The Daily Nugget argues they
(26:51):
be tried for murder. Judge Spicer finally rules and there's
not enough evidence to proceed with the murder trial.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Therefore, this is a journ, and when we come back,
we're going to continue with the remarkable story of Doc Holiday,
the full story of Doc Holiday, and you're hearing from
some of the best Western historians in the country. More
on the life of Doc Holliday. Here on our American stories,
(27:37):
and we continue here with our American stories and the
story of Doc Holliday. We last heard from Judge Spicer,
who ruled that there was not enough evidence to proceed
with a murder trial against the IRPs or Doc Holliday.
Let's pick up from there with Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Therefore, this court is adjourn. Boys are incensed by the
failure to proceed with the trial. They issue of public
death threat and Judge Spicer in the Daily Nuggets.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
The real problem is the town has been so polarized
that there's no appeasing losing sight. The cowboys aren't interested
in pr They're interested in rebnch I. Clanton wants to
get the men who killed his brother, and they feel
the whole system has let them down.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Word spreads through Tombstone, but the IRPs and Doc Holiday
are targeted for death wait. On a December night, Virgil
Earp steps out of the Oriental Saloon and into the
blast of a shotgun. The butt shot from the unseen
assassin shreds his left arm and rips into his left leg. Miraculously,
(28:50):
Virgil survives, but his left arm is rendered useless for
the rest of his life. Three months later, in March
eighteen eighty two, Morganer is shot while playing a game
of billiards. The shot comes through an open window of
the billiard parlor and drills Morgan in the stomach. He
lingers for an hour and dies in Wyatt's arms.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
For Wyatt Earth, the killing of Morgan was a profoundly
upsetting incident. From now on, he will be a law
on to himself. The question over the years is was
he a force for justice or was he an expression
of the log one wrong? And that's a difficult question
to answer, but he will be the judge, the jury
(29:36):
and the executioner.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
White Earth is now a deputy US Marshal, and with
knock Holiday's encouragement, decides it's time to go on the offensive.
The first order of business, though, is to get Virgil
and his wife safely out of town. Wyatt deputizes Doc
and Warrener and two others Sherman McMaster and Turkey Creek
Jack Johnson. He's court Virgil and his wife to the
(30:01):
train station in two sons. At the station, they spot
Frank Stillwell. The man has been bragging that he fired
the field shot in the Morgan HER's stomach. Stillwell is
hiding behind a railroad car. As the men close in
on him, Wyatt let's a shotgun war and Doc opens
up with a revolver. How many others fire is not known,
(30:24):
but Stillwell's body is later found riddle with buckshot in bullets.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
One of the witnesses says that he'd never seen a
man who'd been more badly shot up and from now on,
there's no turning back from Wier. This is a major
change in his career. He still views himself, I believe,
as bringing justice, but he clearly realizes he's now outside
the confines of the law.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
This was the beginning of real trouble for the ARBs,
and it made it clear that Wyatt was interested in
more than just arresting people. This has become personal.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
A Tucson Justice to the Peace issues arrest warrants for
Wyatt and Doc and the others. But by the time
he does, they are long gone and armed to the
teeth to hunt down the killers of Morgan and they
attempted assassin a Virgil. Joined by Texas Jack Vermillion, they
(31:25):
head for the ranch of Peate Spence, one of the
leaders of the Cowboy faction. Spence is not there, but
they find one of his hands, Indian Charlie Cruz, and
the Spence some Western justice upon him. What becomes known
as the Vendetta Ride is now at full galloping.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Why a Spindeta ride can be looked at as almost
an Old Testament type story, an eye for an eye,
a tooth for a tooth, And if you really think
about that, what that type of approach, Fosters is the
idea of a natural law. You have the natural law
and you have the civil law. And those who support
(32:06):
Wider would say he was following the natural law in
the course of accents he took. After the killing Morgan.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Wider and Doc Holliday and the other Vendetta riders next
surprise Curly Bill and eight other cowboys at Iron Springs,
about thirty miles northwest of the Tombstone or Let's loose
with a shotgun, nearly cutting curly Bill in half. The
other cowboys return fire and the Vendetta Riders are forced
(32:35):
to retreat Texas check Vermillion has his horse shot from
under him, but Doc Holliday dashes back through heavy fire
to rescue his fallen comrade. Doc Leader says our escape
was miraculous. The shots cut our clothes and saddles and
killed one horse, but did not hit us. I think
(32:58):
we would have been killed if God Almighty wasn't on
our side.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
After the Curly Bill episode, the Irt Posse decides it's
time to leave Arizona because of the pressure of the
Posse's that are chasing them, with the assistance probably of
two governors Wells Fargo and company, maybe the Santa Fe
Railroad and the US Marshall's office. They go to Albuquerque
(33:29):
and from there into Colorado.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
At Pueblo, Colorado, they part company. Whyatt going to Gunnison
and Doc to Denver. Doc was arrested in Denver in
May eighteen eighty two on the Arizona warrant for the
murder Frank Stillwell.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
All of a sudden, Doc has support coming out of
the woodwork. There is bat Masterson comes to town and
begins to argue for him. There's a newspaper man named
Ed Cowen who is working on his behalf. So all
of these people are saying to the governor, don't send
(34:07):
him back. And so what happens is that the Governor
of Colorado locks over the papers and says, there is
already a charge against Doc Holliday in Pueblo, and we
can't extradite him to another state when there is an
outstanding warrant against him here in Colorado. By the way,
(34:30):
that's called now in Colorado and other places, holidaying filing
charges of one crime to prevent applying warrants for another crime.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Doctor Dre's a gambling to support himself, but tuberculosis is
ravaging his body and has once vaunted skills are beginning
to deteriorate. He bounces from town to town, Denver Pueblo, Leadville.
In a Leadville saloon. In March eighteen eighty five, Doc
is in his last shooting scrape. When Billy Allen tries
(35:04):
to collect the debt, Doc owes him and threatens the
frail consumptive. Doc shoots Allen. Doc is arrested and put
on trial, but a jury finds him not guilty on
the grounds of self defense. Doc's last days are spent
in the health resort of Glenwood Springs. He moves there
(35:24):
in May eighteen eighty seven and begins soaking in the
hot springs and inhaling the soul furious vapors. Here's entrepreneur
and Old West collector Bill Coke.
Speaker 10 (35:37):
Why would Doc go to a springs that had a
lot of sulfur in it? I mean that just hastens
his death. And he was medically trained, but it shows
how primitive medicine was in those days.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Over the years, he has never stopped corresponding with his
cousin Mattie Holiday. Now his letter writing increases. She urges
him to turn to God. He seeks out the local priest,
father Edward Downey, and it's not long before the Irish
cleric baptizes Doc in the Catholic faith. By the fall
(36:13):
of eighteen eighty seven, Doc Holliday is bedridden after all
his narrow escapes. He finds it ironic that he won't
die with his boots on. On the morning of November eighth,
he calls for a nurse to bring him a jigger
or whiskey. Doc sits up in his bed and throws
(36:34):
back the shot. He looks at his beer feet. This
is funny, he says, and then falls back onto the
bed and dies. Sean Henry Holiday is but thirty six
years old. Here's Gary Roberts in Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
If you think about it, and you go to see
movies about all of this, the character who wins in
the movies every time, who puts Wyater up in the shadows,
although he's supposed to be the hero, you forget about
Wyater and you concentrate on Doc Holiday.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
He'd done more in thirty six years than most men
ever dream of doing. He traveled across the country and
seen history being made, and he had become part of
American history.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Whiderp later says of him, 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
(37:48):
skillful gambler and the nervioust speediest and deadliest man with
a six gun I ever knew.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
And great work is always to Greg Hangler, and thanks
as always to Roger McGrath, who's our regular contributor for
all things American West, the legend, the reality, the story
of Doc Holliday here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Much of what.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
America in the world knows about Doc Holiday comes from
movies and TV, but historians agree no movie portrayal has
done real justice to his story. Roger McGrath is the
author of Gunfighters, Hollyman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier,
a US marine and former history professor at UCLA. He's
a regular contributor for US here at Our American Stories.
(00:38):
Here's McGrath with the story of DC Holiday.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Doc Holliday was not only one of the most colorful
characters in the Old West, but also one of the
most feared. He acquired the nickname of Gawk, honestly earning
degree in dentistry and practicing in several towns. However, he
eventually nearly all his time as a professional gambler and
occasionally as a gunfighter. He had a vicious temper and
(01:06):
feared no man, perhaps because tuberculosis had already given him
a death sentence. Doc Olay was born John Henry Holiday
in eighteen fifty one in Griffin, Georgia, about forty miles
south of Atlanta. His parents are of South Carolina pioneer
stock of Scotch, Irish and English ancestry. Doc's father, Henry Holiday,
(01:29):
is an attorney who fights the Indians in eighteen thirty eight,
the Mexicans in eighteen forty six, and the Yankees in
eighteen sixty one, rising to the rank of major in
the Civil War before being forced by illness to resign
his commission. Doc has a comfortable middle class childhood and
receives a good education. His mother, Alice, is a classic
(01:53):
Southern bell. She teaches him manners and etiquette, while his
father regales him with the wars, stories and tales of survival.
Doc is only nine years old when the Civil War
erupts in eighteen sixty one. Three years later, the family
fleets General Sherman's March to the Sea and moves farther
(02:14):
south to Valdosta, where Doc is enrolled in the Valdosta
Institute and studies all the subjects common to classical education,
including rhetoric, history, and Latin. He wishes that instead of
studying he was fighting the Yankees. Nonetheless, Doc is a
(02:34):
good student and receives an excellent education. Considering the Civil War,
which by the fall of eighteen sixty four is ravaging Georgia.
Here's Doc Holiday biographer Gary Roberts.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
He was popular, He was good on the dance floor,
He learned all the proper social graces. He was polite,
and he seems to have gotten along with most people.
But he also had an ornery side. They tell a
story that a boy challenged him to a duel. Now,
(03:12):
all of the friends, the people of these two boys
assumed it would be was going to be a fake duel.
They were going to load the pistols with powder and
shoot powder at each other, and it was just going
to be a make believe duel. But John Henry, they said,
showed up with a loaded revolver and said he would
use his own gun for the duel. Well, needless to say,
(03:34):
the other boy backed down very quickly, so he had
a streat kin.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
In September eighteen sixty six, after two years of painful suffering,
Doc's mother dies to preclosis, known then as consumption. Here's
Old West historian Jeff Moray and Victoria Wilcox, author of
Southern Son, The Saga of Doc Holliday.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
They called it consumption because it sort of consumed you.
It was very long, slow, disease, and it would really
eat you away from the inside out. The classic weight
of die of consumption was really to suffocate.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
From eighteen hundred and eighteen seventy one on five deaths
in America was attributed to consumption.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
He has always been close to his mother, and her
death comes as a great blow. His bad temper, which
he inherited from his father, worsens. The blonde hair, blue
eyed boys looking fifteen year old John Henry Holiday is
not physically imposing, but as other boys learn, he is
no one to trifle with. In eighteen seventy, Doc is
(04:40):
off to the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, considered one
of the best dental schools in the nation. At just
twenty years of age. Doc graduates in eighteen seventy two,
near the top of his class, and begins practicing in
Atlanta during the summer. Here's Professor Arnette Gaston in Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
He graduates so early in age that it was difficult
for him to set up practice because he wasn't old
enough yet.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
A clear testimony to his achievement, his critical thinking skills,
and he was good.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Doc Holliday was the epitome of a Southern gentleman, which
meant that he was mannerly and likely also hot tempered,
all those things that go along with living in the
South during the Civil War and reconstruction.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
There's a story that a gold crown he made for
a girl's moler was still in place when she died
at the age of one hundred and two in nineteen
sixty seven. Here's Old West historian Stephen Shaw, who came home.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
They opened up his own practice with another gentleman. Here's
a young man twenty one, twenty two years of age,
six foot taller, almost a doctor, very good looking, according
to the records, a good catch for any woman.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Docword of Marriat a genteel woman, and started a family.
He would sit by the parlor fire in is comfortable
Georgia home, and he would die in old age surrounded
by loved ones. Instead, Doc Holiday starts coughing. Doc begins
to rapidly lose weight, has night fevers, weakness, and is
(06:17):
coughing up of blood. Begins to interfere with this practice.
He goes to a doctor and is found to have,
like his mother, tuberculosis at the time, a fatal disease.
The cause isn't known and there is no cure. He's
given six months to live. However, he is told that
(06:38):
the drier climate of the American West might prolong his
life by as much as two years. Rather than die bedron,
Doc begins packing a family is upset no one more
than his cousin, Mattie Holiday, a beautiful blonde who has
had a crush on Doc for years. She will correspond
(07:00):
on with cock and pine for him.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
The biggest problem, if this is a case, was that
while first cousins marrying was very common, it was not
common among Catholics, and she was Catholic.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And when we come back, we'll continue with the story
of Doc Holliday here on our American Stories. Folks, if
you love the great American stories we tell and love
America like we do, we're asking you to become a
part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree
(07:40):
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Go to our Americanstories dot com now and go to
the donate button and help us keep the great American
Stories coming. That's our Americanstories dot Com. And we continue
(08:11):
here on our American Stories and the story of Doc Holiday.
Let's return to Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Matty eventually enters the Sisters of Merry Convent in Savannah.
Doc Holiday boards a train for Dallas, Texas, to as
they say, die with his boots on. But first Doc
opens a dental practice. Although he does excellent dental work,
his coughing fits again cause his practice to decline more
(08:44):
and more. Doc turns to gambling for income and a
surprising success. He gives a memory for cards dealt, can
quickly calculate odds, and can handle a deck with extraordinary dexterity.
He also possesses an excellent poke. The knowledge of his
imminent death make it easy for him to hide his
(09:04):
emotions and draw the next card, or, where necessary, draw
his gun. On New Year's Day eighteen seventy five, Doc
gets into his first documented shootout. It's with the proprietor
of a saloon, Charles Austen, who goes by the nickname
Champagne Charlie for the popular song of the time. The
(09:30):
song is lighthearted, and so is the report in the
Dallas newspaper. Doctor Holliday and mister Austin, a saloon keeper,
relieve the monotony of the noise of firecrackers by taking
a couple of shots at each other. Yesterday afternoon, the
cheerful note of the peaceful six shooter is heard once
(09:52):
more among us. No one has said gnol is forgiven.
Doc decides it's a good time to leave the state
and pursue the roving life of a gambler, chasing the
next big pot from Boom Down to Boomtown across the west.
He arrives in Denver during the summer of eighteen seventy five.
(10:13):
It goes to work as a pharaoh. Do you learn
John bab saloon. It's not long before he gets into
a close quarters fight with Bud Ryan, both men drawing
eyes and slash away. Both are wounded Ryan seriously. On
the fourth of July eighteen seventy seven, in Breckenridge, Texas,
(10:35):
Doc gets into a fight with another gambler, Henry Con
Here again is Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And according to this story, Holiday pulled a cane and
hit him, and Can pulled a gun and shot Holiday.
We don't know which man was in the right or
the wrong. We don't even know what they were fighting about,
or whether they were both just drunk and disorderly. But
the newspaper went on to say that Holiday had been
killed and can disappeared from town. We know the report
is at least a little bit inaccurate, because of course
(11:03):
Holiday was still alive and he actually returned back to Dallas.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Doc slowly recovers and when healthy, moves to Fort Griffin,
Texas to dial gards at pugilist John Shaughnessy's saloon. Well
in Fort Griffin, he meets and falls for Mary Catherine Harony,
a curvaceous twenty six year old better known as Big
Nose Kate. Well, Kate doesn't actually have a big nose,
(11:29):
but her nickname comes for a nosy nature. Hungarian born,
Kate works as a dance old girl and occasionally as
a prostitute. She's described as highly intelligent, tough, stubborn, and fearless.
It's also at Fort Griffin where Doc meets a man
who will change his life. From Dennis and Gambler to legend,
(11:52):
thirty year old White Herb is serving as a deputy
US Marshal and has come down from Dodge City, Kansas,
looking for an outlaw, Doc and Wyatt hit it off immediately.
It's the start of the Wild West's most famous friendship.
One evening in eighteen seventy eight, while in Fort Griffin,
(12:13):
Doc is arrested for killing a bully during a guard game,
although it has done in self defense. Doc has jailed
and a lynch mob begins to form outside, but Doc
has an ally. Kate intervenes, setting fire to a barn
in the center of town. While everybody runs to put
out the fire, she puts a gun on the jailer
(12:35):
and tells him to open the door. Doc and Kate
escape north to the biggest boom down on the mall,
Dodge City, also known as Hell on the Planes, and
joins up with Wyatt, who is working as the assistant
city marshal. Here's Old West's historian Andrew Nelson.
Speaker 7 (13:00):
Of the eighteen seventies was one of the most notorious.
A frontier town. It was a town with no law
where buffalo hunters, soldiers, vagrants made hay of the town
every night.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
To Doc establishes a dental practice, but spends more of
his time gambling than drilling and filling teeth. He's dealing
cards at the Long Branch Saloon. When the end of
the saloon come a half dozen wild characters, a ragtag
gang of cattle wrestlers, stagecoach Mannetts, and thuggish outlaws led
by Ed Morrison, a man who has been humiliated by
(13:35):
Wyatt in which Doc soveral years earlier and has been
itching to get even. They begin shooting their guns into
the air and harassing customers. Here in the gunfire, Wyatt
runs into the Long Branch only to find six deadly
characters with their guns leveled at him. Morrison warns him,
(13:55):
pray and jerk your gun. Your time is comerb Whyatt
reckons he's dead, but Doc steps up behind. Morrison, puts
a gun to the outlaw's head and tells him and
his boys to drop their guns. They comply. Wyatt says
Doc saved his life that day, and Wyatt never forgets
(14:17):
what Doc has done for him. When work comes of
a silver strike a tombstone in Arizona Territory, several of
Dodge City's gamblers and gunslingers head west. Doc travels with
Kate along the way. They spend some time in Las Vegas,
New Mexico, where Doc decides to open his own saloon.
(14:37):
Here's Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Of course, Doc was in trouble with the law again
because Las Vegas had laws just like all Western towns did,
against operating gambling games in houses of spiritus liquors. So
he just did what other businessmen did and paid the
fines and went right on operating his gambling games. He
also had arrests for carrying a deadly weapon, which was
(15:01):
also part of business in a saloon because a saloon
owner was expected to police his own business and had
to be armed to protect his patrons from violence.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
One of the patrons is former army scout Mike Gordon.
After a dispute, Gordon steps out into the street and
fires a couple of rounds into the saloon, gun in hand,
Doctor comes running outside in drills Gordon. He's mortally wounded
and dies the next day. By September eighteen eighty, Doc
(15:33):
arrives in the violent moodown in Tombstone, Arizona, joining the
IRBs in what is a factional fight to control the town.
The heart of the Tombstone story has to do with
the growing animosity between the IRB faction and what's called
the Cowboy Faction. The Cowboys run a lucrative operation, rustling
(15:55):
cattle and robbing stagecoaches. They are all handy with guns,
including William Brochus, but are known as Curly Bill who
shoots to death. Tombstone City Marshal Fred Whitett, Johnny Ringo
and Frank Stillwell are also members of the Cowboy Faction,
with reputations for fast and fancy shooting. Leading the Rustling
(16:18):
are old Man Clanton and three of his sons, Ike,
Finn and Billy, and their close friends the mac Lowery brothers,
Tom and Frank. The Cowboy faction has Cochise County Sheriff
Johnny Bean County Supervisor Mike Joyce, and the bubblisher of
the Daily Nugget, Harry Woods on his side. The York
(16:42):
faction consists of the five her Brothers Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan,
James and Warren and Doc Holiday, Judge Wells Spicer, Tombstone
Mayor and bublisher of the Tombstone Epitaph, John Clum, and
several prominent business US virtual URP is both a Deputy
(17:03):
US Marshal and the City Marshal of Tombstone. The IRP
faction could be called the law and Order faction, but
the RBS and associates are as much concerned about their
business interests and who controls the town has about law
and order.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath telling the real
story of Doc Holliday. And by the way, he's doing
his best to synthesize many of the stories that are
out there, but in a far greater depth and detail
than we ever experience while just watching a movie or
watching a TV version of the story. And when we
continue the rest of the remarkable story of the life
(17:48):
of Doc Holliday here on our American Stories, and we
(18:10):
continue with the story of Doc Holiday here on our
American Stories, how we return to Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Various members of the cowboy faction are fond of drinking
in Tombstone saloons, firing their guns, and generally raising hell.
They've also been heart threatening to kill the RBS and Holiday.
Virgil gets the city council to pass an ordinance stating
that upon arrival in Tombstone, cowboys must deposit their guns
(18:42):
at various locations in the city. The countdown to the
most famous gunfight in Western history begins in a bar
several of the cowboys arrive in town on October twenty fifth,
eighteen eighty one, and begin drinking and gambling. Doc Holliday,
who's also drinking heavily, gets into an argument with Ike
(19:05):
Clinton in the Alhamber Saloon. Four turns deadly. Others interfere,
and Wyader walks Doc to his quarters and tells him
to sleep it off. Here again is Garry Roberts.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
The next morning, after a peculiar thing happened, and that
is that Ike Clinton and Virgil Irt stayed up most
of the night playing cards with each other in the
same card game. But the next morning, while before Virgil
or anybody else had gotten up, Ike Clinton is already
walking the streets looking for the Irt brothers.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Ike stays in the saloons and around mid morning retrieves
his guns from the West End Corral where he had
deposited them. Mike's still drinking, and now he's threatening him
to kill Holiday when he sees him. Upon hearing this,
Doc crawls out a bed, sharpens his fatalistic wit cracks, Honey,
(20:01):
if God lets me live long enough to get my
clothes on, he shall see me. Virgil is alerted and
taking Morgan or his deputy with him. They find Ike
with a revolver on his hip and a Winchester in
his hand. Morgan confronts Ike while Virgil approaches from behind.
(20:22):
With the drunken Ike focusing on Morgan, Virgil knocks him
senseless using a revolver as a club. Morgan and Virgil
disarm Mike and drag him to the courthouse, where he's
fined twenty five dollars for violating the city ordinance. He's
told you who can retrieve his guns when he is
leaving town. Here's Jeff Moray.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Would have been justified in killing Klan. And I think
it's a mistake that the IRBs make. They're too lenient
with Ike. Basically, what they do all morning long is
allow Ike to build a head of steam. He gets
angry and angrier. What's bizarre about it is it seems
the more you ignore this fellow, the angrier he gets.
(21:08):
They keep thinking he's gonna finally drink enough, go to sleep,
and he'll be out of their hair, and it never happens.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
All this is going on, Wyatt Earth Pistol whips Tom
mclowry and leaves them bleeding in the street. Early afternoon
finds Ike Clinton and Tom mclowarry in a doctor's office
getting their head wounds stitched. At the same time, Billy
Clinton and Frank mclowry right into town and stop at
(21:38):
the Grand Hotel. They learn of the beatings of their
brothers and don't deposit their guns. Within minutes they join
up with They're wounded and unarmed brothers on Fremont Street,
not far from the Okay crowd. The day is cold
and windy. There's a dusting of snow in places. ViRGE
(21:59):
alert gathers his forces. Wyatt and morganerb but not Doc.
Where are you going, says Doc. We're going to make
a fight, replies Wyatt. Well, you're not going to leave
me out of it, are you. This is none of
your affair. That is a hell of a thing for
you to say to me. It's going to be a
(22:21):
tough one. Tough ones are the kind I like. Here's
old West historian and gunfighter Drew gomber.
Speaker 8 (22:30):
Accompany in the irp's down to the Oka craw was
a big deal because you know he didn't have to go,
which would indicate loyalty in the extreme, the risk of
your life for your friend.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
All are armed with revolvers, but Virtual gives his East
In the Wold, Doc holiday a Wells Fargo ten geege
double barreled shotgun to hide under his overcoat. He also
deputizes Doc good Boy. Here's Old West historian Tom.
Speaker 9 (23:00):
Virgil had other deputies. He doesn't take those deputies. He
takes his brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, and then he drags
along Doc Hardy. This is like bringing a match to
a party full of gas cands.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
The Fort lawman walks shoulder to shoulder down the center
of Freemont the Street and find the cowboys in a small,
fifteen foot wide, dusty vacant lot next to Fli's photography studio.
Here again, it's true Gomber.
Speaker 8 (23:29):
This is only a fifteen foot wide alley that contained
nine men and two horses. They were so close that
when they initially entered the alley, Doc took his shotgun
and pressed it right into Tom mcclowry's belly. Then he
took a few steps back. So these guys it was
up close and personal. Book Everybody.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Virgil calls for Billy Clinton and Frank mcclowry, the only
two cowboys arm to surrender their guns. They refuse. What
happens next is a matter of where. Ba Whiter probably
fires first, hitting Frank mclowry in the stomach. Billy Clainton
fires at nearly the same time. Unarmed Tom mcclowry tries
(24:12):
to take cover behind a horse and reach for a
rifle in a scabbard on the horse, but Doc Holliday
steps to the side and lets both barrels of the
shotgun roar. Tom mclowry staggers into the street and collapses. Unarmed,
Eyke Claanten takes off running. Meanwhile, Virgil Irp fires around
(24:33):
that hits Billy Clainton in his gun hand. Billy gamely
switches his gun to his other hand and fires, drilling
Virgil in the leg. Morganer fires around that hits Billy
in the chest. Despite suffering several wounds, Billy Clatton and
Frank mclowarry continue firing. Morganerp is hitting the shoulder and
(24:54):
Doc Holliday in the hip. Wyater is untouched, finds himself
looking down the burel of Frank mclarry's pistol. Mclowry says,
I've got you now. Doc's Tom response is characteristic, lays away.
You're a dazy if you do. Mclarry fires and a
(25:15):
bullet rips through Doc's coop. Doc fires and a bullet
rips through mc lowry's head, killing him instantly. Both Billy
Clinton and Tom mclarry are barely clinging to life. They're
carried into a nearby house and within minutes are dead.
Analysis of Doc's movements at the ok Krawl show him
(25:38):
to be a master in tactical combat. Here again is
Jeff Moray.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
His job is to protect the flank, not to let
the cowboys out a lot so that they can thank
their brothers. What's peculiar about Doc's performance in the gunfight
is how much walking he does. He traverses more ground
than any other participating.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
It takes just thirty shots in thirty seconds of gunfighting
at the ok Corral to write another chapter in American history.
When the gun smoke clears, three cowboys are dead. Here
again is Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
The story of the gunfight went out across the telegraph
wires and hit all the newspapers in America and made
instant celebrities of all the participants in a country that
was enamored with all things wild West. This was the
most iconic Western battle of them all.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
The event is highly controversial in Tombstone, and the brothers
and Doc Holiday are put through a month long hearing
before Judge Wells Spicer. Testimony from witnesses is wildly contradictory.
The Tombstone Epitaph argues the Herbs and Holiday were only
doing their duty as lawman. The Daily Nugget argues they
(26:51):
be tried for murder. Judge Spicer finally rules and there's
not enough evidence to proceed with the murder trial.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Therefore, this is a journ, and when we come back,
we're going to continue with the remarkable story of Doc Holiday,
the full story of Doc Holiday, and you're hearing from
some of the best Western historians in the country. More
on the life of Doc Holliday. Here on our American stories,
(27:37):
and we continue here with our American stories and the
story of Doc Holliday. We last heard from Judge Spicer,
who ruled that there was not enough evidence to proceed
with a murder trial against the IRPs or Doc Holliday.
Let's pick up from there with Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Therefore, this court is adjourn. Boys are incensed by the
failure to proceed with the trial. They issue of public
death threat and Judge Spicer in the Daily Nuggets.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
The real problem is the town has been so polarized
that there's no appeasing losing sight. The cowboys aren't interested
in pr They're interested in rebnch I. Clanton wants to
get the men who killed his brother, and they feel
the whole system has let them down.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Word spreads through Tombstone, but the IRPs and Doc Holiday
are targeted for death wait. On a December night, Virgil
Earp steps out of the Oriental Saloon and into the
blast of a shotgun. The butt shot from the unseen
assassin shreds his left arm and rips into his left leg. Miraculously,
(28:50):
Virgil survives, but his left arm is rendered useless for
the rest of his life. Three months later, in March
eighteen eighty two, Morganer is shot while playing a game
of billiards. The shot comes through an open window of
the billiard parlor and drills Morgan in the stomach. He
lingers for an hour and dies in Wyatt's arms.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
For Wyatt Earth, the killing of Morgan was a profoundly
upsetting incident. From now on, he will be a law
on to himself. The question over the years is was
he a force for justice or was he an expression
of the log one wrong? And that's a difficult question
to answer, but he will be the judge, the jury
(29:36):
and the executioner.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
White Earth is now a deputy US Marshal, and with
knock Holiday's encouragement, decides it's time to go on the offensive.
The first order of business, though, is to get Virgil
and his wife safely out of town. Wyatt deputizes Doc
and Warrener and two others Sherman McMaster and Turkey Creek
Jack Johnson. He's court Virgil and his wife to the
(30:01):
train station in two sons. At the station, they spot
Frank Stillwell. The man has been bragging that he fired
the field shot in the Morgan HER's stomach. Stillwell is
hiding behind a railroad car. As the men close in
on him, Wyatt let's a shotgun war and Doc opens
up with a revolver. How many others fire is not known,
(30:24):
but Stillwell's body is later found riddle with buckshot in bullets.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
One of the witnesses says that he'd never seen a
man who'd been more badly shot up and from now on,
there's no turning back from Wier. This is a major
change in his career. He still views himself, I believe,
as bringing justice, but he clearly realizes he's now outside
the confines of the law.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
This was the beginning of real trouble for the ARBs,
and it made it clear that Wyatt was interested in
more than just arresting people. This has become personal.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
A Tucson Justice to the Peace issues arrest warrants for
Wyatt and Doc and the others. But by the time
he does, they are long gone and armed to the
teeth to hunt down the killers of Morgan and they
attempted assassin a Virgil. Joined by Texas Jack Vermillion, they
(31:25):
head for the ranch of Peate Spence, one of the
leaders of the Cowboy faction. Spence is not there, but
they find one of his hands, Indian Charlie Cruz, and
the Spence some Western justice upon him. What becomes known
as the Vendetta Ride is now at full galloping.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Why a Spindeta ride can be looked at as almost
an Old Testament type story, an eye for an eye,
a tooth for a tooth, And if you really think
about that, what that type of approach, Fosters is the
idea of a natural law. You have the natural law
and you have the civil law. And those who support
(32:06):
Wider would say he was following the natural law in
the course of accents he took. After the killing Morgan.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Wider and Doc Holliday and the other Vendetta riders next
surprise Curly Bill and eight other cowboys at Iron Springs,
about thirty miles northwest of the Tombstone or Let's loose
with a shotgun, nearly cutting curly Bill in half. The
other cowboys return fire and the Vendetta Riders are forced
(32:35):
to retreat Texas check Vermillion has his horse shot from
under him, but Doc Holliday dashes back through heavy fire
to rescue his fallen comrade. Doc Leader says our escape
was miraculous. The shots cut our clothes and saddles and
killed one horse, but did not hit us. I think
(32:58):
we would have been killed if God Almighty wasn't on
our side.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
After the Curly Bill episode, the Irt Posse decides it's
time to leave Arizona because of the pressure of the
Posse's that are chasing them, with the assistance probably of
two governors Wells Fargo and company, maybe the Santa Fe
Railroad and the US Marshall's office. They go to Albuquerque
(33:29):
and from there into Colorado.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
At Pueblo, Colorado, they part company. Whyatt going to Gunnison
and Doc to Denver. Doc was arrested in Denver in
May eighteen eighty two on the Arizona warrant for the
murder Frank Stillwell.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
All of a sudden, Doc has support coming out of
the woodwork. There is bat Masterson comes to town and
begins to argue for him. There's a newspaper man named
Ed Cowen who is working on his behalf. So all
of these people are saying to the governor, don't send
(34:07):
him back. And so what happens is that the Governor
of Colorado locks over the papers and says, there is
already a charge against Doc Holliday in Pueblo, and we
can't extradite him to another state when there is an
outstanding warrant against him here in Colorado. By the way,
(34:30):
that's called now in Colorado and other places, holidaying filing
charges of one crime to prevent applying warrants for another crime.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Doctor Dre's a gambling to support himself, but tuberculosis is
ravaging his body and has once vaunted skills are beginning
to deteriorate. He bounces from town to town, Denver Pueblo, Leadville.
In a Leadville saloon. In March eighteen eighty five, Doc
is in his last shooting scrape. When Billy Allen tries
(35:04):
to collect the debt, Doc owes him and threatens the
frail consumptive. Doc shoots Allen. Doc is arrested and put
on trial, but a jury finds him not guilty on
the grounds of self defense. Doc's last days are spent
in the health resort of Glenwood Springs. He moves there
(35:24):
in May eighteen eighty seven and begins soaking in the
hot springs and inhaling the soul furious vapors. Here's entrepreneur
and Old West collector Bill Coke.
Speaker 10 (35:37):
Why would Doc go to a springs that had a
lot of sulfur in it? I mean that just hastens
his death. And he was medically trained, but it shows
how primitive medicine was in those days.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Over the years, he has never stopped corresponding with his
cousin Mattie Holiday. Now his letter writing increases. She urges
him to turn to God. He seeks out the local priest,
father Edward Downey, and it's not long before the Irish
cleric baptizes Doc in the Catholic faith. By the fall
(36:13):
of eighteen eighty seven, Doc Holliday is bedridden after all
his narrow escapes. He finds it ironic that he won't
die with his boots on. On the morning of November eighth,
he calls for a nurse to bring him a jigger
or whiskey. Doc sits up in his bed and throws
(36:34):
back the shot. He looks at his beer feet. This
is funny, he says, and then falls back onto the
bed and dies. Sean Henry Holiday is but thirty six
years old. Here's Gary Roberts in Victoria Wilcox.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
If you think about it, and you go to see
movies about all of this, the character who wins in
the movies every time, who puts Wyater up in the shadows,
although he's supposed to be the hero, you forget about
Wyater and you concentrate on Doc Holiday.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
He'd done more in thirty six years than most men
ever dream of doing. He traveled across the country and
seen history being made, and he had become part of
American history.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Whiderp later says of him, 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
(37:48):
skillful gambler and the nervioust speediest and deadliest man with
a six gun I ever knew.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
And great work is always to Greg Hangler, and thanks
as always to Roger McGrath, who's our regular contributor for
all things American West, the legend, the reality, the story
of Doc Holliday here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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