All right, folks, welcome to part two of the DIC Holiday series here
on Blood and Dust. And again this is a solo hosted episode by me
Justin. Also, again, there is explicit language. There is explicit content.
Whether you're a child listening or an adult, just be aware of that.
I will say this these two episodes, all the DIC Holiday stuff I
did took me months to research. The information in here is crazy, and
I just really hope that you enjoy it. So with that being said,
let's get on with this episode. We are none of us born into Eden.
The world's plenty evil when we get here. Question is what's the best
way to play a bad hand John Henry Holiday. When the Herbs made up
their minds to go down and confront the mcclowdy's and their group for Doc,
it was a no brainer. He was going to back their play no matter
what. This famous gunfight is a most legendary shootout of the real West.
In the small towns and farms outside Tombstone, many saw the irp's as unprovoked
killers and the dead men as innocent victims. The biggest misconception people have about
Doc Holiday is that he was simply wide Earth sidekick, Doc's his own men,
who chooses to live by chance and violence over dying in a sick bit,
Doc Holliday's anger fuel by a life cut short, desperate to die on
his own terms. For fifteen years, he lives in the shadow of certain
Yeah. The cowboys were robbing and murdering Mexican citizens at a time when the
last thing they wanted to do was stir up what one official called an international
controversy, if not war. It was obvious that the cowboys would strike again.
It was obvious that there would be more trouble. I Clapton was eager
to exact any degree of revenge he could. Many historians agree that Doc is
the first to cock his weapon and one of the first to pull the trigger.
There's a good chance that if Doc Holiday is not there that day,
the gunfight at the Okay Corral might never have happened. Right after the gunfight,
it seemed almost like the town and like the West as a whole,
was celebrating. They were considered heroes for taking action against those dirty cowboys.
The lines of animosity that were created by that gunfight were far far deeper and
potentially lethal that any disagreements that had happened before. Rumors of assassination were everywhere.
The Earths were said to be targets. Along with Doc Holiday, Doc
Holiday represents the darkness, the villainy, the inequity that lies inside of all
of us, that part of us that we know we need to repress,
but is also useful. Now we're on October twenty sixth, eighteen eighty one,
the day of the shootout at the Ok Corral. It's eleven am and
Whyat and Virgil they basically see Ike Clanton still drunk in the streets and probably
trying to sober up a little bit. They take him into custody. After
a little bit of a fight, Virgil ends up pistol whipping Ike Clanton.
Ike is brought into the court on a weapon's charge. You know, he
had been carrying a Winchester rifle and a pistol. Whyat also has words with
Tom mclowry and Pistol whips the shit out of him. So there was an
ordinance in town when Virgil came around that you know, there were no there
were no weapons allowed in town. That was just the way it was,
and these two kept breaking the rules. So at one thirty pm Ike is
out of jail. He has his guns, okay, and he's around town
looking for Doc. Now Doc is asleep when Ike comes into the Flies boarding
house looking for him, which is actually adjacent to the photography studio, which
is right next to the alley where the shootout takes place. Now Doc is
asleep, so obviously he doesn't find there. Kate notices that Ike clants around
looking for him, and she warns Doc via the landlady pretty much. She
like relays a message to the landlady and says, hey, tell like Doc
isn't here, you know, or that she wasn't sure where he was,
so Ike, Clanton's just like all right, whatever you know now, big
nos. Kate was visiting Doc at the time, okay, missus Fly told
her that Clanton had been trying to find Holiday. They're up in the room.
Kate tells Doc that Ike is out looking for him and that he's threatening
to kill him again and all this other stuff. According to Kate's account,
Doc says, if God will let me live long enough, he will see
me. So he gets addressed, throws on a black suit with a light
colored linen shirt, a broad hat, long gray overcoat, and he goes
out and he meets up with the Earps, who have been all day long,
all morning long, receiving reports from various townspeople. You know that the
Cowboy gang is out gunning for him. They're looking for him, they want
to kill him. So John Beehan, the county sheriff, shows up,
and he says, hey, Ike Clanton and his crew are on Fremont Street
talking gun talk. There are some reports that say Wyatt telling Doc, you
know, on his arrival, he didn't need to get mixed up in what
was about to happen, probably more than likely because he wasn't officially a lawman,
in which Doc replied, that is a hell of a thing for you
to say to me. And that was pretty much assuming that it was because
he was already involved so deep with the Earps that it didn't matter to him
whether he was a lawman or not. He was already living on borrowed time.
It should be noted that when Karen holiday Tanner did write her book,
she really did not make any mention of this little conversation, so you know,
you should know that. But there are other witnesses who did corroborate that
two thirty pm. The earps and Doc decide to go confront the cowboys who
were, like I said, in that alley about ten feet away from that
Okay corral because the shoot out technically didn't happen at the corral. And Virgil
asks Sheriff Bihan to go with him and literally looks at him, starts laughing
and says, hell, this is your fight, not mine. The next
chain of events are from thirty days worth of testimony from preliminary hearings from a
large number of witnesses and all of the people involved, and this is all
stated by Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer. Okay. So Doc and Virgil
they exchange walking stick and shotgun. Doc takes virgil shotgun, Virgil takes Doc's
walking stick. Holiday Tanner, like I had stated, the author of Doc
Holliday A Family Affair, she seems to think that Virgil carried Dock's walking stick
to appear more imposing, but more than likely he probably carried it as a
weapon because a lot of historians feel that Virgil and Wyatt just intended to disarm
the cowboys by pistol whipping them, and the way that they actually approached that
small lot would probably have been evidence of that, so that should be noted.
Now, Doc carries the shotgun, partially concealed beneath his gray overcoat,
and the foursomes start walking towards the lot by the Ok Corral. Now the
cowboys which included a now unarmed Ike Clanton, along with Billy Clanton, his
brother, the mclowry brothers Frank and Tom, and Billy Clayborne, they were
nearby. Now, what they were doing there was they were actually waiting there
for Doc because they were planning on ambushing him. Doc and the Earps actually
believe this, and most historians believe it as well, because Doc was staying
at the adjoining boarding house, which was right next door. Right when they
get close by, Sheriff Bhan runs over and he claims that he disarmed the
cowboys. The Earps and Doc brush them off. They're like, whatever,
dude, just get the fuck out of here. They didn't trust him anyway.
They didn't think that he did disarm them, and Virgil actually later suggested
even if they did believe them, they were going over to make sure that
they were disarmed. Now, as it turns out, you know, Sheriff
b Hand either didn't disarm them or he didn't completely disarm them. Billy Clanton
and the mcclowary brothers still had weapons on them. Now, this is one
cool thing that I did find stated in several eyewitness accounts. As they are
on their way to the OK Corral. Witnesses said that the three Art brothers
were all dressed in black with firm, mean grimaces on their faces, while
Doc was Natalie clad in gray and was whistling. Now, if you can
picture that these dudes are getting or heady to head over to a shootout,
Doc's dressed in gray, just whistling on his way there. I thought that
was like personality wise, that was just perfect for me. I just smiled
when I read that as like his kick ass. So when they actually get
there, the cowboys are really surprised because the RBS show up with Doc,
and like I had said, they were planning on ambushing Doc. He was
supposed to be alone. Okay, So Doc was there as armed backup.
Now, he stood slightly behind the street with the shotgun. He covered the
flank. His job was to cover the side so that you know, the
cowboys couldn't come around the side or whatever. Now, you got to remember
this lot literally is fifteen feet wide. Okay, it's a very confined area,
and his job was basically to make sure that Virgil and Wyatt were not
fired upon as they disarmed the clans and McClory's. Now, Virgil and Wyatt
probably did not think the cowboys would fire on them with Doc and Morgan covering
them in this manner, because Morgan was actually on the other side, covering
the other flank. Virgil says, throw up your hands, I intend to
disarm you, and obviously the cowboys did not comply. Now, the shooting
started when Billy Clanton and Frank McClory cocked their pistols. Now, too,
shots are fired initially and simultaneously. Now, apparently these shots are fired by
Wyatt and Frank McLaury. Some accounts do have Billy Clanton drawing first. Now
it's not really known who fired the first shot, but Doc's bullet was the
first one to hit. He hit Tom McLaury in the stomach with a double
barreled shotgun as he was reaching for a weapon in his saddle sheath as mccloudy
was pulling his gun when Doc shot him. Mccloudy pulled the trigger and a
bullet went through Wyatrp's coattail. Billy Clayborne. As soon as he hears the
shots fired, he takes off running. He's gone, so Doc ends up
getting hit in the hip. Kate later reported that his hip was only grazed
by mccloudy's bullet. Kate asked Doc if he was hurt, and he replied
no. She could see like a small reddish welt from the bullet the tombstone
nugget. The newspaper also reported that Doc skin was just grazed because the bullet
hit his pistol holster. So at this point, Ike Clanton he panocks.
He throws his gun down and basically starts begging for his life, and Wyatt
yells at him fight or get out like Clayborne, and he watched Ike Clanton
straight up dessert his brother Billy, and he ran towards the door of the
photography shop. Now, while he gets into the photography shop, Ike draws
up hid and gun from his back and he fires one more round towards Wyatt
before he pretty much disappeared out aside into hiding. The sound actually distracted Morgan
enough so that Frank mclowy sent a bullet into Morgan's side, so Morgan is
now shot. Then by this time Doc tossed the shotgun and he had drawn
his nickel plated pistols, and he covers starts covering some ground to come face
to face with Frank mclowery, who was wounded at this point. Now,
Frank mclowry levels his pistol, looks right at Doc and says, quote,
I got you now, And Doc looks at him and says, you're a
daisy if you have, and then he hurries up, draws his pistol shoots
Frank mcclowry right behind the right ear. At the same exact time, Morgan
Herb fires a shot at Frank mcclowry, which also hits him. Now Billy
Clanton fired at Virgil, but his shot went astray when he was hit with
Morgan's shot through the ribcage. Some did claim that Doc may have shot at
Ike as he fled, but he more than likely didn't, according to eyewitness
accounts and to Wyatt's account, indicate the only his only shots were at the
mcclowry brothers. Now Billy Clanton, who's pretty much just wounded he's pretty much
dying. He starts firing blindly into the gun smoke around him, and he
hits Virgil in the leg. Now Wyatt responds and he walks up and just
fills him full of bullets, just not even a hesitation. So all in
all, the lawmen killed three of the cowboys during that gunfight. But the
thing about it was is Dic Holiday, being the sikest person who probably should
have been bedridden covering the flank, actually covers more ground than anybody in this
gunfight. He was constantly moving around just covering everybody's fire, which is awesome.
I thought that was so cool because this guy is literally on his damn
deathbed for the last x amount of years, but he's the one moving around
the most making sure nobody else gets shot. So you would think that this
would be the end of it, but it's not. Ike Clanton ends up
filing fucking murder charges, and they did like I had said, Well,
Spicer, Justice of the Piece had thirty days of preliminary hearings and where he
heard witness test Moony, he heard from everybody involved, and he ended up
finding that the lawman and Doc Holliday acted within their duty Now to Ike Clanton
and the other cowboys, well, Spicer's findings really didn't mean shit to them.
Now, the aftermath of the Okay Corral, you know, Virgil and
Wyatt both believed that Sheriff Behan had pretty much betrayed them the minutes right before
the Okay Corral went down, you know, when he stated, hey,
I have disarmed them, which he obviously didn't do. At the end of
the day, the mclowry brothers and eighteen year old Billy Clanton were the three
that were killed. According to Kate's reports, she which it's still debatable whether
or not she was even present, but Doc supposedly returns to his room,
sits on the side of the bed, puts his face in his hands,
you know, just downcast, and says, this is just awful. It's
awful. And she's basically referring to the fact that he had taken a couple
lives that day, or at least one life that day. Now, like
I said, this is highly debatable. Kate does say some things throughout history
relating to Doc that could be taken as kind of true, kind of not
true. So you got to kind of take that with a grain of salt.
Now what happens next is Ike Clampton, he was the one who ran
away from the fight. He goes and files in a complaint against Wyat,
Eeran Doc. Holliday, Doc and Wyat are both arrested and the hearings were
held in Justice of the Piece, Well Spicer's court, from November second till
November twenty ninth. Now, when Spicer had hurt all the testimony, he
issued an opinion, and he said, in the view of all the facts
and circumstances in the case, considering the threats made, the character and position
of the parties, and the tragical results accomplished in manner and form as they
were, with all surrounding influences, is bearing upon the result of the affair,
I cannot resist the conclusion that the defendants were fully justified in committing these
homicides, and that it was a necessary act done in the discharge of official
duty. So the Justice of the Piece is pretty much saying, hey,
look, these guys were justified. This was they were I mean, they
did several witnesses, they had everybody come up give their testimonies, and after
all that it was says, you know what this is justifiable homicide. They
were, they were in duty of what they were doing. So this really
really pissed the cowboys off. So on December twenty eighth, eighteen eighty one,
at about midnight, Virgil Earp is on his way from the Oriental Saloon
to the Crystal Palace. Now I had heard a separate report that he was
at the Schiffelin Hotel back to the Cosmopolitan. Now the herbs had moved to
either one or the other for mutual support and protection because they did know that
the cowboys and Ike Clanton were out for revenge for killing the mcclowry's and Ike
Clanton's little brother Billy. The weird thing about that is the Ok Corral,
the citizens were split pretty fifty fifty. It was really weird because all the
people within Tombstone pretty much heralded him yet them as heroes, you know,
they had saved the day because there's all this violence always going on. But
the other half of them in the little ranches outside of Tombstone, they did
not see it that way. They saw the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday as
the villains because you know, they were friendly with the cowboys and shit like
that, and on top of it, mcclowry brothers that were killed. The
mclowry's were pretty much seen as everybody. Yeah, they were in cahoots with
the cowboys, but they were also seen as being in the wrong place at
the wrong time. So a lot of people took sympathy towards the mcclowry's and
and even young Billy Clanton who was eighteen years old, you know, when
he got killed. So you got to understand, like, even though the
movie's portray it this way, or sometimes history might portray it that way,
it was very fifty fifty on whether or not the citizens in and around Tombstone
actually liked the Earps and dic holiday for what they did. So there was
a shitload of tension going on right now. Okay, So on December twenty
eighth, eighteen eighty, wanted about midnight, Virgil RB like I had said,
it was on his way from one saloon to another, and like I
had said, they had moved there for mutual support and protection. Virgil was
ambushed by three men with shotguns. Two out of the five shots fired that
struck Virgil, one of them shattered his left arm and the other one entered
his left side and back by about he was hit by about twenty pellets worth
a buckshot. Now this shattered the humorous and his left arm. Virgil herb
kind of when he got hit by the bolts, he kind of spun completely
around, but he never left his feet. He stayed on his feet the
entire time. And doctor George Goodfellow, he was the one who worked on
Virgil Ert. He had ended up removing about five and a half inches worth
of bone, which is about one hundred and forty millimeters. Now, these
wounds did cripple Virgil for the rest of his life. They were very serious
wounds, but he was able to walk back to whichever one he was at.
Let's say it's the Oriental, whereas brother Wyatt was playing poker. Now,
the first thing Whyatt did was he telegraphed US Marshall Crawley Dake. He
requested appointment as a Deputy US Marshal for Eastern Pima County and he wanted the
authority to form a posse. Now, I'm not going to get into two
money details about the ambush of Virgil Earp, the shooting of Morgan Earp,
and a lot of the details pertaining to the Vendetta ride, because that is
going to pertain more to the Herbs than it is to Doc Holliday. I
will mention the things that Doc Holliday was involved in, but when it comes
to the Earth episode down the line, I don't want to be redundant and
repeat a lot of that information, especially when it doesn't pertain to Doc Holliday.
This is Doc's episode, so us Marshall Dake replied right away with yes,
so why earp. First thing he did was he deputized his brother Warren,
a guy named Sherman McMaster, guy named Jack Turkey Creek Johnson, another
guy named Harelip, Charlie Smith, another guy named Daniel Tipton, guy named
John Texas, Jack Vermillion, and of course Doc Holliday is suspected as well
to be one of those deputized members. Now, what he was looking for
was he was looking to protect his family and pursue the suspects. And what
he was doing was he was paying these guys five dollars per day, which
would be in today's money about one hundred bucks a day. The men responsible
for the attack on Virgil were more than likely Ike Clanton, Johnny Ringo,
Frank still well, Hank Swelling, Pete Spencer, and Johnny Barnes. Some
of the men were arrested and brought into court. But what happened was a
number of eyewitnesses who were friendly with the cowboys or even cowboys themselves, swore
that the guys that were being charged with the crime we're in Charleston at the
time that Virgil was shot. So the judge really had no reason, you
know, he had no reason to hold him. He couldn't hold them.
He had no choice but to release them because of the eyewitness accounts of them
being elsewhere. So in January of eighteen eighty two, there's this huge rash
of crime. There's all kinds of horse thefts, there's a bunch of stagecoach
robberies that are happening. And what's going on is the Earps and Doc Holliday
are losing a lot of popularity in Tombstone, and it's mostly due to the
feud between the cowboys and the Earps, And it was also the series of
crimes and shootings that were pretty much pissing everybody off because the Earps had promised
that they were going to stop all this. Now another reason that the townspeople
were getting pissed at Dic Holliday in the Earps is because Virgil Earp shooting.
It happened right in the heart of the business district of Tombstone, and there
was a bunch of patrons at a local place right by where Virgil was,
called the Golden Eagle Brewery, and some of those shots barely missed some of
the patrons inside there. So they're starting to fear for their own lives because
the Earths are targets and basically starting a bunch of shit, and of course
Dic Holiday being the instigator of a ton of this shit, they also were
not liking him very well either. So in January of eighteen eighty two,
Deputy Sheriff Breckinridge was out on patrol near the Birdcage One Knives Birdcage Theater.
He feels a pistol against his chest and it's Frank Stillwell. One of the
cowboys. Stillwell claimed that he was waiting for someone, and Bragg that he
was going to kill him that night. Now Breckinridge cautioned Stillwell to go home.
He was already out home bail and awaiting trial. So just a little
bit later Breckinridge finds Doc Holliday. Nothing actually happens, obviously, but because
Doc Holliday is still here, we don't know the details of that altercation.
Ike Clanton later goes and he refiles murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday
for the slang of his brother and the mcclowery boys. Now, Ike was
unable to produce any kind of sufficient evidence, so the judge had no choice
but to pretty much dismiss all the charges. Now, on January seventeenth,
eighteen eighty two, there is a street standoff between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo.
Now, if you've seen the movie Tombstone, which I'm pretty sure everybody
has, there's a lot of writers, and in the movie, you know
Ringo confronts Doc and the Earp brothers. That is not true Virgil and Morgan
where are still recovering from their wounds from the Okay Corral and from Virgil getting
ambushed that night about a month beforehand or three weeks beforehand. So the thing
about it too is Ringo knew he really wasn't at that much risk because he
knew they wouldn't accept the challenge. Because there's still all this shit going on,
but he was drinking a lot of whiskey that day. He knew that
they were having troubles enough with the aftermath of the gunfight at the Okay Corral,
Ringo knew all this. So pretty much how it goes down is Ringo
steps out into the street to quote unquote have it out with Doc Holliday in
a man to man fight. Now, the Holiday, being the kick ass
dude that he is, was more than happy to oblige, and he comes
out. He says he'll give Ringo any kind of fight that he wanted.
Doc specifically says he looks at Ringo and he says, all I want of
you is ten paces out in the street. So one of the townspeople.
Actually, this was seen by plenty of witnesses, including the Earps. One
of the towns people described it in a journal and he said he described it
as bad time expected with the cowboy leader in Dike Holliday. I passed both
not knowing blood was up, one with hand in breast pocket and the other
possibly ready. He was referring to Dike Holliday, who was just standing there,
just waiting for it to go down, says Earp's just beyond crowded streets
and looked like another battle police vigilant for once. And both were disarmed.
So if you can imagine Dic Holliday, He's got one hand in his breast
pocket, he's got the other one on his revolver, ready to shoot,
and he straight up tells Johnny Ringo, you know all, I wanted to
use ten paces in the street. He was ready to go right there.
Now what happens is James Flynn, who is the acting town Marshal at the
time, goes and grabs Ringo and held him while Wyatt pretty much hustled and
got he got Doc Holliday out of there, and that was pretty much the
extent of the confrontratation. No shots were fired, like I said, Wyatt,
and there was a lot of other people witnessed to it. Now,
according to Karen Holiday Tanner's biography, it was recorded in the journal of a
Tombstone resident, which is what I just read to you. Doc and Ringo
were both arrested for carrying weapons on the street, and Ringo was actually retained
on account of existing charges of robbery. Both were fined thirty dollars for carrying
concealed weapons and doc was eventually released. Now, on January twenty third,
eighteen eighty two, warrants are issued for Ike and Finclanton in the connection with
a Virgil Earp shooting. Another guy named Pony Deal had warrant issued for a
stagecoach robbery. On January thirty first, eighteen eighty two, citizen of Tombstone
demanded town meeting for the appointment of deputies who were not aligned with either faction
of the parties who are now distracting the community. So basically, they wanted
some kind of law enforcement that was not cowboy related and that was not involved
with the Earps. The townspeople are telling Wiad Earp to resign, They don't
want him anywhere around in town. But wid Earp does resign, and of
course his resignation is quote unquote conveniently ignored. Now. On February seventeenth,
eighteen eighty two, Earp and Company Doc included leave Tombstone armed with a warrant
for the arrest of Pony Deal for the suspected stagecoach robbery. While the robbery
was unsuccessful. At this time, Earp and Doc they heard rumors that the
clant In faction was planning revenge. So they're, like I said, there's
still a lot of tension going on. And by March eighteen eighty two,
there are multiple death threats against Wide Earp, Doc Holliday, Morgan Earp,
and a guy named Dan Tipton who was riding with them as well. So
I mean Doc Holliday and the Earps, they're all getting death threats all the
time, literally on a daily basis, from all these cowboys. So on
March eighteenth, what happens. March eighteenth, eighteen eighty two, Morgan Earp
is shot while playing pool with Bob Hatch at Campbell and Hatch's Saloon and billiard
parlor. It's located right on Alan Street and Tombstone. He is struck in
the back and he ends up dying right there on the pool table, while
Wyatt is right there beside him. Now I have heard two separate accounts of
the following events. It is known that Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were also
very very good friends, and some actually suggest that they were better friends than
Wyatt himself. They actually got along quite a bit. So the next cham
of events, the one side is that Doc pretty much flips out and he
goes around kicking indoors to all these places, and he's looking for the killers,
and he's telling everybody on the street he's going to kill anybody that's responsible,
and at that same time, Wyatt swears revenge as well. Wyatt and
Doc then began the Vendetta ride against the cowboys, which is what we're about
to get into. But I also heard the other side of that story was
that Wyatt Earp himself actually took a cowboy as a human shield with a gun
to his head and went around kicking indoors doing the same thing, looking for
the killers and swearing revenge on whoever killed his brother right then. But what
ends up happening is Whyatt unless the help of Warren Arp, Sherman McMasters,
Turkey Creek, Johnson, Texas, Jack Vermillion, and Doc Holiday And on
March twentieth, eighteen eighty two, Wyatt and his posse escort the Earth Wives
and Virgil along with Morgan's body. And Morgan's body is actually dressed in one
of Doc's tailored suits that he had given for the burial. And what they're
doing is they're going to the railroad station because they're taking they're letting Virgil and
the earth Wives, and they're taking Morgan's body out to California, which is
where the Earp family had lived like their parents and stuff like that. So
what happens is cowboys Ike Clanton and Frank Stillwell are at the train station.
Wyatt most likely killed Stillwell, who was found with multiple gunshot wounds. Now
Wyatt has a shotgun and how it supposedly goes down is the first barrel of
the shotgun rips through Stillwell's stomach, spends him around, and the second shot
almost takes his leg clean off. And from all reports that I could read,
after he was down on the ground, Doc Holliday walks up and puts
two more bullets in them us to make sure he's dead. What happens is
a twoson Arizona Coroner's Jury named Wyatt, Warrenerp, Doc Holliday, Texas Jack,
and McMasters as the men who killed Stillwell. Sheriff b Hand while he
was there, he attempts to arrest Wyatt, Earp and the men, and
they pretty much refused to comply and just rode off out of town. Doc
and Wyatt both refused to be arrested by behnd for Stillwell's death, and a
Tuson judge did issue warrants for their arrests. Now, as far as Wyatt
was concerned, the manning shot Virgil and killed Morgan were dead men. They
did not care. And for Doc Holliday it was the same thing because those
were his friends. As we all know, Dic Holliday did not have many
friends whatsoever. The only reason that they were going to be living is if
they hadn't been found by Dic Holliday and the Art brothers. And that was
the way it was going to be. The killing of Stillwell's was just the
beginning, all right. Doc Holliday, like I said, he rode beside
him the whole way, which is just a staple of his loyalty that he
had for the few friends that he did have. On March twenty second,
eighteen eighty one, Wyatt received word that Pete Spencer was at his wood camp
in the Dragoons. The quote unquote federal posse rode there and found They didn't
find Pete Spencer there, but they found a guy by the name of what
they referred to as Indian Charlie. His real name was Florentino Cruz. He
was scared shitless when he saw these dudes right up and got you know,
they pretty much got him. Now, he named all the men who murdered
Morgan Earp, which was himself included. After he confessed to everything and gave
all the names. Wyatter, Doc Holliday and the others just put a lot
of bull holes in that dude and shot him up pretty good. From what
I understand, the jury did determine that Cruise had been killed by WIDERP WARRENERP
Sherman, McMaster, Jack Johnson, Dic Holiday, Texas, Jack Dan Tipton,
and or another guy named Charlie Smith. Now, on March twenty fourth,
eighteen eighty two, Wyatt goes and he kills Curly Bill Barocius with a
shotgun during a shootout with a whole bunch of cowboys were there. And it's
a place called Burley Springs. Now, the thing about it is is the
exact location of the meeting place is unknown. There's a lot of conflicting reports.
One of them is Burly Springs, another one is Iron Springs, another
one is Cottonwood Springs. But it is thought that the exact location is Iron
Springs. Located in the wet Stone Mountains. Cowboy named Johnny Barnes and others
were also gone down. According to Doc in a later newspaper interview, his
and Wyatt's escape from the shootout is nothing short of miraculous. He indicates that
that basically God was on their side that day. Now, according to all
accounts, and this is not just Whyatt's posse, this is also from cowboy
accounts, Wyatt stood his ground during a battle, literally stood there firing while
he's getting shot at, while everyone else took cover. During this heavy shootout,
Doc was the only one that rode forward Texas Jack. He was on
his horse, and his horse got shot from underneath him. So Doc rode
up and under huge, huge amounts of fire, grabbed Texas Jack, put
him on his horse, and got him out of there. Which I mean,
as we've come to know from Doc Holiday, the dude legit had a
set of balls. He did not care. He knew he was on borrow
time, didn't care if he lived or died, so this would be totally
in his character. Now, on March twenty fifth, eighteen eighty two,
Sheriff B Hand forms a posse of twenty five men and they're comprised of all
known criminals, and this would include cowboys, Johnny Ringo and a bunch of
other ones. And what they do is he deputizes them and he sets them
out to find Doc Holiday and Wyat Earp and all their little posse. And
during April May of eighteen eighty two, Doc and Wyatt's posse they get provisions,
they get a little bit of money, they get some ammo, they
get some weapons, fresh horses, and they get that guy named Henry Hooker's
ranch. While they're there, Doc goes and he sends off this taunting letter
to the local newspaper and Tombstone, and he's pretty much mocking the entire Sheriff
be Hand posse. The letter is written out of torn sheets from an account
book and it's dated in Camp April fourth, eighteen eighty two, and it's
signed quote yours respectfully one of them end quote. And it's so funny because
it presents a response to the article in the Nugget which was on March thirty
first, which was uncomplimentary of the Earth Posse. It's basically the Tombstone Nugget.
They were very very in favor of Behand. They were on the cowboys
side, so any chance they got, they would totally be rate the herbs
and Doc holiday. So that's why Doc went ahead and did that. And
it's really funny because in the response, Doc terms the cowboys and be Hand
as quote, honest ranchers, and he does it with a lot of irony.
And he also suggests that there might have been trouble near camp if the
bee Hand posses quote trailing abilities had been equal to those of the average Arizona
ranchmen. And it's so funny because he keeps referring to them as gentlemen,
and literally, I'm not even quoting this for him, Like in the letter,
Doc purposely quotes these words and does that just to mock them because he's,
as we all know, he's extremely Wetty's very smart. Now, there
is no definitive proof that Doc was the one who wrote these letters, but
based on other letters that Doc had written, all historians agree that there's literally
no doubt that Doc was actually the one who wrote these letters because of him
being sarcastic and ironic and the way he was speaking. He was very,
very refined. So you know why I didn't Warren Earp and Doc Holliday did
remain in Arizona Territory until April. They were pretty reluctant to leave. They
had been writing over the countryside. They were just hoping to encounter Ringo Johnny,
Ringo, Clanton, Spencer, and Swelling. They didn't know where the
guys were, and in all actuality, all the dudes were hiding out in
Mexico at this point in time, so they were writing for about three weeks.
The whole Vendettoride in total was about three weeks, with the Okay Corral
and the events beforehand, starting with the killing of Old Man Clanton. Within
a about a year's time, the number of cowboy outlaws that had been killed
were Old Man Clanton, Billy Clanton, Frank mcloughery, Tom Mclowery, Frank
Stillwell, Indian Charlie, Dixie Gray, Florentino Cruise, which is the same
guy as Indian Charlie. I don't know why I put both of them in
there, but Curly Bill Brocius, which his death is still a little bit
questionable because supposedly after the gunfight he was never heard from again. Wyatt Earp
and somebody else actually came forward in later years that would include one of the
cowboys also said that Whyat Earp was the one who killed Curly Bill and just
gave him a burial out of the middle of nowhere, But technically he was
just never heard from again, so the cowboys, to save a little bit
of face, said that he took off to Mexico into hiding. Also killed
were Johnny Barnes, Jim Crane, Henry head Bill, Leonard Joe Hill,
Luther King, Charlie snow Billie Laning, Swing Hunt, Billy Grounds, and
Hank Swilling. Pete Spencer volunteered to go to the penitentiary for his own safety.
He literally volunteered to go to fucking prison. He ended up serving about
a year and a half of a five year sentence and then was let out.
According to all accounts that I read, Dic Holiday was supposedly responsible for
most of these cowboy killings. The rest were split up between Wyat Earp and
some of the other guys in the posse. When him and Earp left Tombstone
for good, pretty much what they did was they rode their horses to Silver
City, New Mexico, they sold them, They rode a stage to Demming
and on April fifteenth, they boarded a train for Colorado, and like I
said, you know, April fifteenth, wiat Earp and a lot of his
guys. When they get to Colorado, they stay in Trinidad with a bat
Masterson, and from there they pretty much split up and had their separate ways.
On April twenty ninth, eighteen eighty two, Doc Holliday and Dan Tipton
they had to Pueblo, Colorado, and then a little bit further in the
future they had to Denver. Now. In May eighteen eighty two, while
in Pueblo, Colorado, a guy named Perry Mallen approached Doc Holliday for the
first time during the second week of May and the Theater Co meet in Pueblo,
Colorado. This guy, he's a small, little bearded guy, and
he informed Doc Holliday that the brother of Frank Stillwell was looking for Doc and
wanted to kill him. Doc Holliday had no reason to doubt this info because
he had lots of people that were out looking to kill him. So Doc
Holliday being Doc Holliday, he asks the guy to point out Stillwell's brother.
This guy Mallin refused to do so, so about another week later, also
in eighteen eighty two, Obviously, Holiday and two other gamblers had taken a
train to Denver to attend some horse races. Now, on May fifteenth,
he was walking near the corner of sixteenth and Lawrence Streets in Denver, and
Holiday was forced to surrender when this guy, Perry Mallon appeared out of the
darkness and leveled two revolvers at him. Now what ended up happening was Mallon
claimed to be a lawman from California. He had the help of a local
deputy sheriff named Charles Linton. They escorted Holiday to the sheriff's office. Now
Mallon convinced Linton that Doc was wanted an Arizona territory for murder and that the
reward was offered for his arrest. Now, while he was at the sheriff's
office, Mallon kept the two six shooters aimed at Holiday the entire time because
he was literally scared to death of Doc Holliday. Holiday was sentting here protesting.
You know, He's like, dude, no, this isn't right.
I mean, in all honesty, there really was some warrants out for his
arrest for murder. But They end up calling for a transport and they transport
him to the county jail. Mallon also goes on and claims that Doc was
in Utah Territory as well for the murder of a guy named Harry White,
which was said to be this guy's partner in law. Well, what ends
up happening is that this Perry Mallon was pretty much a con man. He's
basically telling all these stories about how he's been pursuing Doc Holliday for seven years
and Doc Holliday was the reason he had his middle finger shot off. They
end up finding out that Perry Mallen is totally full of shit. They let
Doc go. What also happens and not too much longer after that, is
Doc, while still in Denver, is taken into custody by a bounty hunter
who was hired by the b Handon Cowboy faction. He is arrested for the
killing of Frank Stillwell in Arizona, and charges are dropped because bat Masterson basically
creates a bunch of trumped up charges against Doc Holliday which would allow him to
not be extradited to Arizona like Governor of Colorado. Because of these trumped up
charges, ends up refusing to honor Arizona's request to extradite Doc Holliday for the
murder of Frank Stillwell, now I know, as we've come to find out,
Bat Masterson not a huge fan of Doc Holliday, not a huge fan
at all. But what it was was they had worked together previously. They
didn't like each other, but they had a mutual respect for each other.
And above that, Bat Masterson and White Earp were very good friends. And
why Earp owed Doc Holliday his life. So that's how all that went down.
While he's in jail, a lot of the newspapers are kind of going
back and forth on how to portray Doc while he's in jail. You know,
some are calling him a murderer. Others are calling him a justified lawman
who was deputized. But all of them describe him as well dressed, usually
rest neatly in black and with a colored linen shirt, tall, slender,
delicate, handsome, soft spoken, sophisticated. He has described as one man
as being a man of considerable culture, and another one describes him as having
a soft voice in a modest manner. And then you have another one that
says, you know, he has these piercing blue eyes. You have yet
another one that says, you know, he has this well defined look of
determination, you know, and they describe his hands of being somewhat small and
slender. And it's so funny because the report, all these reporters are just
like, this is Dic Holiday. They literally describe him as an elegant man
with a polite and refined personality. And it's so funny because when they actually
see him for the first time, compared to what his reputation was, they're
just like, there's no way this is Dic Holiday. So it's it's really
interesting to read different accounts on Dic Holiday throughout the years, especially in this
time period when his reputation was so fucking vast. And speaking of his reputation,
I mean, even the people in Georgia did not know about the shooting
at the Okay Corral. Now, even though Doc was technically justified, he
was with the posse and he was with the earps when they did this.
They made it a point. Now we don't know if it was actually Doc
Holliday himself or his dad that did it, but they purposely left the shooting
at the okay, corral out of the newspapers so that Doc Holliday's family name
would not look bad. Now. Like I said, I've read plenty of
things that say it was Doc Holliday that letter to her sent a telegraph ahead
and was like, listen, this is what happened. To keep this out
of the papers because I don't want my family to look bad. I've also
read other accounts to where it was his dad who purposely did it after he
had found out ahead of time from Doc Holliday. So we're not exactly sure
about about how that goes. But while he's in jail in Denver, Doc
is defending himself. He's doing a lot of interviews and he pretty much talks
about the conspiracy you know, by Sheriff b Han and the cowboys and all
this other shit. And after all this legal maneuverings that bat Masterson is doing,
he helps Doc get released on bail. And it's really weird because this
is the one time that bat Masterson actually makes statements to defend Doc Holliday's character,
and he says, quote, I tell you all of this talk is
wrong about Holiday. I know him well. He is a dentist and a
good one. So it's kind of defending his character, but it's kind of
saying, Okay, he's kind of a piece of shit guy, but he's
a hell of a good dentist. But he's also kind of saying, you
know, you guys are saying this dude's a stone cold killer, but he's
not. Like it's all rumors and all this other shit. So, I
mean, it was kind of defending him kind of not you know what I'm
saying. So that was pretty interesting. Now, in June eighteen eighty two,
Doc meets up with Wyatt, Earp and Gunnison. While he's there,
he has interviewed briefly by a reporter, and at first Doc tells him quote,
I'm not traveling about the country in search of notoriety, and I think
you newspaper fellows have already had a fair hack at me. End quote.
He does answer a few questions about the background and the recent troubles in Denver,
you know, with his arrest and a lot. I mean, that
was a really huge deal at the time. He does kind of mention he's
smiling while he mentions the bounty hunter that was hired by b hand It had
left town four days before he was released from jail, and he indicates his
intention to mind his own business and let others do the same Again this journey
list, a separate one describes him as having piercing dark blue eyes and being
dressed all in black, which you know, which was pretty signature of Doc
Holiday for the most part. In July of eighteen eighty two, Doc reunites
with Wyat just outside Salida, Colorado. Wyatt and docs many newspaper interviews at
this time may have been part of an attempt to establish their whereabouts legitimately,
but they have disappeared from public view abruptly that July. Now check this out.
Now I've heard all three days. It's either July thirteenth, fourteenth,
or eighteenth. Like I said, I had read all three dates. Eighteen
eighty two, a guy named John Yost, who is bound for a place
called Morse's Sawmill, discovers a dead man in West Turkey Creek Canyon, east
of Dragoon Mountains. The body was sitting in the intertwined limbs of an oak
tree, and there was a bullet that had entered the right temple and exited
through the top of the head, and the gun supposedly used was a cult
revolver. The dead man was one of the famous cowboys, Johnny Ringo.
Yost quickly notified the sheriff of the grizzly find, which technically suicide was suggested
by some members of the coroner's jury, but most people disagreed. They did
not agree on who had shot him, only that somebody had shot him.
What they say happened is that Wide Rupe and Doc Holliday returned to Arizona and
had a rendezvous with a few friends named Fred Dodge, Oregon Smith, Johnny
Greene, John Meager, and one other, probably by the name of Lou
Cooley. They were near Henry Hooker's ranch. Now a short time later they
all had taken the trail towards Galliville. Johnny Ringo had been spotted while camped
on Turkey Creek, and when he ran up a canyon, Wyatt had shot
him. The body had been placed between the oak trees. Bat Masterson,
Wore Earp and some newspaper friends helped establish alibis for Wyatt. Earp and Doc
Holliday. They really don't know if Johnny Ringo committed suicide. The official ruling
was a suicide, but a lot of people say that Wyatt Earp killed him.
A lot of people say that Doc Holliday killed him. Nobody really knows,
but it's pretty much all agreed by historians that the suicide was not the
cause of death. For one, his hat was still on his head when
he was found up against this tree. His gun belt was on upside down,
one of the guns was sitting on the other side of his body.
So it is pretty much agreed upon that he was killed, but nobody really
knows by who, And because of all these alibis, it's hard telling.
But some historians believe Ringo committed suicide and that Doc was in Pueblo, Colorado
at the time of his death. Now, Karen Holiday Tanner, she does
point out in her book that Doc was not in Pueblo at the time.
The reason that they say he was in Pueblo, Colorado at this time is
because he was supposed to be in court on July eleventh. They say that
he did show up in court himself, but in all actuality, an attorney
appeared on his behalf that day. The wording of the court was that they
said in propara persona, which means in his own proper person. Now,
that was standard legal filler text at the time, and that didn't actually mean
that the person was there at all. Now, you also got to consider
the fact that the Pueblo charge which he was Doc was charged for larceny at
that point in time, and that was a fake charge. That was one
of the charges that was trumped up by Bab Masterson to provide an obstacle for
his extra addition back to Arizona. So even though the authorities were unaware of
this, they had no real urgency for him actually to be there to face
like a bogus charge. You know, there's no question that the case was
continued more than once, and all of the times it was continued is because
Doc was not present at the court at that time. It is stated that
Doc for sure did arrive in Celida on July seventh, because the newspaper reported
his arrival in town. Karen Holiday Tanner does believe that he met there with
Wyatt and others just west of town that day. This account is based on
statements supposedly made by Josie Marcus Earp, which was Wyatt's wife at the time.
Doc's next document appearance was in Leadville on July eighteenth, which was the
very date that his bogus poeblo court case was again continued. So if Doc
did kill Ringo, why it may have claimed to killing himself to protect Doc's
reputation since Doc had no legal authority to actually kill Johnny Ringo, and why
it did at this point, So there's a lot of speculation that whyatt did
claim to kill Johnny Ringo just to protect Doc Holiday from being incarcerated and protect
his reputation. Like I said, nobody really knows the circumstances of Johnny Ringo's
death, Okay, but whyatt earp did accept responsibility for the death of Johnny
Ringo and Karen Holliday. Tanner also goes on to point out that he did
have the means, he had the motive, he had the opportunity, and
a confession that would convict in most courts, which why E did later on
confess to it. So you know, there's that little bit of information for
you. A little bit later, on eighteen eighty two, the Tombstone trouble
is pretty much over with by now, and Doc and Leadville, Colorado Nobleshit
dying of TV and he's down to literally about one hundred and twenty two pounds.
At this point in time, he helps fight a fire in Leadville,
Colorado, and he has They all the people who were involved in it said
he pretty much showed no regard for his own personal safety while he was fighting
this fire. So I thought that was a really cool fact to throw in
there about him being in Leadville, Colorado, because around this time period,
he's really traveling between Leadville, Pueblo and Denver. He's going back and forth
quite a bit. Now in eighteen eighty three, eighty four, you know,
he's back in Colorado. Like I said, he's he has several bouts
with pneumonia at this point in time, which and it affects his tuberculosis and
it leaves him like really really emaciated, and he's very very weak. Like
I said, he had dropped from about one hundred and sixty pounds down to
about one hundred and twenty pounds. And right now at this point in his
life, he's very very dependent on laudanum, which is like a liquid pain
killer. It's like an opiate. He's drinking a lot of whisk A lot
of reports say he's drinking up to two quarts of whiskey a day. Big
Nose Kake goes on to say, no, he would only sip a little
bit of whiskey throughout the day to ease the pain. Several eyewitnesses who knew
Doc Holliday straight up said, man, this guy was literally pounding whiskey as
fast as he could, drinking law in him because he was literally in so
much pain from tuberculosis. But what happens is Holliday ends up going back to
Leadville, and he's pretty much living quietly there for a long time and until
he runs into some old enemies. He runs into Johnny Tyler and Billy Allen.
What happens is Billy Allen is armed and he's making threats. He's saying
he's gonna kill Doc Holliday. He's telling everybody in town all this. So
Doc Holliday is on all points. He's paranoid as shit. Let alone,
he's like totally fucked up, out of his mind and trying to ease the
pain of his tuberculosis the best he can. So in August nineteenth, eighteen
eighty four, Holliday goes into Hyman's Saloon and he placed himself at the end
of the bar because he had seen Billy Allen walking down the sidewalk. So
as soon as Billy Allen crossed the threshold, Holliday leveled as a revolver and
fired and he hit Alan in the right arm. Now Alan fell to the
floor and he's screaming. So Doc Holliday rushes and he goes back behind the
cigar case and he leaned over and he fires again, and the second bullet
barely misses Alan's head just by a little bit, just by a little bit.
And Doc leveled his revolver again, getting ready to take another shot,
and a couple guys in the bar pretty much disarmed him, tackled him to
the ground or whatever. Now what it was. Doc had borrowed five bucks
I think it was from Billy Allen and he had not paid it back,
and Billy Allen straight up told him. He's like, if you don't give
me my five dollars back, I'm gonna kill you. And that's pretty much
where all that came from. Doc explains his actions to the paper the next
day and he does get arrested. He does, and he's able to establish
in the court that his life was threatened. He was later exonerated of the
shooting, and it was a ruled self defense, and his basic defense was
he literally went in there and he's like, listen, this guy has been
threatening to kill me all over town. He outweighs me by fifty pounds.
He basically says something to the effect of, you know, I would be
a baby in his arms if he got a hold of me, like I
had no other choice, and it actually works. He ends up getting off
on self defense. Now, there were a lot of people who were surprised
that Doc was found not guilty by the jury. No one could recall that
Doc was extremely ill at this point and Doc had not ever cared about his
life, and because he was so ill, they could have gone either way.
You know. They really people who were there, they said that they
don't remember Doc Holiday actually being that ill, you know. So it was
it was a very fifty fifty outcome when Doc was found not guilty by the
jury. So, you know, at this point, like I said,
Doc keeps traveling back and forth between Leadville and Denver. He's in Denver because
of his reputation and his legal problems there in the past. The law enforcement
truly fucking hates him. They do not like this dude whatsoever. Now,
in eighteen eighty six, according to some sources, he sees why It Earp
for the last time at the Windsor Hotel in Denver, Colorado. Now Josie
Earp goes on to report that the emaciated Doc he had a continuous coffin,
is so weak that he can't even stand steadily at this point. And Holiday
Tanner's biography about Doc Holiday, she really doesn't say anything about that. What
is known as that why it was traveling with Josephine Sarah Marcus asked his wife,
which as we know that was Josie, and they were in and out
of Colorado in eighteen eighty four, in eighteen eighty five, and he was
operating a saloon at that time in Aspen. But while he was in town
in those years, he never really made any kind of effort to get ahold
of Doc Holliday, even though he knew that he was in Denver. Now,
when they did meet at the Denver Hotel in eighteen eighty six, Josephine,
it's really the only account of their last goodbye. She says that the
Earps were sitting at the lobby when they saw quote a thinner, more delicate
appearing Doc Holliday than I had seen in Tombstone end quote, and he was
walking towards Wyatt and Josie. Now, Wyatt immediately got up to greet him,
and they sat down nearby and talked for a while, and Doc Holliday
says, you know, when I heard you were in Denver, I wanted
to see you once more, for I can't last much longer. You can
see that now, Josie says, quote, my husband was affected by this
parting from a man who, like an ailing child, had clung to him
as though to derive strength from him, which is a very very weird way
to twist. Doc Holiday like he was dependent on Wyatt Earp like a child
to a father, which I really didn't appreciate that, and I'm not sure
she was very weird. And later interviews with Wyatt Earp, and when we
do the wide Earp episode, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. She
says, quote, there were tears in Wyatt's eyes. When at last they
took leave of each other, Doc threw his arm across his shoulder and said,
goodbye, old friend. It will be a long time before we meet
again, and they parted and they'd never saw each other again. Now,
in August of eighteen eighty six, after Denver authorities arrested Holiday for vagrancy,
he returned to Leadville, where he still had friends, only a couple.
And in May of eighteen eighty seven, he did go to Glenwood Springs,
Colorado, and he what he was doing was he went to Glenwood Springs,
Colorado because there were some sulfur vapors there. His health is getting very,
very bad at this point in time, and it was stated by a lot
of people who had suffered from tuberculosis that they could go to the Hot Springs
and Glenwood Springs inhale the sulfur vapors and that would help easier tuberculosis and all
actuality. It worked the exact opposite way. It actually, it actually sped
up his health problems and it made him a lot sicker. And what he
did, there was no sanitarium there for anybody suffering from tuberculosis. So he
ends up going to the hotel Glenwood. And this was a hotel that catered
to those that were hoping to be healed by the Yampa Hot Springs. Nothing
could be done for Doc at this point in time, as tuberculosis was far
advanced for a very short while. He actually still tries dealing faroh. But
by September he is just two week and he becomes bedridden. While he's in
bed, I mean he's getting sores. The tuberculosis is basically eating his body
from the inside out. The dude is in so much pain. This terminal
stage of tuberculosis is described by a nineteenth century physician, and he says the
emaciation is frightful and the most mournful change is witnessed. The cheeks are hollow,
rendering the expression harsh and painful. The eyes are commonly sunken in their
sockets and often look morbidly bright and staring. At this point, throat ulcers
made eating difficult, and speech was limited to a hoarse whisper. Once the
distinctive graveyard cough began, diagnosis was certain and death inevitable. Rarely, he
wrote, life wasted to the most feeble spark, and it goes out almost
insensibly. More typically, they would have severe stomach cramps, excessive sweating,
a choking sensation, vomiting blood. I mean, just the most painful excruciate,
one of the most painful, excruciating desks you could ever imagine at this
point, and Doc Holidays going through this. Now, he spent the last
fifty seven days of his life in bed in a half comatose state, and
he was delirious for fourteen of them. The delirium was more than likely induced
and intensified by the combination of the extreme illness that he was suffering from and
his addiction to laudanum, which obviously Doc can't take himself, so Kate is
providing him laudanum in order to ease his pain. And Doc does run out
of money, but Kate takes money out of her savings. She takes all
the money that she has to help support him in his final days. Now,
I did read one report, actually I read a couple different places.
Whether it's confirmed or not, I tried my hardest to find out, but
it is saying in these last fifty seven days, in his delirious and comatose
state, that most of the people who would bring dinner up to Doc Holliday
were greeted with two pistols pointing at them, and Doc ready to shoot them
because he had no clue what was going on. But he was still so
used to living that life that he figured somebody was walking in the door to
kill him. Every time somebody would do anything, just bringing up food to
him. So on the morning of November eighth, eighteen eighty seven, John
Henry Holiday, known as Doc, awakens and he's clear eyed, he's clear
headed, and he asked for a glass of whiskey, and it was given
to him, and he drank it down with enjoyment, very slowly, and
then he looks down at his feet and he says, quote, this is
funny. And then he dies at the age of thirty six. Now,
Doc Holliday claimed that he almost lost his life a total of nine times.
Four attempts were made to hang him, and he was shot at in a
gunfight or from ambush five times. His few remaining belongings were sent back to
Georgia, along with a straight razor, a small knife, some gambling items,
and the Holiday family did receive Doc's trademark diamond stockpen, but when they
did get it, the diamond was gone. I know a lot of you
were wondering why he looked down at his feet his final days, and literally
his last words were this is funny because of the life that Doc Holliday lived.
He thought that he was going to die with his boots on. He
purposely made it his goal to die in a gunfight. He wanted to go
out, he wanted to go out quick, and it just never happened.
So when he looked down, took his final breath and looked at his feet,
he never thought for a second that he would die die in a bed.
So Holiday ends up going to be buried in Lynnwood Cemetery, which is
on the top of a smaller mountain overlooking Glenwood Springs. Now, Holiday did
die in November, and the grounds may have been frozen, and a lot
of authors do speculate that it would have been impossible to transport him to the
cemetery, which was only accessible by one road up the side of the mountain,
all right, and a lot of reports that I read because they wouldn't
have been able to get him up the side of that mountain because of the
weather being so bad. They actually buried him at the base of the mountain,
and they were going to transport him in the spring when all the snow
had melted in the ground was softer and he was able to be buried,
and what happened when springtime came around is that they just pretty much left him
there. So if you know anybody that lives around the base of Limb in
the Wood Cemetery that overlooks Glenwood Springs, if there's houses or residential some kind
of anything around there, there's a good chance that Doc Holliday is buried somewhere
near there. Nobody really knows. Now, granted, there are a lot
of authors nowadays that say that, well, you know, it probably didn't
happen, because there's other accounts of other people being buried that exact same time
of year, and they got up the mountain just find as you guys know,
I always go by what I read more of, and there are more
accounts from people who were there that say he was buried at the base of
the mountain and he was actually left there. Nobody came back to bury him
the following springs. So but I want to end on a quote from Virgil
Earp. Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday weren't that good of friends. Okay,
you know they were acquaintances, But Virgil was also known as a very fair
man, very fair man and a very honest man, and he knew Doc
about as good as anybody else, did any of the Art Brothers. In
May of eighteen eighty two, when he's doing an interview with the Arizona Daily
Star, Virgil Ert had this to say about Doc Holiday. There was something
very peculiar about Doc. He 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. Tales were told that he had murdered men in different
parts of the country, that he had robbed and committed all manner of crimes,
and yet when persons were asked how they knew it, they could only
admit that it was hearsay and that nothing of the kind could really be traced
to Doc's account. He was a slender, sickly fellow. But whenever a
stage was robbed or a row started, and help was needed, Doc was
one of the first to saddle up his horse and report for duty. A
minute a minute, a minute, a minute, and