TRUTH about Doc Holliday

This video is sponsored by Surfshark VPN. The Wild West had many figures, heroic, controversial, often tragic. From gunslingers to lawmen and Indian fighters, they all caught the public imagination and their stories were published and often propagandized in the famous dime store novels of the day.
A century later, they would be immortalized in books and film, men and women who are household names today. However, most people do not know the dark side of our heroes or the bright side of our villains. Many men and women walked a narrow line in both worlds and became legends whether deserved or not.
We will talk about one of them. Who was Doc Holliday? How did he walk into history? What was his real connection to other legendary figures? How did his legend become greater than the reality? Why is he still in the public imagination? Hello, I’m Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army and Marine Corps veteran,
and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. I’m… FIRE! John Henry Holliday was born on August 14, 1851 in Griffin, Georgia, to Henry Holliday and Alice Jane McKee Holliday. Henry was a Mexican-American War and Civil War veteran, and lot during his childhood, such as in 1864, when the family moved to Valdosta, Georgia, where a doc attended first through 10th grade at the exclusive and private Valdosta Institute.
He was considered an outstanding student and excelled at rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, history, and Latin. He also learned ancient Greek and studied the great philosophers and loved ancient history. He could quote Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, Pliny, the Elder, and Younger, and he was a devoted student of Suetonius, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, among others, and he also had a great interest in medicine.
His uncle, Dr. John Stiles Holliday, who was a dentist, had a great influence on him, and at age 19 he moved to Philadelphia and enrolled in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. In July 1872, after graduating, he joined a dental practice in Atlanta, but soon afterward he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which was then called consumption. His mother had died of the same disease.
Upon receiving medical advice, he decided to relocate to a much drier climate, hoping that would help his condition. So he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he practiced under another dentist for a while before moving on to Dallas, Texas, eventually opening his own dental practice. However, due to his uncontrollable coughing, which increased in frequency and violence, his patients abandoned him.
His mathematical skills and intelligence, as well as his ability at reading people and counting cards, saw him find a more successful occupation as a gambler to support himself, which was, according to the legend, how and when he killed his first man. Holiday was something of an oddity in many parts of the West, being a highly educated Southerner with a direct and dry sense of humor who made his money gambling so he could rub people the wrong way.
While in Dallas, Holliday was arrested twice for illegal gambling and eventually he won those cases. But he was also arrested for murder. He claimed self-defense after another player accused him of cheating. According to one of the more plausible stories, witnesses testified that the dead man had called him out and then pulled his gun. After being acquitted of murder, he left Texas in January of 1875.
During his travels, he met and established a common-law relationship with Mary Catherine Harony Cummings, born Maria Isabella Magdalen Harony on November 9, 1849, spending her first ten years in the Kingdom of Hungary in present-day Slovakia.
She became an outlaw gambler, dancehall girl, and a prostitute with her own history of questionable relations with the law. She also worked for a St. Louis madam, then moved to Texas, where she met Holiday at John Sancy’s Saloon at Fort Griffin, Texas, in 1877, after Holiday returned. Holiday was again in trouble and was arrested for either stabbing a cheat in the stomach or drinking liquor. Both stories are quite controversial and murky.
Drinking liquor while gambling was prohibited, and the record here is unclear. With Holiday being held in custody in a local hotel, Kate set a fire, and when the locals ran to put the fire out, she went to the hotel and threatened his guards with two pistols. They left quickly on stolen horses. And given the problems they experienced, they left Texas for good and moved to Dodge City, Kansas in the spring of 1878, where Holiday met and became friends with the assistant city marshal, Wyatt Earp.
Since we’re talking about dangerous times of the Wild West, let’s talk about something reminiscent the dangerous times of unprotected internet. Surfshark VPN will protect your internet connection and privacy online. VPNs create an encrypted tunnel for your data, protecting your online identity by hidingyour IP address and allowing you to use private and public Wi-Fi safely.
Also, streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and more, have different library options based upon where you are located, and some shows cannot be accessed if you are not located in the region. Surfshark VPN helps you overcome these restrictions by giving you the option to change your IP, allowing you to gain access to websites and services that are only available in those locations like the TV show Gunsmoke.
So get Surfshark VPN now by using the discount code FORGOTTENHISTORY at the link below for four extra months of Surfshark. And your Kate found work working with Wyatt Earp’s sister-in-law in the salon she managed, and it was Kate who introduced Holiday to Wyatt Earp and his brothers Virgil and Morgan, which Kate said she later regretted.
She stated, The Earps had such power, I could not get Doc away from them. Soon afterward, Wyatt Earp credited Holiday for saving his life during a shootout with outlaws at the Long Branch Saloon.
When Earp was about to be ambushed by cowboys wanted for a series of crimes, and Earp had warrants for their arrest, this event established the basis for their long-standing friendship. That friendship would later manifest itself as Holiday also became friends with the other Earp brothers, James Verger Morgan, Warren, and half-brother Newton. All were lawmen, gamblers, and businessmen. All of them would become legends as well.
Holiday and Kate had a legendary and explosive relationship as both had hair-trigger tempers. Once, after a major fight, Holiday told Wyatt Earp, You know, I had to quiet her, Wyatt. I hit her gently over the head with the butt end of my gun. I had to quiet her, Wyatt. I hit her gently over the head with the butt end of my gun. I had to quiet her. But it would appear that Kate gave as good as she got because Holliday bore a lot of bruises for a long time.
In September 1880, Holliday and Kate followed the Earp brothers when they sought new fortunes in the wild and booming silver mining town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Kate lived nearby in the town of Globe, where she ran a hotel. Wyatt was working as a Wells Fargo stagecoach security agent and bank guard when he joined his brothers.
Wyatt and Holiday, despite having only met four years earlier, formed a strong bond, and they often crossed paths but they were not together most of the time. Tensions in Tombstone were high as Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp tried to maintain order as they were the law enforcement officers for Tombstone.
The Earp brothers established their presence in that atmosphere, which saw a rise in violence because the well-known Clanton gang saw the Earps as a challenge to their authority. Tom McLaurie made their ranks, who killed and stole at will, until the Earps rode in. In essence, the town was not big enough for both of the groups and tensions arose.
On October 25, 1881, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaurie arrived in town for supplies and they had several violent confrontations with the Earp brothers. The next morning, Billy Clanton and Frank McClary, gunfighter Billy Claiborne, all arrived to support Ike and Tom, wanting revenge after learning that both men had been pistol-whipped by Wyatt and Virgil Earp. Doc Holliday, who had only been in town for a short while, was deputized by Wyatt, as he trusted Holliday and knew that he was reliable with a gun.
The Clantons, Claiborne, and McLaurie brothers planned an ambush against the Earps, who were tipped off. There is still debate as to who fired first, leaving Billy Clanton and both McLaurie brothers dead, with Doc Holliday, Virgil, and Morgan Earp slightly wounded. But here is how the gunfight went down. At 3 p.m.
on August 26, 1881, the Earps and Holliday faced the Clanton-McClory gang behind the O.K. Corral. Though it’s still debated who fired the first shot, most reports say that the shootout began when Virgil Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point-blank in the chest while Doc Holliday fired a shotgun blast at Tom McClary’s chest. Though Wyatt Earp wounded Frank McClary with a shot in the stomach, Frank managed to get off a few shots before collapsing, as did Billy Clanton.
When the dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McClary brothers were dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp, as well as Doc Holliday, were wounded. I. Clanton was at the gunfight but was unarmed due to having his weapons confiscated the day before and managed to escape on a horse. The gunfight had lasted all of 30 seconds.
The gunfight made headlines all over, and due to the great public interest, an inquest was convened. The presiding judge of the territorial court found that the Earps and Holliday had acted within their duties as lawmen at the O.K. Corral. There were no charges brought at first. However, Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, who witnessed the shootoutand was a friend of the Clantons, later charged the Earps and Holliday with murder.
However, a month later, a Tombstone judge on appeal found the men not guilty, ruling that they were fully justified in committing these homicides due to the announced premeditation on the part of the Clantons and McClurys. Despite the facts and the ruling, Ike Clanton still wanted revenge and in the following weeks, Morgan Earp was murdered and the killer was suspected to have been Clanton associate Frank Stilwell, who had been seen in town. Later, Virgil Earp was permanently maimed when he was
shot in the right arm by an unknown group of cowboys believed to be friends of Ike Clanton. Wyatt Earp, armed with federal warrants for the arrest of Ike Clanton, Frank Stilwell, and others, formed a posse that Holliday joined, which became known as the Earp Vendetta Ride that tracked the outlaws for over a year, eventually killing four of them, including Frank Stilwell at the Tucson Railyard.
Then, while in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Territory White and Holliday then learned that those warrants had been issued by Sheriff John Behan for their arrest, as well as for the arrest of their posse members and themselves for the killings at the O.K. Corral despite their federally authorized credentials.
Then, later, they learned of the judge’s ruling that the shootings had been justified. At this point, Wyatt and Doc had a disagreement which saw Holliday and fellow posse member Dan Tipton leave the collective. They decided to go to Trinidad, Colorado, which was a growing gambling and entertainment mecca full of cattle drovers and gold miners.
In early April 1882, Holladay and Tipton parted ways when Holladay took a train to Pueblo and Tipton returned to the posse. This was where Holladay met a man named Perry Mallon, who arrived on another train soon after. Perry Mallon approached Doc Holliday for the first time at the Theater Comique in Pueblo, Colorado. This brief meeting would have larger consequences for both men, as Mallon would inadvertently make Doc Holliday even more famous than his presence at the O.K. Corral. Mallon told Holliday that Frank Stilwell’s brother was looking for Doc
and wanted to kill him. Naturally, Holliday had no reason to doubt this information. Holliday asked Mallon to identify Stilwell’s brother, but for some reason he refused, and Holliday was arrested by Mallon for the murder of identify Stilwell’s brother, but for some reason he refused, and Holliday was arrested by Mallon for the murder of Frank Stilwell.
Mallon then claimed that he had been personally deputized and therefore authorized to arrest Holliday on the warrant by Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan. There had been a warrant issued for Holliday, but that had been ruled invalid.
At that time, Wyatt and his youngest brother Warren were living near Gunnison, Colorado, and they set up camp with fellow posse riders Dan Tipton, who had returned, and Texas Jack Vermillion. When the Earps learned of Holliday’s arrest, Wyatt worked on having the extradition request on Holliday to Arizona denied. This was facilitated by Earps learned of Holliday’s arrest, why it worked on having the extradition request on Holliday to Arizona denied.
This was facilitated by Earps’ friendship with Bat Masterson, who was the marshal of the town of Trinidad, who also happened to be in Denver for the horse races when Holliday was arrested, and he knew Doc Holliday. Mallon’s credibility fell apart over time, as he had spun lies and great tales about his adventures tracking down Holliday.
Mallon’s credibility fell apart over time as he had spun lies and great tales about his adventures tracking down Holliday, even going so far as claiming he knew Holliday was a criminal in Utah territory and that he had committed a murder there. But when Holliday proved through interviews with reporters and telegraph messages, which were replied to, proving Holiday had never been in Utah and was in fact in Denver at that particular time, and that he had only met Mallon in Pueblo, things began to change.
However, Pima County Sheriff Bob Hall arrived from the territory to escort Holiday back to Tucson, but he lacked the necessary paperwork forcing him to wait in Denver for the appropriate requisition documents to arrive. Sheriff Paul had taken the job at the request of Johnny Behan, so Wyatt, his brother, friends including Bat Masterson, spoke up in Holliday’s defense and hatched a plan to delay extradition proceedings.
They created a fake criminal fraud case against Holliday in Pueblo as a ruse to prevent his extradition, and a writ of habeas corpus was issued to the court to release him from custody in Denver to face the very creative charges in Pueblo, which did not exist. This would delay extradition paperwork to Arizona, where Holliday would face a very partisan and hostile crowd despite his warrant being null and void.
Sheriff Paul, meanwhile, the Arizona Territory Officer, upon arrival, stated that he had never heard of Mallon, he never deputized him, therefore making his arrest of Holliday illegitimate and the Tribune newspaper that had clamored for every word Mallon had said about Holliday began to take another look at him.
But Mallon doubled down, and his insane tales grew more outlandish and were fodder for all the newspapers, which only increased the notoriety of Doc Holliday even more, raising him from an obscure former dentist wounded in a shootout in Arizona into a national headline creating the legend. In the winter of 1886, Holliday met his old friend White Earp for the last time in the lobby of the Windsor Hotel in Denver.
Earp’s common-law wife, Sadie Marcus, later described Holliday, who used a cane to walk, as a constantly coughing skeleton standing on unsteady legs. Holliday had always been labeled as a loner, quick to anger, and a very moody person, probably due to his suffering with tuberculosis for many years, which was often compounded by drinking and, later, the drug laudanum that he took for pain that added to his reputation as a loner.
Holliday’s reputation as a fast gunman, sometimes ruthless and at other times a benevolent killer, was often portrayed as someone with a death wish. In truth, Holliday’s fearsome reputation was far probably more fearful than the man himself. He’s believed to have killed fewer than a handful of men in his life. In fact, only two men can actually be attributed to him.
According to Oregon Smith regarding Doc Holliday’s arrival to the mountain resort on May 24, 1887, the trip from Leadville was hard on Doc. The jolting from the narrow gauge would cause him to cough up pieces of lung and blood. It was about two o’clock when the stage reached the Hotel Glenwood. Cage said it was May 24th.
Doc was coughing from almost each breath and upon arrival and had to use his cane to support his weight. Doc was very frail in body when I saw him and his hair was a silver gray. His face showed lines of age and looked sick in his eyes. His appearance resembled that of an older man since pulling out of Hooker’s Ranch.
One might argue that Doc was content in his actions and that his daily consumption of whiskey came to be his only escape from his suffering. However, during his travels, Holliday had made many friends as well as a few enemies, but he was highly respected, even feared. In fact, his longtime friendship with a Colorado newspaper man kept his legend alive, and many saloon keepers all over the West remained in contact with him.
Their respect that they all had for him was manifested when they learned that Holliday lay in a room, dying in the Glenwood Springs Hotel in 1887. By that time, Holliday was completely broke, but fellow gamblers, even old friendly rivals and saloon keepers, sent money to help him pay the bills. Part of the great mystique surrounding Holliday and the Earps has been misrepresented throughout history.
For example, unlike in the movie Tombstone, Wyatt Earp was not present when Holliday died. They had not seen each other in some time. John Doc Holliday died on November 8, 1887, at age 36. Holliday’s common-law wife, Kate, left Glenwood Springs the day after his death, but before she left, she packed up his belongings and had them shipped to his relatives in Georgia.
Dr. John Stiles Holiday, his uncle, the dentist, collected the trunk and its contents. In addition to clothes, the trunk contained a gold stick pin missing its diamond, a set of straight razors, a small knife, and several gambling devices. Significantly, the trunk contained no dental equipment nor the Colt.45 mentioned by Charlie Smith.
John Doc Holliday is buried in Linwood Cemetery overlooking Linwood Springs, Colorado. in Linwood Cemetery overlooking Linwood Springs, Colorado. In 1888, Kate married a blacksmith named George Cumming in an unhappy brief marriage as Cummings was apparently an abusive alcoholic, but the marriage gave her the name inscribed on her tombstone, Mary Catherine Herony Cummings.
There is no mention of Holliday, which means that they were probably never legally married. After his death, Doc Holliday’s friends and even a few former enemies wrote glowing articles and epitaphs about him. Years later, in an 1896 article, Wyatt Earp said of Holliday, and I quote, I found him a loyal friend and good company.
He was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler, a gentleman whom disease had made a vagabond, a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit, a long, lean, blonde fellow, nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time, the most skillful gambler and nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew.” The 1993 movie Tombstone elevated Holliday’s legendary image as a devil-may-care eccentric gambler and gunfighter due to Val Kilmer’s iconic role.Despite the film taking great liberties with the facts, there is one spoken line that appears
to be historically accurate. In the film, Holiday, when meeting bad guy Johnny Ringo, played by Michael Biehn, says, I’m your huckleberry, which was a popular comment at the time, meaning, I’m the one you’re looking for, or I’m the man for the job. Also, another fact is that at the OK Corral, witnesses say bad guy Frank McClary got a late advantage on Holiday during the 30-second fight and declared, I got you now, you son of a bitch, as he leveled a gun at him.
Holiday answered, historically, so this is about as close to accuracy as you’ll get, Holliday answered, historically so this is about as close to accuracy as you’ll get, quote, you’re a daisy if you do. Although some versions say that he said, you’re a daisy if you do have, meaning got me. The phrase meaning good for you if you do.
McClory apparently didn’t have the drop on him because he died. Still, Doc Holliday’s reputation as either one of the worst or one of the best characters of the Wild West is now part of American folklore. Doc Holliday has been played in many movies by a range of actors, such as Kirk Douglas in 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K.
Corral by Stacey Keech in 1971’s Doc by Dennis Quaid in 1994’s Wyatt Earp, and of course the legendary role Val Kilmer played in Tombstone and any others. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. If you liked what you saw, please click like, share, and subscribe. And if you would like to assist with the ever-increasing cost of production, please consider becoming a channel member and joining our Patreon page.
Please check out our merchandise store. And thanks for watching.