Doc Holliday: The Deadliest Dentist of the Wild West

welcome back to biographics I'm your host Cosmic horror madman Eric Malachite and today we're talking about the deadliest dentist in the wild west that's right Doc Holiday with a script by the ever capable Ru Alexander if Ru gets around to giving us his socials will link them right alongside ones from my storytelling podcast and deep dive Channel story rant and more with that said let's get this mighty fine shindig started and yeah there are going to be a couple Firefly references here sorry not sorry Doc Holiday was the robin to Wyatt herbs Batman by his side whenever the going got tough pistol in hand ready to go out in a blaze of glory their friendship became a legendary tale of the Wild West depicted in many books and westerns holiday didn't necessarily act this way out of sheer bravery or an undying sense of loyalty but for a more tragic reason he knew that he was a doomed man anyway stricken with tuberculosis from an early age before he even met Wyatt herb holiday understood that he was living unborrowed time so he chose to live it like a man with nothing to lose in the process he became one of the greatest icons of the Wild [Music] West John Henry doc hollay was born in Griffin Georgia on well we're not really sure actually his birth record records were lost in a fire but his baptism record was not and it shows that holiday was baptized as an infant at the Griffin Presbyterian Church on March 21st 1852 so presumably he was born earlier that year his parents were Henry B holiday and Alice Jane mcke both of Scottish descent doc had an older sister named Martha who died in infancy and an adopted Mexican brother named Francisco who also died before reaching adulthood Henry holiday did a little bit of everything he was was a lawyer and a planter before joining the military and going off to fight in the Mexican-American War afterward he fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy where he reached the rank of major he was one of the first people to settle in Griffin which also meant that he could buy a lot of land on the cheap holiday owned around 46 pieces of property in and around Griffin covering several hundred acres and later would also enter politics serving one term as mayor of valdasta Georgia the family had moved there in 1864 more out of necessity than desired you see holiday senior was a True Believer in the Confederacy and invested in Confederate dollars to support the cause the cause of course being slavery these dollars were not backed by hard assets but by the promise of repaying the bearer once the South won the war and became independent well jokes on him because you may recall this little detail that didn't actually happen right and the value of this currency plunged into the toilet leaving Henry holiday almost bankrupt one of his few remaining possessions of any Val value was some property in valdasta a little town built on the railroad so the holidays packed up and relocated there in the new town doc enrolled in a private school called The valdasta Institute which provided him with a classical education that included not only subjects such as Reading Writing and Mathematics but also French astronomy history and even Latin we can't say how much book learning stuck to Doc Holiday though there wasn't much demand for latin-speaking astronomers back in the old west Great Scot his time in valdasta was not a happy one in 1866 his mother died of tuberculosis or consumption as it was called back then the same disease that would kill him two decades later deeply devoted to his mother doc was heartbroken by the sudden loss and then felt a deep sense of betrayal when his father remarried a young War Widow just a few months later this caused a rift between Father and Son that never healed and created a more bitter angrier dock this led to probably the first first incident when holiday used his pistols against other people and it happened when he got into an argument with a group of black men who wanted to use their swimming hole leading to Doc firing a few shots to scare them off this event which is referred to as the swimming hole incident has become part of vald's history but it has been retold and exaggerated many times to the point where the truth has become quite murky especially since some versions were told by people like Bat Masterson who had an open dislike for Doc Holiday some say it happened before doc became a dentist others say it was after some say the black men were teenagers others that they were soldiers some say that holiday shot in the air others that he killed two of them according to the account given by Thomas mcke Doc's uncle and the only witness Doc and his friends had built that swimming hole and it was on mck's land so the strangers were trespassing he added that holay fired over their heads never intending to hit anyone and historians have failed to find any mentions of any killing taking place at the time so this seems like the most plausible scenario the seriousness of the event is only lessened by the fact that it happened in a place with a funny name called with Luchi the family feared that such incidents would only increase in frequency and severity so they wanted to send doc somewhere far away this was a good time since he had finished school and needed to find a profession anyway so it was decided in 1870 off he went to study Dentistry there seems to be a bit of controversy as to where exactly Doc Holiday studied to become a dentist with some sources claiming he went to Baltimore Maryland to attend the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery While others say it was the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia it's not really that important both were considered top-of-the-line schools and holiday graduated in 1872 without much halalu of course while he was there holiday also developed other talents such as as drinking playing cards and shooting pool which ultimately he would put to much greater use than his Dental skills but that's still a few years off for now even though holiday could call himself a Bonafide doctor it was still customary to Apprentice for a while with an experienced dentist before trying to open his own practice where exactly he did this in in what order is again a matter of uncertainty it's possible he went to his hometown in Griffin before trying to set up shop in Atlanta which was quickly becoming Georgia's grandest City or maybe it was the other way around holiday apprenticed for a while with Dr Arthur C ford of Atlanta might have even tried to open a practice there before finding the competition a bit too stiff and returning to Griffin to try it there some even say he was in St Louis Missouri for a bit doc holiday's history is a bit speculative because he ended up becoming a famous icon of the Wild West despite the odds being against him unlike guys like Wild Bill Hickock he wasn't too well known in his own time so magazines and newspapers didn't cover his exploits most of the main accounts and profiles on Doc Holiday came out decades after his death unlike guys like Wyatt her and Bat Masterson he didn't live into old age so he'd have time to tell his story to historians and journalists he didn't leave behind a widow children or siblings to tell his tale he didn't keep a diary or write letters to brag about his adventures doc holidays seemed destined to become just another forgotten Gunslinger of the wild west and yet yet here we are talking about him a century and a half later whatever the timeline of his Dental career might be it wasn't very relevant in the end because hollay received a diagnosis that turned his life upside down completely he had tuberculosis he'd had it for a while in fact likely he caught it from his mother but it took a few years for the symptoms to appear which is a condition known as latent tuberculosis but eventually they cut up to him fever tiredness night sweats coughing choking spitting up blood all that wonderful stuff Doc Holiday was a doomed man and the Georgia weather wasn't doing him any favors the winters were cold and rainy and the Summers were hot and muggy yep what I call swampass weather his doctor gave doc 6 months to live tops if he stayed in Georgia but if he went somewhere with a warmer climate he could last another year or two so whatever plans and goals Doc Holiday had were immediately sheld and he headed to start a new life whatever was left of it out West [Music] Doc Holiday made his way to Dallas Texas in 1873 where he intended to resume his Dental career at first he partnered up with a dentist named John a cigar which I guess is pronounced the same way some people in the South say cigar who was also from Georgia and an acquaintance of his father according to Dallas records the two had an office on Elm Street in one of the busiest parts of town there's not a lot of info on Doc's prowess with a D drill but it seems that he was good enough to win awards at least when he teamed together with cagar during the 1873 annual Fair of the north Texas agricultural mechanical and bloodstock Association at the Dallas County Fair the team of cigar and holiday took home three Awards the best set of teeth and gold the best in vulcanized rubber and the big one that all the dentist covet the best set of artificial teeth and dental wear eventually holiday felt confident enough to open his own practice but it didn't last remember that he came to Texas with a death sentence looming over his head that sort of thing tends to change a man and Doc took to heavy drinking to cope with his impending demise on the increasingly rare occasion when he was sober he could be quite a mean bastard and these weren't really the type of qualities that people look for in their dentist fortunately for Holiday while he was frequenting the many watering holes that Dallas had to offer he also took to gambling and he was pretty good at it poker was popular in those days but even more popular was far the game that doc favored nowadays farro has all but disappeared from the gambling tables and that's mainly because the rules did not give the house the advantage as much as other card games so casinos wanted to get rid of it anyway with Doc's practice dwindling but his faroh skills sharpening it didn't take long before gambling became his main source of income and then 1875 came and and holiday was still around the two years that his doctor gave him were up and he was still alive and yet he knew that he was unborrowed time and Doc wasn't really the glass half full kind of guy so each day he became more nervous and ornery eventually this led to Holiday getting into a fight with a saloon keeper named Austin and pistols were drawn and fired this was Doc's only shootout incident in Dallas and nobody was hurt but he was still told to leave town holiday settled in jaboro Texas or as the locals call it jaboro Texas for a while where according to some reports of dubious veracity he killed two men on separate occasions both over gambling arguments his second victim was a soldier with a six Cavalry Regiment and this put him in serious hot water with the government doc had no choice but to flee Texas and go to Colorado for the next few years he spent life on the road Kansas Nebraska Wyoming the Dakota territory traveling from town to town under the Alias of Tom Mackey or mck and making money from gambling farro dealing and even the occasional back alley Dentistry which sounds absolutely terrifying after a while holiday decided the law was no longer after him and he went back to Texas and even started using his own name again his return to the Lone Star State was not an auspicious one in Breen Ridge or Breen Ridge he got into a gambling fight again with a man named Henry Khan trying to a bit more even tempered holiday didn't go for his gun instead he picked up his walking stick and gave Khan a damn good thrashing both men were arrested fined and released but that was not the end of the matter Khan approached holiday in the street and even though doc wasn't armed the other man shot him days later the Dallas weekly heral wrote that Doc Holiday had died which wasn't true but although the report of his death had been exaggerated it wasn't by much The Gunshot injury compounded by holidays tuberculosis had made recovery a toss of the coin fortunately doc did recover but he felt that a change of scenery might be in order he traveled to Fort Griffin where several important events occurred first he met Katherine horney better known as Big noos Kate they began a relationship that lasted about 5 years on and off as a common law marriage but even more significantly Doc Holiday made the acquaintance of a fellow Gunslinger whose name would become inexorably linked to [Music] his let's set the scene it was November 1877 in Fort Griffin Texas a tired and Dusty Deputy US Marshall entered through the doors of the beheim saloon owned by an acquaintance of his called John shney his name was Wyatt her and he was in pursuit of a no good Outlaw named Dirty Dave rabo back in October rabau and his gang robbed a Santa Fe railroad construction camp and ever since then her had been on their Trail for hundreds of miles chasing them through Kansas and the Texas Panhandle he got word that they passed through Fort Griffin shancey confirmed this saying that rudaba and his men stopped by his bar and that he didn't know where they went afterward however there was a quiet guy sitting in a dark corner of the saloon who played cards with him maybe he had a better idea werp walked up to this man Doc Holiday invited him to sit down but the Marshall refused he only wanted information doc knew the Fell's her was talking about but wasn't certain where they went he thought based off the few off-the-cuff remarks they made that they intended to double back and return to Kansas white erb's instincts told him to trust the stranger so he sent a message to Dodge City Kansas to tell them that rudal was back in their neck of the woods and Doc's information was correct a few days later a posi led by Dodge City Lawman Charlie Basset set an ambush for the robbers outside a ranch on the Cherokee strip and caught the whole gang without firing a shot both her and holiday probably assumed that that would be their last interaction but that was not to be in January 1878 holiday wore out his welcome and Fort Griffin to put it mildly after yet another gambling argument doc sliced open a guy named Ed Bailey when the ladder started reaching for his gun Bailey bled out on the poker table and holiday surrendered peacefully to the authorities going by Frontier law doc should have been okay since it was self-defense but Bailey had a lot of friends and the only Justice they were looking for was at the end of a noose Kate really came through in the clutch on this one and saved holiday's life as he was just a few few moments from getting lynched by an angry mob first she set fire to an old Shanty to cause a distraction then she snuck into the place where doc was being kept held the deputy at gunpoint and got him to release the prisoner Doc and Kate then made off into the night their destination Dodge [Music] City we are definitely not saying that holiday went to Dodge City expecting to partner up with her in fact he wanted to Res resume his dental practice because he posted this announcement in the June 28th edition of the Dodge City Times JH holiday dentist very respectfully offers his Professional Services to the citizens of Dodge City and surrounding County during the summer office at room 24 Dodge house where satisfaction is not given money will be refunded but it seems that fate was determined to let holiday be anything but a dentist and his friendship with her was permanently cemented once day when doc saved Wyatt's life annoyingly we're not completely sure how it happen since multiple stories are floating around in one version holiday saw a man reach for his gun to shoot her in the back so he reached and shot first as a great fictional man once said someone ever tries to kill you you try to kill him right back in the most common version retold by her himself he entered a saloon looking to get the drop on two wanted men named Toby Driscoll and Ed Morrison unfortunately for him they were there with friends and and before Wyatt even knew it he had about a dozen guns pointed at him his luck would have it holiday was in the back of the saloon playing cards when he heard the commotion and recognized her doc snuck up behind Morrison put a gun to his head and told everyone to drop their weapons the newly formed crime fighting Duo then arrested the lot of them and took them to jail we're going to say there is some artistic license in the story mainly because there was no mention of this event in the Dodge City papers or the arrest records later while testifying in court following the shootout at the OK Corral her was a bit vaguer on the origin of their friendship simply stating that doc saved his life when he was surrounded by Desperados however it happened Doc and Wyatt were now BFFs but they still lived separate lives in fact Doc and Kate soon left Dodge City and moved to Las Vegas no not that one the one in New Mexico holiday gambled practiced dentistry and even opened up his own Saloon but once again he got into trouble following a shootout this time with a guy called Charlie White so in 1980 the two packed up their things again and traveled to Tombstone Arizona this is where the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral happened on October 26 1881 probably the most famous shootout in Wild West history and we've covered it extensively in our bio for Wyatt herb so if you want to hear all the nitty-gritty details it's there for your viewing pleasure here's the Reader's Digest version US Marshall Virgil her had been sent to Tombstone to deal with a group of Outlaws called the Cowboys he brought along his brothers Wyatt and Morgan and Doc Holiday tensions between the two signs kept growing they started with taunts and veiled threats but everyone knew that it would eventually turn bloody on that fateful morning one of the Cowboys Ike Clanton after an entire night of drinking and card playing had been arrested for causing trouble for carrying a gun within City Limits which was against the law the hers arrested him and Virgil also gave him a pistol whipping for good measure while Ike was in court a few other Cowboys arrived to back him up his brother Billy CL plus Frank and Tom mccu another guy named Billy Clairborne was also present but he was unarmed and made a run for it when the shooting started word reached the hers that the Cowboys were in town packing heat and refusing to disarm so they picked up doc holay and went to confront them despite the name the gunfight didn't actually happen at the okay Corral but near it Virgil her told the Cowboys to drop their weapons which predictably they refused to do who shot first remains a mystery due to different eyewitness accounts so anyway they started blasting when the dust settled the tally was three dead and three wounded Billy Clanton and the mcari brothers had been killed Morgan and Virgil her took a bullet each but survived Doc Holiday likely killed Tom mcari and received a grazing wound for his troubles white her was the only one un hurt the feud hardly stopped there two assassination attempts were made on the hers in the months that followed one that killed Morgan her and another that left Virgil permanently maimed as Revenge wer formed a posi which of course included doc holiday and set off on the infamous Vendetta ride which resulted in four more Cowboy deaths again Watch The Wyatt herb bio for the full [Music] story since the Vendetta was basically vigilantism arrest warrants were issued for all participants so holiday fled Arizona after it was over in April 1882 only to be arrested in Denver 2 months later however werp and a few other influential friends persuaded Colorado governor Pitkin to refuse the extradition request to the Arizona territory eventually leading to Holiday getting released on bond Doc and W her then parted ways thus ending one of the old west most iconic Partnerships although according to her he did see doc one more time a few years later shortly before the latter's death truth be told holiday's final years were pretty rough Kate left him and he wandered from town to town getting whatever work he could find as his tuberculosis kept getting worse and worse to ease the symptoms holiday turned not only to alcohol but also linum by the time he ended up in Leadville Colorado in 1883 he was a shell of his former self however he did have one final shootout in this town with a bartender and former policeman named Billy Allen Allen was in cahoots with a few wrongin who hated holiday and wanted him dead doc also owed Allan $5 but he was convinced that the ladder was going to use the debt as a pretext to kill him that's why when Allan confronted him doc open fire right away he shot twice hitting Allen once below his right shoulder although an artery was severed Allen survived the encounter and holiday was arrested and sent to trial the legal ordeal lasted almost a year but on April 4th 1885 Doc Holiday was acquitted thanks to multiple testimonies his lawyers had convinced the jury that Allen went to Holiday intending to do him harm and that doc was right to protect himself he might have evaded a prison sentence but now holiday was on his last legs due to his tuberculosis he feared leaving Colorado because he risked extradition to Arizona again so instead he moved around the state for a while before finally settling in Glenwood Springs in May 1887 hoping that the Haun Springs there would ease his suffering they didn't do much Doc Holiday passed away on November 8th 1887 aged 36 allegedly as he lay in bed dying he looked at his shoeless feet and amused by the idea that he wasn't killed with his boots on his last words were this is funny well I certainly hope you enjoyed this video as much as I enjoyed recording it and never been much for westerns but for some reason these last two Ru scripts have been quite enjoyable maybe it's all the Fallout I've been playing I don't know anyway if you dug this content do all that algorithmic jazz and keep it tuned to biographics for more content like this I'm Eric Malachite and I'll see you next time space cowboy [Music]