He possessed a natural ability for gambling and it quickly became his means for support. In those days a gambler in the west had to be able to protect himself so he carried a six gun and a slender long knife. He also was very gifted with his knife and six gun.
January 2, 1875, Doc and a local saloon keeper, named Austin, had a disagreement that flared into violence. Each man went for his pistol. Several shots were fired, but no one got hurt. According to the Dallas Weekly Herald, both shooters were arrested. Most of the local citizens thought such a gunfight highly amusing since none of the bullets hit the intended targets, but changed their views a few days later when Doc shot a prominent citizen twice in the head.
Doc was forced to flee to Dallas and then Jacksboro in "Jack's County," where he got a job dealing Faro. Jackson was a cattle town near an armypost.There were reports that he was involved in 3 gunfights, and in one he supposedly killed a man. Since he was in a pretty wild section of the West there was no law action taken against him.
In 1876, Doc took part in a gunfight that killed a soldier from Fort Richardson. This started an murder investigation by the Government of the US. He fled to Apache country in Colorado that was over 800 miles away. He was sited for short periods of time at Pueblo, Leadville, Georgetown and Central City, there were reports of him killing 3 more men before reaching Denver.
In Denver he went by the name Tom Mackey. He managed to stay low for sometime until he got in an argument with Bud Ryan, while dealing Faro at Babbitt's House. In this argument Doc came very close to literally cutting Ryan's head off. Ryan, who was well-known for gambling, survived the slashing, but his face and neck were horribly Mutilated. Although Ryan didn’t die Doc was forced to flee again.
He ended up drifting Wyoming, then to New Mexico, and from there to Fort Griffin, Texas. There were reports of him also in the Cheyenne country, Deadwood, site of the gold rush in the Dakota Territory in the fall of 1876.
In Fort Griffin, Texas Doc met the only woman who was ever to come into his life. She was known as "Big Nose" Kate, a frontier dance hall woman and prostitute. It was quite true that Kate's nose was prominent, but her other features were quite attractive. Doc met her while he was dealing cards in John Shanssey's saloon. It was also at Shanssey's that he met Wyatt Earp, another person who was to have a great deal of influence on his life. Earp rode in from Dodge City on the trail of Dave Rudabaugh, who was wanted for train robbery. While Doc was helping Wyatt gain the information he needed, they became fast friends. Holliday had already gained the reputation of being a cold-blooded killer.
Many believed that he liked to kill, but that was not true. He was just a hot-tempered Southerner who stood aside for no man. Bat Masterson said of him: "Doc Holliday was afraid of nothing on earth". Doc could be described as a fatalist. He knew that he was already condemned to a slow, painful death. If his death was quick and painless, who was he to object! He wished for a quick demise because of the violent life he lived."
A bully boy of Fort Griffin sat down in a poker game with Holliday. His name was Ed Bailey and he had grown accustomed to having his way with no one questioning his actions. Doc's reputation seemed to make no impression on him whatever. In an obvious attempt to irritate Doc, Bailey kept picking up the discards and looking through them. This was strictly against the rules of Western poker, and anyone who broke this rule forfeited the pot. Holliday warned Bailey twice, but the erstwhile bad man ignored his protests. The very next hand Bailey picked up the discards again. Without saying a word Doc reached out and raked in the pot without showing his hand, Bailey brought a six-shooter from under the table, while a large knife materialized in Doc's hand. Before the local bully could pull the trigger, Doc, with one slash, completely disemboweled him.
Spilling blood everywhere, Bailey sprawled across the table.As he felt that he was obviously only protecting himself and in the right, Doc stuck around town and allowed the Marshal to arrest him. That was certainly a mistake, for once he had been disarmed and locked up, Bailey's friends and the town vigilantes began a clamor for his blood. "Big Nose" Kate knew that Doc was finished unless someone did something and quick. Likely as not, the local lawmen would turn the slim gunman over to the mob. Kate went into action by setting fire to an old shed. It burned so rapidly that the flames threatened to engulf the town. Everyone went to fight the fire with the exception of three people: Kate, Doc, and the Officer who guarded him.
As soon as the lawman and his prisoner were left alone, she stepped in and confronted them. A pistol in each hand, she disarmed the startled guard, then passed a pistol to Doc and the two of them vanished into the night.All that night they hid in the brush, carefully avoiding parties of searchers."
But that seems to be an legend because there is no edivience of Kate ever doing that, nor a report of the man being killed, and Kate denied that she ever did such a thing and laughed at the idea of her holding guns up to a sheriff upon her death bed.
But there is evidence of The couple registered at Deacon Cox's Boarding House in Dodge City as Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Holliday. Doc and Kate did live in Dodge City for a while and tried to live like respectful citizens. Doc gave up all the gambling and started working as a dentist again, while Kate gave up prostitution and saloons. But this didn’t last for long because both of them became very quickly bored with respectable living and ended Splitting up. BUT DONT get your hopes up because Kate and Doc did get together many more times throughout their lives.
Doc went back to dealing Faro in the Long Branch Saloon in 1878. That fall the Wyatt Earp and Doc became official friends together for life because of some Texas Cowboys that tried to kill Wyatt in the Saloon when he came to arrest them. Supposedly, "Holliday loosed a volume of profanity and, as the self-styled bad men turned to face Doc, Wyatt rapped Morrison over the head with his long barrel Colt. Then he set about relieving the other cowboys of their guns. "
Shortly after that Doc went to Trinidad, Colorado. Shortly after he arrived a young gambler known as "Kid Colton" started a fight with Doc, it is believe that he was trying to create his reputation by killing Doc, but in the end Colton was the one killed. Doc then went to New Mexico. In 1879, Doc became a dentist for the last time in New Mexico. Yet again it failed, but only this time he bought a saloon on Center Street. There was a report 3 days later that he got in an argument with a local gunman named Mike Gordon. Mike Gordon got died by 3 bullets to the stomach. He quickly disappeared and went back to Dodge City.
Big Nose Kate
No comments:
Post a Comment