Roberts - Doc Holliday: the life and legend

DOC HOLLIDAY

Frontispiece: John Henry Doc Holliday, Prescott, Arizona, circa 1879; photograph by D. F. Mitchell.

Copyright 2006 by Gary L. Roberts. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada

Photos courtesy of: frontispiece, pp. 16, 52, 66, 126 (middle), 286, 376, Craig Fouts; pp. 13, 23, 51, 63, 401, Robert G. McCubbin; pp. 18, 59, Constance Knowles McKellar; p. 29, Susan McKey Thomas; p. 37, Regina Rapier; p. 42, Mrs. Fred Arnold Martin Sr. and Charles C. Martin; p. 43, Albert S. Pendleton Jr.; p. 47, Sarah Cranford Bradford; p. 49, University of Pennsylvania School of Dentistry; p. 54, History of Dentistry in Georgia, Georgia Dental Association, 1962; p. 57, Angeline Delegal; p. 71, Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody, Wyoming; pp. 91, 162, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas; p. 93, Bob Boze Bell; p. 93 (inset), William B. Secrest; pp. 96, 126 (left, right) Arizona Historical Society, Tucson, Arizona; p. 98, Holliday Day House Museum, Fayetteville, Georgia; p. 129, Carl Chafin Collection; p. 151, New York Historical Society; pp. 190, 208, paul johnson; p. 217, Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah; p. 236, Jack Burrows; p. 253, Peter Brand; pp. 288, 342 (inset), from a woodcut in the National Police Gazette; pp. 342, 371, Western History Collection, Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado; p. 346, Regina Andrus; p. 361, Kathryn Gardner; p. 393, Dr. A. W. Bork

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Roberts, Gary L., date.
Doc Holliday : the life and legend / Gary L. Roberts.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13 978-0-471-26291-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10 0-471-26291-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Holliday, John Henry, 18511887. 2. OutlawsWest (U.S.)Biography.
3. GamblersWest (U.S.)Biography. 4. Frontier and pioneer lifeWest (U.S.)
5. DentistsWest (U.S.)Biography. 6. West (U.S.)Biography. I. Title.
F594.H74R63 2006
364.1523092-dc22

2005022233

For
Susan McKey Thomas,
John Henry Hollidays cousin,
a true Southern lady in the finest sense of the term
and the inspira tion for this book.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A book such as this is built on the generosity of others. Teachers, scholars, researchers, artists, and encouragers (many of whom never realized the role they played) influenced both this works conception and explication while instilling a profound sense of humility in me. Countless individuals shaped not only my knowledge of and enthusiasm for this story but also the worldview and sense of history that gave it form and meaning. Regretfully, I cannot acknowledge or even remember all of them, but I am profoundly grateful to each.

My greatest debt is to Susan McKey Thomas, the granddaughter of John Henry Hollidays uncle, William Harrison McKey. Her encouragement and willingness to share the results of her own prodigious research made this book possible. She has been my mentor, my collaborator, and my friend. Long before I met Susie, though, the seed that spawned this book had already been planted in the living room of the late Alva McKey of Valdosta, Georgia, a first cousin of John Henry Hollidays. Miss Alva made Doc Holliday human for me that afternoon long ago; Susie revived my interest and challenged me to tell his story.

Other members of John Henrys family helped as well, some directly, some through collaboration with others: Edward R. Holliday, J. William F. Holliday, Robert Lee Holliday, Angeline De La Gal, Cathy EDalgo, J. C. EDalgo, Morgan De Lancey McGee, J. D. McKey, John McKey, Martha Wiseman McKey, Constance Knowles McKellar, Mac McKellar, Carolyn Holliday Manley, Catharine Holliday Neuhoff, Regina Rapier, Karen Holliday Tanner, I. H. Tillman, and Mrs. Clyde McKey White.

Casey Tefertiller, whose landmark Wyatt Earp: The Life behind the Legend set a new standard for students of frontier violence and its accompanying myths, encouraged me to make an old dream a reality, and provided advice and materials from his own research to help make it happen. Jeffrey J. Morey, a close student of Wyatt Earp and the Tombstone troubles, shared his own research and insights in ways that proved essential to the evolution of this book. Victoria Wilcox was generous to a fault with the fruits of her own research (especially relating to the Holliday family) as well as her unique and challenging perspectives on critical issues that helped me to see old questions in new ways. Robert F. Palmquist, a Tucson attorney and close student of Tombstones colorful history, provided sage advice both on the substance of this story and on the peculiarities of the nineteenth-century legal system. Dr. David O. Moline, a dental surgeon and a historian of dental practice, shared critical information based on his own interest in Doc Holliday. The late Robert N. Mullin tutored me in this field for years with rare balance and perception. Without this half dozen, this book would never have been written.

Other researchers took the time to share unselfishly from their own important research in ways that provided new information that modified or informed my understanding. Regina Andrus, John Boessenecker, Arthur W. Bork, Peter Brand, Jack Burrows, Woody Campbell, Bob Cash, Paul Cool, Bruce Dettman, Bill Dunn, Mark Dworkin, Marcus A. Gottschalk, Teresa Green, Chuck Hornung, Roger Jay, Paul L. Johnson, Scott Johnson, Shirley Ayn Linder, William B. Shillingberg, Emma Walling, and Roy Young made critical contributions of this kind.