Doc Holliday

• Born: August 14, 1851\

Died: November 8, 1887*

John Henry "Doc" Holliday was born August 14, 1851. He was an American dentist who was on good terms with Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp. He had a reputation for being a gunslinger.

An incident in September 1878 had Wyatt Earp, at the time a deputy city marshal, surrounded by men who had "the drop" on him. Holliday, who currently owned a bar in the town and was dealing faro (as he did throughout his life), left the bar, approached from another angle to cover the group with a gun, and either shot or threatened to shoot one of these men. Earp afterward always credited Holliday with saving his life that day.

Many other accounts of Holliday's involvement in gunfights, however, are sometimes exaggerated. He had several documented saloon altercations involving small shootings, where he was accounted to be as fast as Wild Bill Hickok.

Holliday spent the rest of his life in Colorado. After a stay in Leadville, he suffered from the effects of the high altitude; as a result of this and his increasing dependence on alcohol and laudanum, often taken by consumptives to ease their symptoms, his health, and evidently his gambling skills, began to deteriorate.

In 1887, prematurely gray and badly ailing, Holliday made his way to the Hotel Glenwood near the hot springs of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He hoped to take advantage of the reputed curative power of the waters, but the sulfurous fumes from the spring may have done his lungs more harm than good.

As he lay dying, Holliday allegedly asked for a drink of whiskey. Amused, he looked at his bootless feet as he died---no one ever thought that he would die in bed, with his boots off. His reputed last words were, "Well I'll be damned. This is funny." John Henry "Doc" Holliday died November 8, 1887. He was 36.