September 4, 2018 ▸ History, People

Episode 327: Doc Holliday: The Violent Gentleman

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On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we travel back to cowboy days and talk about the violent gentleman, Doc Holliday. Though it’s hard to sift through the tall tales of the Old West, historical evidence proves that Holliday killed dozens of men after drunken fights at the poker table, and that was years after a 6 month death sentence due to his horrible tuberculosis. Born John Henry Holliday, Doc Holliday was born in 1851 in Griffin Georgia. He was born to upper class southern elite, and his education, languages, speech, and demeanor proved it.

He became a dentist after his mother and adopted brother died of consumption, and he was diagnosed to have TB himself at age 23. Given only 6 months to live, he headed west to drier climates to try and extend that life. Out west, he tried to do dental work, but his horrible coughing fits kept him from practicing medicine. His alternative? Becoming a professional gambler. Like you do.

Doc Holliday started to gamble and deal cards at lawless saloons through the west. In each city, he seemed to run afoul with a loud-mouthed local, shoot him dead in the street, and run away to escape the frontier justice of small town lynch mobs. Living this wild life of whiskey and cards, he came to befriend both the lawman Wyatt Earp and the hooker Big Nose Kate. He helped Earp bring in some of the worst criminals, and he had a sometimes violent on again off again relationship with Kate. She broke him out of prison. And Holliday kept Earp from getting his head blown off. They were all close friends.

Eventually, they all found their way to Tombstone where the events of the OK Corral took place. We can’t help but talk about the movie Tombstone and Val Kilmer’s portrayal of this famous southern gun slinger. Was it accurate? How many people did Holliday kill at the OK Corral? How did this outlaw gunslinger befriend Earp, a federal marshal? How did Doc Holliday end up living a decade past his death sentence, all while having shootouts, knife fights, and running from torch wielding mobs? He was a true badass. Listen, laugh, learn.