How many did doc holliday kill

Doc Holliday commits his first murder, killing a man for shooting up his New Mexico saloon. Despite his formidable reputation as a deadly gunslinger, Doc Holliday only engaged in eight shootouts during his life, and it has only been verified that he killed two men. Still, the smartly dressed ex-dentist from Atlanta had a remarkably fearless attitude toward death and danger, perhaps because he was slowly dying from tuberculosis. Holliday spent his evenings gambling in the saloon and he seemed determined to stress his health condition by heavy drinking.

A notorious cad, Holliday also enjoyed the company of the dance hall girls that the partners hired to entertain the customers—which sometimes sparked trouble. When she refused, Gordon became infuriated. He went out to the street and began to fire bullets randomly into the saloon.

Gordon died the next day. The following year, Holliday abandoned the saloon business and joined his old friend Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Arizona. During the subsequent six years, Holliday assisted at several other killings and wounded a number of men in gun battles.

Throughout the summer of , the threats against the Earp Brothers by the Clantons increased. The Cowboys, as they were referred to, were often heard telling bar room stories of how they were going to send Wyatt Earp to Boot Hill.

On Tuesday, October 25th, Ike Clanton spent the day getting drunk, moving from one saloon to the next, and making threats against the Earps and Holliday to any who would listen. An angry Doc Holliday , who had heard of the boasts, confronted him. Deputy Marshall, Wyatt , an appointed an acting city marshal by Virgil, and Morgan also a sworn officer, were present during this confrontation.

Virgil told Doc and Ike that he would arrest both of them if they continued the argument. Though boasting violence throughout the day, Clanton was unarmed and finally, Virgil drew Holliday away. Spotting Wyatt on the streets, the fired-up Clanton continued. Wednesday, October 26, , was an overcast windy day. The Earps, in anticipation of trouble, woke early. As Virgil watched from his hotel window, he saw Billy Clanton ride into town, accompanied by friend Billy Claiborne.

Ike was looking for Holliday but before he could find him, Virgil and Morgan confronted him. Then Frank McLaury rode his horse onto the boardwalk, frightening pedestrians off its path outside the gunsmith shop.

Wyatt grabbed the reins of the horse, leading it to the streets as McLaury yelled profanities. After this latest confrontation, the outlaws retreated in a group around the corner off Allen Street. With all of the tension, there was bound to be a fight. Virgil , as Chief Marshal, agreed to go down there to break them up but contended that Behan should accompany him.

Behan only laughed. However, the Cowboys were surprised when the Earps showed up and Doc was with them. As they made their way to the O. Corral , witnesses said that the three Earp brothers were all dressed in black with firm, mean grimaces on their faces while Doc was nattily clad in grey and was whistling. Where the two forces finally met was actually 90 yards down an alley from the O. The Earps passed by the O.

Corral but cut through the alley where they found the troublemakers waiting at the other end. As a senior officer, he displayed only a non-threatening walking stick, having given his shotgun to Doc to carry. The rustlers tightened and Morgan and Doc simultaneously braced for action. What happened next was a blur, occurring in about 30 seconds. Billy Claiborne ran as soon as shots were fired and was already out of sight.

Ike Clanton, too, panicked and threw his gun down, pleading for his life. But, Ike then withdrew a hidden gun firing one more round towards Wyatt before disappearing.

Doc instantly countered, blowing Tom away with blasts from both barrels of his shotgun. Wyatt responded by sending several rounds into Billy. Then it was silent and the townspeople ran from their homes and shops, wagons were to convey wounded Morgan and Virgil to their respective homes, and doctors followed. Virgil Earp took a shot to the leg and Morgan suffered a shoulder wound.

As Wyatt stood, still stunned, Sheriff Behan appeared advising him he was under arrest. The Earps and Doc Holliday were tried for murder but it was determined that the Earps acted within the law. On January 17, , a supposedly famous confrontation took place between Wyatt , Doc and John Ringo.

Many writers would say that John Ringo challenged the Earp brothers and Holliday. But, this cannot possibly be true as Virgil and Morgan were incapacitated with painful wounds from the shoot-out. The Earps also knew that Ringo had been drinking heavily and that the whiskey was talking. A shot was fired from the darkness of the alley striking Morgan in the back. Earp sought vengeance on the men who shot Virgil and killed Morgan and killing Stilwell was just his first step, and Doc Holliday rode beside him all the way.

Wyatt heard that Pete Spence was at his wood camp in the Dragoons and on March 21, , he and his men quickly headed out, finding not Pete Spencer, but Florentino Cruz. The frightened Cruz named all the men who had murdered Morgan, himself included. Earp and his men filled Cruz with bullet holes.

A gunfight ensued where Curly Bill was killed and Johnny Barnes received a wound from which he eventually died. In May , Wyatt and Doc left Tombstone , swearing they would never return, but still vowing vengeance on Ringo , Clanton, Spence, and Swilling if they could ever find them. Riding their horses to Silver City, New Mexico , they sold them, rode a stage to Deming, and boarded a train for Colorado. Shortly after his arrival in Denver, Doc was arrested by a man named Perry Mallan.

Some people thought that Perry Mallon was actually a brother to Johnny Tyler, a foe of Holliday and a would-be gunman that Doc ran out of Tombstone.

On May 22, , while Doc was in jail, the Denver Republican printed the following:. He had been the terror of the lawless element in Arizona , and with the Earps was the only man brave enough to face the bloodthirsty crowd which has made the name of Arizona a stench in the nostrils of decent men. Mallan told the paper that he was standing alongside when Curly Bill Brocius was killed. Our escape was miraculous. The shots cut our clothes and saddles and killed one horse, but did not hit us.

Wyatt Earp turned loose with a shotgun and killed Curly Bill. The eight men in the gang which attacked us were all outlaws, for each of whom a big reward has been offered…If Mallan was alongside Curly Bill when he was killed, he was with one of the worst gangs of murderers and robbers in the country.

Doc left Denver, supposedly traveling to Pueblo, Colorado. However, on July 14, , when Doc Holliday was allegedly still in Colorado, John Yoast, a teamster in Arizona Territory, discovered a body intertwined among the branches of an oak tree east of the Dragoon Mountains.

A bullet had entered the head in the right temple and exited through the top of the head. The body turned out to be John Ringo, sworn enemy of Doc Holliday. Though Bat Masterson , Warren Earp and some newspaper friends attempting to create an alibi, claimed that Doc had never left Colorado, the truth was Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had returned to Arizona.

Ringo had been spotted by the group and next, he was found dead. Leadville, Colorado in by William Henry Jackson. Doc then headed to Leadville , where he led a quiet and uneventful life until the afternoon of August 19, Allen turned, intending to flee but tripped over the threshold, and pitching forward landed on his hands and knees.

Reaching over the tobacco counter, Doc fired again, hitting Allen in the right arm. The movie "Tombstone" has gone a long way toward stoking Holliday's image as an eccentric, thanks to an iconic performance by Val Kilmer as Doc. At least two lines in it are memorable. One of them might even be historically accurate.

At the O. Corral, witnesses say bad guy Frank McLaury got a late advantage on Holliday during the second fight, and declared "I got you now, you son of a bitch," as he leveled a gun at him. Holliday answered — historically, this is close to accurate — " You're a daisy if you do. Still, Doc Holliday's reputation as one of the worst of the Wild West's lives on.

Holliday has been played in movies by a dapper, strong Kirk Douglas 's " Gunfight at the O. Perhaps the most interesting fictional take on Doc Holliday is the latest, the ongoing Syfy network show " Wynona Earp. She's aided in her quest by an ageless Doc played by Tim Rozon , cured of his tuberculosis by a witch who gave him eternal life.

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