John Henry “Doc” Holliday

Dentistry, gun-slinging, Wyatt Earp, OK Corral

 

 

 

“A long, lean blonde fellow… the nerviest, speediest deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew,” Wyatt Earp said of his good friend, John Henry Holliday. Dentist by profession-turned gun-slinging gambler “Doc” Holliday resided in Kansas City and then Dodge City, Kansas, where he and Earp met. Holliday practiced less dentistry and more gambling as the consumption that plagued him progressed. Often traveling West, his hot temper and imminent death found the “Doc” amidst a slew of gunfights; the most notable fight occurred in Tombstone, Ariz., with Earp at the OK Corral. A wanted man, Holliday was finally arrested in Colorado. Sheer luck released him from prison when CO authorities refused to extradite him. The notorious “Doc” wasn’t all bad. He was fluent in Latin and played a mean piano!