Doc Holliday: History's most notorious dentist.

In the fall of 1877, while playing poker, a competitor pulled a gun on Holliday, who in turn thrust a knife "into his brisket." He was arrested and a local vigilante committee "clamored for his blood." Kate devised an escape plan and got Holliday out of town.

The pair went to Dodge City, KS. At the time, Dodge City was the stockyard of America, receiving some 260,000 head of cattle a year, led by about 1,300 Texas cowboys. The cowboys were paid at the end of the trail -- Dodge City -- and went into town seeking liquor, women, and gambling. Here, once again, he set up his dental practice. At the time there were only three doctors in Dodge, and Holliday was the only dentist.

In September of 1878, Holliday saved Wyatt Earp's life when he shot a man who was attempting to shoot Earp, a deputy marshal, in the back. From then on, Holliday and Earp were lifelong friends. Almost simultaneous with this incident, Holiday's health took a turn for the worse, so he and Kate traveled to Las Vegas, NM, a haven for tuberculosis sufferers.

The town boasted several hot springs thought to have curative powers. Again he opened a dental office, but within a few months he was again arrested for operating a gaming table. He pleaded guilty and paid a $25 fine ($780 in current values). It was then that Earp invited Holliday and Kate to join him in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, a new boomtown. In her recollections, Kate wrote: "Wyatt Earp sent a letter to Doc stating that Tombstone was very lively and that Doc could do well there as there was no dentist there." Virgil Earp, Wyatt's brother, had been appointed deputy U.S. marshall, and Wyatt had been appointed deputy sheriff of the county. Another brother, Morgan, also relocated to Tombstone.

O.K. Corral

Toward the end of 1880, Holliday was once again involved in shootings -- he shot a man in the hand and another in the foot. A charge of assault with a deadly weapon and intent to kill was dropped, and he pleadedd guilty to a misdemeanor and paid a $20 fine ($625 in current values). Later that year, he was accused of an attempted stagecoach robbery in which two persons were killed. The stage was carrying $80,000 in silver bullion ($2.5 million in current values). Charges were brought against him, but the case never went to trial for lack of evidence.

Holliday's days in Tombstone culminated in the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The gunfight catapulted him and the Earp brothers to territorial prominence and eventually, as the myth regarding the event grew, to international fame. Holliday was arrested and tried along with Virgil and Wyatt Earp for the murders of Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury, and Tom McLaury. All three were acquitted.

Holliday then moved to Leadville, CO, and once again ran afoul of the law when, in 1884, he shot and wounded another gambler. He justified his actions, telling the court he weighed less than 122 pounds and had suffered from pneumonia "three or four times." Without shooting his bigger opponent, he claimed, he couldn't protect himself. The jury found Holliday not guilty.

On November 8, 1887, at the age of 36, Holliday died in a hotel in Glenwood Springs, CO, with Big Nose Kate watching over him. Wyatt Earp summed up Holliday's life best: "He was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a vagabond."

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