Doc Holliday..His "Career" Continues..

storm clouds rolling in last night, actually got rain!

howdy folks! Well Doc blew at least one bad guy away with his
double barreled shotgun so that's a great image of him below, quite
accurate. But greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

the doctor will see you now...

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I've been talking about one of the most colorful characters in our
American Wild West, Doc Holliday, who was a dentist by trade but
became a gambler since he was suffering from Tuberculosis and had
uncontrollable coughing spells which was brilliantly played out by
Val Kilmer in the Western movie called Tombstone.

Doc was a Southern Gentleman, a smooth talker, highly educated and
dressed to the max so his cultured ways were very unusual for the Old
West. But he was also a lethal shootist and had a violent temper.

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Now when we left off in my last post Doc had been staying in Denver,
Colorado but after slicing some bully up he needed to leave town so
he took off and headed for Fort Griffin, Texas where he started
working as a card dealer in Shanssey's Saloon.

Doc meets Big Nose Kate..

It was here that he met a dance hall girl and prostitute named Mary
Catherine Elder Haroney who went by the name of Big Nose Kate.
I don't know what's worse, her real name or her nick name!

We even have a photo of Big Nose Kate. Probably in her retirement
years. No judgement on her looks from me. lol. But I don't think her
nose is THAT big!

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Kate was stubborn and tough with a temper to match Doc's and she
said she worked the business because "she liked it, belonging to no
man, nor to any house!"

But anyway she was one of the famous dance hall girls in the West,
yes they had famous ones, even had books written about them. They
were wildly popular with the cowboys afterall and if they could attract
customers to the saloons then the saloon owners sought them out too
for an increase in business.

A literal bidding war for prostitutes! It was a different world back then
to be sure. It was in Shanssey's that Doc became friends with Kate.

Doc helps Wyatt Earp..

When Wyatt Earp came to Fort Griffin he was heading South from
Dodge City on the trail of a train robber so he went to the largest
saloon in town to try and get information about him and that
happened to be Shanssey's.

Wyatt talked to the owner asking him if he'd seen the man he was
tracking and the owner told him that he'd been there earlier in the
week but was gone now. He had been playing cards with Doc though
and suggested that the Sheriff talk to Doc.

Wyatt Earp in the 1870's

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Well, Wyatt knew that Doc had a reputation for not liking the Law.
lol. I wonder why? But he did approach him that night and was
pleasantly surprised that Doc was very gracious and open with him
and told him that the man was headed to Dodge City.

Wyatt then telegraphed Bat Masterson in Dodge and told him that
the dude should be in town, Bat and his deputies found out where he
was and arrested him. Wyatt was really happy with the help he got
from Doc and that was the start of a good but unlikely friendship.

It wasn't long before Doc was in trouble again. This incident was at a
card game of course, a bully by the name of Bailey was cheating at
the game, he knew Doc's reputation but wasn't impressed.

How many times in do we see this? in Doc's life, in Wild Bill Hickok's
life ..they are both confronted by idiot's who don't care that they are
deadly killers, then they go on to get into a fight with them and get
killed!

Anyway this really dumb bully was warned by Doc twice not to cheat,
the third time Doc just took the whole pot and pulled it in towards
himself. Bailey jumps to his feet and pulls his pistol but Doc draws
his lethal long-blade knife and slashes Bailey across the chest and
that's the end of him.

Doc didn't run this time because he knew it was self-defense but he
was still arrested and held in a local hotel room as they didn't have a
jail. Now, what kind of a town doesn't have a jail I don't know, never
heard of that.

Big Nose Kate rescues Doc..

Before anything legal got done a bunch of local yahoos formed a
vigilante group to go get Doc but Big Nose Kate heard about it and
intervened by starting a fire down the street in another building.

Everyone goes to fight the fire, she goes to the room where Doc is
being held, pulls 2 pistols on the man guarding the door and of
course the guy gives up his gun and her and Doc hit the road!

What do they do? They head to my hometown of Dodge City! Also
known as the wickedest town in the West. I think it was a good fit
don't you? lol. Well, Doc was so thankful to Kate that he promised
to stop gambling, put up his dentist shingle once again and start his
practice back up and take care of her. She promised to give up the
dance halls and prostitution.

This arrangement might have worked for the rest of Doc's life but
Kate got bored and couldn't handle the peaceful lifestyle so she took
off and left Doc at which point he says heck with it and went back
to gamblin at the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge.

Doc saves Wyatt's life

One night a group of cowboys from Texas(you gotta watch them)came
ridin into town with guns blazin, shooting off their guns, blowing out
windows and causing a big mess, ending up in the Long Branch.

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Well, Wyatt comes in and confronts them but the mob is headed by
Ed Morrison whom Wyatt had humiliated in Wichita and another
named Tobe Driskell. They expected Wyatt and when he came
through the door Morrison said "“Pray and jerk your gun! Your time
has come Earp!”

But just then Morrison heard from behind him .."“No, friend, you
draw – or throw your hands up!” It was Doc who had heard the
commotion from a back room where he was playing cards.
Holding his gun to Morrison's temple Doc says.."“Any of you bastards
pulls a gun and your leader here loses what’s left of his brains!”

The cowboys all drop their guns and Wyatt hauls them off to jail.

Later of the incident Wyatt says “The only way anyone could have
appreciated the feeling I had for Doc after the Driskill-Morrison
business would have been to have stood in my boots at the time Doc
came through the Long Branch doorway.”

Obviously this solidified their friendship and Doc was very peaceful
while he was in Dodge out of respect for Wyatt.

That's it for today folks, tomorrow Doc and Wyatt team up for the
famous shootout at the OK Corral.

Thanks for reading and God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

ps- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:

You've ever parked a Camero in a tree!