I believe it was Doc Holliday who used the Discus Zoom apparatus. He
later developed the Holliday Health Spas and Fitness Clubs and made a
fortune.

Here is the rest of the story.

"DOC" HOLLIDAY

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Dr. John Henry "Doc" Holliday

"He was the most skillful gambler, and the nerviest, fastest,
deadliest man with a six-gun I ever saw."
This was the tribute paid to Doc Holliday by Wyatt Earp, who was
something of a tough character himself.

Biography
On August 14, 1851 in Griffin, Georgia, John Henry Holliday was born
to Henry Burroughs and Alice Jane Holliday. Their first child, Martha
Eleanora, had died on June 12, 1850 at six months of age. When he
married Alice Jane McKay on January 8, 1849, Henry Burroughs was a
pharmacist by trade and, later, became a wealthy planter, lawyer, and
during the War between the States, a Confederate Major. Church records
state: "John Henry, infant son of Henry B. and Alice J. Holliday,
received the ordinance of baptism on Sunday, March 21, 1852, at the
First Presbyterian Church in Griffin."

Alice Jane died on September 16, 1866. This was a terrible blow to
young John Henry for he and his mother were very close. To compound
this loss, his father married Rachel Martin only three months later on
December 18, 1866. Shortly after this marriage, the Holliday family
moved to Valdosta, Georgia. Major Holliday quickly became one of the
town's leading citizens, becoming Mayor, the Secretary of the County
Agricultural Society, a Member of the Masonic Lodge, the Secretary of
the Confederate Veterans Camp, and the Superintendent of local
elections.

Because of his family status, John Henry had to choose some sort of
profession and he chose dentistry. He enrolled in dental school in
1870 and attended his first lecture session in 1870-1872. Each lecture
session lasted a little over three months. John wrote his required
thesis on "Disease of the Teeth". He served his required two years
apprenticeship under Dr. L.F. Frank. On March 1, 1872, the
Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia, conferred the
degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery upon twenty-six men, one of whom
was John Henry Holliday. Upon completion of his training and
graduation, Dr. Holliday opened an office with a Dr. Arthur C. Ford in
Atlanta in 1872. The Atlanta Constitution on July 26, 1872, ran the
following item:

"I hereby inform my patients that I have to attend the session of the
Southern Dental Association in Richmond, Virginia, and will be absent
until about the middle of August, during which time Dr. John H.
Holliday will fill my place in my office. Office: 26 Whitehall Street
- Arthur C. Ford, D.D.A."

Heading West
John was a good dentist, but shortly after starting his practice, he
discovered that he had contracted tuberculosis. Although he consulted
a number of doctors, the consensus of all was that he had only months
to live. However, they all concurred that he might add a few months to
his life if he moved to a dry climate. Following this advice, Doc
packed up and headed West. His first stop was in Dallas, Texas, the
end of the railroad at the time. The date was October 1873, and Doc
soon found a suitable position as an associate of Dr. John A. Seegar.
He hung out his shingle and prepared for business, but his terrible
illness was not through with him. Coughing spells wracked his thin
frame and often occurred at the most embarrassing times, such as in
the midst of filling a tooth or making an extraction. As a result, his
dental business gradually declined. John soon had to find other means
of earning a livelihood.

It became apparent that he possessed a natural ability for gambling
and this quickly became his sole means of support. In those days, a
gambler in the west had to be able to protect himself, for he stood
alone. Doc was well aware of this and faithfully practiced with
six-gun and knife. On January 2, 1875, Doc and a local saloon keeper,
named Austin, had a disagreement that flared into violence. Each man
went for his pistol. Several shots were fired, but not one struck its
intended target. According to the Dallas Weekly Herald, both shooters
were arrested. Most of the local citizens thought such a gunfight
highly amusing, but changed their views a few days later when Doc put
two large holes through a prominent citizen, leaving him very dead.
Feelings ran high over this killing and Doc was forced to flee Dallas
a short distance in front of a posse. His next stop was Jacksboro over
in Jack's County, where he found a job dealing Faro. Jackson was a
tough cow-town situated near an armypost.

Not to be outdone, Doc now carried a gun in a shoulder holster, one on
his hip, and a long, wicked knife as well. Reports confirm the fact
that he was becoming an expert with these weapons as he was involved
in three gunfights in a very short span of time. One of these left
another dead man to Doc's credit. Since this was a pretty wild section
of the West at that time, no law action was taken against him. During
the summer of 1876, Holliday again became a participant in a gunfight.
On this occasion, he was careless enough to kill a soldier from Fort
Richardson. The killing brought the United States Government into the
investigation.

Doc hit the trail again, but this time his back trail was cluttered
with the Army, U.S. Marshals, Texas Rangers, and local lawmen and
citizens, who were anxious to collect the reward offered for him.
Holliday knew that if he was captured, his neck would be stretched
with very few preliminaries, so he headed straight into Apache country
for Colorado, eight hundred miles away. Stopping for short periods at
Pueblo, Leadville, Georgetown and Central City, three more men went
down before his guns before he reached Denver. There he went by the
name of Tom Mackey and was practically unknown until he was involved
in an argument with Bud Ryan, while dealing Faro at Babbitt's House.

In the ensuing fight, Doc came very near to cutting Ryan's head off.
Ryan, who was a well-known gambling tough, survived the vicious
slashing, but his face and neck were horribly mutilated. Although his
victim did not die, public resentment forced Doc to flee again. He
drifted on to Wyoming, then to New Mexico, and from there to Fort
Griffin, Texas. It was there that Doc met the only woman who was ever
to come into his life. She was known as "Big Nose" Kate, a frontier
dance hall woman and prostitute. It was quite true that Kate's nose
was prominent, but her other features were quite attractive. Her ample
curves were generous and all in the right places. Tough, stubborn,
fearless, and high tempered, she worked at the business of being a
Madam and a prostitute because she liked it! She belonged to no man or
no Madam's House, but plied her trade as an individual in the manner
she chose.

Doc met her while he was dealing cards in John Shanssey's saloon. It
was also at Shanssey's that he met Wyatt Earp, another person who was
to have a great deal of influence on his life. Earp rode in from Dodge
City on the trail of Dave Rudabaugh, who was wanted for train robbery.
While Doc was helping Wyatt gain the information he needed, they
became fast friends. Holliday had already gained the reputation of
being a cold-blooded killer. Many believed that he liked to kill, but
that was not true. He was simply a hot-tempered Southerner who stood
aside for no man. Bat Masterson said of him: "Doc Holliday was afraid
of nothing on earth". Doc could be described as a fatalist. He knew
that he was already condemned to a slow, painful death. If his death
was quick and painless, who was he to object! Actually, he expected a
quick demise because of the violent life he lived.

A bully boy of Fort Griffin sat down in a poker game with Holliday.
His name was Ed Bailey and he had grown accustomed to having his way
with no one questioning his actions. Doc's reputation seemed to make
no impression on him whatever. In an obvious attempt to irritate Doc,
Bailey kept picking up the discards and looking through them. This was
strictly against the rules of Western poker, and anyone who broke this
rule forfeited the pot. Holliday warned Bailey twice, but the
erstwhile bad man ignored his protests. The very next hand Bailey
picked up the discards again. Without saying a word Doc reached out
and raked in the pot without showing his hand, Bailey brought a
six-shooter from under the table, while a large knife materialized in
Doc's hand. Before the local bully could pull the trigger, Doc, with
one slash, completely disemboweled him. Spilling blood everywhere,
Bailey sprawled across the table.

As he felt that he was obviously only protecting himself and in the
right, Doc stuck around town and allowed the Marshal to arrest him.
That was certainly a mistake, for once he had been disarmed and locked
up, Bailey's friends and the town vigilantes began a clamor for his
blood. "Big Nose" Kate knew that Doc was finished unless someone did
something and quick. Likely as not, the local lawmen would turn the
slim gunman over to the mob. Kate went into action by setting fire to
an old shed. It burned so rapidly that the flames threatened to engulf
the town. Everyone went to fight the fire with the exception of three
people: Kate, Doc, and the Officer who guarded him. As soon as the
lawman and his prisoner were left alone, she stepped in and confronted
them. A pistol in each hand, she disarmed the startled guard, then
passed a pistol to Doc and the two of them vanished into the night.

All that night they hid in the brush, carefully avoiding parties of
searchers. The next morning they headed for Dodge City, four hundred
miles away, on "borrowed" horses. The couple registered at Deacon
Cox's Boarding House in Dodge City as Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Holliday. Doc
felt he owed Kate a great deal for rescuing him from a hang tree in
Fort Griffin and was determined to do anything in his power to make
her happy. Kate gave up being a prostitute and inhabiting the saloons.
Doc gave up gambling and hung out his shingle again. All of Doc's good
intentions were totally unappreciated and did not endure for long.
Kate stood the quiet and boredom of respectable living as long as she
could. Then she told Doc that she was going back to the bright lights
and excitement of the dance halls and gambling dens. Consequently, the
two split up, as they were destined to do many times during the
remainder of Doc's life.

September found Doc back dealing Faro in the Long Branch Saloon. A
number of Texas cowboys had just arrived in Dodge City with a herd of
cattle. After many weeks on the trail, they were a wild, salty bunch,
ready to "tree" Dodge. Word was brought into the Long Branch that
several of the trail drivers had Wyatt Earp cornered and were boasting
that they intended to shoot him down. Doc leaped through the door, gun
in hand. When he arrived, two cowboys, Morrison and Driscoll, were
holding cocked revolvers on Wyatt, goading him to draw before they
shot him down. About twenty of their friends also stood nearby,
taunting and insulting the enraged, but helpless, Wyatt. Holliday
loosed a volume of profanity and, as the self-styled bad men turned to
face Doc, Wyatt rapped Morrison over the head with his long barrel
Colt. Then he set about relieving the other cowboys of their guns.
Wyatt never forgot the fact that Doc Holliday saved his life that
night in Dodge City.

Kate and Doc soon had another of their frequent, violent quarrels and
Doc, in a furious mood, saddled his horse and rode out to Trinidad,
Colorado. Shortly after he arrived in town, a young gambler, known as
"Kid Colton", wishing to make himself a reputation, badgered Doc into
a fight. Doc's gun roared twice and Colton collapsed in the dust of
the street. Under such circumstances, Doc did not wish to linger
around, and rode on into New Mexico. In the summer of 1879, Doc tried
his hand as a dentist for the last time in Las Vegas, New Mexico. It
was a very weak attempt and ended in a short time when he bought a
saloon on Center Street. A few weeks later, he got into an argument
with a local gunman, named Mike Gordon, who, by all evidence, was
rather popular with the locals. Not one to mince words, Doc politely
invited him to start shooting whenever he felt like it and then shot
him three times in the stomach. A mob quickly gathered and began plans
for decorating a hang tree, using Doc as an ornament. Wisely, Doc
disappeared like smoke. Since he had to move on again, Doc knew the
one place he would be safe in was Dodge City. After all, Wyatt Earp
was his friend. But when he rode back into town, he discovered that
Wyatt had gone to a new silver strike, in a place called Tombstone,
Arizona.

Bound for Tombstone
There was nothing to hold him in Dodge City with Wyatt gone, so Doc
headed West, bound for Tombstone. Without Doc knowing it, he would
soon get to know more of the Earp family, for all of the Earp brothers
were bound for Tombstone. Morgan was coming in from Montana, Wyatt and
James from Dodge City and Virgil from Prescott, where Marshal Crawley
Dake had just made him a Deputy U.S. Marshal. Virgil left Prescott for
Tombstone without Holliday , who was having a fantastic run of luck at
the poker tables.

"Big Nose" Kate, also enroute to the new boom town of Tombstone,
caught up with Doc in Prescott while he was still winning at poker.
The two of them reached Tombstone in the early summer of 1880 and Doc,
with $40,000 of the Prescott gamblers' money in his pockets, found
Kate very happy to be in his company.

In Tombstone, Doc found Kate's living quarters sandwiched between a
funeral parlor and the Soma Winery on the North side of Allen Street,
at Sixth Street. Kate was quick to realize opportunity and, soon after
her arrival in Tombstone, went into business and was soon making a
sizable income. She purchased a large tent, rounded up several girls,
a few barrels of bad, cheap whiskey and operated Tombstone's first
"sporting house".

The outlaw gang in Tombstone had things their way for quite some time
and they resented the arrival of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday.
"Old man" Clanton, his sons, Ike, Phin, and Billy, the McLaury
brothers, Frank and Tom, Curly Bill Brocius, John Ringo and their
followers lost no time in expressing their displeasure. Doc had become
quite famous as a gunman by the time he had reached Tombstone. Several
men had died in encounters with him. At any rate, Holliday was a
welcome addition to the Earp's fight with the "Cowboy" faction.

Johnny Tyler and Doc had a dispute in the Oriental Saloon, early in
October, 1880. Tyler left as quickly as possible but Doc and Milt
Joyce, the saloon owner, continue to argue. The argument turned into
gunplay and Doc drunkenly fired several shots. Finally, Milt struck
Doc on the head with a pistol. When the affair ended Joyce had been
shot through the hand, Parker, his bartender, was shot through the toe
on the left foot and Holliday had a lump on his head from the
pistol-whipping by Joyce. Doc was arrested and charged with assault
with a deadly weapon. He was found guilty by Justice Reilly and fined
$20 for assault and battery and $11.25 costs.

Once they were settled in town, Holliday and "Big Nose" Kate took up
where they had left off. Although they lived together , Doc went back
to drinking and gambling and Kate to her operation as a prostitute.
Their arguments were frequent, but not really serious until Kate got
drunk and abusive. Doc, at this point, decided that enough was enough
and threw her out. As fate would have it, four masked men attempted a
hold up on a stagecoach near Contention on March 15, 1881. In the
attempt, they killed two men: Bud Philpot, the stage driver, and Peter
Roerig, a passenger. The Cowboy faction immediately seized upon the
opportunity and accused Doc Holliday of being one of the holdup men.
Sheriff Behan and Deputy Stilwell found Kate on one of her drunken
binges, still berating Doc for throwing her out. They sympathized with
her and fed her more whiskey, then persuaded her to sign an affidavit
that Doc had been one of the masked highwaymen and had actually pulled
the trigger on the shot that killed Bud Philpot.

While Kate was sobering up, the Earps began to round up witnesses who
could verify Doc's whereabouts on the night in question. When Kate
realized what she had done, she regretted her actions and repudiated
her statement. Since witnesses and Kate's new stand exposed the Cowboy
frame-up, Doc was released. The District Attorney labeled the charges
as ridiculous and threw them out. Doc gave Kate some money and put her
on a stage leaving town. As far as he was concerned, his debt to her
was paid in full. "Big Nose" Kate was a far different woman than most
of the people in Tombstone realized. She had been born Mary Katherine
Horony, in Budapest, Hungary on November 7, 1850. During her long life
she was to use many last names: Elder, Melvin, Fisher, Holliday,
Cummings and Howard. She did not travel far on the stage, only to
Globe. Evidently, she made two or three trips back to Tombstone to
visit Doc as she claimed to be a witness to the gunfight. She may have
been, as she and Doc were staying in a room at Mrs. Fly's.

Most likely that is why the Cowboys were in a vacant lot next door
near the O.K. Corral. They may have been waiting for Doc to come back
to the room they shared where they would have an opportunity to kill
him.

Kate was apparently in Colorado from 1882 to the early part of 1888,
although there is no information that she was living with Doc any of
those years. She married a blacksmith, named George M. Cummings in
1888 and with her new husband moved to Bisbee, Arizona, only a few
miles from Tombstone. They also lived for a time in Pearce, Arizona.
In 1889, Kate left her husband and moved to the tiny railroad town of
Cochise. (Cummings committed suicide in Courtland, Arizona on July 7,
1915. The coroner's jury report said that he killed himself because he
had an incurable cancer of the head.) Cochise had been born in 1886 as
a railroad station and post office at the junction of the Arizona
Eastern and Southern Pacific railroads. John J. Rath hired Kate to
work in his Cochise Hotel in 1899, although the customers never knew
her true identity. She left the Cochise Hotel in the summer of 1900,
and moved in with a man named Howard, from the mining town of Dos
Cabezas.

She lived with him until 1930, and when he died she inherited some
property. In 1931, she wrote to the Governor of Arizona, George W.P.
Hunt, requesting admission to the "Arizona Pioneers Home". Being
foreign born, she was not eligible but she claimed that she had been
born in Davenport, Iowa. So Hunt gave her permission for admission to
the home and she stayed there until her death on November 2, 1940.

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Other gunfights and the aftermath of O.K. Corral

On January 17, 1882, came the famous confrontation between Wyatt, Doc
and Ringo. Many writers would say that Ringo challenged all the Earps
and Holliday. Not true. Virgil and Morgan were incapacitated with
painful wounds. Ringo wasn't running much risk as there was little
chance that they would accept his challenge. They knew that Ringo had
been drinking heavily and that the Whiskey was talking. In addition,
they had troubles enough from the aftermath of the gunfight at O.K.
Corral. Ringo was well aware of all this.

On March 18,1882, the assassins struck again. Morgan was playing pool
with Bob Hatch at Campbell and Hatch's Saloon and Billiard Parlor, on
Allen Street between Fourth and Fifth Street. A shot was fired from
the darkness of the alley. That shot struck him in the back and
snuffed out his life. Morgan's body was dressed in one of Doc
Holliday's suits and shipped to the parents in Colton, California for
burial.

The Earp party encountered Frank Stilwell and Ike Clanton at the
Tucson Station. Wyatt chased Stilwell down the track and filled him
full of holes. The date was March 20, 1882. A Tucson Coroner's Jury
named Wyatt and Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, "Texas Jack", and McMasters
as the men who had killed Stillwell. A Tucson judge issued warrants
for their arrests. As far as Wyatt Earp was concerned, the man who
shot Virgil and killed Morgan were dead men, only living until he
found them. The killing of Stilwell was just the beginning of his
bloody trail of vengeance, and Doc Holliday rode beside him all the
way. Wyatt received word that Pete Spencer was at his wood camp in the
Dragoons. The "federal posse" rode there and found: not Pete Spencer,
but Florentino Cruz. Frightened, he named the men who had murdered
Morgan, himself included. The Earp posse shot him to pieces. The date
was March 22, 1882. The Earp posse was riding along a deep wash near
Iron Springs when they encountered Curly Bill Brocius and eight of his
men. In the fight that followed, Curly Bill was killed and Johnny
Barnes received a wound that eventually killed him. The date was March
24, 1882.

In a little more than a year, the list of Cowboy outlaws that had been
eliminated was astonishing: "Old Man" Clanton, Billy Clanton, Frank
McLaury, Tom McLaury, Frank Stilwell, Indian Charlie, Dixie Gray,
Florentino Cruz, Curly Bill, Johnny Barnes, Jim Crane, Harry Head,
Bill Leonard, Joe Hill, Luther King, Charley Snow, Billy Lang, Zwing
Hunt, Billy Grounds and Hank Swilling. Pete Spencer, volunteered for
the penitentiary for his own safety. Doc Holliday accounted for more
than his share of the Cowboys, and when he and Wyatt Earp left
Tombstone for good, they rode their horses to Silver City, New Mexico,
sold them, rode a stage to Deming, and boarded a train for Colorado.

Doc was arrested in Denver shortly after his arrival. The arresting
officer was a man named Perry Mallan. (Some believe that he was
actually a brother to Johnny Tyler, a foe of Holliday and would-be
gunman, that Doc ran out of Tombstone). While Doc was in jail the
Denver Republican of May 22, 1882, ran the following: "Holliday has a
big reputation as a fighter, and has probably put more rustlers and
cowboys under the sod than any other one man in the west. 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 remarked in the paper that he was standing along side when
Curly Bill Brocius was killed. Doc related his thoughts as to that:
"...eight rustlers rose up from behind the bank and poured from
thirty-five to forty shots at us. Our escape was miraculous. The shots
cut our clothes and saddles and killed one horse, but did not hit us.
I think we would have been killed if God Almighty wasn't on our side.
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 along side Curly
Bill when he was killed, he was with one of the worst gangs of
murderers and robbers in the country."

Doc's troubles, concerning extradition to Arizona, ended and the
following article was in the Rocky Mountain News, May 30, 1882: "Doc
Holliday's case was finally disposed of by Governor Pitkin yesterday,
his Excellency deciding that he could not honor the requisition from
Arizona. The District Attorney's Office was represented by Honorable
I.E. Barnum, Assistant District Attorney, who was accompanied in his
visit to the Governor by Deputy Sheriff Linton and Sheriff Paul of
Arizona. Among others present were Deputy Sheriff Masterson (Bat) of
Trinidad and several friends of Holliday."

Doc left Denver and went to Pueblo and from there to Leadville. It was
there that he ran into two old enemies from Tombstone, Billy Allen and
Johnny Tyler. Friends advised Doc that Allen had threatened him and
was looking for him with a pistol. Around 5 PM on August 19, 1884, Doc
strolled into Hyman's Saloon, and placed himself at the end of the bar
near the cigar lighter. As Billy Allen crossed the threshold, Doc
leveled his pistol and fired creasing Allen's head. Reaching over the
tobacco counter, Doc shot him again through the left arm below the
shoulder. Holliday would have shot him again, but bystanders disarmed
him. Allen was much larger than Doc and had obviously threatened him
publicly so Doc was acquitted of the shooting charges.

Doc Holliday claimed he almost lost his life a total of nine times.
Four attempts were made to hang him and he was shot at in a gunfight
or from ambush five times. In May, 1887, Doc went to Glenwood Springs
to try the sulfur vapors, as his health was steadily growing worse,
but he was too far gone. He spent his last fifty-seven days in bed and
was delirious fourteen of them. On November 8, 1887, he awoke
clear-eyed and asked for a glass of whiskey. It was given to him and
he drank it down with enjoyment. Then he said, "This is funny", and
died.

Doc Holliday had come West years before, knowing his days were
numbered. Long before his death he had maintained that he would not
die in bed coughing his guts out. He always believed that he would be
killed by a quicker, easier death than that planned for him by
destiny. He often said that his end would come from lead poisoning, at
the end of a rope, a knife in his ribs, or that he might drink himself
to death. That's why he considered it funny when he died peacefully in
bed. Doc was the best of the Western gamblers and he lost his biggest
bet when he died of tuberculosis. The greater part of his years had
been lived on borrowed time. His remains were buried in their final
resting place in the Glenwood Cemetery (Old Hill Cemetery), Colorado.

So passed Tombstone's most deadly gun.

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From the book "The Chronicles of Tombstone" by Ben T. Traywick.

Copyrights and All Rights Reserved 1996 by Mr. Ben T. Traywick.

Books about Tombstone available to purchase direct from
Tombstone1880.com.

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