Doc Holliday, A True Gunfighter?

[Dispatch]

When ever you hear about John Henry 'Doc' Holliday, he is portrayed as a 'fearsome' gunfighter. He was dying of Tuberculosis ("consumption"), early on in his life. It affects the central nervous system, causing chronic coughing, blood-tinged sputum, fever, night sweats, weight loss and chronic black outs. He was known to have been frail, skinny and pale as milk. He was also known to be a Vagabond who had murdered men in different parts of the country who he had robbed and comitted all manner of crimes(quote: Virgil Earp, May 30th, 1882). With all these ailing symptoms, how on earth could Doc Holliday have been able to have had enough strength, concentration and skill to be able to handle Colt Peacemakers with such precision as he has been portrayed? As proof of his inability, at the OK Corral he was known to have had a Coach Gun in one hand and a pistol in the other. This would have taken alot less skill and concentration to operate. This would put serious doubt to his ability to handle a pistol as he has been portrayed in so many stories. I think that his life story maybe more of legend than the actual man. 

[Trailrider]

How does one define the term, "gunfighter"?  Lightning fast! Deliberate and accurate!  Fast and accurate?  Nerves of steel?!!

As J.B. Books said, "It isn't being fast, or just accurate... You gotta be willing!"  Willing, how? Willing to stand there when someone is shooting at you, to steady down and shoot quickly but accurately.

Doc was probably a skilled shootist, with natural hand-eye co-ordination.  But he had one absolute advantage over his opponents: He was dying slowly, as it was.  If he went out quick from a bullet or knife, so much the better!  That's an edge few gunfighters could afford! The J.B. Books character played by "The Duke" had this same attitude once he was diagnosed with cancer.  On the other hand, Doc's will to live was pretty strong, so he didn't just stand there and take it! Maybe it was his sporting blood...to see just how much he could get away with against others, whether with cards or guns or knives.

[Harley Starr]

I think you just about summed it all up there, Trailrider. "The Will".

[Dispatch]

Will is one thing, having the physical ability to carry out the task is another. Portrayed as a man constantly spitting up blood, passing out and falling from the saddle was more than likley true. Hence why he was known as 'The Lunger'.
"Truth and tale have conflated over the years, immortalizing Holliday as a mythological typification of western grandeur and glory at once dimure and dangerious. However, in reality, wracked with afflictions, his ephemeral physicality threatens to diminish the heroized invinsibility with which he is so commonly associated. Although his afflictions created his complexity of his enigmatic character and are so much a part of his legend as his guns, his drink, or his cards, they are not as easily spectacularized as his more violent exploits, some real, most imagined". 

[Shotgun Franklin]

Was Doc in some shootin's, there's enough documentation to establish that. Was he the fastest and the best shot, likely not. He did have the guts to walk down to the OK Corral so I'd say that he qualifies. The fact that he, on occasion, shot the innocent bystander or shot his opponent in the foot doesn't make him a great shot but you don't have to be a great shot to be a gunfighter. Maybe that's why he was given a shotgun during that long walk?

[Digger]

... at the OK Corral he was known to have had a Coach Gun in one hand and a pistol in the other.

Reliable testimony was that he threw away the shotgun after discharging it, and then drew his handgun.  Assertions he simultaneously wielded both aren't broadly accepted.  What I've read about him says his reputation wasn't based on a special prowess with a gun but his murderous temper.  That is, his willingness to drop you dead where you stood.  They acknowledge he wasn't much unarmed, but not many were willing to try to disarm him.

We had a guy in my company in the Army who was a real prince sober, but nobody went near him when he was drunk.  Sorta like Holliday.


Digger