Doc Holliday

by Gary L Roberts

  Information relating to the Albuquerque bridge is also confusing. The standard works, F. Stanley, The Duke City: The Story of Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1706–1956 (Pampa, TX: Pampa Print Shop, 1963), 48, and Marc Simmons, Albuquerque: A Narrative History (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982), 277–278, both indicate that construction of the Rio Grande bridge at Albuquerque was under way in the spring of 1882. The project was a private endeavor of the Albuquerque Bridge Company, with Franz Huning, a local businessman who owned a flour mill and contracted beef, as the primary investor. The effort was not the first bridge enterprise across the Rio Grande at Albuquerque—a railroad bridge existed in 1882—but the Huning bridge was intended to allow wagon and pedestrian traffic across the marshy approach to the river as well as the river itself. Hornung, “New Mexico Adventures,” 128–129. The project stalled for lack of investors, and the Albuquerque Evening Review, April 19, 1882, indicated that the project was still stalled but that the company was seeking New York investors, during the very time that the Earps were in the city. What is not clear is whether any construction had already begun.

  The final phase of construction on the bridge began in September 1882, and the local papers announced the completion of the bridge on November 1, 1882. Albuquerque Evening Review, August 15, November 1, 1882; Albuquerque Morning Journal, November 1, 2, 1882. Scott Johnson to Gary L. Roberts, May 25, 26, 27, 2005; Chuck Hornung to Gary L. Roberts, May 18, 27, 2005, provided invaluable assistance on this topic. A formal ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on December 12, 1882. What is clear is that the bridge was the topic of active discussion and concern while the Earps were in Albuquerque, and it is reasonable that Jaffa, a merchant interested in the future of the city, would have shown Earp at least the location of the bridge. However, Otero may well have misremembered the state of the bridge’s progress at the time the Earps were in the city when he wrote his 1940 letter.

  34. Tombstone Daily Nugget, May 10, 1882; Tombstone Daily Epitaph, May 10, 1882; Albuquerque Evening Review, May 13, 1882.

  35. Denver Republican, May 22, 1882.

  36. Dr. Arthur W. Bork, notes of interview with Mary Katharine Cummings, Thanksgiving, 1935, typescript provided to Roberts by Dr. Bork. Kate stated essentially the same information to Anton Mazzanovich in Typescript of Recollections of Mary Katharine Cummings as Given to Anton Mazzanovich, 16, Kevin J. Mulkins Collection. Kate consistently says that the argument took place in Gunnison, Colorado.

  37. Breakenridge, Helldorado, 175–177. Steve Gatto, Curly Bill: Tombstone’s Most Famous Outlaw (Lansing, MI: Protar House, 2003), 164n, cites the Helldorado file, from the Houghton Mifflin Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, as revealing that Breakenridge was given the Arnold-Truly account by William Lutley, a Tombstone resident. So far, I have found no record of this story in print prior to the publication of Helldorado..

  38. Earp to Lake, November 6, 1928, Lake Collection.

  39. Otero to “Dear Old Friend,” quoted in Hornung and Roberts, “The Split,” 59.

  40. William B. Shillingberg, Tombstone, A. T.: A History of Early Mining, Milling, and Mayhem (Spokane, WA: Clark, 1999), 236, says that Earp met Sadie in the late summer of 1881 (later than generally supposed), but their involvement at Tombstone (at whatever stage it was) was not generally known in 1940. For Doc’s comments about Behan and his “girl,” see Denver Republican, May 22, 1882.

  41. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, May 20, 1882.

  42. Tucson Daily Star, March 23, 24, 1882. These articles were followed in the Tucson Weekly Star, March 26, 1882, with a detailed account by “the San Francisco Tombstone correspondent [which] gives the story of the Feud from almost the beginning.” These articles, especially the last, titled “The Vendetti,” constituted a major rewriting of the Tombstone story, which transformed what happened there into a personal feud and placed Doc Holliday in the role of primary provocateur. These stories enlarged on Ike Clanton’s testimony at the Spicer hearing (while accepting most of its premises) and set the stage for a political attack on the Tritle administration in particular and on Republicans in general, which the Star would eventually accuse of taking “shelter under the Earpumbrella.” Tucson Daily Star, June 1, 1882. What the Star did, in the process, was to give form to the anti-Earp interpretation of the Tombstone story down to the present day.

  43. San Diego Union, April 30, 1882.

  44. Las Vegas Daily Optic, May 24, 1882.

  45. Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp, 251–252, discusses the impact of Purdy’s arrival. Purdy may well have come to Tombstone to conduct the anti-Earp crusade. He remained in the role only briefly, giving up the editorship on July 29, 1882, and returning to Yuma. See Lynn R. Bailey and Don Chaput, Cochise County Stalwarts: A Who’s Who of the Territorial Years (Tucson, AZ: Westernlore, 2000), 2:74.

  46. See also Tucson Daily Star, May 21, 1882.

  47. Tombstone Weekly Commercial Advertiser, April 22, 1882. For more information on Lyttleton Price, see Pamela Potter, “Western Lore: Tombstone Love Triangle,” Wild West (December 2005): 60, 62–63. Apparently, Price was not well liked by either side. Fred Dodge, Under Cover for Wells Fargo: The Unvarnished Recollections of Fred Dodge, edited by Carolyn Lake (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), 40–42, called him “a man of no standing whatever—A moral Coward who was afraid to prosecute any bad man” and claimed further that “he was in Every way a very incompetent man” who was in the job for “what could be got out of it.”.

  48. W. T. Sherman to B. H. Brewster, U.S. Attorney General, April 11, 1882, Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

  49. Presidential Proclamation Respecting Disturbances in Arizona, Chester A. Arthur, May 3, 1882, Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, RG 48, NARA. For a useful discussion of the proclamation, see Henry P. Walker, “Retire Peaceably to Your Homes: Arizona Faces Martial Law,” Journal of Arizona History 10 (Winter 1968): 1–18.

  50. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, May 5, 1882.

  51. San Diego Union, May 7, 1882.

  52. Tucson Daily Star, May 6, 1882.

  53. San Diego Union, May 7, 1882.

  54. San Francisco Exchange, May 6, 1882.

  55. Tucson Daily Citizen, May 8, 1882.

  56. Ibid. Based on its review of the papers’ positions, the Tucson Daily Citizen concluded, “THEY EITHER LIED THEN OR THEY LIE NOW.”.

  57. San Diego Union, May 10, 12, 1882; Tombstone Daily Nugget, May 11, 1882; Phoenix Arizona Gazette, May 18, 1882; Tucson Daily Citizen, May 16, 1882 (reprinted in the San Diego Daily Union, May 17, 1882).

  58. J. H. Jackson to the editor, May 10, 1882, Tombstone Daily Nugget, May 11, 12, 1882.

  59. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, June 1, 1882; Tombstone Weekly Epitaph, June 3, 1882.

  60. Bryant L. Peel to the editor, May 9, 1882, Tombstone Daily Nugget, May 10, 1882.

  61. Virginia City (Nevada) Enterprise, May 21, 1882, which included in its editorial on “The Situation in Arizona” a letter from Governor Tritle to the editor of the Enterprise, dated May 17, 1882. The Enterprise’s editorial was reprinted in the Prescott Arizona Democrat, June 5, 1882. Many of the articles relating to the response to the presidential proclamation cited here and more besides are found in Frederick A. Tritle Scrapbook, No. 3, File 3, MS 794, AHS.

  62. Actually, Tipton’s death was reported in three separate issues of the Tombstone Daily Epitaph, May 6, 8, 10, 1882; see also Ed Bartholomew, Wyatt Earp: The Man and the Myth (Toyahvale, TX: Frontier, 1964), 325–326, which quotes from the Texas Jack article, and Las Vegas Daily Optic, March 24, 25, 1882.

  63. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, May 10, 1882; Albuquerque Evening Review, May 13, 1882. Finally, on May 19, 1882, the Phoenix Daily Gazette reported, “The statement going the rounds that Wyatt Earp had been killed in Arizona is not correct. His attorneys know nothing of the affair at least.”.

  64. Colton (California) Semi-Tropic, quoted in San
Diego Union, May 28, 1882; New Southwest and Grant County Herald, April 29, 1882.

  65. Albuquerque Evening Review, May 13, 1882.

  66. Ibid.; Albuquerque Morning Journal, May 14, 1882.

  67. A few times in his life, Wyatt Earp claimed to have killed “Apache Hank” (Hank Swilling) besides Stilwell, Cruz, and Curly Bill. See Denver Republican, May 14, 1893, for example, and rumor named other victims as well. Sarah Grace Bakarich, Gunsmoke: The True Story of Old Tombstone (Tombstone, AZ: Tombstone, 1954), 65, reported, “After the killing of Morgan Earp, someone, gossip names Doc Holliday, killed a cowboy riding Curly Bill’s horse as he passed beneath the rock outcropping called Robber’s Roost on the Charleston Road.” Bakarich stated that the horse was identified by Mayor Charles Thomas, adding, “The rider had been killed by a charge of buck-shot through the head. His identification was not definite but he was about the same size as Curly Bill.” Such accounts are dubious. Swilling, for example, was apparently in jail for twenty days after his March 24, 1882, arrest and was later killed at Fronteras in Mexico. See Roy B. Young, Cochise County Cowboy War: “A Cast of Characters” (Apache, OK: Young, 1999), 122. It is fair to say, however, that the Cow-Boys scattered after the vendetta, some into New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico, and some into other parts of Arizona.

  68. See Richard Maxwell Brown, “Law and Order on the American Frontier: The Western Civil War of Incorporation,” in Law for the Elephant, Law for the Beaver: Essays in the Legal History of the North American West, edited by John McLaren et al. (Pasadena, CA: Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, 1992), 74–89, and Roberts, Death Comes for the Chief Justice, 133–139. The balance between justice and order is also a major theme in Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp..

  69. Tucson Daily Citizen, May 8, 1882.

  70. Tucson Daily Star, March 30, 1882.

  10. A Holliday in Denver

  1. Robert K. DeArment, Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979), 218–224.

  2. Peter Brand, “Daniel G. Tipton and the Earp Vendetta Posse,” Quarterly for the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History 24 (October–December 2000): 23–24.

  3. Trinidad (Colorado) News, May 5, 1882; Casey Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp: The Life behind the Legend (New York: Wiley, 1997): 255.

  4. Trinidad News, May 5, 1882.

  5. Pueblo (Colorado) Chieftain, May 3, 4, 1882.

  6. Pueblo Chieftain, May 6, 1882.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Pueblo Chieftain, May 17, 1882. On May 8, 1882, while Doc was in Pueblo, the old case against him in Arizona in the matter of his fight with Milt Joyce was dismissed when Doc failed to appear. Case No. 23, Territory of Arizona v. J. H. Holliday, Minutes

  of the District Court, Cachise [sic] County, p. 453, William H. Stilwell Collection, Utah Department of Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.

  9. Robert K. DeArment, Deadly Dozen: Twelve Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003), 23–29, is the best summary of Desmond’s career. Desmond’s life had taken a turn for the worse in 1882 and would eventually cause him to leave Pueblo.

  10. Pueblo Chieftain, May 17, 1882.

  11. Denver Republican, May 22, 1882; Gunnison (Colorado) Daily News-Democrat, June 18, 1882.

  12. Pueblo Chieftain, May 17, 1882; Denver Daily Times, May 16, 1882.

  13. Denver Daily Tribune, May 26, 1882.

  14. Gunnison Daily News-Democrat, June 18, 1882; Denver Daily Tribune, May 15, 1882 (showing “J. N. Vimont, Leadville” registered at the Windsor); Corbett and Ballenger Leadville City Directory, 1882, “JO. N., supt. Big Pitttsburgh [sic] Cons. Silver Mining Co., 211 Harrison av”; Leadville City Record, 1882, p. 47, “Big Pittsburg Consolidated Silver Mining Company—J. N. Vimont, Superintendent, Office, 211 Harrison avenue, Mine, East Fryer Hill”; Emma Walling to Susan McKey Thomas, July 5, 1995, copy in author’s files.

  15. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 16, 1882; Denver Republican, May 16, 1882; Denver Daily Tribune, May 16, 1882; Pueblo Chieftain, May 16, 1882.

  16. Denver Republican, May 16, 1882.

  17. Denver Daily Tribune, May 16, 1882. The reporter was apparently E. D. Cowen, who would later write about his experiences with Doc in an article for the Denver Rocky Mountain News, October 23, 1898.

  18. Denver Daily Tribune, May 16, 1882.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Denver Republican, May 19, 1882.

  21. Denver Republican, May 16, 1882.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 16, 1882.

  24. Denver Republican, May 16, 17, 19, 1882.

  25. Denver Daily Tribune, May 17, 1882.

  26. Denver Daily Times, May 17, 1882.

  27. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 17, 1882.

  28. Denver Daily Times, May 16, 1882.

  29. Pueblo Chieftain, May 17, 1882.

  30. Denver Daily Tribune, May 16, 1882.

  31. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 17, 1882.

  32. The Denver Daily Tribune, May 17, March 26, 1882, affirmed Holliday’s relationship to Desmond, Lomery, and Cook. For Tritch’s comments, see Denver Daily Times, May 17, 1882, and Trinidad News, May 20, 1882. On May 17, 1882, the Tribune also reported that the Cow-Boys in Arizona had threatened to kill Charles D. Reppy of the Tombstone (Arizona) Daily Epitaph and said that the “statement is corroborated by a letter from C. D. Reppy to his brother, Mr. George Reppy, of this city.” The Reppy letter was also mentioned in the Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 17, 1882, as follows: “Many of Holladay’s [sic] statements are supported by a letter written by a Mr. Reppy, formerly editor of the Tombstone EPITAPH, to Mr. George Reppy, of Denver, and by other documents which Holladay has in his possession.”.

  33. Denver Daily Times, May 17, 1882.

  34. Pueblo Chieftain, May 17, 1882. Mallon’s successful con of several former residents of Akron while he was in Pueblo would prove to be his first major mistake.

  35. Denver Republican, May 16, 1882.

  36. Denver Daily Times, May 17, 1882.

  37. William Barclay Masterson, “Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier: Doc Holliday,” Human Life (May 1907): 5; Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 19, 1882; Denver Daily Tribune, May 19, 1882. The Pueblo Chieftain, May 20, 1882, claimed that the Denver papers distorted what happened in Denver and insisted that Marshal Jameson had had no trouble with Sheriff Spangler or his deputies. Jameson was popular in Pueblo, and on May 27 he was presented with a “handsome badge” in recognition of his services. See Pueblo Chieftain, May 28, 1882. No direct connection between Holliday and Jameson has been found before the Denver troubles, but even before the roles of Masterson and Jameson on behalf of Holliday became known, both the Trinidad News and the Pueblo Chieftain were outspoken in their support of Holliday. See Trinidad News, May 18, 20, 1882, and Pueblo News, May 17, 18, 1882, for examples. The Chieftain’s May 17, 1882, issue contained the first strong and informed defense of Doc in an article that also exposed Mallon as a con artist.

  38. Denver Daily Tribune, May 19, 1882.

  39. Ibid.; Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 19, 1882.

  40. Denver Daily Tribune, May 19, 1882.

  41. Denver Republican, May 18, 1882.

  42. Pueblo Chieftain, May 17, 18, 1882.

  43. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 21, 1882.

  44. Denver Republican, May 22, 1882.

  45. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, May 17, 1882, reprinted in Denver Republican, May 22, 1882.

  46. Denver Republican, May 22, 1882.

  47. Tucson Daily Star, May 18, 1882; see also the Tucson Daily Citizen, May 18, 1882. For once the Tucson papers agreed. The Prescott Arizona Democrat, May 25, 1882, reprinted the Star’s article and agreed with the governor’s decision.

  48. Denver Republican, May 18, 1882.

  49. Tucson Daily Star, May 18, 1882.

  50. Tombstone Daily Epitaph, quoted in Denver Republican, May 22, 1882.

  51. D
enver Daily Times, May 17, 1882.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Denver Daily Tribune, May 20, 1882.

  54. Denver Republican, May 20, 1880.

  55. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 22, 1882.

  56. Denver Daily Tribune, May 20, 1882.

  57. Denver Daily Times, May 20, 1882.

  58. Denver Republican, May 22, 1882. This reference to the Tombstone Cow-Boys being a part of the old “Fort Griffin gang” strongly suggested that Doc knew at least some of them before he went to Arizona.

  59. Ibid.

  60. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 22, 1882.

  61. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 24, 1882.

  62. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 25, 1882.

  63. Denver Republican, May 26, 1882.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Ibid.

  66. Las Vegas (New Mexico) Daily Optic, May 23, 1882.

  67. Albuquerque Evening Review, quoted in Silver City’s New Southwest and Grant County Herald, May 27, 1882.

  68. Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News, May 26, 1882. That same day, Bob Paul wrote to his undersheriff in Tucson, “Holliday’s friends are doing everything in their power to get him off, and will appear before the Governor and fight the requisition. He has three lawyers and all the sporting men in his favor…. There is more feeling over the Holliday affair here than there is in Tucson, and all in his favor, but I do not think I will have any trouble if he is turned over to me.” Quoted in John Boessenecker, “Lawman Bob Paul’s Doc and Wyatt Connection,” Wild West (August 2003): 45.

  69. Las Vegas Daily Optic, May 18, 29, 1882.

  70. Pueblo Chieftain, May 18, 1882.

  71. Fattig, Wyatt Earp: The Biography, 595, makes the case for Tabor’s involvement, and it is reasonable, except for the political quarrel between the governor and him. Tabor had been elected lieutenant governor under Pitkin in 1878. In 1880, he was defeated by George B. Robinson, but Robinson died before he could take over the office, and Tabor took the highly questionable position that Robinson’s death meant that he should continue in office, which he did until January 1883. The point of conflict between him and Governor Pitkin arose in the spring of 1882, when Senator Henry Teller resigned to become secretary of the interior. Both Tabor and Pitkin had designs on the office, but it fell to Pitkin to appoint someone to fill the seat temporarily until the Colorado legislature convened in November 1882. Tabor reasoned that if he secured the temporary post, the legislature would likely appoint him to the permanent position. Pitkin realized this as well, and so on April 11, 1882, he appointed George M. Chilcott of Pueblo instead, creating bitter feelings between Tabor and Pitkin. The Colorado press was filled with the story through April. This quarrel makes it unlikely that Tabor approached Pitkin on Doc’s behalf, although he may well have taken a behind-the-scene role. I am grateful to Woody Campbell for providing the fruits of his research into the Tabor-Pitkin quarrel during the preparation of this book. Woody Campbell to Gary L. Roberts, April 7, 12, 2005. The Las Vegas Daily Optic, May 4, 1882, reported that Tabor was at Montezuma Springs in New Mexico for several days during which time he could have spoken with New Mexico authorities, but that is speculation.