John Henry “Doc” Holliday Biography

John Henry Holliday went to the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery and in 1872 moved to Atlanta, Georgia to practice as a dentist. Only a few years into his profession, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to move to the drier west to prolong his life. Out west he had a new career as a gambler, and, by necessity, a gunfighter. He made friends with Wyatt Earp in Texas, moved around parts of the western frontier and ended up with Earp again in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881, where he found himself in the middle of a turf war that culminated in the famous gunfight in the O.K. Corral. After the gunfight, Doc moved around avoiding extradition and ended up in Colorado, where he died in bed.