Chairside - Glidewell Dental Labs
Chairside - Glidewell Dental Labs
Chairside - Glidewell Dental Labs
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Doc moved to Dallas, Texas, and quickly picked up his<br />
instruments again as he started work with Dr. John A.<br />
Seeger. However, his dental career came to a screeching<br />
halt as the coughing spells from his disease began to scare<br />
patients away. Even though universal precautions wouldn’t<br />
be adopted for another 100 years or so, these patients had<br />
the good sense not to let someone with active tuberculosis<br />
cough into their open mouth. Doc Holliday was forced to<br />
find another way to earn a living.<br />
Naturally, he did what any dentist would do and turned<br />
to a career in gambling. An intelligent man, Doc was a<br />
successful gambler. Doc was made miserable, however, by<br />
the knowledge of his impending death. Moody, a heavy<br />
drinker and with no fear of death, he perhaps was more<br />
prone to the life he came to lead.<br />
Knowing he had to protect himself, given his dangerous<br />
occupation and his disease-weakened body, he began to<br />
train with a six-shooter. He quickly gained a reputation as<br />
word of this nearly 6-foot-tall, gun-slingin’ dentist spread<br />
like wildfire. After his first accounted gunfight on Jan. 2,<br />
1875, when Doc and a local saloonkeeper had a disagreement<br />
that quickly turned violent, Doc became increasingly<br />
fearless and dangerous. While several shots were fired, neither<br />
Doc nor the saloonkeeper was struck and both men<br />
were arrested, reported the Dallas Weekly Herald. Initially,<br />
the locals thought the gunfight was amusing, until just a<br />
few days later when Doc got into another disagreement,<br />
this time killing a prominent citizen with two aimed bullets.<br />
Only Wyatt Earp strolled out of it unharmed. Despite the<br />
name, the gunfight actually went down six doors west of<br />
the rear entrance to the O.K. Corral, as well as in the middle<br />
of the street. Shots were fired, and bullets flew for about<br />
30 seconds. Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the<br />
Earp brothers and Doc, but they were all acquitted.<br />
Doc was a nomadic creature, moving from one town to the<br />
next, staying only long enough to win some money at the<br />
table and put someone in their place. Dodging any serious<br />
jail time, Doc continued his wild rampage engaging in<br />
infamous showdowns and run-ins with the law, only to be<br />
eventually taken down not by a gun, but by his tuberculosis.<br />
When his health began to rapidly deteriorate in 1887, he<br />
headed to Glenwood Springs, Colo., in hopes that the<br />
natural hot springs there would improve his condition.<br />
Unfortunately, he did not recover, and a few months later,<br />
died at the age of 36. As the story goes, Doc always figured<br />
he would be killed with his boots on, so when he found<br />
himself barefoot on his deathbed, he asked for a glass of<br />
whiskey and drank it down. Then, looking at his feet, said,<br />
“This is funny,” and died. CM<br />
Fleeing Dallas, Doc moved to Jacksboro, Texas, where he<br />
found a job dealing Faro, a notoriously crooked French<br />
card game. He had become an expert shot, and quickly got<br />
caught up in some more wild shenanigans. Even though he<br />
left one man dead in the dust in a series of gunfights, no<br />
legal action was taken against him. However, his luck turned<br />
in the summer of 1876, when Doc killed a soldier, bringing<br />
the U.S. government into the matter. A reward went out for<br />
his capture, and the Army, Texas Rangers, U.S. Marshalls,<br />
local lawmen and ordinary residents all pursued him.<br />
To escape his inevitable demise if captured, Doc fled to<br />
the Kansas Territory (present-day Colorado), making stops<br />
along the way, where he left three more dead bodies in his<br />
wake. From there, Doc engaged in numerous shoot-outs<br />
and brawls, making friends and enemies along the way.<br />
Most notably, he gained the friendship of Wyatt Earp and<br />
his brothers, who were by his side fighting in the famous<br />
gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.<br />
On Oct. 26, 1881, outlaw cowboys Billy Clanton, Tom<br />
McLaury and his brother Frank McLaury battled it out<br />
against the Earp brothers (Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan) and<br />
Doc Holliday. Cowboys Ike Clanton and Billy Clairborne ran<br />
from the fight, but Billy Clanton and both McLaurys were<br />
killed. Doc and Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded.<br />
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