Doc Holliday

by Gary L Roberts

  In comparison, Billy the Kid, or any other of the many Western desperadoes who have recently met their fate, fade into insignificance. The murders commited by him are counted by the scores, and his other crimes are legion. For years he has roamed the West, gaining his living by gambling, robbery and murder. In the Southwest his name is a terror. In fact, he is no other a personage than the leader of the murderous gang of cowboys who have been lately operating in the vicinity of Tombstone, Arizona, and the head of the lawless element of Tucson, Arizona.21

  Mallon gravely showed reporters a missing little finger on his left hand that he attributed to Doc’s marksmanship, adding, “And six other bullets from his pistol have perforated my body.” He claimed that Doc had callously killed his partner as the result of a quarrel over cards. “A more cold-blooded murder never came to my knowledge,” Mallon intoned. “Poor Harry never moved; bullet after bullet was shot into his body, and Holladay [sic] had so many friends at his elbow that any resistance on my part would have been useless.” Mallon said that he resolved at that point that he would track Holliday down, which led to a manhunt that took him on a trail through Arizona, California, Kansas, the Indian Territory, and eventually to Tombstone.

  He made Doc the Cow-Boy leader, turned Frank Stilwell into a martyr, accused Doc of killing a railroad conductor named Clantry, and capped it all off with this revelation: “Six week[s] ago, while a man known as Curly Bill, and myself were searching for him in the mountains, we suddenly came upon him, and during the encounter, in which over 100 shots were fired, ‘Curly Bill’ was killed at my side from a shot fired by Holladay [sic].”

  After murdering six men at Tucson, Mallon went on, Doc left Arizona headed for Fort Dodge or the Indian Territory. He followed, he said, noting the outcome:

  I stopped at Trinidad, and there gained my first clue. I went to Pueblo, and one night saw the object of my search in a box at the Comique theatre. Not wishing to show myself, I went out to get an officer, and when I returned he had gone. I thought he had recognized me, and left in consequence. I remained there for several days, but could not find my man again. Three days ago, I came to Denver. I was taking my chances. Yesterday I saw him on the street and you know of the capture.22

  It was a wild yarn, but many Denver citizens, including the sheriff’s department, appeared to take it at face value, although Deputy Sheriff Linton was put off by Mallon’s style. The Denver Rocky Mountain News proclaimed Mallon a hero and gave him credit for a bit of verbal wizardry, so bizarre that it almost had to be deliberate, when it informed its readers that Mallon “has been on the track of Doc since the desperate fight he had with the gang by the sheriff’s force of Tucson, Arizona, six weeks ago in which Sheriff Stilwell was killed in an attempt of the gang to murder Charley, a brother of Deputy Sheriff Clintry, murdered by one of the Earps in a billiard parlor at Tombstone a few weeks ago.”23

  “Sheriff Mallon deserves great credit for the persistence with which he followed up the man,” the News intoned. The Republican initially added its voice to the view that Doc’s crimes were “legion,” his murders were “counted by the score,” and that Mallon was a brave officer.24 For the moment, Mallon basked in the glory of having brought down the West’s most notorious outlaw. His ruse, with all of its calculated fantasies, could not withstand scrutiny for long—but then, it did not have to prove true to hold Doc until the processes for extradition in Arizona could be put into motion. It was a bold charade.

  Not everyone was conned. The Tribune quickly judged that Mallon’s story was “a very sensational one, and, in fact, too highly colored throughout to bear the impress of truth.” The Tribune noted that “Mallan [sic] had a little silver-mounted revolver such as a cow boy would disdain to carry. The manner in which he handled his pistol showed that he was afraid it would go off every moment, and that he was more frightened than Holliday was evident. It looked like the affectation of a tyro to hold a pistol on a defenseless and unarmed man as Mallan did in the Sheriff’s office.” The Tribune said that “Holliday does not think Mallan was ever a cowboy or in the habit of handling a pistol.”25

  By contrast, the paper pointed out that “Holliday has not been in hiding nor has he disguised his name or features.” John Henry did not overplay his hand with claims or accusations. His story was understated and reasonable. The Daily Times reported:

  Holladay [sic] claims with considerable show of reason that the only fault committed by the gang was a vigorous effort to enforce law and order and bring the cowboys to justice. This claim is sustained by the fact that the Epitaph was a firm adherent of Earp and his followers until the proprietors were compelled by threats and attempted assassinations to sell out the paper, and also by the position taken by the federal authorities, which under orders from Washington have taken measures to suppress the lawlessness inspired by the doings of the cowboys. It is possible that one part was as bad as the other, but the facts developed and the history of the trouble known to the readers of the daily papers through the associated press dispatches point to a different conclusion…. Mr. Holladay’s story…is plausible, and is certainly told with an air of candor and straightforwardness that carried conviction. It will not be surprising if it turns out that the matter grows out of the Arizona troubles, and that Mallen’s [sic] story was made up to give him an excuse for making the arrest and for giving him tone as a seven-years’ avenger of a friend’s death.26

  To the Rocky Mountain News, Doc recounted the rivalry between Wyatt Earp and John H. Behan for the sheriff’s position in Cochise County, including Behan’s failure to appoint Earp undersheriff as promised. The News reported that “Earp is said to have become an active partisan of the United States Marshal in his efforts to suppress lawlessness, while Behan took the side of the cowboys.” The Cow-Boys then determined to drive Earp and his friends out of the territory, while the respectable element of Tombstone supported the Earps and Holliday. Eventually, the Earps decided to leave the country with the sheriff and a posse of Cow-Boys chasing them.27

  Doc’s appearance and demeanor were also inconsistent with Mallon’s portrait of him as a cold-blooded killer. One by one, Colorado’s newspapers drew surprisingly consistent word portraits of Doc. “When Mr. Holladay came out of his cell,” the Times said on May 16, “the reporter was surprised to find, instead of the typical western ruffian, a delicate, gentlemanly man, apparently not weighing more than one hundred and thirty pounds, perhaps thirty-five years of age, with a prematurely gray head, and a heavy sandy mustache.”28 The Pueblo Chieftain described him similarly: “‘Doc’ Halliday [sic] is a man of light weight, rather tall, smoothly shaven, and is always well dressed. Streaks of gray can be seen in his hair which grows from a head a phrenologist would delight in examining. His eyes are blue, large, sharp and piercing. He is not over thirty five years of age, and is straight as an arrow.”29 The Tribune portrayed him as a thin, spare man with a blonde moustache and a piercing eye, which glanced covertly and suspiciously from under the brim of a black slouch hat….The stranger’s hair was lightly streaked with gray, his clothes were custom made and such as are worn in civilized communities, and altogether there was nothing to denote that he was the desperate, blood thirsty and notorious murderer, stage robber and villain which he was soon afterward represented to be.30

  Moreover, those who came forward to speak on Doc’s behalf added respectability as well as credibility to Doc’s version of things. Even the Rocky Mountain News, which tended to support Mallon, noted that “Holladay [sic] is well known by General D. J. Cook and others of the Rocky Mountain detectives, and has also many other acquaintances in Denver, who put a good deal of faith in his story. Some of his friends say that Holladay’s arrest is merely a ruse to get him down to Arizona in order to give the cowboys a chance to murder him.”31 Not only did Doc have the support of Bat Masterson, Dave Cook, Pat Desmond, Chief Lomery, and others in the law enforcement community, but respectable citizens like George Tritch and George Reppy, the brother of Charles D. Repp
y of Tombstone, spoke out on his behalf as well.32 Reppy produced a letter from his brother that supported Doc’s version of things, and Tritch, who had recently returned to Denver from southern Arizona, told the Times staff that he believed “that the story told by Holladay [sic] is correct,” explaining:

  During his visit to Tombstone he conversed with a large number of the most substantial and influential citizens, all of whom told him the story precisely as told by the prisoner. This is an important corroboration of the situation from Holladay’s standpoint, and affords a strong support for his opinion that if he is taken back to Arizona, it will be, not for the purpose of bringing him to trial for an alleged crime but in order to get him back for the purpose of giving the cowboys an opportunity of murdering him.33

  On May 17, the Pueblo Chieftain provided information that Mallon had conned “considerable money” from “several Akron [Ohio] gentlemen” and added, “Those who know him here say he holds no official position whatever, which goes far to strengthen the belief that he is simply after the blood-money which may be given to him by the cowboys of Arizona for the capture of Holliday.”34 That view was virtually confirmed by the report in the Republican, almost lost in the melodrama, that

  As soon as the arrest was made, Officer Mallen telegraphed to the Sheriff at Tombstone and late last night received the following reply:

  Tombstone A. T., May 15.

  Perry Mallen.

  Five hundred dollars delivered to me at Denver. Answer when arrested.

  J. H. Behan, Sheriff.

  Said the Republican without realizing the implication of its report, “The total amount of rewards on his head will reach probably $5,000. It is a big capture, and will be hailed with delight by the citizens of Arizona and the Southwest.”35

  Unfortunately for Doc, none of this was enough to free him. The sheriff’s department remained firm: “The Sheriff’s officers incline toward the opinion that Mallen’s story is the correct one, and that Holladay is the outlaw he is represented to be. They do not attempt to reconcile the opinion, however, with the fact that he was a deputy United States marshal, contenting themselves with the belief that one party was as bad as the other, which may be the fact without weakening the statement made by Mr. Holladay.”36

  Doc’s hearing was not held on May 16 as planned. Judge Elliott postponed it until the eighteenth. Masterson knew that delay worked against Doc, so he concocted another scheme to spring Doc. Under Colorado’s extradition law, priority was given to charges against an individual arising within the state. With this in mind (and perhaps brought to mind by Doc’s lawyer), Bat contacted Marshal Henry Jameson of Pueblo, and the very next day Jameson left for Denver with a warrant for Doc’s arrest on a larceny count in Pueblo that charged “Holladay [sic] with being an operator in a confidence game… by which a ‘sucker’ was relieved of $150.”37

  On the afternoon of May 18, Jameson, who was quickly labeled as “a friend of Holladay,” marched into Sheriff Spangler’s office and presented his warrant. Spangler told him that his warrant could not be considered until after the habeas corpus hearing that afternoon. Near five o’clock, Doc was transferred to the sheriff’s office in the county building expecting to appear before Judge Elliott, but the judge postponed the hearing again because of illness. A crowd of people, many of them sporting men, had gathered and were witnesses to a bold move on Jameson’s part. According to the Denver papers, the Pueblo marshal stepped up to Doc, read the warrant to him, and told him, “You are my prisoner; I want you to go with me.”

  Jameson’s boldness caught the sheriff’s deputies off guard for a moment, but Sheriff Spangler quickly regained control, seizing the Pueblo marshal “by the arm and sending him through the door in the most one-two-three-bounce ’em style,” with the command, “Here, you get out of here and d——d quick, too.” Spangler then turned on the bystanders, “I don’t want any money acting…and all of you men who have no business here will get out in quick order.”38 Jameson denied that he had trouble with Spangler. He said he had words with Mallon, but that he was on “the best of terms” with Spangler and his men. Spangler, though, expressed the view that “the arrest by the Pueblo parties is a put-up job to secure Holladay’s [sic] release.” The sheriff was suspicious enough of the whole situation, however, to say that he would not surrender Doc to Arizona officers without “the proper authority.”39

  Whatever the truth of Jameson’s encounter (and Spangler seemed to have the best of it), Doc was returned to the county jail, and the Tribune reported that the sheriff had “good reason to fight all efforts to release Holladay. He has received stacks of telegrams from the California and Arizona officers to hold Holladay at all hazard, and by fair means or foul. This he now intends to do.”40 Already, the story was shifting to Mallon’s true purpose, which could not be hidden by his tale of a seven-year manhunt. Ironically, a report that Sheriff Behan was en route to Denver with a requisition from the governor of Arizona to Governor Frederick W. Pitkin of Colorado led the Republican to assert that it settled Mallon’s standing. “He has been attacked here by certain newspapers as the enemy of law and order and a cowboy representative; all of which insults he has born [sic] in silence,” the paper declared. “He has been relieved of this odious notoriety by the dispatch.”41

  Yet, the truth was that Mallon was already becoming a curious footnote in the larger story. The Pueblo Chieftain noted that “[t]he Denver reporters have nearly all arrived at the conclusion that Mallen [sic], the man who did the arresting, is an imposter and a deadbeat.” The Pueblo paper also announced that Mallon would probably be arrested if he returned to Pueblo for “obtaining money on false pretenses.”42

  There was no shortage of opinions about the right and wrong of things. One unidentified “gentleman, recently from Arizona,” told the Rocky Mountain News that the Arizona war was simply a struggle between “bunco-steerers” and Cow-Boys. He claimed that the “better class of citizens” preferred the bunco men to the Cow-Boys because of the rowdiness of the latter. The bunco-steerers were, in general, “a peaceable, quiet class of people who outside of the bad habits of lying and stealing, would make quite respectable Sunday-school superintendents.” They had treated the cowboys treacherously, however, and the Earps and Doc Holliday were associated with the bunco men. He even claimed that Virgil Earp was shot—killed, he erroneously reported—because of a con game. This explained why Denver’s confidence men generally supported Doc, said the News, but it did not “explain the fact that there are many men in Denver, thoroughly respectable and having no possible connection with ‘crooks,’ who believe the doctor thoroughly.”43

  Despite the journalistic war in Colorado, the real battle had shifted to Arizona. Sam Purdy’s Epitaph announced that Holliday’s arrest was due entirely to the “exertion” of Sheriff Behan. Purdy claimed that Behan had spared no effort in trying to locate the Earps and that when he learned that the Earps were headed for Colorado he had contacted Sheriff Spangler. Spangler had then advised Behan that he had Holliday in custody, and Behan, who apparently believed that the Earps were in custody as well as Holliday, advised Spangler to hold them securely until he could get the necessary papers and make the trip to Denver. Later, Spangler reportedly sent the following dispatches:

  Denver—Habeas corpus served. Can hold them three days. Can you get here in time with papers and reward? Answer quick, specifying crime, so we can hold them. M. Spangler, Sheriff.

  Denver—Have arrested Doc. Holliday. The Earpps [sic] are here. As soon as you come will take them. Answer. Sheriff.

  Behan responded that he would start at once, and then he applied to Governor Frederick A. Tritle for the proper extradition papers. He then received the following telegram from Tritle:

  J. H. Behan, Sheriff:

  Cannot issue requisition until indictment and warrant are presented to me. Am ready to issue requisition at once. District Attorney absent at Benson. Have not at present the proper papers. When it is issued, the requisition must go
to Prescott for the territorial seal.

  F. A. Tritle

  Behan immediately wrote to the governor underscoring the importance of the case and urging him to act quickly. Later in the day, he received another dispatch from the governor:

  John H. Behan, Sheriff:

  Mr. Horton acting for District Attorney, asks for the requisition in the name of Sheriff Paul. F. A. Tritle

  This was followed by another telegram from the assistant district attorney of Pima County, which brought surprising news:

  John H. Behan:

  Farley not here. Paul has made application for a requisition, and will leave tomorrow morning for Denver.

  W. B. Horton.44

  Behan was stunned, and Purdy was convinced that “Governor Tritle is conniving with Sheriff Paul.” The Epitaph declared,

  The friendship of Paul for the Earps is notorious, and it is a well known fact that he has made no effort to effect their capture. On the other hand, Sheriff Behan left no stone unturned to effect their capture. He has offered large rewards and went to much personal expense to bring the outlaws within range of justice. The opinion is advanced by a great many that the action of the Governor has not been fair to Behan, and that he has favored Paul for political or individual reasons.45

  The matter was not quite that simple. Papers could be issued only if there was an arrest warrant, and the only warrant was the one issued by the Pima County grand jury’s indictment of the Earp posse in the death of Frank Stilwell. Tritle claimed that if Behan had submitted papers for a requisition first, he would have had no choice but to grant them. However, after the governor’s telegram to Behan, W.B. Horton, acting on behalf of Hugh Farley, the Pima County district attorney, urged that the requisition be granted to Paul. Horton’s request was supported by two Pima County supervisors, based on the argument that “as the expenses of the arrest and delivery of the prisoners would devolve upon this county [Pima], it was right that a resident officer of this county should have the work to do.”46