It was not long though before the young doc was diagnosed with the same tuberculosis that had taken his mother and his physician suggested that he head west where the dry, warm climate could help prolong his years. He left Georgia in 1873 at the age of 22 and set up shop in Dallas, Texas. It is thought that his terminal illness helped give Doc Holliday a disregard for danger and a willingness to live it up, drinking, smoking, gambling and making the most of the local night life. His sometimes less than honest behavior as a faro dealer and short temper led to many confrontations and he was often on the move, going further and further west. Being 5' 11'', skinny as a rail and prone to coughing fits he was dependent on sidearms for protection and usually carried a knife and one or two pistols. He was also known as a neat dresser with good manners when not intoxicated and very witty. His most common companion was a women of low reputation named Kate Elder, better known as "Big Nose" Kate who often acted as Doc's wife though the two never married.
Although he gained a reputation as a gun-slinger, Doc Holliday was not the man most would picture in that role. He was well read, familiar with Latin, Greek and French and was quite good on the piano. Often in trouble, even Bat Masterson who never spoke highly of him admitted that he was most often in the right and had the law on his side. When questioned as to whether his conscience ever bothered he replied, "No, I coughed that up with my lungs long ago". One of his few friends in the world was the famous lawman Wyatt Earp who always stressed Doc's loyalty, good company and nerves of steel in difficult situations. It was with the Earp family that Doc had his greatest brush with fame while staying in Tombstone, Arizona.
It was in Tombstone in 1881 that Doc was mixed up in a feud between the Earp brothers and a band of local cattle rustlers including the likes of Johnny Ringo, "Curly Bill" Brocius, Ike Clanton and family and the McLaury family. There had been hits and confrontations on both sides before the famous shoot-out behind the OK Corral. Doc was wounded in the thigh but killed Tom McLaury with Virgil Earp's shotgun and Frank McLaury with his pistol. He later rode with the posse that took out "Curly Bill" and may have been involved in the shooting of Johnny Ringo, though this will probably never be known for sure. As legends grew up around him he was rumored to be responsible for gunning down many more men than he actually did in reality. He also drank more and more to deal with his great pain as his tuberculosis grew worse and worse. By the end of his life he was reduced to a stooped, walking corpse and became addicted to laudanum. He eventually had to sell most of his belongings as his condition grew worse and the chemical abuse he used to dull his pain only further weakened his failing health.
Doc Holliday finally moved for the last time to Glenwood Springs, Colorado where his health only worsened due to the sulfur from the springs which further ruined his lungs. On his death bed he converted to Catholicism and it is said his last words were, "this is funny" after observing his bare feet, always believing that he would die with his boots on. He died on November 8, 1887 at the Glenwood Hotel, not the sanitorium that is often reported. He was buried in Linwood Cemetery but his grave is unknown. Wyatt Earp later said of his friend Doc Holliday, "Doc was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler, a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vegabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean ash-blond fellow nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time the most skillful gambler and the nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a gun that I ever knew."
