Beschreibung:

HOLLIDAY, John Henry 'Doc (1851-1887). Dentist, gambler, saloon keeper, gunfighter. "ASSAULT WITH INTENT TO KILL AND MURDER" Document signed, ("J.H. Holliday"), partly printed and accomplished in manuscript, Lake County Colorado (Leadville), August 29, 1884. 1 page, legal folio, discernible folds, but clean and very fresh, matted and framed with a facsimile portrait and thermoplate to 24 x 22 in. The document is also signed by John Morgan Sam Houston and Justice of the Peace W.W. Old. To say that 'Doc' Holliday is rare is something of an understatement. This is the only confirmed document of and pertaining to the legendary gunman and familiar of the famous Earp brothers, and the content is dramatic. "John H. Holliday was on the 20th day of August A.D. 1884 brought before the said W.W. Old Justice of the Peace as aforesaid upon a charge of Assault with intent to kill and murder." 'Doc' -- the principal offender -- and John Morgan and Samuel Houston are promising to appear before the court to answer the charge at 2 o'clock on August 25, else to forfeit $5,000 in cash, goods and/or property. 'Doc' Holliday is a legendary creature of the old west. His short life began in 1852 in Griffin, Georgia, the son of a prosperous Southern family. He studied dentistry in the 1870s and during that time contracted tuberculosis. In 1873 he headed West for his health and was able to prolong his life 15 more years. He turned up in a number of Western boomtowns usually installing himself in the local saloon as House gambler. He made his way through Dallas and Fort Griffin, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Dodge City, Denver, Leadville, Tucson, and of most interest, Tombstone, Arizona. There he hooked up with the Earp brothers and would, on October 26, 1881, be present for the fateful meeting at the OK Corral. He was wounded, but surived that affair and his chronic condition and his encroaching alcoholism until finally succumbing on November 8, 1887. Provenance: Ronald J. Atlas collection