Ah Yes -- Kate Remembers it Well.
Jane Candia Coleman’s “Doc Holliday’s Woman” is well researched and well written.
Kate’s basic story comes from Professor A.W. Bork’s research and
interviews with Mary Katharine Haroney during the 1930’s. Ms. Coleman had access to volumes of notes and interviews. She traveled to Texas to search the archives at Stephens County and Shackleford County, did archive work in New Mexico and actually rode parts of the
Western Cattle
Trail to get a sense of place.
From the
time of her mother’s death in 1866 Kate became a lonely figure moving from one tragic affair to another. Episodes with a riverboat captain, St Louis and the convent gave her a background and eventually the name Kate Elder.
As Kate moves west through the bustling cattle towns of Kansas we get a first hand account of the girls and madams that occupied the bawdy houses. Later in Griffin, Texas Kate spends time at Shaughnessy’s saloon with Doc Holliday.
Wyatt Earp shows up on the trail of an outlaw. Doc points Wyatt in the right direction and once Wyatt hits the trail Kate gives a glimpse into the future. ‘Doc and Wyatt; Wyatt and Doc. Two men, each part of the other’s destiny, each part of mine.’
During a poker game Doc
called Ed Bailey for sneaking a look at the deadwood. The offended Bailey pulled his gun; Doc deflected the shot and planted a knife in Bailey’s gut. It was a defensive move on Doc’s part but when Ed Bailey died of the wound his pals planned to hang Doc in spite of the circumstances. The sheriff put Doc in protective custody but Kate took things into her own hands and pulled off a dandy escape. Next stop Dodge City, Kansas.
Kate got her man and the two of them spend time in a tumultuous, on again, off again relationship. After spending time in Dodge City and Las Vegas, New Mexico Kate and Doc wind up in a silver mining camp called Tombstone.
1881 was a year of chaos in Tombstone, killings stemming from gambling disputes, a gang of outlaws called cowboys intimidate the citizens, but a botched stagecoach robbery and the killing of Bud Philpot and a passenger got the most attention. Doc was accused of being in on the holdup and hauled into court. A note signed by an inebriated Kate prompted the charge against Doc. However, in court Kate recanted her signed statement and the judge threw out the complaint. Even though the case fell apart Doc felt that he had been betrayed by Kate and wanted nothing more to do with her.
Kate took a stage to Globe, Arizona and went to work in a hotel. Kate tells the rest of the Tombstone saga from a distance, the shootout at the
ok Corral, Judge Spicer’s Hearing, the shooting of Virgil Earp and the murder of Morgan Earp.
And keep this in mind -- that''s the way Kate saw it.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western
legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews, my novels
The Goring Collection and
Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of
The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle. www.tombarnes39.com
More reviews about the Doc Holliday''s Woman