Border: Hunter
John Henry Holliday was born in Griffin, Georgia on August 14, 1851 to Henry Burroughs and Alice Jane Holliday. His father was known to have fought in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War.
When he was fourteen, his mother died of “consumption” (the most common name for tuberculosis), and this is where Holliday picked up the disease that plagued him for all of his human life. His father remarried soon after and they moved to Valdosta, GA where he went to the Valdosta Institute and received a classical education. Holliday went to Philadelphia and got his degree, becoming a doctor of dentistry. He then opened a dental office in Atlanta.
It was in adulthood that he was finally diagnosed with tuberculosis, which prevented him from having a successful dental practice, both in Atlanta and in Dallas, Texas. In Dallas he discovered that gambling was far more lucrative, and so he left Dallas after being convicted of illegal gambling and headed West. Because of the disease that would eventually take his life, he became hot-tempered and reckless.
In 1877 he met Wyatt Earp through a mutual friend. The two became close friends, particularly after the events in Dodge City, Kansas, where Holliday came to Earp’s defense and kept him from getting killed. It was here he also met his longtime lover, Mary Katharine Horony. This wasn’t the only time he saved Earp’s life, and it was in Dodge City where his legend began to grow.
Holliday stayed behind when the Earps moved to Tombstone, Arizona in 1879, but when the Earps asked for his assistance there because of the Clanton Gang, he became embroiled in the problems of the area, which escalated with the incident of the Gunfight at the OK Corral and peaked with the murder of Morgan Earp.
While in Tombstone, he met one of Clanton’s men, John Ringo. Holliday disliked the man on sight, though after further investigation and conversation with Ringo, they discovered they had much in common. He wasn’t all that surprised when Ringo refused to fight them and fled the area.
After the Gunfight at the OK Corral, fighting with the Clanton’s Cowboys continued to escalate, and after Virgil Earp sustained a permanent injury and Morgan Earp was killed, Holliday and the Earps fled the area in early 1882. Holliday and the Earps fled to Tuscon, and shortly thereafter they became involved in what would be known as the Earp Vendetta, in which they went after those who killed Morgan Earp.
After they hunted down those responsible for Morgan’s death, Holliday moved to Colorado. In 1884, as his health continued to deteriorate, Holliday found himself once again faced with John Ringo. John explained his Vampirism and their destiny as a Mated pair, and offered him a way to ease the suffering of his illness. Holliday agreed and was Turned.
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