Why Doc Holliday Left Georgia by Gene Carlisle ... Carl Isle Publishing

Why Doc Holliday left Georgia by Gene Carlisle

By Gene Carlisle

Table of Contents

Introduction: Bill Dunn	7
Foreword: Gene Carlisle	10
1. The Ku Klux: Scourge of the South	13
2. J.R.'s Hollidays	16
3. The Devil Loosed	19
4. Night of Terror: Testimony	24
5. Champions of Justice
A. James Skiles	38
B. J.H. Caldwell	46
6. Mouthpiece of the Klan	51
7. 1872	63
8. Ku Klux Christmas Card: Holliday's Defeat	69
9. Venable vs. Holliday	73
10. J.R. Shot Down	88
11. Venable Dies and Doc Flies: Whitehall Addiction and Ruin	100
12. The Wild Man, Etc.	123
13. Judge Speer's Comeuppance	128
14. Elizabeth Wins: A Pittman/Holliday K.O.	135
15. The Death of Francis M. Holliday	141
16. Doc Goes Home	148
17. Doc Holliday's Waterhole Shooting: Griffin or Valdosta?	158
18. The Oak Hill Hollidays	167
19. The Daisy and the Huckleberry	175
20. Conclusion	178
Bibliography	181
Poem by Susie Carlisle	185
Index	186

Photos/documentation by Gene Carlisle, except where noted.
1862 map provided by Bill Dunn.
Jacket art and graphics by Keith Reed of Tampa, Florida.
Typing assistance by Jerry Taylor of Young Harris, Georgia.

Excerpt

WILLIS RAY, sworn & examined; Atlanta, Georgia; October 25, 1871.

Then the next Monday night I heard them coming. As they rode on by toward Holliday's I left the house. My wife and son wanted me to stay; said the riders would not abuse me. Pretty quick after I heard them stop, I heard the firing of two or three guns; maybe four. Then they commenced a scattering fire, two or three or four; and then there were three spells of it. While they were trying to kill him, I was praying for him and them, too; that he might escape their hands, and that there might be no such disgrace come over the county, and that God might be glorified in the world. Then they came to my house but I was not there. I heard them, but not enough to recognize their voices. As they left, they blowed a whistle such as I never heard before. I said I expected Holliday was dead.

PRINCE McELHANNON (COLORED), sworn & examined; Atlanta, Georgia; October 27,1871

The night they came to Mr. Holliday's, I heard the horses coming up the road. I crawled along and got close by the fence. Mr. Parks Whitehead and Mr. Ab Pendergrass came right along without saying anything. Another horse came along, and I thought it was William Jones, but it was Jack Jones, riding hard and trying to overtake those fellows. Then Todd Kinney came riding by. I say: "Todd, go and tell Mr. Holliday to be sure and hold up his head all this night." I took my mare down to the swamp. I carried my mare around behind the corn to see if anybody was following me. Just as the moon went down, the muss commenced at Mr. Holliday's house, about a mile from me. Something like an army. The cows bellowed in the time of it. Then I heard his wife screaming and hollering. My heart began to ache, for I knew they had been on somebody.