QWas Doc Holliday a real doctor?
AJohn Henry "Doc" Holliday received a Degree of Dental Surgery from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery (now part of the University of Pennsylvania) in 1872 at the age of 20. Doc Holliday had dental offices in Atlanta, Dallas, and often practiced less formally on the side in his travels, most notably in Dodge City where he began his association with Wyatt Earp.He stopped practicing dentistry after his tuberculosis and resultant coughing worsened. He found he had a talent for gambling and took that up as his profession.
QWhat is the card game Wyatt Earp operates?
AWyatt is a faro dealer. Faro is a card game that enjoyed its greatest popularity during the 19th century, particularly in the Old West. It is most similar to the contemporary game of mini-baccarat. Faro had a notorious reputation for cheating among dealers and creating poverty among gamblers. Faro rapidly lost popularity during the first half of the 20th century and today is usually only played by Civil War and Old West re-enactors.
QDid Curly Bill shoot Fred White on purpose or was it an accident?
AIn the film Wyatt Earp, it appears that Curly Bill was drunk when he deliberately cocked his pistol and maliciously shot Fred White in the chest. After the shooting, Curly Bill seemed noticeably concerned that he had wounded White.The state-of-the art pistol of the day was a single-action revolver that required the shooter to manually cock the hammer before he can fire the weapon.As depicted in the film, Wyatt Earp pistol whipped Curly Bill and Curly Bill drunkenly laughed. Earp helped prevent the crowd from lynching Curly Bill by escorting him to Tucson the next day.Historically, we know that Curly Bill accidentally shot Marshal Fred White (though only 31 at the time, much younger than the man depicted in the film) when White attempted to disarm Curly Bill. White was shot in the groin, not the chest.Curly Bill allegedly regretted the shooting and was reported to have personally liked Fred White. White lived long enough to tell others that the shooting was accidental and as a result Brocius was acquitted of any wrong-doing. Judge Nuegass wrote that the shooting was "Homicide by Misadventure", or an accident. Wyatt Earp testified on behalf of Curly Bill at his trial, stating that he too believed the shooting was an accident.Some modern researchers theorize that Curly's pistol had a defective trigger that caused it to fire when half-cocked, and that White himself accidentally discharged the pistol when trying to disarm Brocius. Other researchers dispute this possibility.Despite his supposed remorse over killing White, Brocious did not take kindly to Wyatt's having pistol-whipped him, and this incident was arguably the first source of conflict between Wyatt Earp and Curly Bill Brocius.
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