“I am trying to keep you alive!” said Kate Elder to Doc Holliday after he yelled at her during an argument saying “You’re an insatiable bitch!- You’ll kill me before the rot does!”1 Katie (Big Nosed) Elder was the wife of the infamous outlaw gunslinger Doc Holliday from the mid 1800’s who died after contracting Tuberculosis at a very young age.2 Katie Elder was money hungry, and she played Doc for his money. She used his amazing skills at card games to her advantage. Even Doc himself once described her as “a leech for money.” It seems Doc knew who she was, but in his own way he still loved her. However, most people, including Doc himself, saw her as someone who used Doc. If this was so, then why did Doc keep her around until he died, instead of leaving her right off the bat?
Kate Elder met Doc after she ran into him after escaping from Jonas Stonebreak, a gunslinger that killed her friend. He took her in and over the years she ended up learning about his early life and how he used to be a dentist before becoming a gunslinger. She also learned that he had tuberculosis, a deadly lung disease that leads to a slow death, which he contracted from his mother at the age of fifteen while treating her for the same disease.3
In her time with Doc she learned about the symptoms of tuberculosis, so she could have a better understanding of his condition in order to be able to help him during the time he had left. She admitted to him many times (and even after his death) how much she loved him, and although he treated her harshly at times, Doc had a way with himself and with words, so that she felt loved and understood by him like no other man before. “He was unlike any other man before, so full of himself and knew how to play the part well.”4 Kate told stories of how she and Doc traveled to many places from Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota, and New Mexico, where they would enter a saloon and challenge any man to try and beat Doc at a game of cards. At first she didn’t like Doc going out and wasting away his life just for money while she was left stranded in the room alone for many hours of the night until Doc returned home drunk and covered in the smell of cigarette smoke. Despite knowing the symptoms of tuberculosis, and after many arguments, she began encouraging his gambling addiction and stood by him while “He ate his life away in drinking and gambling.”5 Everyday she encouraged his other addictions too, to alcohol and to cigarettes. Sometimes while he was gambling she would stick a cigarette in his mouth or order him another drink until he would eventually blackout.6
This went on for many years, until Doc eventually became numb to all the arguments, and decided to leave. Kate, explaining the fight, said “I often let my temper get the better of my common sense, but I misunderstood his bouts of anger when his body betrayed him. He turned to me as a scapegoat.”7 It was not in her interest to ever highlight the fact that he was dying in any of their arguments, but during that last argument, she said “It is not my fault you are dying! I have done my best but you don’t care about what happens to me when you go!”8 In an interview, Kate admitted that, “I failed to see that his fury at himself was taken out on me, as my good health was a constant reminder of his illness.”9 They fought and yelled at each other while Doc flung around clothes to take with him and pushed her onto the bed, where she then tried to seduce him in an attempt to calm him down. Kate explained, “If words didn’t work, maybe seduction will. He put his hands around my throat calling me a whore while I told him I just loved him. Then he kissed me and we made love in that bed.”10 However, the next morning Doc was gone. He left her so he could go die alone in peace and solitude.
Kate hated Doc for leaving, and it wasn’t until years later that she found him again in Tombstone (a small town in Cochise County, Arizona) where he was being wrongly accused of something he didn’t do. This is where it’s believed she “betrayed” him. Doc was being accused of robbing a stagecoach and murdering the driver. Doc’s enemies in Tombstone actually found Kate, got her drunk and forced her to testify against Doc saying he did it. It wasn’t until the next morning, when sober, that Kate told the truth and admitted that she was forced to testify against Doc. When Doc found out what she had done, he never forgave her, although he knew that she didn’t do it intentionally. He just couldn’t come to forgive her for even daring to say it in the first place. Kate said “That was the last time I ever saw Doc before he left Tombstone and died years later.”11
- Doc Holliday, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 77, 79. ↵
- Forest Tennant, “Doc Holliday: A Story of Tuberculosis, Pain, and Self Medication in the Wild West,” New York: Practical Pain Management 12, No.11 (2015): 1-5. ↵
- New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2009, s.v. “Doc Holliday 1881,” by John Dalton Macdonald. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 88. ↵
- New World Encyclopedia, 2016, s.v. “Doc Holliday,” by John Joshua Webb. ↵
- George P. Cosmatos, Tombstone (1881; Tucson, AZ: Kevin Jarre, 1993), DVD. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 87. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 87. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 87. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 88. ↵
- Maggie Van Ostrand, “Doc Holliday and Katie Elder,” Texas: History Studies International Journal of History 10, No. 7 (2018): 1-3. ↵
57 comments
Makenzie Santana
This article used so many creative tactics when it comes to catching the attention of the reader, the title definitely caught my eye and made me quite intrigued to read this article questioning what exactly it was about. The use of dialogue was a smart way to make this story interesting and a great way to introduce the story to the reader. I do believe Kate’s and Doc’s relationship was kind of toxic, but every love story has it’s flaws.
Joshua Garza
First off I just want to take the time to acknowledge the picture’s description of Kate. Its hilarious how much attitude I had to read that sentence with. Overall great article and good job researching. I didn’t know there was a movie on this particular story but I really want to watch it now because I am intrigued by the article with all its various components of what makes it good.
Rosario Moreno
Using the conversation in the beginning was a great hook. Talk about a complicated relationship, Reading about Doc and Katie’s relationship I feel so bad for Katie. She must have felt so empty and it was sad when she talked about that she realized later that he would take out all his anger out on her. I never heard of Doc Holiday, so to learn more about him was interesting. Great job with the article, good detail.
Christopher Metta Bexar
I liked this article. It was more than just it’s title. It explains things about human nature. I’ve known couples like them. Bicker constantly let love each other and nobody else.
I had never heard of her before this article. But knew the legend of Doc Holliday. Am very glad to have read this and learn more about him.
Nadia Carrasco
I loved the introduction of this article and the way the author used dialogue is very unique to this article. Right off the bat you had my attention. Katie and Doc really had a complicated relationship and but lived beyond interesting lives. Although this article had a very interesting story to tell I think it was written in a very creative way. I can tell the author put a lot of time and effort into this article. Great Job!
Auroara-Juhl Nikkels
The dialogue in your article was interesting. I always love to see the events as the people involved describe them. I think the quotes you used only added to the story Kite and Doc’s relationship. I had briefly heard of Doc Holiday, though I can not remember when or where, but I had never heard of Big Nose Kate before. I think it’s interesting to see how many people are sort of behind the scenes.
Engelbert Madrid
This is an interesting article to read. I find it interesting how Doc Holliday’s and Kate Elder’s relationship was quite odd. Kate Elder was only with Doc for his ambition of money; therefore, she stayed with him in order to get that money as well. However, Doc did love her although they had ugly arguments together. Although his life ended in a tragic manner, it was a product of letting Kate Elder to seduce and poison him with her ambition.
Christopher Hohman
Nice article. I really like the title too. I am glad that you decided to keep it after all. Katie Elder seems like that she just wanted to be with doc for his money and skill at cards. I hope that she was able to help him deal with he TB though. Perhaps that is why he kept her around after everything she did because she could help them. It is sad that he died so young but TB is a deadly disease especially back then. Congratulations on your nomination.
Mariah Cavanaugh
Your title, “Big Nosed Kate – An Outlaw’s Nightmare?” definitely drew me into the article. I have heard many stories about Doc Holliday but your article is my first introduction to Kate Elder. You portrays them both as having extreme flaws and having a toxic relationship, which was entertaining. In the end, Kate testifies against Doc while intoxicated. It is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it used to be perfectly acceptable to testify after a few drinks. This was a fascinating article!
Krystal Rodriguez
The use of dialogue is very unique to this article. I had not seen this be used in any other article on this page. I think the article really makes the reader think and wonder what was truly going on. I love the story it takes you through and the use of the image of the actor who played Doc in the movie. Overall, it was a very interesting article to read and would recommend it toothsome who love murder mysteries.