Doc Holliday

In the arsenal of deep American mythology, the Western gunfighter never goes away. And the most enigmatic and lethal, by reputation, was John Henry "Doc" Holliday.

Doc Holliday was a dentist, a gambler, a southern gent torn loose by the Civil War, and bona fide frontier killer. His legend cut a swath through Dodge City, Deadwood, the Texas frontier and, above all, Tombstone, Arizona with his shoulder-to-shoulder shoot-out with Wyatt Earp at the OK Corral.

Gary Roberts is a southern historian of frontier violence and the American West. He's looked again at Doc Holliday, and the gunfighter in American myth and culture.

This hour On Point: Doc Holliday, and the gunfighter's place in the American way.

Guests:

Gary Roberts, author of "Doc Holliday, the Life and Legend"

Jack Beatty, On Point News Analyst and senior editor of The Atlantic Monthly