After the Cowboys had threatened to kill Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, and Doc if they didn't get out of Tombstone, the whole town watched to see the outcome. They knew that the Earps and Doc would not run. On October 26, 1881, Virgil received word that the Cowboys were gathering at the O.K. Corral, and that they were armed, which was against city law. Doc met the Earps on Fourth Street on their way to the O.K. Corral and demanded that he be allowed to join them in their little walk. Five men, potential killers, lay in wait. When Wyatt Earp and Billy Clanton opened the battle, Doc shot Billy in the chest, then cut Tom McLaury down with a double charge of buckshot. The life was blasted from McLaury before he struck the ground. Although, Wyatt allowed Ike Clanton to run from the fight scene, Holliday was not so generous. He threw two shots at Ike as he fled, missing him narrowly. A bullet from Frank McLaury cut into Doc's pistol holster and burned a painful crease across his hip. Doc's return shot smashed into McLaury's brain.

Less than thirty seconds after the opening shot, three men lay dead and three were wounded. Doc had shot each of the dead cowboys at least once. Virgil had been shot in the leg and Morgan through both shoulders. Only Wyatt Earp has survived the fight untouched.

Doc Holliday claimed he almost lost his life a total of nine times. Four attempts were made to hang him and he was shot at in a gunfight or from ambush five times. In May, 1887, Doc went to Glenwood Springs to try the sulfur vapors, as his health was steadily growing worse, but he was too far gone. He spent his last fifty-seven days in bed and was delirious fourteen of them. On November 8, 1887, he awoke clear-eyed and asked for a glass of whiskey. It was given to him and he drank it down with enjoyment. Then he said, "This is funny", and died.

Doc Holliday had come West years before, knowing his days were numbered. Long before his death he had maintained that he would not die in bed coughing his guts out. He always believed that he would be killed by a quicker, easier death than that planned for him by destiny. He often said that his end would come from lead poisoning, at the end of a rope, a knife in his ribs, or that he might drink himself to death. That's why he considered it funny when he died peacefully in bed. Doc was the best of the Western gamblers and he lost his biggest bet when he died of tuberculosis. The greater part of his years had been lived on borrowed time. His remains were buried in the Glenwood Cemetery (Old Hill Cemetery), Colorado.   So passed Tombstone's most deadly gun.