Josiah Gordon 'Doc' Scurlock (YG2)

## Josiah Gordon 'Doc' Scurlock

After a year of living calmly in New York as a school teacher with his wife Yen Sun and young child, Doc was tracked down by lawmen from New Mexico and captured before being dragged back to Lincoln and sentenced to hang. He was thrown into a pit full of old comrades and enemies. He was reunited with his close friend Chavez who had also been captured and sentenced to hang.

The hangings did not come to pass thanks to Billy the Kid and his gang who rescued Doc and Chavez and persuaded them to take the Mexican Blackbird trail to Old Mexico, a trail Billy promised was off the beaten track and would get them safely to their destination. Doc was swayed by the promise that his wife and child could be sent for and he could once again resume his quiet life.

After many close shaves with Pat Garrett and his posse, the gang lost their youngest member Tom and this tragedy prompted Billy to reveal that their was no Mexican Blackbird as the gang gathered their wits at a place called Stinking Springs. Doc was enraged and threatened to kill Billy but the desire to stop fighting and return to his family outweighed his need for revenge and he left their hiding place. As he exited the building he was dealt a mortal shot by one of the men in Garrett's posse who had been waiting in ambush outside. Doc stumbled back inside where Chavez tried to comfort him, but Doc knew his life was over and after reconciling with Billy he gave his own life for his pals by giving them covering fire as they escaped.

## The Truth

Josiah Gordon Scurlock was born January 11th 1850 in Alabama. He briefly studied medicine in New Orleans and this gave him the nickname 'Doc'.

He moved to Mexico in 1870 and got involved in a argument over a card game. Guns were drawn and the other man shot first, the bullet knocked out Doc's two front teeth and exited through the back of his neck, Doc fired, killing the other man outright. Luckily the wound Doc received was not serious and he survived.

Doc traveled to Texas in 1871 where he began working for John Chisum, defending Chisum's herds of cattle against rustlers. In 1873 Doc and a man he worked with called Jack Holt were ambushed by Indians, Holt was killed and Doc managed to find cover in some rocks, he managed to kill the Indian leader and during the night he made his escape, walking twenty miles to safety.

In 1875 Doc's riding partner Newt Higgins was killed by Indians, this affected Doc so badly that he told his employer that he wanted to quit the job, Chisum said if he left he would not get any of his pay. In response to this Doc stole three horses, three saddles and a rifle and left for Arizona, the theft even made the local newspapers.

Once in Arizona he met and became good friends with Charlie Bowdre, they became partners and opened a cheese factory. They closed the factory in 1876 and traveled to Lincoln where they started a ranch together and also started working for John Tunstall. He married a lady named Maria Antonia Miguela Herrera (whom he had ten children with over the many years they were married) whose sister married Charlie making them not only best friends but brothers-in-law. Doc and Charlie were very much part of the lynch law and they hung many cattle thieves over the years. In 1877 Doc and his friend George Coe were arrested by Sheriff Brady on suspicion of harboring a fugitive, while in jail the two men were tortured and suffered harsh treatment at the hands of the lawmen.

After John Tunstall was killed Doc became part of the Regulators. At Blazer's Mill while fighting Buckshot Roberts, Doc was shot in the leg. After Dick Brewer and Frank McNab were killed Doc became the leader of the Regulators but he was not involved in the shooting of Sheriff Brady or the five day siege upon the McSween house. After the Lincoln County War was over Doc moved to Texas with his wife where he lived until he was 79 when he died of a heart attack in 1929. Doc avoided talking about his past in the last years of his life.