Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock was not the most famous outlaw of the American Old West, nor the deadliest gunslinger, but he carved out a unique place in frontier history. A former medical student turned cowboy, rancher, and reluctant fighter, he stood at the center of the bloody Lincoln County War and rode alongside Billy the Kid until the violence became too much. Unlike many of his contemporaries who died young in gunfights or ambushes, Scurlock walked away from the conflict, built a family, and lived to the age of 80. Born on January 11, 1849, in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, Scurlock was the sixth of 11 children in a large Southern family.
His father, Priestley Norman Scurlock, was born in 1806 and died in 1876. His mother, Esther Anne Brown, lived from 1819 to 1903. At some point in his youth or early adulthood, Scurlock reportedly traveled to New Orleans to study medicine. This background earned him the lifelong nickname “Doc,” although there is little evidence he ever practiced medicine professionally on the frontier.
Contemporary accounts described Scurlock as standing about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing around 150 pounds, with dark blonde hair and brown eyes. Around 1870, he traveled to Mexico, where a personal dispute reportedly broke out during a card game. In that confrontation, Scurlock sustained a serious facial injury when a bullet passed through his mouth and exited near the back of his neck, knocking out several of his front teeth. Despite the severity of the wound, he recovered without lasting disability, and the episode added to the mystique that surrounded him.
In 1871, Scurlock began working as a line rider for prominent cattle baron John Chisum. His duties involved patrolling the open range and monitoring cattle movements, helping to protect herds from theft. Around 1873, while working alongside a fellow rider named Jack Holt, Scurlock encountered a sudden and dangerous situation involving a group of Native Americans. During the incident, Holt lost his life.
Scurlock reportedly took cover among nearby rocks and remained in a standoff for an extended period before escaping under the cover of darkness and walking roughly 20 miles to seek assistance. When Holt’s remains were found, it was noted that part of his right arm had been removed, though the exact circumstances of this detail remain unclear and are drawn from secondhand reports common to frontier storytelling. Two years later, in September 1875, another of Scurlock’s riding partners, N. Higgins, was killed in a separate encounter with Native Americans.
Deeply affected by the event, Scurlock told Chisum he wanted to leave the job. Chisum refused his request and also declined to pay him. Feeling mistreated, Scurlock took matters into his own hands, leaving the operation with three horses, two saddles, and a rifle. The incident was reported in local newspapers at the time.
Chisum sent several men to pursue him, but when Scurlock explained that he had taken the items in lieu of the wages he was denied, the men reportedly sympathized with him and allowed him to continue on his way. Scurlock soon left New Mexico and headed west into Arizona Territory. While there, he became close friends with Charlie Bowdre. Together, they started an unusual venture for frontier life: a small cheese-making business along the Gila River.
Family accounts from Scurlock’s and Bowdre’s descendants suggest that a young William H. Bonney, later known as Billy the Kid, may have briefly worked with them during this time. Although documentation is limited, it offers an intriguing early connection between these men. In the spring of 1876, Scurlock and Bowdre ended the cheese operation and returned to Lincoln County, New Mexico.
Seeking a more stable livelihood, they acquired a ranch near the Rio Ruidoso. The land had been offered on credit by merchant Lawrence G. Murphy. This transaction tied them to the Murphy-Dolan business monopoly, which controlled much of the local economy and left many settlers financially dependent on its network.
On July 18, 1876, Scurlock joined Bowdre, Frank Coe, George Coe, and A. B. Saunders in entering the Lincoln County Jail to remove a man named Jesus Largo, who had been accused of cattle theft. This act, carried out in defiance of local authorities, reflected growing frustration among some ranchers with a legal system they believed was influenced by the Murphy-Dolan faction.
Later that year, on September 2, 1876, a tragic accident occurred. Scurlock was reportedly handling a pistol when it discharged, resulting in the unintended death of his friend Mike G. Harkins, who managed a store at Blazer’s Mill. The incident deeply affected Scurlock but was generally regarded as an unfortunate mishap.
Just weeks later, on October 19, 1876, Scurlock married Maria Antonia Miguela Herrera in Lincoln, New Mexico. Not long after, Charlie Bowdre married Antonia’s sister, Manuela Herrera, making the two friends brothers-in-law. Doc and Antonia went on to raise a large family together, welcoming 10 children over the years. Gradually, Scurlock stepped away from the conflict and unrest that had defined much of his earlier life.
Over the course of more than a year, Scurlock joined several posses organized to track down individuals suspected of horse theft. Along with Charlie Bowdre and others, he actively participated in these pursuits, which often took place outside formal legal systems. In some cases, extrajudicial punishments were carried out against those who had been apprehended, reflecting the turbulent and often lawless environment of frontier New Mexico. In January 1877, Scurlock and his neighbor George Coe were arrested by Sheriff William J.
Brady. They were accused of sheltering Frank Freeman, a fugitive linked to the Jesse Evans gang who was wanted for murder. While in custody, Scurlock and Coe reportedly endured harsh conditions, with accounts from the time suggesting they were subjected to physical mistreatment before being released without formal charges. By October 1877, tensions escalated further when members of the Evans gang took horses from the Rio Ruidoso ranch belonging to Richard “Dick” Brewer, John Tunstall, and Alexander McSween.
Scurlock, Bowdre, and Brewer attempted to recover the stolen livestock, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Following the killing of John Tunstall in February 1878, an event that helped spark the Lincoln County War, Scurlock became one of the original members of the group known as the Regulators. This loosely organized faction aimed to challenge the dominance of the Murphy-Dolan business alliance and push back against what they saw as corrupt legal authority. Scurlock participated in many of the conflict’s key events.
On April 4, 1878, during the confrontation at Blazer’s Mill, he sustained a leg wound in a shootout involving “Buckshot” Roberts. Despite the setback, Scurlock remained active, and after the deaths of earlier leaders Dick Brewer and Frank McNab, he eventually became the third and final captain of the Regulators. He also briefly served in a law enforcement capacity, acting as a deputy under Sheriff John Copeland, who had been appointed to replace Sheriff Brady and was seen as sympathetic to the McSween faction. On May 14, 1878, Scurlock led a posse of approximately 18 to 20 men, including Billy the Kid, Bowdre, George Coe, and others, to the Dolan-Riley ranch.
Their stated aim was to locate those suspected of involvement in the killing of McNab and the wounding of A. B. Saunders. According to Thomas B.
Catron’s law partner, W. T. Thornton, the group removed more than two dozen horses and a few pack animals. During the raid, three individuals at the ranch were reportedly harmed.
Riley claimed that a herder named Wear was killed, along with a cook of Navajo heritage and a 15-year-old boy named Johnny. However, Thornton’s account suggested that only the cook and the boy were injured, not killed. Historian Robert M. Utley later wrote that the posse apprehended a man named Manuel Segovia, who was believed to have been responsible for McNab’s death.
According to the same account, Segovia was fatally shot while reportedly attempting to flee custody. Following legal foreclosure by attorney Thomas Catron on the holdings of J. J. Dolan and Company, the livestock taken during the Regulators’ raid appeared to legally belong to Catron.
This complicated the political fallout that followed. Sheriff John Copeland, who had aligned himself with the McSween-Regulator faction, was removed from his position after Catron strongly protested to the territorial governor. Copeland’s refusal to support the Murphy-Dolan side during the Lincoln County War cost him his role. In his place, George Peppin was appointed sheriff.
Peppin, however, was closely associated with the Murphy-Dolan group, resulting in a continued imbalance of power rather than restoring neutrality. During this turbulent period, Billy the Kid attempted to negotiate a pardon with Governor Lew Wallace. While the arrangement was being considered, Doc Scurlock was taken into custody alongside Billy, both suspected of prior involvement in the confrontation with Buckshot Roberts at Blazer’s Mill. When the agreement between Billy and Governor Wallace failed to materialize, the two men were informed that formal charges would soon follow.
Scurlock now faced the threat of extradition and legal consequences for his past actions. On June 17, 1879, rather than await prosecution, Scurlock and Billy left Lincoln. Sheriff Kimbrell, then in office, made no effort to prevent their departure. Later that summer, in August, Billy the Kid and a small group of companions were accused of taking a large number of cattle from John Chisum’s ranch.
In response, Chisum organized a posse to recover his livestock and confront the group. At this point, Scurlock decided to distance himself from Billy’s circle. Likely disillusioned and wary of further legal trouble, he chose to leave the group and step away from the increasingly unstable world of frontier conflict. Around October or November of 1879, Doc Scurlock relocated to Texas.
He left behind the turmoil of New Mexico and chose a quieter, more stable path. By 1880, records from the U. S. Census show Scurlock living in Potter County, Texas, where he worked as the keeper of a mail station, a role that indicated his integration into local civic life and a shift toward a more peaceful existence.
Over the years, Scurlock became known as a respected member of his community. Unlike many of his contemporaries from the Lincoln County War, he lived a long and relatively quiet life. He passed away at the age of 80 from a heart condition in Eastland, Texas. Doc was laid to rest in Eastland City Cemetery, buried alongside his wife and other members of his family.
His later years marked a dramatic contrast to his earlier life, reflecting a man who had found peace after years of conflict on the frontier. Scurlock’s story found its way into popular culture, most notably in the western film Young Guns, where the character of Doc Scurlock was portrayed by actor Kiefer Sutherland. In this version, Scurlock is depicted as a thoughtful, well-mannered cowboy with a poetic streak and a strong moral compass. By the end of the movie, Scurlock parts ways with Billy the Kid’s group, choosing to leave New Mexico alongside a Mexican woman he had grown close to earlier in the story, hoping to begin a quieter life somewhere in the East.
In the sequel, Young Guns 2, Sutherland reprises his role. This time, Scurlock is shown living in New York City and working as a school teacher. His character is arrested and brought back to New Mexico, where he narrowly avoids execution thanks to an intervention by Billy the Kid. Scurlock then rejoins Billy’s posse but is seriously wounded during a confrontation led by the character John W.
Poe, portrayed by Viggo Mortensen. As the scene unfolds, Scurlock is shown stepping out of a hideout and being struck in the ensuing exchange. He later collapses outside, portrayed as dying during the attack. This fictionalized sequence was loosely inspired by the real-life death of Charlie Bowdre, who was killed during an ambush organized by lawman Pat Garrett.
However, the actual Doc Scurlock followed a very different path. Historically, Scurlock married Maria Antonia Miguela Herrera in 1876 and eventually settled in Texas, where he lived a quiet and respectable life. He died of natural causes at the age of 80, many years after the events portrayed in the films. Interestingly, early versions of the Young Guns 2 script did reflect this reality, with Scurlock leaving New Mexico with his wife to start over in Texas.
However, actor Kiefer Sutherland reportedly had scheduling conflicts and insisted that his character be written out with a dramatic final scene. Screenwriter John Fusco initially resisted but ultimately revised the story to accommodate the change. Doc Scurlock is also briefly referenced in the 1970 John Wayne film Chisum. In the movie, Billy the Kid mentions Scurlock as one of the men joining his effort against the Murphy faction.
Scurlock appears during a climactic scene, though the role is minor and portrayed by one of several unnamed extras, making it unclear which actor is meant to represent him. Doc Scurlock may not be the most famous name in the Old West, but his story is one of striking contrasts: from a bullet through his face in a card game dispute to a quiet death in Texas at age 80, from the bloodiest conflict in New Mexico Territory to a peaceful life with his wife and 10 children. In the dusty shadows of Billy the Kid’s legend, Doc Scurlock carved out his own place in frontier history.
