Doc Scurlock’s reputation as one of the deadliest marksmen of the American frontier began not with a duel or a battle, but with a card game in a Mexican tavern. An argument between Scurlock and another player turned violent, and gunfire erupted. When the smoke cleared, the other man was dead, and Scurlock had taken a bullet through his mouth, shattering two front teeth before the round exited the back of his neck. Against all odds, he survived.
In 1871, Scurlock returned to the United States and found work under John Chisum, the powerful cattle baron of Texas. A few years later, his shooting skill was put to a brutal test when he and a fellow cowboy named Jack Holt were ambushed by a group of Indians. Holt was killed in the attack, leaving Scurlock alone to take cover behind rocks and fight off the attackers for hours. He managed to kill the Indian leader and, under cover of darkness, slipped away, walking roughly twenty miles in search of help.
By May 1875, Chisum had moved his operations to New Mexico, and Scurlock joined the cowboy ranks at the ranch near Roswell. But in September of that same year, a close companion fell victim to another Indian attack. Grief-stricken, Scurlock went to Chisum intending to quit. Chisum refused to pay him, unwilling to lose a man of his skill.
Scurlock held firm, eventually securing payment, though not in cash. He took three horses, two saddles, and a rifle. Considered a thief by some of Chisum’s men, he fled to Arizona. When the cowboys caught up with him, he explained the circumstances that had driven him to take the payment, and they let him go.
In Arizona, Scurlock ran into Charlie Bower, and the two men formed a partnership, establishing a cheese factory along the Gila River. Legend has it they briefly recruited a young man named Billy the Kid. The venture was short-lived, and the two soon left Arizona for Lincoln County, New Mexico. There, they acquired a farm on credit from Lawrence G.
Murphy, a transaction made possible by the monopolistic control of Murphy’s mercantile empire over the region. Tragedy struck on September 2, 1876, when Scurlock accidentally fired a shot that killed his friend Mike Harkins, the store manager at Blazer’s Mill, which was owned by John H. Riley. Harkins had been examining a pistol when it discharged.
Just over a month later, on October 19, 1876, Scurlock married Maria Antonia Miguela Herrera in Lincoln. His closest companion, Charlie Bower, was already married to Maria’s sister, making the two men brothers-in-law. The marriage would produce ten children. During this period, Lincoln County was plagued by rampant horse and cattle theft.
Scurlock actively served on multiple posses dedicated to tracking down the thieves, and some offenders paid for their crimes at the gallows. In January 1877, Scurlock and a neighbor, George Coe, were arrested by Sheriff William Brady on suspicion of harboring Frank Freeman, a wanted murderer allegedly linked to the Jesse Evans gang. For several days, the two men endured brutal torture before regaining their freedom. Around this time, Scurlock befriended two influential ranchers: John Tunstall and Dick Brewer.
Tunstall, along with attorney Alexander McSween, opened a rival business challenging the exclusive commercial and banking empire of Murphy and Dolan. Scurlock publicly sided with Tunstall, confronting Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan directly. Fearing the loss of their profits and control, Murphy and Dolan launched a campaign of retaliation. The conflict reached a breaking point in February 1878, when John Tunstall was brutally murdered.
His death ignited an all-out war in Lincoln County. To fight the monopolies, a faction known as the Regulators was formed, with Scurlock among its founding members. The Regulators aimed to break the oppressive control exercised by Murphy and Dolan. On April 4, 1878, at the Battle of Blazer’s Mill, Scurlock was shot in the leg by Buckshot Roberts, and the Regulators lost their respected leader, Dick Brewer.
The Lincoln County War claimed many lives, including the prominent Regulator Frank McNab. After McNab’s death, Scurlock took over as the third leader of the Regulators. Amid the ongoing violence, a dramatic shift occurred when Sheriff William Brady, known for his ties to Dolan and Murphy, was replaced by John Copeland, a McSween supporter. Seizing the transition, Scurlock briefly served as deputy sheriff.
The Lincoln County War dragged on until November 1878, when the territorial governor intervened, issuing a stern warning and threatening to impose martial law. He extended a pardon to all individuals involved in the conflict who had not yet been indicted, with one notable exception: Billy the Kid was excluded from the amnesty. The declaration ended the war, which had cost nineteen lives. But in the spring of 1879, the violence reignited, culminating in the murder of Alexander McSween, who was shot down as his burning home was engulfed in flames.
After the conflict, Scurlock gave up his gun and moved to Texas, seeking a peaceful life far from the violence that had defined his younger years. He rarely spoke of the war or his gunfighting past, deliberately turning away from its extraordinary episodes. In the 1880 census, he was listed in Potter County, Texas, holding a mail station. Beyond his work, he developed a deep interest in classical literature and even wrote poetry.
Doc Scurlock died at the age of eighty of a heart attack in Eastland, Texas. He was buried at Eastland City Cemetery alongside his wife and family, a quiet end for a man who had been one of the most feared gunmen of the Lincoln County War.