Wild Bill Hickok Biography
Law Enforcement, Folk Hero (1837–1876)
NAME: Wild Bill Hickok 2 IN THE CHEST Home Page
OCCUPATION: Law Enforcement, Folk Hero
BIRTH DATE: May 27, 1837
DEATH DATE: August 2, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH: Troy Grove, Illinois
PLACE OF DEATH: Deadwood, South Dakota
FULL NAME: James Butler Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok is remembered for his services in Kansas as
sheriff of Hays City and marshal of Abilene, where his ironhanded rule helped
to tame two of the most lawless towns on the frontier. He is also remembered
for the cards he was holding when he was shot dead -- a pair of black aces and
a pair of black eights -- since known as the dead man's hand.
Early Years
A legend during his life and considered one of the American
west's premier gunfighters, James Butler ("Wild Bill") Hickok was
born May 27, 1837, in Troy Grove, Illinois. The son of William Alonzo and Polly
Butler Hickok, he was by all accounts a master marksman from an early age.
Hickok moved west in 1855 to farm and joined General James
Lane's Free State (antislavery) forces in Kansas. He was later elected
constable of Monticello Township in Johnson County, Kansas.
For the next several years, Hickok worked as a stagecoach
driver. During the Civil War he found employment as a teamster and spy for the
Union Army.
Birth of a Legend
Wild Bill Hickok's iconic status is rooted in a shootout in
July 1861 in what came to be known as the McCanles Massacre in Rock Creek,
Nebraska. The incident began when David McCanles, his brother William and
several farmhands came to the station demanding payment for a property that had
been bought from him. Hickok, just a stable-hand at the time, killed the three
men, despite being severely injured.
The story quickly became newspaper and magazine fodder.
Perhaps most famously, Harper's New Monthly Magazine printed an account of the
story in 1867, claiming Hickok had killed 10 men. Overall, it was reported that
Hickok had killed over 100 men during his lifetime.
During the Civil War, Wild Bill Hickok served in the Union
Army as a civilian scout and later a provost marshal. Though no solid record
exists, he is believed to have served as a Union spy in the Confederate Army
before his discharge in 1865.
In July, 1865, in Springfield, Missouri's town square,
Hickok killed Davis Tutt, an old friend who -- after personal grudges escalated
-- became an enemy. The two men faced each other sideways for a duel. Tutt
reached for his pistol but Hickok was the first to draw his weapon, and shot
Tutt instantly, from approximately 75 yards.
Wild Bill Hickok’s legend only grew further when other
stories about his fighting prowess surfaced. One story claimed he killed a bear
with his bare hands and a bowie knife. The Harper's piece also told the story
of how Hickok had pointed to a letter "O" that was "no bigger than
a man's heart." Standing some 50 yards away from his subject, Hickok
"without sighting his pistol and with his eye" rang off six shots,
each of them hitting the direct center of the letter.
Final Years
Following his Civil War service, Wild Bill Hickok moved to
Kansas where he was appointed sheriff in Hays City and marshal of Abilene. Both
towns had become outposts for lawless men before Hickok arrived and turned
things around. In an 1871 account that changed his life, Hickok was reportedly
involved in a shootout with saloon owner Phil Coe. In the melee, Hickok caught
a glimpse of someone moving towards him and responded with two shots killing
his deputy Mike Williams. The event haunted Hickok for the rest of his life.
After in inquest where other incidents of Hickok’s brand of “frontier justice”
was revealed, he was relieved of his duties.
Hickok never fought in another gun battle. During the next
several years he appeared in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, living off his
fame as the consummate gunfighter.
In 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was suffering from glaucoma.
Relegated to making a living through other means than law enforcement, he
traveled from one town to another as a gambler. Several times he was arrested
for vagrancy. On March 5, 1876, he married Agnes Thatcher Lake, an owner of a
circus in Cheyenne, Wyoming territory. He left his wife a few months later to
seek his fortune in the goldfields of South Dakota. It was here that he
supposedly became romantically linked to Martha Jane Canary, also known as "Calamity
Jane," but most historians discount any such amorous relationship between
the two. (She wanted to be buried next to her sweetheart and that's where they put her.)
While in Deadwood, South Dakota, Wild Bill Hickok became a
regular poker player at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon. On the afternoon of August
2, 1876, he was playing cards with his back to the door, something he seldom
did. A young drifter named Jack McCall walked in and approached Hickok from
behind. Not wasting a second, he quietly drew his revolver and shot Hickok in
the back of the head, instantly killing him. Even in death Hickok's legend
grew. The cards he was holding at the time -- a pair of black aces and a pair
of black eights -- became known as "the dead man's hand."
McCall was brought to trial the next day. He was found not
guilty by a “miners’ court” after telling judges that Hickok killed his
brother, though later accounts showed McCall had no brothers. After his
release, McCall had lingered in Deadwood for a short while before heading to
Wyoming. Less than a month after Hickok's death, the trial was found to have no
legal status because Deadwood was located in Indian Territory - McCall's
acquittal was deemed invalid. Still, feeling he had escaped punishment, McCall
began to brag to anyone that would listen that he had killed Wild Bill Hickok.
But the U.S. marshals were on his trail and McCall was arrested on August 29,
1876 in Laramie, where he was held before he was extradited to Yankton, South
Dakota. The trial began on December 4 and it only took two days for the jury to
find McCall guilty. He was sentenced to death on January 3, 1877 and on March
1, 1877 he was executed by hanging.
Citation Information
Article Title: Wild Bill Hickok Biography
Author: Biography.com Editors
Website Name: The Biography.com website
Access Date: September 26, 2016
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: February 8, 2016
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