His contemporaries called him Wild Bill, and the newspapers made him a legend in his own lifetime!

James Butler Hickok was born in 1837 in Troy Grove, Illinois and spent his formative years helping out on the family farm. Most of his adult years were spent in the West, where he was employed as a detective, a scout for the U.S. Army and a Marshal in Kansas.

Part of the Hickok legend was built on his ability to handle a pistol with either hand, becoming one of the first so-called “fast guns.” Although there are mixed opinions of his marksmanship, everyone agreed that when he shot at a man, Hickok was in a class by himself.

Hickok’s life of adventure ended on August 2, 1876, during a game of poker in the South Dakota town of Deadwood at the Number 10 Saloon. He was shot from behind by Jack McCall, who was later hanged for the crime.

 

Aces and eights is the poker hand held by Bill Hickok while playing five-card stud when he was murdered, thereafter known as a dead man’s hand. 

Wild Bill Hickok is buried at the Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Martha “Calamity Jane” Canary gained regional and national notoriety through the newspaper articles, novels and an autobiography. Through these exaggerated publications, Calamity Jane was portrayed as an expert scout, crack shot and western heroine. Alcoholism is a possible explanation of Calamity Jane’s fanciful yarns among them a love affair with Wild Bill Hickok. Her dying wish was that she was buried next to him.