James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876), better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a legendary figure in the American Wild West. He is perhaps the best known figure from that era. After fighting in the Union army during the American Civil War, he became a legendary army scout, and later, lawman and gunfighter.
Wild Bill Hickok | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Abolitionist, facilitator of The Underground Railroad, Lawman, Gunfighter, Gambler |
"Wild Bill" Hickok was born in Troy Grove, Illinois on May 27, 1837. While he was growing up, his father's farm was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad and Bill learned his hunting and shooting skills protecting the farm with his father from anti-abolitionists (hence his joining the Union Army). Unknown to most, Bill Hickok was one of the earliest champions of equal rights for blacks during the latter days of slavery.
In 1855, he left his father's farm in to become a stage coach driver on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. His gunfighting skills eventually earned him the nickname "Wild Bill".
Early Years as a Lawman
In 1857, Hickok claimed a 160 acre tract of land in Johnson County, Kansas (in what is now the city of Lenexa) where he became the first constable of Monticello Township, Kansas. In 1861, he became a town constable in Nebraska. He was involved in a deadly shoot-out with theMcCanles gang at Rock Creek Station, an event still under much debate. On several other occasions, Hickok confronted and killed several men while fighting alone. [1]
Hickok invented the practice of "posting" men out of town. He would put a list on what was called the "dead man's tree" (so called because men had been lynched on it) while constable of Monticello Township. Hickok proclaimed he would shoot them on sight the following day. Few stayed around to find out if he was serious.
Civil War and Scouting
When the American Civil War began, Hickok joined the Union forces and served in the west, mostly in Kansas and Missouri. He earned a reputation as a skilled scout. After the war, Hickok became a scout for the U. S. Army and later was a professional gambler. He served for a time as a United States Marshal. In 1867, his fame increased from an interview by Henry Morton Stanley. Hickok's killing of Whistler the Peacemaker with a long-range rifle shot had influence in preventing the Sioux from uniting to resist the settler incursions into the Black Hills. That rifle shot, supposedly downhill on a windy day and reportedly at over 750 yards, helped cement Hickok's legend as a master of weapons.
Later Career as a Lawman/Gunfighter
On July 21, 1865, in the town square of Springfield, Missouri, Hickok killed Davis K. Tutt, Jr. in a "quick draw" duel. Fiction would later show this kind of gunfight as typical, but Hickok's is in fact the only one on record that fits the portrayal. The incident was precipitated by a dispute over a gambling debt incurred at a local saloon.
Hickok was working as sheriff and city marshal of Hays, Kansas when, on July 17, 1870, he was involved in a gunfight with disorderly soldiers of the 7th US Cavalry, wounding one and mortally wounding another. In 1871, Hickok became marshal of Abilene, Kansas, taking over for former marshal Thomas J. Smith. Hickok's encounter in Abilene with outlaw John Wesley Hardin resulted in the latter fleeing the town after Hickok managed to disarm him.
While working in Abilene, Hickok and Phil Coe, a saloon owner, had an ongoing dispute that later resulted in a shootout. Coe had been the business partner of known gunman Ben Thompson, with whom he co-owned the Bulls Head Saloon. On October 5, 1871, Hickok was standing off a crowd during a street brawl, during which time Coe fired two shots at Hickok. Hickok returned fire and killed Coe. Hickok, whose eyesight was poor by that time in his life due to the early stages of glaucoma, caught the glimpse of movement of someone running toward him. He quickly fired one shot in reaction, accidentally shooting and killing Abilene Special Deputy Marshal Mike Williams, who was coming to his aid, an event that would haunt him for the remainder of his life. [2] His famous statement to Coe, who supposedly stated he could "kill a crow on the wing," (flying) is one of the Old West's most famous sayings, and showed that Hickok was certainly a cool customer in a fight. He answered Coe by sneering, "Did the crow have a pistol? Was he shooting back? I will be." Whether or not Coe had actually made the statement, and Hickok answered as reported, is disputable but it certainly personified the reputation Wild Bill accrued.
Buffalo Bill
Some accounts of report Hickok took part in Buffalo Bill's Wild West. However, that production was not in existence prior to 1882, well after Hickok's death. Nonetheless, Hickok was reported by some to have appeared with Buffalo Bill in 1873 in a stage play titled "Scouts of the Plains". [3]
Wagon train venture, Calamity Jane
In July of 1876, Hickok joined a wagon train led by Charlie Utter in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Hickok would act as scout, and help lead the train through any troubles they might run across while en route. The goal, which was successful, was to ship gamblers, prostitutes, and other needed commodities to the new boomtown of Deadwood, South Dakota. It was during the planning and organization stages of the trip that Hickok first met Calamity Jane.
She would later claim they had a romantic relationship, and to have been one of Hickok's closest friends. In reality, they barely knew one another, having met only about a month before his death. Although Hickok by all reports was friendly toward her, there was nothing beyond casual hellos and goodbyes. Also, Hickok had only recently married, and by all accounts he was completely taken by his wife. [4]
"Dime novel" fame
It is difficult to separate the truth from fiction about Hickok, the first "dime novel" hero of the western era, in many ways one of the first comic book heroes, keeping company with another who achieved part of his fame in such a way, frontiersman Davey Crockett. In the "dimestore novels', exploits of Hickok were presented in heroic form, making him seem larger than life. In truth, most of the stories were at the very least greatly exaggerated and in many cases complete fabrication.
Hickok himself told the writers with great seriousness that he had killed over 100 men. This number is doubtful, and it is more likely that his total killings were about 20 or a few more. There is no doubt that Hickok was a fearless and deadly fighting man, equally at home with a rifle, revolver, or knife. His story of fighting a grizzly bear, which he claims mistook him for food due to his greasy buckskins, personified a man who feared nothing alive, and after emptying his pistols into the bear, killed it with a Bowie knife. That story is also thought to be an exaggeration.
Death
On August 2, 1876, while playing poker at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon No. 10 in Deadwood (then part of the Dakota Territory but on Indian land), Hickok could not find an empty seat in the corner, where he always sat in order to protect himself against sneak attacks from behind, and instead sat with his back to the door. His paranoia was prescient: he was shot in the back of the head with a .45-caliber revolver by Jack McCall. Legend has it that Hickok, playing poker when he was shot, was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, with the fifth card disputed. The fifth card was either unknown, or some say that it had not yet been dealt. The game was interrupted by Hickok getting shot.
The motive for the killing is still debated. McCall may have been paid for the deed, or it may have been the result of a recent dispute between the two. Most likely McCall became enraged over what he perceived as a condescending offer from Hickok to let him have enough money for breakfast after he had lost all his money playing poker the previous day. McCall claimed at the resulting two-hour trial (by a motley group of assembled miners and businessmen) that he was avenging Hickok's earlier slaying of his brother. McCall was acquitted of the murder, resulting in the Black Hills Pioneer editorializing:
- "Should it ever be our misfortune to kill a man ... we would simply ask that our trial may take place in some of the mining camps of these hills"
McCall was subsequently rearrested after bragging about his deed, and a new trial was held. The authorities did not consider this to be double jeopardy because at the time Deadwood was not recognized by the U.S. as a legitimately incorporated town (due to federal laws that made it illegal to settle on Indian land; many people did anyway). The new trial was held in U.S. territory, in Yankton, South Dakota. Hickok's brother, Lorenzo Butler Hickok, traveled from Illinois to attend the retrial. This time McCall was found guilty and hanged. After his execution it was determined that McCall had never had a brother.
Utter claimed Hickok's body, and placed a notice in the local newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer, which read:
- "Died in Deadwood, Black Hills, August 2, 1876, from the effects of a pistol shot, J. B. Hickok (Wild Bill) formerly of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Funeral services will be held at Charlie Utter's Camp, on Thursday afternoon, August 3, 1876, at 3 o'clock, P. M. All are respectfully invited to attend."
Almost the entire town attended the funeral, and Utter had Hickok buried with a wooden grave marker reading:
- "Wild Bill, J. B. Hickok killed by the assassin Jack McCall in Deadwood, Black Hills, August 2d, 1876. Pard, we will meet again in the happy hunting ground to part no more. Good bye, Colorado Charlie, C. H. Utter."
At the urging of Calamity Jane, Utter in 1879 had Hickok reinterred in a ten-foot-square plot at the Mount Moriah Cemetery, surrounded by a cast-iron fence with a U.S. flag flying nearby. A monument has since been built there. In accordance with her dying wish, Calamity Jane was buried next to him.
Shortly before Hickok's death, he wrote a letter to his new wife, which reads in part: "Agnes Darling, if such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wife—-Agnes-—and with wishes even for my enemies I will make the plunge and try to swim to the other shore" and "My dearly beloved if I am to die today and never see the sweet face of you I want you to know that I am no great man and am lucky to have such a woman as you"
Media
Over the years, Hickok has been the subject of various television programs, novies, and books, some of which are listed below.
Television
- Was portrayed by Josh Brolin in the 1989-1992 television series The Young Riders.[1]
- Featured in the 1995 series Legend (TV series), episode 1.06 The Life, Death and Life of Wild Bill Hickok. The episode portrays his death factually, but then goes on to show that he faked his own death (wearing a sort of bullet-proof vest), so that he could retire peacefully.
- The last days of Hickok's life are dramatized in the HBO TV series Deadwood.[2], in which he is portrayed by Keith Carradine.
- Was portrayed by Guy Madison in the 1951-1958 television series (The Adventures of) Wild Bill Hickock.
- In Legends of the Hidden Temple, one of the artifacts was Wild Bill Hickok and the Dead Man's Hand.
Movies
- Played by Gary Cooper in the 1936 film The Plainsman, featuring Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. [3]
- Portrayed by Jeff Bridges in the 1995 movie Wild Bill. [4]
- Portrayed by Charles Bronson in the 1977 movie The White Buffalo.
- Howard Keel played him in the 1953 film Calamity Jane. [5]
- Jeff Corey portrayed him in the 1970 Dustin Hoffman movie Little Big Man. [6]
- Sam Shepard played him in the 1999 movie Purgatory, a made-for-TV movie on TNT
Novels
- The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok, Richard Matheson, ISBN 0-515-11780-3
Trivia
- Hickok's death chair is now in a glass case above the saloon entrance, though the saloon itself was moved after the original Nuttall & Mann's #10 saloon burned down; the original site is down the street to the north, about a block away.
- There is no reason to believe, as was previously claimed in this section, that James Butler Hickok was Roman Catholic. According to Joseph Rosa, author of "They Called Him Wild Bill," Hickok's father — William Alonzo Hickok — studied for the Presbyterian ministry at Middlebury College in Middlebury Vermont prior to his marriage to Polly Butler in 1829.
- Preferred the cap and ball Colt 1851 .36 Navy Model
- Wore his revolvers in reverse at his hips, sometimes in a red sash, having to draw from the inside.
- Although Hickok never drew "cross draw", he was a master of it. Hickok usually drew from the right hip with right hand and the left hip with left hand, claiming it was faster that way.
- Hickok was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979.
- According to legend, Hickok was holding a hand of two aces and two eights when he was shot. This hand has subsequently become known as a "Dead Man's Hand".
See also
References
General References
- Matheson, Richard (1996). The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok. Jove. ISBN 0-515-11780-3.
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- Rosa, Joseph G. (1979). They Called Him Wild Bill. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1538-6.
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- Rosa, Joseph G. (1994). The West of Wild Bill Hickok. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2680-9.
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- Rosa, Joseph G. (1996). Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and His Myth. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0773-0.
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- Rosa, Joseph G. (2003). Wild Bill Hickok Gunfighter: An Account of Hickok's Gunfights. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3535-2.
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- Turner, Thadd M. (2001). Wild Bill Hickok: Deadwood City - End of Trail. Universal Publishers. ISBN 1-58112-689-1.
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- Wilstach, Frank Jenners (1926). Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers. Doubleday, Page & company. ASIN B00085PJ58.
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- ^ The Young Riders at IMDb
- ^ Deadwood at IMDb
- ^ The Plainsman at IMDb
- ^ Wild Bill at IMDb
- ^ Calamity Jane at IMDb
- ^ Little Big Man at IMDb
- ^ Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok at IMDb