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WILD BILL HICKOK
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Over and above its historic reputation as a gold rush site, its Custer connection, its place in the land of the Sioux, Deadwood is known to most Americans as the place where Western hero "Wild Bill" Hickok died. In 1876, the same golden treasure that sent miners scurrying for the Black Hills soon lured camp followers -- mule skinners, merchants, madams, card players, outlaws and con artists. Among them was James Butler Hickok, alias Wild Bill -- a Civil War-era spy, a sometime scout, stagecoach driver and sheriff who left a path strewn with bodies he neither regretted nor contemplated. Thanks to cheap news stories and a brief stint on the tent show circuit, his reputation as frontier tough guy was national. In June 1876, Hickok joined the throng of fortune seekers arriving in rustic Deadwood. In on his Deadwood adventure were "acquaintances" Colorado Charlie Utter, Martha "Calamity Jane" Canary and an assorted lot of shifty drifters of no other distinction whatsoever. Hickok had recently married a plain but sturdy circus performer named Agnes Thatcher. He left her after a two-week Cincinnati honeymoon to seek his fortune. In Deadwood he had one aim: to relieve well-healed miners of their gold dust at the gaming tables and provide for his new bride. Famous as a quick-draw artist, as marshal of the Kansas towns of Hays City and Abilene, as one of Custer's scouts in the Black Hills and -- briefly -- as a performer in "Buffalo Bill" Cody's internationally popular Wild West tent show, Wild Bill was known for several cautious habits, each of which had served him well in his 39 years of hard and dangerous living. When imbibing, Hickok always poured his drinks with his left hand, which kept his best gun hand ready for any eventuality. When gambling, he always sat with his back to the wall and his face to the door, lest any friends or relatives of those he'd killed sneak up behind him. As a Western gunmen who traded on his ability to kill without hesitation or remorse, he had many enemies; he carried a pair of Colts and could draw and fight with both hands. The Deadwood in which Hickok spent his time was lawless. Crime bosses estimated that local businessmen would soon ask Wild Bill to take on a job as a peace officer. Knowing he was cold-blooded, the bad guys also figured it was only a matter of time before he challenged them. What they didn't know was that his eyesight was rapidly failing; at that point in his life, Wild Bill stood a good chance of losing a stand-up gunfight. But cowed by his reputation, they decided to encourage somebody outside their circle to "do the job" for them. On August 2, 1876, only a few weeks after his arrival in the gold camp, Wild Bill wandered into Saloon No. 10, had a drink and talked with bartender Harry Young. A poker game was in progress, with the saloon's owner Carl Mann sitting in. Hickok noticed if he took the game's lone open seat, his back would be to the front door. When one of the gamblers near the wall, a gunman called Charles Rich, declined to switch seats with the better-known Hickok, Bill gave up and took the empty chair. It was a fatal mistake. Hickok was losing by the time Jack McCall, a barfly and odd-job man who loafed in the No. 10, slipped into the saloon, walked to within three feet of Hickok and shot him in the back of the head with a .45 he pulled from his coat pocket. The bullet passed through Wild Bill's skull and exited his right cheek before lodging in the wrist of another poker player. As Hickok fell away from the table, he spilled his hand -- pairs of black aces and eights -- known forever after as the "deadman's hand." McCall ran into the street. Passersby grabbed and held on to him while the boys in the saloon decided what to do. In short order they convened a "miners court" -- a make-do hearing with no real legal standing. If this collection of locals thought McCall had reason to shoot Bill, they'd let him walk; if they thought otherwise, they'd lynch him. After telling his judges that Hickok killed his brother, McCall was found not guilty. He immediately fled town. Wandering the territory, drunk, he bragged about killing the "prince of pistoleers." He told the story one too many times. Badge-wearing lawmen heard it, arrested McCall, dragged him to Dakota Territory's capital, Yankton, and had him tried. Found guilty of murder, McCall hanged March 1, 1877, and was put in an unmarked grave. The killing of Wild Bill and the capture of Jack McCall is re-enacted every summer evening on Deadwood's historic Main Street. Immediately after, the actor playing McCall is dragged to the theater in Old Towne Hall on Lee Street and tried in a play, "The Trial of Jack McCall." Hickok's chair is still displayed at Saloon No. 10, a popular establishment billed as the only museum in the world with a bar. Visitors shouldn't argue the point; after a couple of shots of red-eye and a walk past scores of historic photographs and displays you get the idea.
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