James Butler Hickok, later known as “Wild Bill”, was born in Homer Illinois on May 27th 1837. He is one of history’s characters whose life was more colourful than the legends that grew around him. He was a 6ft 3in tall, wide shouldered, handsome man with auburn hair worn long and down to his shoulders in the fashion of a Plainsman and contemporaries speak of his clear grey eyes that “could see right through you”. Little is known of his early life apart from him being a good shot with a pistol, but at the age of eighteen he got into a fight with a Charles Hudson, during which, they both fell into a canal. Believing he had killed Hudson, he fled to Leavenworth in Kansas where he joined General Jim Lane’s vigilante Free State Army, also known as The Red Legs. It was here that he first met William Cody, later to become famous as “Buffalo Bill Cody”, who although only twelve years old, was working as a scout for the US Army. He also met George Custer, who was later to recall that Hickok was “A strange character, a Plainsman in every sense of the word whose skill in the use of rifle or pistol was unerring”.
The origin of his nickname is uncertain; he was sometimes called “Duck Bill” in his early years due to his long nose and sweeping upper lip and grew a moustache to cover it as soon as he was able. During his time with the Red Legs he was nicknamed “Shanghai Bill” and later “Wild Bill” a name allegedly given to him by an admiring woman when he and his brother Lorenzo apparently stopped a lynch mob in Independence Missouri, and it seems that he readopted the Wild Bill tag when he later became a lawman.
In 1858, he claimed a tract of land in Johnson County in Kansas and a year later was elected as one of four constables in Monticello Township. This employment did not last and he took a job with Russell, Wadell and Majors Freight Company, the owners of the Pony Express and it was while driving a freight team from Missouri to Santa Fe that he encountered a Cinnamon bear and her cubs blocking the trail. Hickok dismounted and later described how he shot the bear in the head, but the bullet bounced off the bear’s skull. The bear attacked Hickok, crushing him and grabbing his arm with its mouth, but Hickok managed to draw his knife and fatally slashed the bear’s throat. He was however, badly hurt with crushed chest, shoulder and arm and was bedridden four the next four months. He was then sent to Rock Creek Station in Nebraska to work as a stable hand while recovered from his wounds. The station was built on land that the company had recently purchased from Dave McCanles, a local resident. McCanles had been involved in a long running feud with the company over the second instalment of the payment for the land and on 16th December, 1861, McCanles, his son William and two farmhands, James Woods and James Gordon, called at the station’s office demanding payment, threatening the manager Horace Wellman. What happened next has long been disputed, but resulted in Hickok or Wellman shooting McCanles, Woods and Gordon.
Both were tried for murder, but judged to have acted in self defence. McCanles was the first man reputed to have been killed by Hickok in a gunfight.
He is thought to have spent the next year working for the Union Army as a scout, sniper and teamster at the outbreak of the Civil War, but in September 1862 he was discharged for reasons unknown. In late 1863, he found work as a Provost Marshall in Springfield Missouri, but resigned a year later to sign on as an army scout, (Five dollars a day, plus horse and equipment) with General John Samborn. It was here that he served with General Custer. Hickok was definitely a ladies man and could dazzle women with his easy charm. He was rumoured to have had an affair with Custer’s wife Libbie, who wrote of him in her book written in 1890, “Physically he was a delight to look upon. Tall, lithe and free in every motion”. He was mustered out in 1865 and began a life of drinking and gambling in Springfield. In “The History of Greene County Missouri” it was said of him at that time that he was, “By nature a ruffian, a drunken swaggering fellow who delighted when on a spree, to frighten nervous men and timid women”.
Hickok befriended a fellow gambler Davis Tutt, an ex Confederate soldier and the pair often loaned money to each other to finance a game. They later fell out in an argument over a woman and Hickok refused to play cards with Tutt who retaliated by financing other players in an attempt to bankrupt him. During one such game, Tutt was coaching Hickok’s opponent, but could not break Hickok’s winning streak. A frustrated Tutt demanded that Hickok repay a $40 dollar loan which he immediately did. Tutt then demanded another $35 from a previous card game. Hickok refused and said that he had “a memorandum” proving that he only owed $25. Tutt grabbed Hickok’s watch from the table, claiming it as collateral against the loan and the unfazed Hickok warned him that if he saw Tutt wearing the watch, he would shoot him.
When Tutt appeared the next day wearing the watch, Hickok tried to negotiate its return but Tutt stated that he now wanted $45. The two agreed not to fight over it and went for a drink together. It is not known what was said and, but Tutt later left the saloon He returned to the town square at 6 that evening as Hickok arrived from the other direction and warned him not to approach while wearing the watch. When both men were about 50 yards apart, they drew their guns and opened fire. Tutt’s shot missed, but Hickok’s struck Tutt in the chest killing him. The event was said to be the first recorded example of a quick draw duel. Hickok carried two 1836 Navy Colt cap and ball pistols in a sash around his waist with the butts forward enabling him to “Cross draw” and fire very quickly. Hickok stood trial for the shooting, but was acquitted on the grounds of “A fair fight”.
Hickok returned to gambling, but in the East, people were beginning to take an interest in the exploits of the colourful characters of the Wild West and newspapers and magazines began running articles on the lives of these “cowboys”. He gave a tongue in cheek interview to Harper’s New Monthly magazine in which he claimed to have killed “Hundreds of men”. Other publications quickly pointed out that the article was full of inaccuracies and that Hickok was lying about his tally. It is now thought that, being bemused by the attention, he deliberately exaggerated his exploits to the interviewers wind them up. The interviewers in turn, magnified his exploits and reported that he alone killed ten men at Rock Creek Station.
He later gave another interview in which he was asked, “How many men have you killed?” and he replied, “I suppose about a hundred”.
In 1868, he became sheriff of Hayes City Kansas, a rough place that needed strong policing. He was not afraid of using violence to keep the town under control and in August 1869, he shot and killed Bill Mulvey in a gunfight. Mulvey was drunk and refused Hickok’s order to drop his gun and continued shooting at lamps, windows and anything that moved. Mulvey holstered his weapon and then tried to draw, but Hickok put two bullets in him before he had even lifted his gun. The following month he shot Samuel Strwahun dead after he and his friends caused trouble in a saloon. Strawhun refused to put down his gun and threatened Hickok with a broken bottle whereupon he was shot dead. Some of the townspeople felt that he was too violent and in the next elections he lost to his deputy Pete Lanihan. He continued in the role as Lanihan’s deputy, although in reality, he remained in charge and old timers later recalled that his presence did much to keep the violence down.
In July 1871, he was involved in a fight with two troopers of the 7th Cavalry, Jeremiah Lonergan and John Kile. Lonergan managed to pin him down while Kile pushed his pistol into Hickok’s ear and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. Hickok managed to get his gun hand free and shoot Lonergan in the knee and put two bullets into Kile, who died the next morning.
Hickok then became employed as Town Marshall in Abilene, a wild Kansas town after his predecessor “Bear River” Tom Smith was gunned down in an ambush. He ruled Abilene from the card tables of the Alamo saloon, telling his deputies to come and get him if he was needed. He quickly established his authority by offering troublemakers the option of “Leaving by the eastbound train or the westbound train, or go North”, the last option meaning Boot Hill. Hickok also came into contact with John Wesley Hardin, a notorious gunfighter known to have killed 27 men. In his memoirs, published in 1896, Hardin states, “Before I got to Abilene I had heard much talk of Wild Bill, he had a reputation as a killer”. He went on to relate that his two friends, Ben Thompson and Phil Coe tried to bribe him to shoot Hickok, but told them, “I’m not doing anybody’s fighting right now except my own, If Bill needs killing, why don’t you kill him yourself?”. Hickok had warned Hardin that weapons must not be carried in town limits, but Hardin shot a man dead in a hotel allegedly for snoring too loud. Hardin left town before Hickok could arrest him, thus avoiding what might have been a memorable shootout. More trouble broke out when Ben Thompson, a local Texan gambler and gunman, joined with his friend Phil Coe and opened the Bull’s Head Tavern in Abilene. The two advertised the site by painting a picture of a bull with a large erect penis on the side of the building and local womenfolk complained to Hickok who ordered the pair to remove the picture. When they refused, Hickok simply bought some paint and covered it himself much to the anger of the proprietors.
Further friction occurred when Hickok and Coe both showed an interest in Jessie Hazel, a local bawdy house owner. Hickok lost out and Coe and Hazel decided to leave town and move to Texas. On October 5th 1871, Hickok was confronted with a crowd of some fifty rowdy Texan cowboys and their leader Phil Coe, out on a drinking spree before his departure. The group were shooting out windows and terrifying the locals. Hickok ordered Coe to drop his gun, but Coe insisted that he was only shooting at a stray dog. He went on to threaten Hickok, saying he could “Hit a crow on the wing”, Hickok is said to have replied, “Did the crow have a pistol? Was he shooting back? I will be”. Coe then fired twice at Hickok, one bullet hitting the floor and the other passing through the marshal’s coat. Hickok fired back, hitting Coe twice in the stomach before turning his gun on another armed figure running at him from the side. To his horror he found that his target was his friend Mike Williams who had been running to Hickok’s aid. Hickok was grief stricken and carried Williams into the Alamo saloon, laying him on the billiard table where he died. With the cattle trade moving on from Abilene, the town decided that they no longer needed his talents and in December 1871, he was relieved of his duties.
He drifted to Colorado and then to Kansas, trying to make a living as a card player. A run of bad luck led him to accept an offer from Colonel Barnett’s Wild West Show, to appear in a play in Niagara Falls, but after just two performances he quit. He also teamed up with William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and appeared for a while in some of his shows.
Hickok’s eyesight was deteriorating and in 1876, a doctor diagnosed that he was suffering from Trachoma, a common vision disorder of the time. In March of that year he married Agnes Lake, a 50 year old circus owner in Cheyenne Wyoming. He seemed to have a genuine affection for her, but left her that spring to join Charlie Utter’s wagon train and seek his fortune in the goldfields of South Dakota. On this journey he met Martha Jane Cannery, popularly known as “Calamity Jane”, who later claimed that she was married to Hickok for a time. Hickok and some friends tried their hand at gold mining, but he soon drifted back to gambling and arrived in Deadwood in July 1876. His reputation went before him and some townspeople wanted him appointed as town marshal. The more violent elements in the town opposed this and many believe that this was the reason for his ultimate death.
On the 2nd August 1876, Hickok was playing poker in the Bell Union saloon in Deadwood. Hickok usually sat with his back to the wall, but the only seat available when he joined the game was a chair that put his back to the door. He twice asked another player, Charlie Rich, to change seats with him, but was twice refused. In the middle of a hand, a former buffalo hunter named Jack McCall entered the saloon and walked to within a few feet of Hickok. He drew a pistol and shouted “Damn You, Take that!” before shooting Hickok in the back of the head. The bullet emerged through Hickok’s right cheek and struck another player in the hand. When he was shot, Hickok was holding a hand of aces and eights, afterwards known as the Dead Man’s Hand.
In her book, Calamity Jane describes the shooting, “I was in Deadwood at the time and on hearing of the killing, made my way at once to the scene and found that my friend Wild Bill had been shot by Jack McCall, a desperado. I found the assassin in Shurdy’s butcher shop and, having left my guns on the bedpost, grabbed a meat cleaver and made him throw up his hands. He was then taken to a log cabin and locked up, but got away and was afterwards found at Fagan’s Ranch at Horse Creek on the old Cheyenne road. He was taken to Yankton Dakota where he was tried, sentenced and hung”.
The reason for McCall’s action is not clear. Some suggest that he was paid to stop Hickok becoming marshal. Another version suggests that he did it due to a perceived insult when Hickok offered to give him some money for his breakfast after he had lost all his money in a game the previous day. At his trial, McCall testified that he did it to avenge his brother who he claimed was killed earlier by Hickok. This claim may be true; a Lew McCall was known to have been killed in Abilene, but it is not known whether the two were related.
The real Hickok was in complete contrast to the newspaper inspired gunfighter image. Testimony exists of him being gentlemanly, courteous and graceful in manner, but “would not be put upon” and would respond to violence with violence. He was a generous man and slow to anger, but would willingly defend a friend or the fearful if they were under threat. He could be an implacable enemy however and would seek out and face down those who insulted or challenged him. The portrayal of him in the press as the romantic lone lawman in the frock coat and waistcoat, with his ivory handled Colts, gave birth to a whole genre of heroes in the High Noon tradition.
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