Wild Bill Hickok

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Hickok was born and raised on a farm in Northern Illinois. Drawn to a criminal lifestyle, he headed west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice, working as a stagecoach driver and later as a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He served in and spied for the Union army during the American Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor, and professional gambler. He was involved in several notable shootouts during the course of his life. In 1876, Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory by Jack McCall, an unsuccessful gambler. The hand of cards that he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man's hand: two pairs; black aces and eights, and another unknown card, therefore having five cards in his hand at his death.

In Their Own Story

On July 21, 1865, Hickok and a local gambler named Davis Tutt faced off in Springfield's town square, standing sideways before drawing and firing their weapons. Their quick-draw duel was recorded as the first of its kind. Tutt's shot missed, but Hickok's struck Tutt through the heart from about 75 yards away. Tutt called out, "Boys, I'm killed" before he collapsed and died. Hickok was arrested for murder two days later, but the charge was reduced to manslaughter. He was released on $2,000 bail and stood trial on August 3, 1865. The jury voted to clear Hickok, resulting in public backlash and criticism of the verdict. Several weeks later, Harper's New Monthly Magazine published an interview that Hickok gave to Colonel George Ward Nichols, a journalist who became known as the creator of the Hickok legend, under the name "Wild Bill Hitchcock". The article recounted the "hundreds" of men whom Hickok had personally killed and other exaggerated exploits.

Reader's Guide

Hickok was born May 27, 1837, in Homer, Illinois, to William Alonzo Hickok, a farmer and abolitionist, and his wife, Pamelia Hickok. He was of English ancestry. James was the fourth of six children. His father was said to have used the family house as a station on the Underground Railroad. William Hickok died in 1852, when James was 15. In 1855, at age 18, James Hickok fled Illinois following a fight with Charles Hudson, during which both fell into a canal; each thought, mistakenly, that he had killed the other. Hickok moved to Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory, where he joined Jim Lane's Free State Army, an antislavery vigilante group active during the Bleeding Kansas era. While there he met 12-year-old William Cody (later known as "Buffalo Bill"). On July 12, 1861, David McCanles went to the Rock Creek Station office to demand an overdue property payment. McCanles reportedly threatened the station manager, and either the manager or Hickok, who was hiding behind a curtain, killed McCanles. Two men with McCanles were also killed. Hickok, the manager, and another employee were tried for killing McCanles, but were found to have acted in self-defense.

Did You Know?

• Hickok used his late father's name, William Hickok, from 1858, and the name William Haycock during the American Civil War.
• While in Nebraska, Hickok was derisively referred to by one man as 'Duck Bill' for his long nose and protruding lips.
• In 1860, Hickok was badly injured by a cinnamon bear while driving a freight team; he killed the bear by slashing its throat with his knife.
• Hickok claimed to have shot numerous gunmen in his lifetime, and he killed six or seven, all between 1861 and 1871 according to Joseph G. Rosa, Hickok's biographer.
• Hickok visited McCanles' widow after the shooting, apologized for the killing, and offered her $35 in restitution, all the money he had with him at the time.