For confirmation that Hickok was employed as a U.S. Army scout fighting Indians in Kansas in the summer of 1867, see Ames, George Augustus, Russell, Majors and Waddell freight company, List of cultural depictions of Wild Bill Hickok, "How many men did Wild Bill Hickok actually kill? [citation needed] Although he was just 39, his marksmanship and health were apparently in decline, and he had been arrested several times for vagrancy,[53] despite earning a good income from gambling and displays of showmanship only a few years earlier. He was sentenced to death on January 3, 1877 and on March 1, 1877 he was executed by hanging. Later, after bragging of his murder of Hickok, McCall was retried in Laramie, Wyoming Territory, found guilty, and hanged on March 1, 1877. Hickok waved his hand past Mulvey at some onlookers and yelled, "Don't shoot him in the back; he is drunk." Under the name "Wild Bill Hitchcock" [sic], the article recounted the "hundreds" of men whom Hickok had personally killed and other exaggerated exploits. He died in 1887. Both towns had become outposts for lawless men before Hickok arrived and turned things around. Before being called Wild Bill Hickok, his original name was James Butler Hickok. This incident added to his fame as a gunslinger, which skyrocketed when journalist and later explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley reported as fact in the New York Herald in 1867 Hickoks exaggerated claim that he had killed 100 men. When Kyle's weapon misfired, Hickok shot Lonergan, wounding him in the knee, and shot Kyle twice, killing him. by Marshall Trimble | Nov 1, 2007 | Inside History. "[46] Hoping to intimidate Hickok, Coe allegedly stated that he could "kill a crow on the wing". Six months later Jane visited friends in Deadwood, stating Jessie had married and was living in North Dakota with two children. In 1941, Jean Hickok McCormick appeared in Billings, Montana. Following his Civil War service, Wild Bill Hickok moved to Kansas where he was appointed sheriff in Hays City and marshal of Abilene. Coe claimed that he was shooting at a stray dog,[g] and then suddenly turned his gun on Hickok, who fired first and killed Coe. He left his wife a few months later to seek his fortune in the goldfields of South Dakota. Calamity Jane never married Wild Bill . They performed together until Bill was tragically murdered in 1869. He became a deputy U.S. marshal, and on March 28, 1868, he picked up 11 Union Army deserters who had been charged with stealing government property. His parents were William Alonzo Hickok and Polly Butler. The cards Hickok had been holding when he was shot and killeda pair of black aces and a pair of black eights plus an unknown fifth cardbecame known as the Dead Mans Hand.. ", Rosa, Joseph G. (1977). Zimmerman said that despite their closeness in age, he and Jessie didnt say much to each other. In December, the Rawlins Republican reported that Jane visited town with a little girl she had stolen. The child was no doubt Jessie, who was next seen with her mother in Ekalaka, Montana in 1894 by at least two people. He traveled west to Deadwood, South Dakota, in a wagon train that included Martha Jane Cannary (Calamity Jane), who later claimed she had secretly married him. The hand of cards which he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man's hand: two pairs; black aces and eights. Future Publishing Limited Wikimedia Commons Advertisement 11. Some contemporaneous reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious, but they remain the basis of much of his fame and reputation. The glorification of Wild Bill Hickok began in Springfield, Mo., on July 21, 1865, when he killed gunman Dave Tutt. More concrete evidence of Jessie came from Charles Zimmerman, who remembered Jane and her daughters frequent visits to his familys ranch near Billings, Montana in 1893. and that Deft. [citation needed], Buffalo Bill claimed that he encountered Hickok disguised as a Confederate officer in Missouri in 1864. Most newspapers referred to him as William Haycock until 1869. In reality, Janes first verified child was born in November 1882 when she was living with rancher Frank King near Miles City, Montana. Several times he was arrested for vagrancy. [38], In July 1869, Hickok returned to Hays and was elected city marshal of Hays and sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas, in a special election held on August 23, 1869. The White Buffalo (1977), starring Charles Bronson as Hickok, tells a tale of Hickok's hunt for a murderous white buffalo that follows him in his nightmares. [57] The two possibly met for the first time after Jane was released from the guardhouse in Fort Laramie and joined the wagon train in which Hickok was traveling. Just weeks later, on her deathbed in Terry, South Dakota, Jane confessed that she and Jessie were now estranged and declined to say where her daughter was living. [51], Hickok was relieved of his duties as marshal less than two months after the accidental shooting, this incident being only one of a series of questionable shootings and claims of misconduct during his career. They even did a stint abroad, performing for one season in Germany in 1862. [40]:196, In September 1869, his first month as sheriff, Hickok killed two men. Witnesses confirm that the story was true to the extent the party had set out to find whoever had killed the four men,[e] but the group returned to the fort "without nary a dead Indian, [never] even seeing a live one". Not wasting a second, he quietly drew his revolver and shot Hickok in the back of the head, instantly killing him. ", Judge Boyd said, "That when danger is threatened and impending a man is not compelled to stand with his arms folded until it is too late to offer successful resistance, and if the jury believe from the evidence that Tutt was a fighting character and a dangerous man and that [Defendant] was aware such was his character and that Tutt at the time he was shot by the Deft. Hickok is a playable character in the 2018 board game Deadwood 1876 by Faade Games. In 1869 Hickok became sheriff of Hays City, Kansas, where he killed several men in shootouts. Hickoks family emigrated from England in 1635 to Massachusetts, where his great-grandfather responded to the British march on Lexington and Concord at the beginning of the American Revolution. In any case, Hardin appeared to have thought highly of Hickok. Later that year he became a teamster with the great freighting enterprise Russell, Majors and Waddell, creators of the Pony Express, for which he was too tall and heavy to be a rider. In an instant, he pulled the triggers again sending two bullets into Coe's abdomen (Coe lived a day or two) and whirling with his two guns drawn on the drunken crowd of cowboys, "and now do any of you fellows want the rest of these bullets?" "Doc" Howard, who had known Hickok, stated that Hickok had left Buffalo Bill's Wild West Exhibition "because the lights affected his eyes, so he had to give it up". ", Nichols, George Ward (1867). Though no solid record exists, he is believed to have served as a Union spy in the Confederate Army before his discharge in 1865. Jesse James suffered from it. In 1876 in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, Hickok married Agnes Lake Thatcher, a former circus performer. [81], Hickok's birthplace is now the Wild Bill Hickok Memorial and is a listed historic site under the supervision of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. They arrived in Topeka on April 2. Just as he pulled the trigger, one of the policemen rushed around the corner between Coe and the pistols and both balls entered his body, killing him instantly. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. No other woman in the American west possesses a more enigmatic legacy than Martha Calamity Jane Canary. Lonergan pinned Hickok to the ground, and Kyle put his gun to Hickok's ear. [d] The jury voted to clear Hickok, resulting in public backlash and criticism of the verdict. For the next several years, Hickok worked as a stagecoach driver. Hickok saved Cody from getting beaten by another man and the two became longtime pals. [45], Hickok later said he did not know that "Wesley Clemmons" was Hardin's alias, and that he was a wanted outlaw. As the scene unfolded, McCanles entered the station, and, from behind the curtain that divided it in two, either Hickok or Wellman shot McCanles. The couple had five children besides James Butler, three boys and two girls. [21][22] Hickok, Wellman, and another employee, J.W. [j] Utter supervised the move and noted that, while perfectly preserved, Hickok had been imperfectly embalmed. [6][35] Witnesses confirm that while working as a scout at Fort Harker, Kansas, on May 11, 1867, Hickok was attacked by a large group of Indians, who fled after he shot and killed two. Hickok died immediately. James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 August 2, 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, cattle rustler, gunslinger, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. One story claimed he killed a bear with his bare hands and a bowie knife. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. subscribe to All About History for as little as 26. [77][78] A print of the film is maintained in the Museum of Modern Art film archive.[79]. [i][68], Jack McCall was hanged on March 1, 1877, and buried in a Roman Catholic cemetery. She was born in Missouri and spent most of her life on the country's western border. They refused, so Hickok altered it himself. Now, she said, both Calamity Jane and another famed woman of the west, Belle Starr, were her aunts. [66] McCall was acquitted of the murder, which prompted editorializing in the Black Hills Pioneer: "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." Classmate Mary Connolly remembered Jessie, saying, we all played hopscotch and jumped rope on the playground. But mother and daughter eventually left town again. "[49], Hickok and Phil Coe, a saloon owner and acquaintance of Hardin's, had a dispute that resulted in a shootout. Drawn to this ruffian 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. Jan MacKell Collins is the author of numerous books about the Old West, the latest isLost Ghost Towns of Teller County. The couple had five children besides James Butler , three boys and two girls. Hickoks father moved his family from Vermont to Maine to Homer (now Troy Grove), Illinois. [3] [4] James was the fourth of six children. While Hickok claimed to have killed numerous named and unnamed gunmen in his lifetime, his career as a gunfighter only lasted from 1861 to 1871. In 1871 he took over as the marshal of the tough cow town of Abilene, Kansas. He replaced Tom "Bear River" Smith, who had been killed while serving an arrest warrant on November 2, 1870. During this period Hickok prevented a man from beating an 11-year-old boy, who grew up to become Buffalo Bill Cody, Hickoks longtime friend. [39] Three sheriffs had quit during the previous 18 months. A legend during his life and considered one of the American west's premier gunfighters, James Butler ("Wild Bill") Hickok was born May 27, 1837, in Troy Grove, Illinois. Many historic sites and monuments commemorate his life, and he has been depicted numerous times in literature, film, and television. The new trial was held in Yankton, the capital of the Dakota Territory. [29][30], Two days later, Hickok was arrested for murder. It is a loose adaptation of Hickok's life, ending with his famous aces-and-eights card hand. City, Kansas, where he killed gunman Dave Tutt he left his wife a few months later visited. A playable character in the knee, and buried in a Roman Catholic cemetery, ending his. 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