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Dead Man’s Hand
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The most famous hand in poker? Maybe, but one thing is for sure, the hand that held it belonged to a legend, Wild Bill Hickock, one of the best shots the Wild West had ever seen, and just like the movies, he loved a game of cards...
A legendary gunman, Wild Bill had the reputation to be a master with his Colt .44.
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One such legend has it that shortly before Christmas 1867, Wild Bill walked into a saloon to have a beer. Four men, drunk and probably not aware of who Wild Bill was, made a comment about his nose and his clothes. Bill took offence and when the gun smoke cleared three of the men were dead. The fourth was alive, but half his chin was missing. Bill had been shot in the arm.
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In 1869 Bill started working as a town marshal in Hays City, Kansas, by the end of that year he’d killed two men and when he was forced to shoot three soldiers he realised that it was best for him to leave the town, to avoid revenge from Captain Tom Custer (General Custerīs brother) and the other soldiers that were posted outside town.
He then spent time with that other famous Bill, this time the Buffalo variety William Cody, in his Wild West Show. Tiring of this, Wild Bill once again pinned a Marshal's star on his chest, this time in Abilene, Kansas. There he ran into trouble with the gunfighters John Wesley Hardin, Ben Thompson and Phil Coe, but it was only in Coe's case that it ended with a shootout. Coe died in the fight, but Hickok also killed a deputy that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This once again forced him to leave the town.
Another stint with Buffalo Bill's roadshow "Scouts of the plains" followed, but he grew tired of this and left for Cheyenne, Wyoming to look for gold. Once there he turned instead to the town's gambling halls. There he met and married Agnes Lake on the 5th April 1876, but domesticity was short lived, and he soon left her to visit the goldfields of the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory.
On the 2nd August 1876., he joined a poker game in Carl Mann's Saloon No. 10. The other players were Charles Rich, a gunman in his own right, Con Stapleton, Carl Mann himself, and Captain Willie Massie, a Missouri steamboat pilot.
Hickock had a short conversation at the bar with Harry Young before he sat down. He was the last to be seated, and the only chair left for him put his back to the back door. Hickok, as a precaution, always sat with his back to the wall, and so asked Charles Rich to change places with him. Rich just laughed and stayed in his chair.
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At 4.10pm, Jack McCall sneaked around behind Wild Bill and from all of three feet exclaimed "damn you, take that," and put a bullet in the back of his head. Of course Bill held the famous “Dead Man’s Hand”, black Aces over black eights.
At his trial, McCall stated:
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"Well, men, I have but few words to say. Wild Bill killed my brother, and I killed him. Wild Bill threatened to kill me if I ever crossed his path. I am not sorry for what I have done. I would do the same thing over again."
McCall was found not guilty but the trial declared illegal. Deadwood was an outlaw town and any "acts of justice" were not recognized. Retried in Yankton, Dakota Territory, he was found guilty. Wild Bill's older brother, Lorenzo, was in attendance at the trial. McCall's death was by hanging on March 1, 1877.
The fifth card has always been in dispute, supposedly the five of diamonds. In display in Deadwood is said to be the actual card, that same five of diamonds, but it has also been alleged that the fifth card was the nine of diamonds, and displayed at Ripley’s Believe it or Not is the Queen of clubs. Witness statements at the trial also claim the Jack of diamonds and of course Hollywood puts its own spin with King of spades, so we’ll never know for sure.
Wild Bill Hickock was buried in the cemetery outside Deadwood aged just 39, but his name and final hand of poker lives on forever.
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