The Edmondson Blog

For the next in my series of learning something new every day... let me tell you what I know about the death of Wild Bill Hickok:

On August 1, 1876 Wild Bill was playing cards in Nuttall and Mann's No. 10 Saloon in Deadwood Gulch, South Dakota when one of the players dropped out and bystander, Jack McCall, took his place. McCall kept losing and at the end of the evening was broke. Hickok gave him money with which to buy dinner.

The next day, on August 2, Hickok returned to the No. 10 and joined in a game of cards and, unusually, sat with his back to the saloon instead of his usual back to the wall. A few hours later Jack McCall entered the bar and stopped a few paces behind Hickok. He pointed his gun at Hickok's head, pulled the trigger and shouted, "Damn you, take that!" The gunshot instantly killed Wild Bill.

Wild Bill was holding 2 black aces, 2 black eights, known ever since as the Dead Man's Hand. The fifth card has been held up for speculation but was probably the queen of diamonds

McCall ran out of the saloon and attempted to escape on a horse that was tethered nearby, but the saddle had been loosened, and he fell to the ground. McCall ran down the street and hid in a butcher's shop where he was captured by a large crowd.

The next morning McCall was tried by a hastily-assembled group of miners in McDaniel's Theater. McCall defended himself by stating that he was avenging his brother whom Hickok had murdered. It was later discovered that McCall never had a brother. Despite overwhelming evidence of premeditated murder, McCall was acquitted.

McCall was released but told to leave Deadwood immediately. He headed to Cheyenne and then to Laramie. He boasted in saloons along the way that he had killed Wild Bill. An authority who overheard McCall arrested him on August 29. He was then taken to Yankton, Dakota Territory for trial. Jack McCall was found guilty on December 6, 1876. He was hanged on March 1, 1877, for his crime and buried in the southwest corner of a Catholic cemetery.

In 1881, when the cemetery was moved, his body was exhumed. It was discovered that he had been buried with the noose still around his neck.

Hat tip: Puppa