On August 2, 1876, the blast of a Colt Peacemaker rang out above the sounds of the saloon patrons in Deadwood, South Dakota's Number Ten Saloon. The bullet drove through the skull of the seated cardplayer and came to rest in the arm of the man he was opposing. As the man slumped to his death he was still holding his cards. He had three aces and two eights, which would have been the winning hand. This variation of cards would from that time on be known as the "deadman's hand". The dead man was none other than the notorious Wild Bill Hickok, who would breathe his last breath at age thirty-nine. It ended the spectacular career of a gunman and a lawman. He was credited with killing some thirty to eighty-five men, depending on who was doing the counting. More by his own account, but on this day, Jack McCall fired the fatal shot into Wild Bill's head that would forever stop the count.¹¹³

Born James Butler Hickok in 1837, he would hold many positions in his short life. At eighteen he got his first taste of violence when he was working as a muleskinner in the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Another worker was tormenting him and when Hickok had enough he tossed the co-worker into the canal. When he did not see the man surface, he assumed he had killed him and fled to Missouri. Though the man was not dead, Hickok did not know it and his life's adventure would begin on that violent note. Fixed with a penchant for adventure, he worked as a bodyguard for a prominent abolitionist and a stage driver along the Santa Fe Trail. Somewhere along the Trail folks, dropped the name Jim and began calling him Bill. Perhaps because he had a huge nose and protruding upturned top lip, it was a variation or abbreviation of "Duckbill".¹¹⁴

The "Wild" addition to the name was surely deserved. One such incident that chronicles this was an incident while he was driving wagon through New Mexico's Raton Pass. Confronted with an angry grisly bear, Wild Bill fought the bear with only a knife. Though he killed the bear, it was not without severe physical consequences to himself. While convalescing in Nebraska, he shot a man to death over an argument that hardly concerned him. This wild streak proved to be an advantage during the Civil War, when he was a scout and spy for the Northern cause. After several documented and notorious killings he was appointed a deputy U.S. marshal. In 1869, Wild Bill was appointed sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas to fill a temporary vacancy. As well as being sheriff, he held a concurrent job as town marshal of Hays City, Kansas. Though law enforcement, particularly its violent aspects, appealed to Wild Bill, politics were not his specialty. He lost the position of sheriff at the polls the first and last time he ran for office.¹¹⁵

While in law enforcement Bill kept the local undertaker busy. On October 9, 1869, a notable outlaw and gunslinger named John Strawan braced Bill and the move proved fatal. It would be Strawan's last gunfight. Two months later another man put a gun to Hickok's head and went into a rather lengthy dissertation of how he was going to kill him. Bill managed to distract him for a few seconds and shot him dead on the spot. Another law enforcement encounter was as a result of Custer's 7th Cavalry being stationed at Fort Hays. General George Armstrong Custer's brother, Captain Tom Custer, was arrested by Bill for disturbing the peace. Seeking revenge on Hickok, Tom Custer gathered a few of his troops and beat Bill severely. During the melee Wild Bill wound up killing one soldier and severely wounding two more; but Custer escaped. Deciding that discretion called for him to leave law enforcement behind in Hays, Hickok pursued a career with Buffalo Bill Cody on his Wild West Show.¹¹⁶

Wild Bill's most critical biographer, William E. Connelley, has said that fear "was simply a quality he lacked".¹¹⁷ Bravery was certainly his most admirable quality but it was killing for which he would be most noted. A 1867 published report of a Hickok conversation reflects this:

"I say, Bill, or Mr. Hickok, how many white men have you killed to your certain knowledge"? After some thought, Hickok replied, "I would be willing to take my oath on a Bible tomorrow that I have killed a hundred".

"What made you kill all those men; did you kill them without cause or provocation"?

"No, by Heaven! I never killed one man without good cause"¹¹⁸

Sometime later Hickok was again quoted regarding his killer reputation:

"I suppose I am called a red-handed murderer, which I deny. That I have killed men I admit, but never unless in absolute self-defense, or in performance of an official duty. I never, in all my life took any mean advantage of an enemy. Yet understand, I never allowed a man to get a drop on me. But perhaps I may yet die with my boots on".¹¹⁹

This last sentence was indeed prophetic.

Due to the speculation, exaggeration, and lack of complete documentation it is completely impossible to finally determine how many men Wild Bill Hickok may have killed. Certainly at least thirty and as many as eighty-five, by various written documents and accounts. Possibly more than one hundred if you are not subject to believe he exaggerated his own numbers. In any event, he killed more than any other person to hold the office of sheriff in the Wild West. Wild Bill Hickok might be described as a homicidal maniac or dauntless defender of justice depending on the point of view you wish to adopt.¹²⁰