I live in Deadwood and work at the Saloon #10. This is the bar that Wild Bill was shot in, however the original burned down three years after his death. I have to answer questions about Wild Bill Hickok all day long. I just read the question about Wild Bill and the hand he was holding when he was shot. I just wanted to correct Cecil, (though I am not questioning his intelligence in the least!), the fifth card Wild Bill was holding was the nine of diamonds not the two of spades. An even crappier hand!
Welcome to the Board, balley22. A link to the column is always appreciated.
Was Wild Bill Hickok Holding the Dead Man’s Hand When He Was Slain?
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Cecil wrote that one back before we had the modern databases which can be electronically searched.
According to Rossa, Hickok’s biographer and a truly tireless searcher of newspaper about the incident, there is no contemporary account of the cards in the hand. It wasn’t until the 1920s that there is any print cite that tied together Hickok, aces and eights and the dead man’s hand. It was a fanciful invention of a biographer.
But, should you have any information that dates it earlier than the 1920s, I’d be grateful.