Wild Bill Hickok

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James Butler Hickok, the renowned ‘Wild Bill,’ remains perhaps the most famous of all Western gunfighters. His exploits as a Civil War operative, frontiersman and peace officer have been celebrated often in print, in movies, and on television. But, despite all this attention through the years, we know very little about the man himself. Vintage photographs, haunting and mysterious, span the mist of time. We wonder, who was Wild Bill Hickok?

The man who became marshal of Abilene, Kan., on April 15, 1871, was a frontier dandy. He stood 6 foot 3 in his custom-made boots. His riveting gray eyes, set off by a drooping mustache, seemed to look right through people. Beneath the black hat with the sweeping brim, blond hair tumbled to his shoulders, and a Prince Albert frock coat showed off broad shoulders and a narrow waist.

Hickok dazzled many women, including George Armstrong Custer’s wife, Libbie. There were even rumors of an affair. In any case, Libbie Custer wrote the following about him in her 1890 book Following the Guidon: ‘Physically, he was a delight to look upon. Tall, lithe, and free in every motion, he rode and walked as if every muscle was perfection, and the careless swing of his body as he moved seemed perfectly in keeping with the man, the country, the time in which he lived. I do not recall anything finer in the way of physical perfection than Wild Bill when he swung himself lightly from his saddle, and with graceful, swaying step, squarely set shoulders and well poised head, approached our tent for orders. He was rather fantastically clad, of course, but all seemed perfectly in keeping with the time and place. He did not make an armory of his waist, but carried two pistols. He wore top-boots, riding breeches, and dark blue flannel shirt, with scarlet set in front. A loose neck handkerchief left his fine firm throat free. I do not all remember his features, but the frank, manly expression of his fearless eyes and his courteous manner gave one a feeling of confidence in his word and in his undaunted courage.’

But most striking of all, at least to some people, were the two Navy Colts resting in a red sash around Hickok’s waist, their ivory handles turned forward for the underhand or ‘twist’ draw. Some Westerners may have been fooled by the fancy dress, but most understood the promise of the twin Colts. The man was deadly in a confrontation. He moved with cat-easy grace, had lightning reflexes, and shot with great accuracy using either hand. Above all, he was absolutely cool and composed in pressure situations-fine attributes to have in 1871 Abilene, which may well have been the toughest town in the West. The famed ‘Bear River’ Tom Smith had been an exceptional marshal, but he was shot from ambush late in 1870. So Abilene went after the man with the biggest reputation of all, J.B. Hickok.

While Hickok delighted in amusing family and friends with accounts of the ‘hundreds’ of men he had gunned down, his reputation, both real and imagined, did serve him well as a lawman. He ruled Abilene from the card tables of the Alamo Saloon, telling his deputies to come and get him if he was needed. Despite the many hard cases in the boisterous cow town, few challenged him. Did Hickok deserve his reputation? Yes and no. He became famous, maybe even more famous than the president, because Eastern publishers wanted to sell magazines to a public hungry for tales of the Wild West.

The glorification of Wild Bill Hickok began in Springfield, Mo., on July 21, 1865, when he killed gunman Dave Tutt. Some said the two men fought over a card game, while others attributed the duel to competition for the attention of a woman named Susannah Moore. Colonel Albert Barnitz, the army post commander in Springfield, reported that both men fired simultaneously and that Tutt was’shot directly through the heart.’ Another version had Hickok drawing first, but then waiting for Tutt to shoot. After Tutt missed, Hickok rested his gun on his left arm to steady it and then shot him. Regardless of who fired when, Hickok established himself as a cool, deadly gunfighter. And less than two months later, Colonel George Ward Nichols of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine arrived in Springfield eager to increase sales by featuring Hickok in a story. Nichols cared little for the truth, and in his exaggerations he found a willing accomplice in Hickok. When the story finally appeared in February 1867, Hickok emerged as a superman. Nichols regaled readers with accounts of the Tutt affair and Hickok’s Civil War exploits, as well as the new hero’s role in the Rock Creek incident, or ‘McCanles Massacre.’

Tags: Historical Figures, People, The Wild West, Wild West

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