Wild Bill Hickok, whose real name is James Butler Hickok, was a figure in the Old West known as a gunfighter and lawman. He came to the West as a stagecoach driver and then became a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska.
On August 2, 1876, Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. He had violated his personal rule of not sitting with his back to the door when John McCall walked in unnoticed, walked to within a few feet of Wild Bill, and shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. When shot, he was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, all black (the value of the fifth card is debated), which has become widely known as the "Dead Man's Hand". Hickok was buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery Deadwood, South Dakota and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979.
The motive for the killing is still debated - some say McCall may have been paid to kill Hickok, or it may have been the result of a dispute between the two men. At the trial, McCall was acquitted of the murder but was rearrested after bragging about the killing, and a new trial was held. The retrial was not considered to be double jeopardy because, at the time, Deadwood was not recognized by the U.S. as a legitimately incorporated town, as it was in Indian Country. The new trial was held in Yankton, Dakota Territory and this time McCall was found guilty and was hanged on March 1, 1877. The killing of Wild Bill and the capture of Jack McCall is re-enacted every evening in the summer in Deadwood.
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It'd be great. Well..up until he shot Phil...