June 28, 2019 ▸ History, People

Episode 398: Wild Bill Hickok: Prodigy with a Pistol

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In this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at the life and legend of the ultimate symbol of the Old West: Wild Bill Hickok. Born James Butler Hickok, he took the name William from his brother when he joined the army (well, one of the three times he joined an army…). He was the son of a strong abolitionist against slavery, and historians think his childhood home was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Wild Bill was allegedly a prodigy with a pistol. Even as a child, everyone in town marveled at his marksmanship. When he was 18 years old, he got in fight with a guy who he thought he killed (but didn’t) and headed West to escape punishment. What he found out West was fame and a life that grew to be quite legendary.

First, he took jobs. Lots and lots of jobs. So many jobs. He started as a member of a militia called the Jayhawks, where he became friends with Buffalo Bill Cody. From there, he became a homesteader, a rider on the pony express, a constable, a stagecoach driver, an actor, an entertainer, a sheriff, a marshal, a vagrant, and a gambler.

Though probably not accurate, he was said to have killed 100 men. Oh, and the idea of a cowboy in the town square having a duel with pistols at noon? Wild Bill was the first to do that with a man named Davis Tutt. Wild Bill shot him through the heart at 75 yards. Hickok became famous when a shootout he was involved in made it into national papers and magazines; although he may not have killed anyone, the nation was told he killed 10 men by himself. He was a spy in the Civil War, a scout for General Custer, and he even put on a Buffalo Show in Niagara Falls before Buffalo Bill was doing such a thing.

As his health and his eyesight faded, he quit being a law man and gun slinger and turned to gambling. His fame was fading, and so was his fortune, but he met Calamity Jane and his good friend Charlie Utter and settled down in the lawless town of Deadwood. There, he met his fate at the hands of a coward who shot him the back of the head because Wild Bill beat him at cards(and bought him breakfast). This was the origin of Aces and Eights being called the Dead Man’s Hand, as it still is today.

So, how wild was Wild Bill? Why did he move to a new town and new job just about every year of his adult life? How many people did he gun down in his first month as a sheriff? What was the outcome when he got in a fight with a bear? Listen, laugh, learn.