Wild Bill Hickok: Pistoleer, Peace Officer And Folk Hero

James Butler Hickok, of Abilene, had a reputation as the Old West's premier gunfighter or "man-killer" that made him a legend in his own lifetime--a distinction shared by few of his gunfighting contemporaries. Thanks to an article in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in February 1867 and some other colorful accounts published in the mid-1860s, Hickok, or rather "Wild Bill," as he was generally called, was soon elevated from regional to national status. And since his death in 1876, he has achieved worldwide fame.

Credited with the deaths of 100 or more badmen, Hickok emerged as perhaps the most prolific man-killer of his generation. But when some of his critics branded him a "red-handed murderer," his reaction was predictable. Hickok admitted his flaws and vices as do most people, but he reckoned that being called a red-handed murderer was going too far. In February 1873, it was widely reported that he had been shot dead by Texans at Fort Dodge in Kansas.

Worse, it was suggested that, like all men of his kind, he had died with his boots on. Wild Bill broke his silence of some years and wrote angrily to several newspapers, declaring, "No Texan has, nor ever will 'corral William.'"

The real Hickok, however, was in complete contrast to his newspaper-inspired desperado image. Rather, he was gentlemanly, courteous, soft-spoken and graceful in manner, yet left no one in any doubt that he would not "be put upon," and if threatened would meet violence with violence. In appearance at least, Hickok matched his myth. He was a broad-shouldered, deep-chested, narrow-waisted fellow, over 6 feet tall, with broad features, high cheekbones and forehead, firm chin and aquiline nose.

An anonymous admirer in the Chicago Tribune of August 25, 1876, wrote that in his rapid and accurate use of his Navy pistols, Wild Bill had no equal. He then said: "The secret of Bill's success was his ability to draw and discharge his pistols, with a rapidity that was truly wonderful, and a peculiarity of his was that the two were presented and discharged simultaneously, being 'out and off' before the average man had time to think about it. He never seemed to take any aim, yet he never missed. Bill never did things by halves. When he drew his pistols it was always to shoot, and it was a theory of his that every man did the same."

Some of those alleged feats have been duplicated by modern gun experts. Although tests carried out during the 1850s had proved that Colt's Model 1851 Navy revolver was accurate in the hands of an expert at 200 yards, Wild Bill, like most of his contemporaries, was more concerned with its accuracy and reliability at 10 or 20 feet. As the anonymous writer for the Tribune and others have pointed out, Hickok's ability to get a pistol or pistols into action "as quick as thought" furthers the awe-inspiring image of a pistoleer who had no equal in the Wild West.

Wild Bill left it to his reputation to deter most would-be rivals, while the legend builders eagerly spread the word. But it is doubtful even they realized how much Hickok's murder at the hands of the back-shooting coward Jack McCall in a Deadwood saloon in August 1876 would immortalize Wild Bill Hickok as a Western legend.