Wild Bill Hickok murdered in Deadwood (1876)

Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876, while playing poker at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. McCall, an unsuccessful gambler, shot Hickok from behind. The incident occurred in a gold mining camp that lacked proper civil jurisdiction, leading to McCall's eventual execution in Yankton.

Episodes

Background and detail

Background. In 1876, Deadwood experienced a boom following the discovery of gold deposits in the Black Hills, which drew prospectors to the area. Hickok, a folk hero known for his frontier life, arrived in the town in July 1876. McCall, also known as 'Crooked Nose' or 'Broken Nose Jack', was by that year living in a gold mining camp outside Deadwood under the alias 'Bill Sutherland'.

The Shooting. On August 1, 1876, McCall was intoxicated at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon when a player dropped out of a poker game involving Hickok. The following day, August 2, another poker game took place. McCall shot Hickok from behind during this game. Hickok died from the effects of a pistol shot, and funeral services were held at Charlie Utter's Camp on August 3.

People involved

Sources

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.