Who Was the Dead Man of the 'Dead Man's Hand'?

James Butler Hickok was a legendary figure in the Old West and Wild Bill - as he was called - is today a household name in America and has been featured in a great many films and books.

He was a lawman, gunfighter, and professional gambler and is known to have killed at least 36 men in his life. In his turn, he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall while playing 5 card draw poker in a saloon in the gold rush town of Deadwood Gulch in South Dakota on August 2, 1876.

McCall was apparently enraged by Wild Bill's derisory offer to pay his breakfast since he had lost all of his money in a poker game the previous day. There is another version for the motive, as per reporter Leander Richardson, who interviewed McCall shortly before his death: "McCall was hired to do his work by gamblers who feared the time when better citizens should appoint Bill the champion of law and order".

After the shooting the doors were locked and the local barber was asked to serve as an undertaker. It was this barber's account of the crime scene and the cards Hickok was holding that was reproduced in a popular Wild Bill biography published in 1926. Thereafter the Aces and 8s hand became known as the Dead Man's Hand.

While the Dead Man has been identified beyond any doubt, to this day it remains uncertain what the fifth card in the hand was... Furthermore, there is evidence that the phrase had been in use earlier and referred to different card combinations, most notably jacks and eights.