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☞Beware of the Aces & Eights!☞Today in Old-West History -- On today’s date 147 years ago, Wednesday, August 2, 1876, legendary American Old-West frontier scout, gunfighter, & lawman James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok (1837-1876) met his unfortunate earthly demise at the age of 39 when he was shot to death at the town of Deadwood Gulch in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory.☞Requiéscat in Pace, Wild Bill Hickok.☞Wild Bill was playing poker at Nuttall & Mann’s Saloon, & although he made a habit of sitting with his back to the wall, the only seat available when he joined the poker game on that fateful afternoon was one that put his back to the saloon door. Twice he asked another player, Charles Rich, to change seats with him, & on both occasions Rich refused.☞During the poker game, a desperado from Texas, former buffalo hunter “Crooked Nose” Jack McCall (1852-1877), entered the saloon unnoticed. McCall walked to within a few feet of Hickok, drew his pistol, & shouted, “Damn you! Take that!” before shooting Hickok in the back of the head -- killing him instantly. The bullet emerged through Hickok’s right cheek, striking Captain Massie, another player, in the left wrist.☞According to legend, at the time of his demise, Hickok was holding a hand that included a pair of black aces & a pair of black eights, along with an unknown hole card -- a combination that has since become known as the infamous “Dead Man’s Hand.”☞The idea that Wild Bill Hickok was holding black aces & eights when he was killed comes to us from Frank J. Wilstach (1865-1933), whose biography “Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers” was published in 1926. Wilstach’s was the most thoroughly researched & accurate account of Hickok’s life that had appeared up to that time. He corresponded with people who had known Hickok, including Ellis Taylor “Doc” Pierce (1846-1926), who at the time of the killing was the Deadwood town barber. After Hickok was shot, the authorities locked the doors to the saloon in which the killing occurred & called on Pierce to prepare the body for burial. Wilstach wrote:☞In his letter to Wilstach, Pierce gave several details that had not previously been revealed. Doc Pierce was the impromptu undertaker who took charge of the remains & looked after the details of the burial.“Now, in regard to the position of Bill’s body,” writes Pierce, “when they unlocked the door for me to get his body, he was lying on his side, with his knees drawn up just as he slid off his stool. We had no chairs in those days -- and his fingers were still crimped from holding his poker hand. Charlie Rich, who sat beside him, said he never saw a muscle move. Bill’s hand read ‘aces & eights’ -- two pair, & since that day aces & eights have been known as ‘the dead man’s hand’ in the Western country. It seemed like fate, Bill’s taking off. Of the murderer’s big Colt’s-45-six-gun, every chamber loaded, the cartridge that killed Bill was the only one that would fire. What would have been McCall’s chances if he had snapped one of the other cartridges when he sneaked up & held his gun to Bill’s head? He would now be known as № 37 on the file list of Mr. Hickok.”