Research Paper On Wild Bill Hickok

James Butler Hickok, a.k.a. Wild Bill Hickok, was born in Troy Grove, Illinois, on May 27, 1837. Wild Bill Hickok was known for a very famous gunfighter, gambler, showman, and lawman. James Hickok grew up with four brothers and two sisters. Bill’s parents helped smuggle slaves out of the South by operating a station along the Underground Railroad. Because Hickok’s involvement of illegally helping slaves out of the South, he was introduced to gunfights and fighting at a very early age in his life. As a result of this, James began to develop the courage, cunning, and resourcefulness that later helped him earn the reputation of an outstanding gunfighter in his later years. Wild Bill Hickok then started to practice his gunshot on his father’s

The incident began when David McCanles, and some of his farmer friends came to the Pony Express Station, where Hickok had been working at the time, and demanded payment for a property that had been bought from McCanles. Knowing that McCanles and his men were looking for trouble, Wild Bill shot and killed three men easily. This was known as the McCanles Massacre. Hickok was not even charged with murder, he walked off clean. Immediately after the massacre was over, news of this spread like wildfire. As the story spread from person to person, it was exaggerated more and more. The story then reached newspapers, most famously, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, and people all over the country were starting to hear about Wild Bill Hickok and his heroic actions. The newspaper story claimed that Bill, single-handed, killed a total of ten men, and thus his reputation as a dangerous and deadly gunman was

It is unofficial about what the two were initially fought over (some say they dispute was over a card game and others say the two men were fighting for the attention of a woman named Susannah Moore), but Tutt and Hickok dueled each other. Once again, it is unclear whether who fired first, but regardless of who made the first shot, Hickok shot and killed Tutt. This, along with the McCanles Massacre, made Hickok seem like an unstoppable and dangerous