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09 Oct 04 - 04:44 PM (#1293319) Subject: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Little Hawk Go to this link and read all about it. This was a guy who lived a pretty spectacular life. He lived by the gun and died by the gun. It makes for an interesting read: The story of Wild Bill Hickock - His Life and Times |
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09 Oct 04 - 04:48 PM (#1293323) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: open mike ah yes, my sweet heart, and glad i got to be buried beside him. even though he would not have wqanted it that way, Wild Bill was in no position to comlain. signed...Jane "James Butler Hickok was buried in the cemetery outside Deadwood. Calamity Jane insisted that a proper grave be built in honor of the man she still loved, and an enclosure 10'x10' was built around his burial plot. On top of that little encircling stone wall was placed a 3' fence which had fancy cast iron filigree on top, and a small American flag was stuck into the ground in front of the tombstone in honor of his service in the War. 14 years later, in 1900, an aging Calamity Jane arranged to be photographed next to this now overgrown burial site. Elderly, thin and poor, her clothes were held together with safety pins and were ragged. She still had a spunky style to her as she posed with a flower in her hand, and she said that when she died she wanted to be buried next to the man she loved. Three years later, she was." |
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09 Oct 04 - 04:53 PM (#1293327) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: McGrath of Harlow But click on the "Disclaimer" at the top, warning that the writer has adjusted and combined fact and fiction to make a better story. |
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09 Oct 04 - 05:14 PM (#1293340) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Little Hawk Yes indeed. I did notice that. |
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09 Oct 04 - 08:54 PM (#1293474) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: GUEST,Art Thieme Bill Hickok was born and rased about 3 miles from where I am typing this post. I am in Peru, Illinois---100 miles S.W. of Chicago. Wild Bill was born in and raised in and near Troy Grove, Illinois. His aunt was still living here when we moved to LaSalle County in 1981. She always said to anyone who would listen that "He weren't no Wild Bill. He was jes' young William." Art Thieme |
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09 Oct 04 - 09:20 PM (#1293489) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Midchuck There's a wonderful song, The Burial of Wild Bill. Been recorded by Glenn Ohrlin and by Norman Blake. Your classic victorian parlor ballad about everyone's grief at the death and burial of this noble hero. And all about a drunken psychopathic killer. Fun. Peter. |
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10 Oct 04 - 04:57 PM (#1293955) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Rapparee He shot McCanles when the man came into the dugout Bill was in -- he shot when he, Bill, was behind a curtain and McC couldn't see him. McC's young son was a witness to this. He was originally called "Duck Bill" because his upper lip protruded. It was not a wise thing to call him as he got older. As a peace officer he wasn't the brightest star in the heavens. Actually, much of his reputation was the product of dime novelists. Jack McCall, like Bob Ford, wasn't appreciated for what he'd done and like Ford came to a bad end. James B. Hitchock would be spinning in his grave if he knew that Martha Jane Canary was buried anywhere near him. Seems like there's some thought that she might have provided ol' Wild Bill with a certain social disease -- and he didn't like her anyway. Hickock was one of the last shootists to use cap-and-ball revolvers instead of cartridge guns. Now if you want to talk about someone interesting -- check out Elfego Baca or Bill Pickett or Isom P. Olive. Unlike the Earps (also known as "The Fighting Pimps") and Hitchcock, these are three folks who didn't make the dime novels. |
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11 Oct 04 - 10:32 AM (#1294247) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Kim C While it makes for a good story, and Jane herself probably told it - there's no evidence that the two had anything more than a passing acquaintance. |
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11 Oct 04 - 11:46 AM (#1294292) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Mark Ross Well, lets see, the Colt Peacemaker wasn't invented until 1873, Wild Bill was killed in 1876, 14 years later would have been 1890, so there's a little discrepancy there, but, What the Hell!, never let the facts get in the way of telling a good story. Mark Ross |
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11 Oct 04 - 12:00 PM (#1294310) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Chris Green Bill Caddick wrote a cracking song about him on his album The Wild West Show called "Eights and Aces", referring to the poker hand he was holding when he was shot. Can't find it in the DT. I'll see if I can dig the lyrics out in a bit. |
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11 Oct 04 - 01:48 PM (#1294411) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Rapparee Well, yes, the Colt "Peacemaker" was an 1870s gun. However, by the late 1860s Remington and other percussion revolvers were being modified for cartridges (don't do this now -- there's a lot of difference between black powder and smokeless and you could lose your hand and/or life!). Moreover, "In 1856 Smith & Wesson formed their second partnership to produce a small revolver designed to fire the Rimfire cartridge they patented in August of 1854. This revolver was the first successful fully self-contained cartridge revolver available in the world. Smith & Wesson secured patents for the revolver to prevent other manufacturers from producing a cartridge revolver - giving the young company a very lucrative business. The partners realized that when their patents expired they would need a new design to maintain their market superiority. The new design was completed in 1869 and the company began marketing it in 1870. The Model 3 American, as it became known in the United States, was the first large caliber cartridge revolver and established Smith & Wesson as a world leader in handgun manufacturing. The two most important customers for the new revolver were the United States Cavalry, which purchased 1,000 units for use on the Western Frontier, and the Russian Imperial Government." It's said that Jesse James preferred the S&W "Schofield" over any Colt. |
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11 Oct 04 - 06:02 PM (#1294635) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Rapparee This just in! Research in the archives at Troy Grove, Illinois has turned up the amazing fact that James Butler Hickock was not human. Work by noted genealogist Bee M'Donald has proved conclusively that "Wild Bill" Hickock was descented not from the Hickock family, but from a passing family with the surname "Sciurus." "You could have knocked me over with a feather," said M'Donald. "One of the the legendary gunmen of the United States wasn't human at all, but a mutant left with the Hickock family." M'Donald went on to say that this explained much that has puzzled researchers, especially Hickock's long hair. Apparently "Wild Bill" kept a full tail under his shirt and put the tip of it over his head, giving the impression of flowing locks. The family of Jack McCall, who shot Hickock in Deadwood, South Dakota, is asking that his name be cleared on the basis of M'Donald's findings. "Ol' Jack warn't killing a feller," stated patriarch Jack McCall IX. "He was jist gittin' some huntin' in." M'Donald stated that since Hickock's ancestry is now clarified, he is going to Michigan to research George Armstrong Custer, who he suspects was also a member of the wandering Sciurus family and "Wild Bill's" half-brother. M'Donald's research will appear in a forthcoming issue of the scientific journal AIR. |
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11 Oct 04 - 06:14 PM (#1294647) Subject: RE: BS: Wild Bill Hickock - what a great story! From: Peace It would not surprise me ONE BIT. Always thought there was somethin' funny 'bout that guy. For more info on this geneological breakthrough go to www.geocities.com/yosemite/rapids/4362/sciurus.html You da man, Rapper. |