The definitive true story of Wild Bill, the first lawman of the Wild
West, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of
Dodge City.
In July 1865, "Wild Bill" Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in
Springfield, MO--the first quick-draw duel on the frontier. Thus began
the reputation that made him a marked man to every gunslinger in the
Wild West.
James Butler Hickock was known across the frontier as a soldier, Union
spy, scout, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, showman, and actor. He crossed
paths with General Custer and Buffalo Bill Cody, as well as Ben Thompson
and other young toughs gunning for the sheriff with the quickest draw
west of the Mississippi.
Wild Bill also fell in love--multiple times--before marrying the true
love of his life, Agnes Lake, the impresario of a traveling circus. He
would be buried however, next to fabled frontierswoman Calamity Jane.
Even before his death, Wild Bill became a legend, with fiction sometimes
supplanting fact in the stories that surfaced. Once, in a bar in
Nebraska, he was confronted by four men, three of whom he killed in the
ensuing gunfight. A famous Harper's Magazine article credited Hickok
with slaying 10 men that day; by the 1870s, his career-long kill count
was up to 100.
The legend of Wild Bill has only grown since his death in 1876, when
cowardly Jack McCall famously put a bullet through the back of his head
during a card game. Bestselling author Tom Clavin has sifted through
years of western lore to bring Hickock fully to life in this
rip-roaring, spellbinding true story.
