Ebook: Wild Bill: the true story of the American frontier's first gunfighter

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. Wild Bill became a legend, crossing 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 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. Tom Clavin has sifted through years of western lore to bring Hickock fully to life in this rip-roaring true story.;A New England clan -- Bloody Kansas -- Death at Rock Creek Station -- Behind enemy lines -- The gunfighter -- Along the Chisholm Trail -- Frontier fame -- Life of a frontier marshal -- Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill -- "They killed me" -- The man-killer -- The two-fisted marshal -- The streets of Abilene -- A three-ring romance -- The running of the bulls -- The reluctant thespian -- The Cheyenne loafer -- A woman called Calamity -- A married man -- Deadwood days -- The premonition -- Dead man's hand.