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12 Facts About Wild Bill Hickok
The press didn’t hurt his reputation.
If you have read much of my stuff, you know I like westerns and western history. One of the most colorful characters in the Old West was James Butler Hickok, aka Wild Bill Hickok. As is the case with many of the characters of the Old West, there’s a lot of misinformation about him. Of course, as I think about it, there’s a lot of misinformation about people today.
I’ve read a fair bit about Wild Bill over the years, and as I go through this information, I will try to sort out some misinformation about him. One thing that seems to be legit about him, he was good with a gun. Now, onto some facts about Wild Bill Hickok.
1: Bill was raised in Illinois but fled to Kansas after getting into a fight with Charles Hudson. During the fight both fell into a canal and thought they had killed each other.
That sounds like the basis of a sitcom, not a western legend.
2: During the Civil War, Bill used the name, William Haycock.
I’m not sure why. Maybe he was still worried about that Charles Hudson thing, or maybe he was hiding from bill collectors.
