27 May: Wild Bill Hickok

On this day in 1837 wild west legend Wild Bill Hickok was born. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. His real name was James Butler Hickok. He came to be known as "Wild Bill" because he had a big nose. People nicknamed him "Duck Bill" because of his nose and he changed it to "Wild Bill" himself. People often also got his surname wrong and at various times in his life was referred to as “Haycock” or “Hitchcock.” He was also nicknamed "Shanghai Bill" because he was tall and slim.
2. He was born in Homer, Illinois, now known as Troy Grove. He ran away from there at the age of 18 after getting into a fight with Charles Hudson, and believing he had killed him. Hickok moved to Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory, where he joined a vigilante group called the Jayhawkers. During that time, he met a 12 year old called William Cody (later known as Buffalo Bill).
3. He served in the American Civil War, joining the Union Army in 1861. He served as a teamster and was promoted to wagonmaster, but was then discharged for unknown reasons. He joined another brigade in 1863. Later, in 1867, he served as a scout for an African-American unit called the 10th Cavalry Regiment.
4. In photographs, Hickok appears to have black hair, but descriptions of him written during his lifetime say otherwise - they all say he had red hair.
5. His best friend was a man named Charlie Utter. They were business partners in a wagon train business as well as being friends. After Hickok's death it was Utter who placed the obituary notices in the paper and organised the funeral and gravestone. He left a personal message to the effect that he hoped he and Hickok would “meet again in the happy hunting ground to part no more.”
6. So what of Hickok's love life? He may have been involved with, and possibly even married to, Martha Jane Cannary, aka Calamity Jane. She claimed in her autobiography that she was married to him and is buried beside him in accordance with her wish. No documented proof of her claim has ever been found, though. There was a woman called Jean Hickok Burkhardt McCormick who claimed in 1941 to be the daughter of Hickok and Jane, but again, it couldn't be proved. Hickok did marry - he married a woman called Agnes Thatcher Lake, a circus proprietor who was 12 years older than him. (Calamity Jane said she granted him a divorce so he could marry Agnes.) The marriage apparently only lasted a few months before Hickok left her to go gold prospecting with Charlie Utter. It may be, had he not been killed, he'd have gone back to her eventually - he wrote to her just before he died: “Agnes Darling, if such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wife—Agnes—and with wishes even for my enemies I will make the plunge and try to swim to the other shore.”
7. His favourite gun was the Colt 1851 Navy Model. He wore a pair of them with the butts pointed forward, and would draw using a movement known as a “cavalry draw”, which he presumably learned in the Union Army.
8. In 1860, he narrowly escaped being mauled to death by a Bear. While driving freight from Missouri to New Mexico, he found his way blocked by a cinnamon bear with cubs. Hickok did exactly what you'd expect him to do - shot at it. While he hit the bear in the head, the bullet ricocheted off the bear's skull so instead of killing it, he merely annoyed the hell out of it. It attacked him. Despite on arm being in the bear's mouth, he managed to draw a knife and cut its throat. It took him four months to recover from those injuries.
9. He briefly went into showbusiness. His old friend Buffalo Bill persuaded him to try acting in 1873. It was a short lived career as Hickok hated being in the spotlight so much that on one occasion when the spotlight fell on him, he shot at it. He left after a couple of months.
10. Hickok had a premonition that he was going to die in Deadwood, and told this to Charlie Utter. Hickok died during a game of poker. Normally, he made sure he was sitting in a corner seat so nobody could creep up behind him, but on this occasion, there was no corner seat available and Hickok had been forced to sit with his back to the door. He'd tried to get another player to swap places but they'd all refused. Enter Jack McCall, who'd been playing Hickok at poker the previous day and had lost. Even though Hickok had been nice to him and offered him money to buy breakfast, McCall was allegedly offended by that (even though he took the money!). He walked in and shot Hickok in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Hickok was holding a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights in his hand at the time, a combination which has become known as "Dead man's hand". Hickok should have had a fifth card in his hand. It's not known whether he had just played a card or the hand had not been fully dealt, or what the fifth card was. In 1979, Hickok was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two