"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." - Wild Bill Hickok to his new wife Agness.
Wild Bill wrote these words in a letter to his wife the day before his death in Deadwood, SD, in 1876. He was shot in the back of the head by a disgruntled man who had lost money to him playing poker just the day before.
Bill had always sat with his back against the wall when he played cards. However, on this occasion his spot had already been taken and the man occupying it refused to move. Instead of causing a ruccous, Bill went against his own rule to never sit where someone could sneak up behind him. It was the one and only time he would make this mistake.
Agnes received the letter a month later in the mail.
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Friends said that Hickok wrote the letter because he was now in his late 30's and felt that he was losing his edge. After many decades of fame he was still very much sought after by the public and young men used him to test their metal. Hickok knew he wasn't as fast as he used to be and that his days were numbered.
It is interesting to note that "Everyday Paranormal", a paranormal research group who supposedly uses scientific methods to capture evidence of the paranormal, supposedly caught an "EVP" of a "spirit" who seemed to answer their questions as Hickok might have. When asking:
- what his last words would be if he had a chance to voice them... a voice responded, "tell my wife I love her."
- what was the fifth card in Hickok's hand when he was shot, the spirit replied "nine diamonds."
The arrangement of cards Hickok last held while playing poker are famously known as "The Dead Man's Hand." He held a pair of eights, and pair of aces; the fifth card was lost to history.
One version of the trial: Hickok's murderer, Jack McCall, was found not guilty in a court of law (due to the false testimony that Hickok had previously killed McCall's brother), but was taken back to court a second time and was tried again. It was found that McCall didn't even have a brother to begin with. The coward hung.
