The Story
At about 4:15 pm on August 2, 1876, drifter Jack McCall walked up behind James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok as he played poker — seated, unusually for him, with his back to the door — and shot him once in the back of the head. McCall was acquitted by a hasty miners' court, then re-tried in a legitimate federal court (Deadwood being unorganized territory, double jeopardy didn't apply) and hanged in 1877. The original wood-frame saloon burned in Deadwood's Great Fire of September 26, 1879.
Surprising Facts
→ The famous "dead man's hand" (black aces and eights) comes directly from this shooting.
→ The bullet passed through Hickok's head and wounded a bystander, Capt. William Massie, in the wrist.
→ This original site at 624 Main is a DIFFERENT address from the modern "Old Style Saloon No. 10" (657 Main), which only borrows the name. A gift shop in an 1898 building stands here now.