Deadwood and Hickok...

[tarheel mac]

The "Guns of Deadwood" thread over in the Longbranch got me thinking...(always dangerous) and remembering..and I remember seeing something on TV a long time ago...maybe 20-25 years or so, a "docudrama" on Wild Bill...(in which he was played by Lloyd Bridges, I think...not sure if I am remembering two different shows or not.) but it really heavily implied that Wild Bill's murder was bought and paid for by "someone else", (not named") and McCall was just the idiot that carried it out...

Am I "making this up" or not..anyone else remember this?  And if you do, is there any real evidence that this was what happened?

[Russ T Chambers]

Might you be thinkin' of "Wild Bill" ?  Done in 1995   
With Jeff Bridges (One of Lloyd Bridges' sons) as Wild Bill.   

[tarheel mac]

Nope...this was much much earlier than that...possibly the early to mid '70s...

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

From imdb.com: Lloyd Bridges' TV roles:

"The Great Adventure" playing "Wild Bill Hickok" in episode: "Wild Bill Hickok - the Legend and the Man" (episode # 1.12) 3 January 1964

Like "The Americans" which concentrated on the American Civil War, "The Great Adventure" was a quality show which each week presented a dramatization of a person or event in American history. Like "The Americans," "The Great Adventure" was ignored by the American public which, according to the ratings, was far and away more attracted to "Peyton Place," "My Mother the Car," "Car 54 Where Are You?" and other broadcasts which earned television the epithet of "The Vast Wasteland." Van Heflin concluded each episode of "The Great Adventure" by encouraging the American public to read history since, "Learning is the Great Adventure." Not enough of the American public heeded Mr. Heflin's advice.

AnnieLee

[litl rooster]

  In the 70's it was The White Buffalo? With Charles Bronson as Hickcock, I think the Directors and Producers were on Acid when they made hat one

[tarheel mac]

Yeah, okay we've got that established..but now..was there any reason to believe that Hickok was killed through someone paid for his murder?

[tarheel mac]

since this one is being ignored...<sigh>

I've been doing some poking around found a few third hand accounts of how McCall was paid $500 dollars to murder Hickok, but can't find any confirmation on this...but there is some info out there for the digging..

[Capt. Hamp Cox]

From Eugene Cunningham's Triggernometry:  "In Deadwood at this time was a cross-eyed, broken-nosed man named Jack McCall, an ex-buffalo hunter, who spent most of his time in carousing around the toughest dives of the camp. 
By common repute McCall was the tool of Tim Brady and Johnny Varnes, leaders of the toughs in Deadwood, the anti-Hickok element.  Brady and Varnes kept McCall drunk and primed him to kill Hickok, telling him of the reputation he would make, assuring him of immunity for the murder."

From Joseph G. Rosa's Wild Bill Hickok Gunfighter:  "Many later expressed the opinion that McCall was the tool of others who wished Hickok out of the way, but were too cowardly to tackle him themselves.  According to Leander Richardson, rumor was rife that Hickok was a marked man because he would not join the crooked gamblers anxious to fleece the miners."  In addressing McCall's trial for Hickok's murder, Rosa provides the following:  "Among the interested spectators in the public gallery was Wild Bill's brother Lorenzo who had arrived late in November and remained during the whole trial.  His niece Ethel Hickok told the writer that when Lorenzo was allowed to speak to McCall (we believe after the trial) he intimated that he had been bribed to kill Wild Bill, but refused to say anything further or show any remorse."