Dead Man's Hand Kicker Issues

[ScooperNova]

I'm fascinated that Wild Bill's hand is thought to be known to include AA88, all black, but the kicker is highly debated and thought to be lost to history. The mystery kicker adds to the romantic mystique of the legend. and I choose to believe it was a one eyed jack. I've heard a few other theories but no one knows for sure. I saw a post somewhere that his fifth card was a third black ace, explaining why he was shot lol.

Per wikipedia-Hickok biographer Joseph Rosa wrote about the make-up of the hand: "The accepted version is that the cards were the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, two black eights, and the queen of clubs as the 'kicker'."[7] However, Rosa said that no contemporaneous source can be found for this exact hand.[8] The solidification in gamers' parlance of the dead man's hand as two pairs, aces and eights, did not come about until after the 1926 publication of Frank Wilstach's book Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers—50 years after Hickok's death.[1]

 

[hugh blair]

Interesting story from a wild game in a wild time.

 

[ScooperNova]

I'm still interested in peoples thoughts and what card they think was the kicker. I thought there might be a few history buffs around these parts.

 

[Goldog]

This account is a little different. But it sounds plausible.

According to a book by Western historian Carl W. Breihan, the cards were retrieved from the floor by a man named Neil Christy, who then passed them on to his son. The son, in turn, told Mr. Breihan of the composition of the hand. “Here is an exact identity of these cards as told to me by Christy’s son: the ace of diamonds with a heel mark on it; the ace of clubs; the two black eights, clubs and spades, and the queen of hearts with a small drop of Hickock’s blood on it.”