Editing Dead man's hand (section)

==Hickok's hand==
[[File:DeadMansHandDeadwoodSD.JPG|thumb|Display in [[Deadwood, South Dakota]] with the dead man's hand (here given as A♠ A♣ 8♠ 8♣ {{diamonds|9}})]]
What is currently considered the dead man's hand card combination received its notoriety from a legend that it was the [[five-card stud]] or [[five-card draw]] hand, held by [[Wild Bill Hickok]] when he was shot in the back of the head by [[Jack McCall]] on August 2, 1876, in [[Nuttal & Mann's Saloon]], [[Deadwood, South Dakota|Deadwood]], [[Dakota Territory]]. Hickok's final hand purportedly included the aces and eights of both black [[Playing card suit|suits]].<ref name=Wilstach>{{cite book |last=Wilstach |first=Frank J. |title= Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers |year=1926 }}</ref>

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 spades 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 Hickok's blood on it",<ref>''Wild Women of the West''; Signet; 1982; p. 77.</ref> (A♠ A♣ 8♠ 8♣ {{hearts|Q}}) though nothing of the sort was reported at the time immediately following the shooting.

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'." (A♠ A♣ 8♠ 8♣ Q♣)<ref>''Wild Bill Hickok: Gunfighter''; Joseph G. Rosa; 2003; p. 163.</ref>  Rosa, however, said that no contemporaneous source can be found for this exact hand.<ref>''Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and his Myth''; Joseph Rosa; 1996.</ref>  The solidification in [[card game|gamer]]s' parlance of the dead man's hand as two pairs, black aces and eights, did not come about until after the 1926 publication of Wilstach's book—50 years after Hickok's death.<ref name=Wilstach/><ref name="Dope"/>