Jack McCall

Jack McCall
Born	1852 or 1853 Jefferson County, Kentucky
Died	March 1, 1877 (age 24) Yankton, Dakota Territory
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Other names	"Crooked Nose" Jack
Known for	Murder of Wild Bill Hickok, Deadwood, South Dakota

John "'Crooked Nose Jack' or 'Broken Nose Jack'" McCall (born in 1852 or 1853 in Jefferson County, Kentucky – died March 1, 1877 in Yankton, Dakota Territory), killed James "Wild Bill" Hickok, shooting him from behind, an act that among admirers of Hickok and students of Hickok's history has given rise to the phrase "the coward Jack McCall."

Life and murder of Hickok

Many of the details of McCall's life are lost. He was raised in Kentucky with three sisters but drifted west and became a buffalo hunter. By 1876, he was living in a gold mining camp called Deadwood, under the alias of Bill Sutherland.

On August 2, 1876, in the Nuttal & Mann's #10 Saloon in Deadwood, McCall shot Hickok in the back of the head with a single-action .45-caliber revolver, shouting "Take that!" Hickok, in contrast to his normal habit of sitting in a corner to protect his back, on that day sat with his back to the door while engaged in a game of poker. The killing was rumored to have been over McCall's drunken resentment of an act of generosity by Hickok, Hickok having offered McCall money to buy breakfast after McCall had lost it all playing poker the previous day. McCall claimed, however, that the killing was retribution for Hickok having previously killed McCall's brother in Abilene, Kansas. McCall was found innocent after two hours deliberation by an impromptu court in McDaniel's Theatre made up of local miners and businessmen, causing the Black Hills Pioneer to editorialize:

"Should it ever be our misfortune to kill a man ... we would simply ask that our trial may take place in some of the mining camps of these hills."

(needs sources)

Escape and retrial

McCall then fled town to Wyoming, where he bragged, at length, about the details of how he had killed Hickok in a fair gunfight. Unfortunately for McCall, however, the Wyoming authorities refused to recognize the result of McCall's first trial on the grounds of Deadwood having been in Indian Territory at the time and contended that McCall could legally be tried again. Because Deadwood was an illegal settlement, with no legally constituted law enforcement or court system, the federal court in Yankton, D.T. declared that double jeopardy did not apply.

He was retried in Yankton, Dakota Territory, for Hickok's murder, and was hanged on March 1, 1877 at the age of 24. McCall was the first person to be executed by United States officials in Dakota Territory.

External links

• South Dakota State Historical Society, "The 15 Killed in SD" Execution List.
• Executions in the U.S. 1608-1987: The Espy File (by state) (PDF)