Wild Bill

The True Story of the American Frontier’s First Gunfighter

By: Tom Clavin

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

“The first thing you will notice about this engaging and delightful biography is that [narrator Johnny Heller] sounds like a character actor who moseyed off the set of an old-fashioned oater. His voice is a little scratchy, a little seasoned and perfectly suits this biography of larger-than-life Bill Hickok and his pals, from Calamity Jane to Buffalo Bill Cody and General Custer.” (The Berkshire Edge)

This program includes a bonus interview with the author.

The definitive true story of Wild Bill, the first lawman of the Wild West, by the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Dodge City.

In July 1865, "Wild Bill" Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in Springfield, Mo., - the first quick-draw duel on the frontier. Thus began the reputation that made him a marked man to every gunslinger the Wild West.

James Butler Hickock was known across the frontier as a soldier, Union spy, scout, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, showman, and actor. He crossed paths with General Custer and Buffalo Bill Cody, as well as Ben Thompson and other young toughs gunning for the sheriff with the quickest draw west of the Mississippi.

Wild Bill also fell in love - multiple times - before marrying the true love of his life, Agnes Lake, the impresario of a traveling circus. He would be buried however, next to fabled frontierswoman Calamity Jane.

Even before his death, Wild Bill became a legend, with fiction sometimes supplanting fact in the stories that surfaced. Once, in bar in Nebraska, he was confronted by four men, three of whom he killed in the ensuing gunfight. A famous Harper’s Magazine article credited Hickok with slaying 10 men that day; by the 1870s, his career-long kill count was up to 100.

The legend of Wild Bill has only grown since his death in 1876, when cowardly Jack McCall famously put a bullet through the back of his head during a card game. Best-selling author Tom Clavin has sifted through years of Western lore to bring Hickock fully to life in this rip-roaring, spellbinding true story.

"[Narrator Johnny Heller] ensures that Western aficionados will enjoy listening to the life of Wild Bill." (AudioFile Magazine)

©2019 Tom Clavin (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"[Narrator Johnny Heller] ensures that Western aficionados will enjoy listening to the life of Wild Bill" (AudioFile Magazine)

The world around Wild Bill, and Wild Bill, too.

It certainly is a comprehensive account of James Butler Hickok, and shares a lot of information from his private and public lives, A lot of his work, prior to his later fame, as a Union spy was quite interesting, and the book gives a coherent picture of the man.

That being said... Wild Bill is often a supporting character, or even at times absent, in his own book. There are extended periods of time when we learn about George Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, Tom Smith, John Wesley Hardin, Calamity Jane and many others, making the book half again as long as it might be, if it stayed on the main subject. Certainly crossing paths with these people is noteworthy, particularly in clearing up the relationship with Jane. But even as the tangents stray, fortunately, they stay just this side of reasonable, providing color and context for the life of Wild Bill Hickok.

I Learned Much

I learned a great deal about Wild Bill. The book helped me appreciate the man and all he did and learn about the many famous people who passed through his life in his short lifetime. He truly was larger than life. I recommend this audiobook.

great book

i enjoyed the mix of lore and known facts. the book painted a superb picture of wild Bill's life and the people around him.

Great Western

Apparently interest in the Old West is a generational thing as the well-read twenty something who was cleaning my roof the other day had never heard of Wild Bill Hickok. When he asked me what I’d been reading he had a blank look when I named dropped “Wild Bill” who may have been one of the most famous men in America in his day. The icons of my childhood were the “cowboys” and “Indians”. My friends and I were all up in Custer, Buffalo Bill, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Sitting Bull, Bat Masterson and Doc Holliday. They were the stuff of dime novels, legends in their own time. Wild Bill was certainly one of the most interesting of them all. Hundreds, even thousands of articles and books were written about these folks. There was a lot of exaggeration and hyperbole but much was true. Some even promoted themselves in their own life times with stage plays and Wild West shows starring themselves. Wild Bill made it to Broadway, playing Wild Bill. But he became disgusted with his performance opposite Buffalo Bill and California Jack and left the show and went back West. His eyesight was failing probably due to syphillis and he was drinking heavily. Bill had premonitions and was considered something of a “spiritualist.” He predicted his own imminent death which occurred in Deadwood in 1876 when a low life named Jack McCall snuck up behind him and shot him in the head. The bullet exited his cheek and lodged in the wrist of another poker player at the table who never had the bullet removed. Poker players who don’t know Wild Bill will least know Aces and Eights, the Dead Man’s Hand, what Bill was holding when the bullet ended his life.
James Butler Hickok was described as the best looking corpse anyone had ever seen. By most testimony he was a spectacular looking human when he was alive. You can read the descriptions of him by both Colonel and Mrs Custer if you want proof. Just over six feet tall with broad shoulders, a girlish waist, shoulder length hair and a handsome mustache he made quite an impression where ever he went. Bill was famous for bathing everyday and wearing stylish clothes when he wasn’t dressed in plainsmen buckskins. He wore his six shooters butts forward so he could quickly cross draw, a move that kept his Chesterfield jacket from getting in the way. He was quick and could shoot accurately with either hand and he often would demonstrate his prowess with the handgun by shooting targets or cans thrown in the air. During the Civil War he was a Union soldier who often spied on the South dressed as a Rebel and infiltrating the Confederate army. After the war he gravitated West and worked as a scout, a wagon driver and a law man. He had a broad reputation and in later life, when he ended up in Deadwood, was such a draw that saloon owners would encourage him with free whiskey to make their business his headquarters.
I didn’t know anything about Wild Bill save what I’d learned by watching the HBO show Deadwood. His appearance there was pretty much a cameo and fostered the probably false story that he and Calamity Jane had a romantic relationship. These were her claims, not his. The fact is that Wild Bill had a rather long romance with a woman twelve years older who was one of the most prominent circus owners in the United State. After their marriage, Agnes Lake returned home to reorganize her circus and wait for Bill to send for her to move to South Dakota. That never happened as Bill was murdered.
This book continues my foray into the Old West with biographies of Jesse James, Billy the Kid and a novel about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. It was a fascinating time I think because of the idea of the “frontier”—that edge of the country where civilization and rule of law confronts wildness and lawlessness. It took tough, hard-nose men to bring order to the cow towns like Dodge City and Abilene. The characters were colorful, interesting and adventurous. In a dystopian novel we move from order to disorder and imagine how one might cope with it. On the frontier we moved from disorder to order as more and more people arrived, got settled and organized family and social life. People like Wild Bill were on the cutting edge of this movement and the fascination of Easterners with the turmoil on the edge of the country made folks like Wild Bill, Billy the Kid and Buffalo Bill (to name all the famous Bills) legends in their own time. Some perhaps were legends in their own mind, like Buffalo Bill, who was a friend of Wild Bill’s from pre Civil War Days and who convinced Wild Bill to become an actor for a short time. Buffalo Bill sounds like a fascinating fellow as well and he will be my next pursuit. Well written, great detailed research, terrific context and a well read audio book.

Fascinating & Well-Written

Wild Bill is a western character I’ve always heard of, but never really knew his whole story. I think Tom Clavin’s research & subsequent book brought Wild Bill Hickok to life. I will definitely be reading/listening to more of Tom Clavin’s works.

Spy, Lawman, Entertainer, Killer

Wild Bill Hickok emerges as a strange and charismatic figure in Tom Clavin’s biography. Clavin has done extensive research to separate myth from legend, and the results are surprising. Much of Hickok’s life was unknown to me, including his service as a Union spy during the Civil War (when he wore a Confederate uniform behind Confederate lines), his early work with his brother as a teamster and his unhappy but often lucrative performances in Wild West shows in the East.

The biography made the Wild West seem like a small-town club. The same group of frontier buddies kept appearing in one town after another: Hays City, Abilene, Cheyenne, Deadwood. Buffalo Bill Cody shows up again and again. General Custer finally leads his troops to the Little Big Horn. Like Wild Bill, many of his friends have reductive nicknames: Texas Jack, Colorado Charlie, California Joe. (I may have the first names wrong, but hey, it was an audiobook.) Historic figures pass Wild Bill’s path in cameos, like William Quantrill, John Wesley Hardin, William Tecumseh Sherman and Ned Buntline. And then we meet his true love, Agnes Lake, who owned one of the traveling circuses that visited the frontier towns. One of the book’s best parts busts the myth of romance between Hickok and Calamity Jane.

Hickok is personally intriguing. He was a deputy US marshal and frequently a lawman, but he often made his living gambling. Apparently wildly handsome, he wore his hair shoulder-length and dressed in town like a dandy. And unlike just about anybody else out west, Wild Bill bathed every day.

But at heart, the book makes clear, Hickok was a killer. Even setting aside many of the false legends about his quick draw, he killed a lot of men. Sometimes he did this as a lawman, sometimes just as a survivor out-drawing those who wanted to take down a legend. The book highlights several instances in which he tried to avoid confrontation, suggesting to a foe with a gun that they settle things over a drink. But there was no evidence in the book of Hickok’s reflection or regret over the number of men he had killed.

The other problem, which Clavin handles well but without emphasis, was the treatment of Native Americans. Hickok was not into the slaughter of Indians, unlike his friend Custer, but he seemed oblivious to the broken treaties, cruelty and lawlessness directed at the Plains natives. He seemed to get along personally with the many Native Americans he met, including wives of his friends, but he also seemed ignorant of the larger issues. Their land was stolen, and their lives were often taken without mercy. Again, there is no evidence of reflection or regret over this.

The narrator had a raspy, grizzled voice that worked well. He spoke like an old prospector telling tales over whiskey at a Deadwood saloon.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and recommend it to others interested in the American frontier or history generally.

Loved it..

I’m a huge Wild Bill fan. Absolutely entertaining! Very informative. It felt as though I went back in time. Thumbs up Tom Clavin and Johnny Heller! Highly recommended!

Fun & interesting read

Really enjoyed the book & learning about Wild Bill! Recommend to people who are interested in this period of history & the "wild west". Listening to Tom Calvin's other book on Dodge City now

it was ok but i wouldn't listen to it again.

it was ik. it kept my attention but I can't say I would recommend it unless you were board and out of credits.

Great American read!

Loved this book! We listened to it on a road trip to Deadwood. It set the stage for our own great American adventure. We loved the narrator and the additional stories of men and women of the time. There was so much more to Wils Bills life, accomplishments, patriotism, and hardships than we realized. Great book!