Wild Bill Hickok

“Aces and eights, and a mustache to the end.”

92STACH SCORE

✂ Horseshoe Historical Figure Era: 1870s Born 1837

Is this a Legendary Stach?

Stach Stats

Stash Power92

Ruggedness96

Curl Factor12

Legend Status93

Stats are for entertainment purposes. The mustache committee's decisions are final and occasionally arbitrary.

Style: Horseshoe
Peak Era: 1870s
Born: 1837
Fan Votes: 0 legendary · 0 meh

The Story

About Wild Bill Hickok

James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (1837–1876) was born in Homer (now Troy Grove), Illinois. He worked as a stagecoach driver, Union scout and spy during the Civil War, and lawman in Hays City and Abilene, Kansas, where his reputation as a gunfighter grew through a mix of real shootouts and heavily embellished magazine profiles.

He briefly toured with Buffalo Bill Cody\'s stage show in 1873–74 but hated acting. In 1876 he drifted to the gold-rush camp of Deadwood, Dakota Territory, where on August 2 he was shot from behind while playing poker. The cards he was reportedly holding — aces and eights — became known as the "dead man\'s hand."

He was buried in Deadwood\'s Mount Moriah Cemetery, where his grave remains a major attraction.

The Verdict

Why the Stach Became Iconic

Hickok wore his hair long, his hat wide, and his mustache full and drooping well past the mouth — the prototype of the gunfighter look before there was a Hollywood to codify it. Photographs of him are among the most reproduced images of the Old West.

On the Record

Notable Moments

Union Army scout and spy, Civil War
Marshal of Abilene, Kansas (1871)
Toured with Buffalo Bill Cody's "Scouts of the Plains" (1873–1874)
Killed in Deadwood, Dakota Territory (August 2, 1876)

Fun Facts

The "dead man's hand" — aces and eights — is named for the cards he reportedly held when shot.
He broke the usual rule and sat with his back to the door that day because the only other seat was taken.
Calamity Jane asked to be buried beside him, and she was.