Dead man's hand dead man's hand card combination of today gets its notoriety from a legend that it was the five-card stud hand held by James Butler Hickok (better known as "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 at Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Reportedly, Hickok's final hand included the aces and eights of both black suits. 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
Dead man's hand in popular culture episode in the short-lived U.S. radio drama series, "Frontier Gentleman." The story includes a fictionalized version of Wild Bill Hickok’s last card game as witnessed by J. B. Kendall, the London "Times" reporter who was the title character. In the story, Kendall is at the table, playing with Hickok and McCall. The story was presented twice during the 41-show run of the CBS series, using different actors (i.e., not a recorded rerun). The Dead man hand can be seen on an abandoned dust-covered table on the lobby of Walt Disney Studios Park's The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Dead Man's