Biographer Rich Cohen argues that Hicks originated a gangster clothing fashion that can still be seen in art and real life. The Hicks look of a Kossuth hat pulled low over one eye, long-tailed monkey jacket and pumped footwear were displayed at the Barnum wax figure museum where millions saw a very bad but handsome man. This style passed from gangster to gangster and through generations as a sort of badge of association with legends of the past, eventually reaching Hollywood films of the 1930s and broader culture to the present.