Results: The True Story and Legends of Famous Outlaws in the Wild, Wild West ** Part Eight ** Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, Few substantiated facts are known about Calamity Jane's life, much of her biography is a mix of wild tales and legends.

Jane's father died soon after arriving in Salt Lake City, making her an orphan at twelve and the head of the family. She had grown up tall and powerfully built with many male characteristics. Illiterate and poor, she was forced to move from one place to another, taking any work available to survive. She was surrounded by desperate people, also scrapping out a living, and not providing a nurturing environment for a young impressionable girl. Martha Jane began to find her way in a man's world taking on men's work and a male persona. It is also believed that as a teenager she occasionally engaged in prostitution, as it was more lucrative and always in demand. It was during this time that the moniker, "Calamity" was given to her. Women in the pioneer days had few options to earn living, If you had no other options would you turn to prostitution to earn a living?

In 1875, Jane traveled with a U.S. Army troop into the Black Hills of South Dakota and soon drifted to the lawless town of Deadwood. At this point the legends surrounding her life become abundant and the facts harder to find. She is said to have had numerous affairs with some of the most notorious desperados of the time. She traveled to South Dakota and met Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood where her legend as a hard-drinking woman was born. Her reputation was advanced with stories of heroism and charity in an autobiography and western dime novels. Have you read any of the stories about Calamity Jane?

In 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was suffering from glaucoma. Relegated to making a living through other means than law enforcement, he traveled from one town to another as a gambler. Several times he was arrested for vagrancy. On March 5, 1876, he married Agnes Thatcher Lake, an owner of a circus in Cheyenne, Wyoming territory. He left his wife a few months later to seek his fortune in the goldfields of South Dakota. It was here that he supposedly became romantically linked to Martha Jane Canary, also known as "Calamity Jane." Do you think Wild Bill loved his wife or just needed some security at the time?

While in Deadwood, South Dakota, Wild Bill Hickok became a regular poker player at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon. On the afternoon of August 2, 1876, he was playing cards with his back to the door, something he seldom did. A young drifter named Jack McCall walked in and approached Hickok from behind. Not wasting a second, he quietly drew his revolver and shot Hickok in the back of the head, instantly killing him. Even in death Hickok's legend grew. The cards he was holding at the time – a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights – became known as "the dead man's hand." Have you ever heard of the Dead Man's Hand before this survey?

Their alleged dalliance launched her name into the annals of Western folklore. Even Jane herself, in her autobiography, spun a wild tale of capturing Jack McCall, after he murdered Wild Bill. Jane was also known for her softer side. In her autobiography, she takes credit for rescuing a runaway stagecoach fleeing from a Cheyenne Indian war party by bravely driving the coach to Deadwood with six passengers and a wounded driver. There are also accounts from several sources of her helping nurse patients during a smallpox epidemic in Deadwood. The accounts have several versions and documentation of her role in the events is suspect, but the stories are plausible because the events did occur. Do you consider Calamity Jane a brave woman?

McCall was brought to trial the next day. He was found not guilty by a "miners' court" after telling judges that Hickok killed his brother, though later accounts showed McCall had no brothers. After his release, McCall had lingered in Deadwood for a short while before heading to Wyoming. Less than a month after Hickok's death, the trial was found to have no legal status because Deadwood was located in Indian Territory - McCall's acquittal was deemed invalid. Still, feeling he had escaped punishment, McCall began to brag to anyone that would listen that he had killed Wild Bill Hickok. But the U.S. marshals were on his trail and McCall was arrested on August 29, 1876 in Laramie, where he was held before he was extradited to Yankton, South Dakota. The trial began on December 4 and it only took two days for the jury to find McCall guilty. He was sentenced to death on January 3, 1877 and on March 1, 1877 he was executed by hanging. Do you think he would have been safe if he didn't brag about killing Wild Bill Hickok?

Jane's fame grew even more in 1895 when she joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show performing sharpshooting skills astride a horse. For several years, she toured the Midwest, bringing a commercialized version of the rip-roaring west to American audiences. The work was never steady, as she reputedly got drunk and disorderly throughout the tours. Wherever she performed, she brought copies of her greatly exaggerated autobiography, which she sold to fans for pennies. By the turn of the century, her hard life was catching up with her. She suffered from severe alcoholism and poor health. In July 1903, she arrived at the Calloway Hotel in Terry, near Deadwood, where she died on August 1 or 2 at age 51. She was buried next to Hickok at Mount Moriah Cemetery in South Dakota. Have you been to Deadwood?