On August 1, the day before the shooting, Hickok sat in on several games until the early evening. Each time he reserved the right to have his back against the wall and no one refused him. In fact, it is part of Hickok legend that he always insisted on this precaution, and at this date nothing has been produced to disprove or completely authenticate the story. However, it is in keeping with the actions Wild Bill adopted in public to defend himself against possible attack.

      Later in the evening Captain William R. Massie, a former Missouri River pilot who had seen service on the Mississippi, walked in and joined the game. One of the players dropped out, and one of the bystanders took his place. It was Jack McCall. At the end of the evening McCall was broke, and Hickok took pity on him and gave him money enough for his supper. Then, bidding the company goodnight, Wild Bill made his way back to camp, and was soon inside his blanket.

      On August 2, Hickok, dressed in his favorite outfit, a Prince Albert frock coat with all the trimming, meandered into's Mann's No. 10 saloon shortly after noon. A nod to Harry Young, the bartender, he walked over to where Carl Mann, Charles Rich and Captain Massie were already engaged in a game. There were about eight people in the room.

      At his approach, Mann hailed him and told him to sit down. Hickok hesitated and asked Rich, who had the wall seat, to change round. But he only laughed and told him not to worry, no one was going to attack him. Grudgingly Wild Bill sat down but a few minutes later again asked Rich to change seats. This time all the players good-naturedly ribbed him, and growling uneasily, Wild Bill sat down again. From where he sat, with Rich on his right and Mann on his left, and Massie right in front of him, Hickok had a clear view of the front door, but was conscious of the small door in his rear.

      Having beaten Massie the previous evening, Wild Bill was now losing heavily to him. He looked over at Harry Young and asked for Fifteen dollars worth of pocket checks. Young left the bar and came over to them, placed them beside him, then returned to bar.

      Shortly before this, the front door swung open and a small, furtive man came in. Some say he was drunk, but others recalled that he gave no such impression as he came up to the bar. Jack McCall stared around. Facing toward him was Wild Bill, but he was busily examining his cards. Quickly he moved down the bar in case Wild Bill looked up, not that Hickok was likely to find much significance in his presence. Reaching the end of the bar, McCall stopped. He was only a few paces behind Hickok's stool.

      Wild Bill's attention was on Massie. There was a friendly dispute between them, and Hickok was heard to remark: "The old duffer, he broke me on the hand". Those were the last words he spoke. There was a loud bang and a shout from McCall: "Take That!" A smoking pistol was clutching in his right hand.

      As McCall fired, Wild Bill's head jerked forward, and for some moments his body remained motionless. Then it toppled back from the stool to the floor. From his nerveless fingers spilled his cards: the Ace of Spades, the Ace of Clubs, two black eights, Clubs and Spades, and the Jack of Diamonds. Ever afterward they would be known as "Aces and Eights" - "The Dead Man's Hand."

      Backing towards the rear door, McCall abused the crowd with words before running out. He mounted the first horse he saw. Unfortunately for him, the owner had slacked the saddle cinch because of the heat, and immediately the saddle turned over, sending McCall sprawling to the ground. Gasping for breath, he staggered to this feet and ran down the street, pursed by the excited cry: "Wild Bill is shot! Wild Bill is dead!" It was a little before 3:00 p.m. James Butler Hickok was thirty-nine.

      Back at the saloon some order was being restored. The doors were locked, and only friends of the deceased and people in authority were allowed in. A brief examination conducted by a hastily organized coroner's court, with C.H. Sheldon as foreman, established that the bullet had entered "the base of the brain, a little to the right of center, passing through in a straight line, making its exit through the right cheek between the upper and lower jaw bones, loosening several of the molar teeth in its passage, and carrying a portion of the cerebellum through the wound. From the nature of the wound death must necessarily have been instantaneous." Having killed Hickok, the ball then lodged in Captain Massie's left wrist.