Use of the phrase The expression, "dead man's hand", appears to have had some currency in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although no one connected it to Hickok until the 1920s.<ref URL "Was Wild Bill Hickok Holding the Dead Mans Hand When He Was Slain]; The Straight Dope article; retrieved March 2013.</ref> The earliest detailed reference to it was 1886, where it was described as a "full house consisting of three jacks and a pair of tens". Discussion ; July 3, 1886, article in the Grand Forks Daily Herald; at Linguist List online; retrieved February 2013. Jacks and sevens are called the dead man's hand in the 1903 Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences.Cora Linn Morrison Daniels, et al; editor; Volume 2. The 1907 edition of Hoyle's Games '' refers to the hand as Jacks and eights. Edmond Hoyle and editors; Hoyle's Games; 1907; p. 405 Hickok's hand What is currently considered the dead man's hand card combination received its notoriety from a legend that it was the five-card stud or five-card draw 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. Hickok's final hand purportedly included the aces and eights of both black suits. Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers; Frank J. Wilstach; 1926. Hickok biographer Joseph Rosa wrote about the make-up of the hand: "The accepted version is that the cards were the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, two black eights, and the queen of clubs as the 'kicker'."Wild Bill Hickok: Gunfighter; Joseph G. Rosa; p. 163. Rosa, however, said that no contemporaneous source can be found for this exact hand.Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and his Myth; Joseph Rosa; 1996. The solidification in gamers' parlance of the dead man's hand as two pairs, black aces and eights, did not come about until after the 1926 publication of  Wilstach's book 50 years after Hickok's death.
Use of the phrase The expression, "dead man's hand", appears to have had some currency in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although no one connected it to Hickok until the 1920s.<ref URL "Was Wild Bill Hickok Holding the Dead Mans Hand When He Was Slain]; The Straight Dope article; retrieved March 2013.</ref> The earliest detailed reference to it was 1886, where it was described as a "full house consisting of three jacks and a pair of tens". Discussion ; July 3, 1886, article in the Grand Forks Daily Herald; at Linguist List online; retrieved February 2013. Jacks and sevens are called the dead man's hand in the 1903 Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences.Cora Linn Morrison Daniels, et al; editor; Volume 2. The 1907 edition of Hoyle's Games refers to the hand as Jacks and eights. Edmond Hoyle and editors; Hoyle's Games; 1907; p. 405 Hickok's hand What is currently considered the dead man's hand card combination received its notoriety from a legend that it was the five-card stud or five-card draw 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. Hickok's final hand purportedly included the aces and eights of both black suits. Hickok biographer Joseph Rosa wrote about the make-up of the hand: "The accepted version is that the cards were the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, two black eights, and the queen of clubs as the 'kicker'."Wild Bill Hickok: Gunfighter; Joseph G. Rosa; p. 163. Rosa, however, said that no contemporaneous source can be found for this exact hand.Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and his Myth; Joseph Rosa; 1996. The solidification in gamers' parlance of the dead man's hand as two pairs, black aces and eights, did not come about until after the 1926 publication of author Frank Wilstach's 1926 book, Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers'', 50 years after Hickok's death.
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Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers; Frank J. Wilstach; 1926.
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author Frank
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1926 book, Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers'',