A Watch to Die For
Wild Bill Hickok vs. Dave Tutt
By: Bob Boze Bell 07/01/2000
JUly 21, 1865
Dave Tutt walks onto the town square in Springfield, Missouri, at 6 p.m. on a Friday. He is about to face off with a known adversary, Wild Bill Hickok.
Wild Bill and Tutt step onto the street, dressed to the nines, each with “two revolvers strapped to their belts.” Both are “noted scouts, desperadoes and gamblers.” Although they were once friends, they have gotten crossways somewhere along the line. (According to rumors, their tiff is over a woman.)
The two also have a gambling feud. One night, the former friends were playing cards when Hickok refused to play with Tutt again because he continually picked fights. To keep in the game by proxy Tutt supposedly gave money to every man who played cards with Wild Bill. Unfortunately, Wild Bill was winning all the hands.
One hot night, at the Lyon House, Wild Bill was playing cards when a discouraged Tutt confronted him. Tutt accused Wild Bill of owing $40 for a horse trade. Wild Bill reportedly paid him, but then Tutt asked for another $35, claiming it was an outstanding debt from a previous game. Wild Bill disputed this amount, saying it had been only $25, but Tutt calmly reached over and picked up Wild Bill’s prized Waltham repeater watch off the table to take as collateral. He kept the watch for several days.
Wild Bill was not amused, and he announced that Tutt should not show off this prized possession. Rumors of Wild Bill’s threats spurred Tutt on, who vowed to “pack that watch across the square next day at noon.”
After Tutt’s boast reached Wild Bill, he was so furious he threatened Tutt’s life, saying “Tutt shouldn’t pack that watch across the square unless dead men can walk.”
And now Tutt is on the square, and he is strutting.
From across the square, Wild Bill yells at Tutt, advising him not to carry the watch. Tutt puts his hand behind him, but instead of reaching for the watch, he pulls out his pistol.
Both men fire “simultaneously ... at the distance of about 100 paces,” says Col. Albert Barnitz, the military commander of the Springfield post and an eyewitness.
Wild Bill’s shot hits Tutt in the heart. The gambler stumbles backwards, before falling near the steps of the courthouse. Tutt is dead.
Colonel Barnitz arrests Wild Bill and hands him over to the local authorities, who charge Hickok with murder.
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