Episode 142: Wild Bill Hickman

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:09)
Today we're devoting our entire hour to one of the most fascinating and terrifying figures of the American West, William Adams Wild Bill Hickman, also known as Brigham's Destroying Angel. He had plenty of other nicknames too, like Use Him Up Bill.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:26)
You know, Lindsay, usually when we talk about historical figures being complicated, it's kind of a euphemism. But with Hickman, I mean, here we got a guy who's simultaneously a loving father of 35 children, a trusted religious leader, and also someone who, by his own admission, killed dozens of people. I mean, I guess he just loves killing people.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:49)
And wrote about it quite proudly in his autobiography Brigham's Destroying Angel. That was his self-title, Catchy. Though we should note that that book needs to be taken with quite a grain of salt.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:02)
More like a salt flat. But let's start at the beginning.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:08)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:11)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:12)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:40)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day. Saddle up.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:45)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:53)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast. William Adams Hickman was born in Warren County, Kentucky on April 16th, 1815

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:24)
And like many frontier stories, Hickman's early life was shaped by constant movement. When he was just four years old, his family moved to Missouri territory where young Bill grew up in what was essentially the edge of civilization.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:37)
His grandfather loved to tell him stories about having 21 blood relatives who fought in the Revolutionary War.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:43)
Who amongst us does not have a grandpa that liked to pull us in by the fire and regale us with stories of Revolutionary War glory? Not you, you say? That was 300 years ago? Not so if you have Mormon ancestry that came over from the Mayflower, and I know just about all of you do according to FamilySearch. Then you for sure have a grandpa that relived the Revolutionary War glory days around the old fire hearth.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:08)
I had the Kentucky spelling of fire. He pulled them in by the fire. So from an early age, there was this connection between violence and patriotic duty in young Bill's mind. Let's call him Child Bill Hickman at this point.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:21)
Watch it.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:22)
From Hickman's birth in 1815, the Revolutionary War had ended about 32 years earlier. When Hickman mentioned having 21 blood relatives who fought in the war, he would have been hearing those stories from family members who had directly experienced the war just a generation earlier. This helps explain how fresh and influential these tales of patriotic violence would have been in shaping young Hickman's worldview in the early 1800s.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:44)
And speaking of violence, by his own account, he was fighting wild wars and bears before his teens. Though, like many of Hickman's claims, we should probably take that with...

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:54)
Another Great Salt Lake.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:56)
Exactly. Hickman came from a semi-educated family. His mother, Elizabeth Adams, was reportedly educated and a cousin of John Quincy Adams, while his father, Edwin Temple Hickman, was illiterate despite serving as a magistrate and operating the first grist mill in Randolph County.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:13)
I mean, did he let prostitutes offer opinions on his bench? There's that. He should have. When Bill was just four years old in 1819, can we sing it like the David... When he was only four, Billy, Billy Hickman. That's the song that keeps going through my mind.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:30)
Billy Hickman.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:31)
The family moved to Missouri territory. Sorry, Missouri territory. Let's be accurate. The timing of this movement, they missed being counted in both the North Carolina and Kentucky census as they were in transit, pissing off future generations of genealogists. They made this journey with Bill's younger siblings, James Barton, age three, and baby L. We've run into this name before. I don't want to say lettuce.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:56)
It's almost like lettuce though, isn't it?

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:58)
Lettuce? Listeners, it's lettuce just with an I instead of U. She's only two months old.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (5:04)
It's like the Utah spelling of lettuce.