In my opinion Hickok is worthy of most of the praise that he receives. Bill certainly lived a tough life, and made some questionable decisions, Rock Creek being the most infamous. This is outweighed by the good he did during the Civil War and his actions as a peace officer after the war.

Buel's book does a decent job of telling Hickok's story, but like most books of the era it mixes myth with truth, and gets some basic facts of Hickok's life wrong. Was he a charlatan or a great hero? The answer is most likely somewhere in the middle, but certainly, I think, leaning towards the heroic.

Buel's telling of the killing of Phil Coe is a bit off. Coe was a Texas cattleman and saloon owner in Abilene and had a longstanding row with Hickok, among them Hickok's ban on carrying guns in city limits. Coe became intoxicated one evening with his friends and began discharging his pistol in the air. This attracted the attention of Hickok, who told Phil he would be disarming him. Phil made some excuses before turning his pistol on Hickok, who drew and fired with incredible quickness. Bill, on the defensive, had both pistols and was facing of the crowd of Coe's associates when he heard a voice call his name from behind him. Bill turned and fired without thinking. The bullet struck his Mike Williams, his deputy, in the heart killing him. It was this incident that made Hickok swear off being a law man ever again, and he vowed never to never draw his pistols in anger again. This led to an almost five year drinking spree ending in Deadwood City in 1876.

One other thing that Buel gets wrong is Hickok's relationship with Agnes Lake. The were not wed in 1875 but on March 5th 1876. Bill very much cared for Agnes, and Buel's assertion that they had a falling out of some kind is very much wrong and uncharacteristic of Hickok. They maintained a correspondence while Hickok remained in Cheyenne and kept writing her up until his death in Deadwood City.

One last clarification on Buel's book. Hickok was indeed killed by McCall while he was playing cards on August 2d. He fled the saloon and was captured a short time later in a warehouse, not while standing off an angry crowd. He was put on trial the following day, William L. Kuykendall presiding, and was found not guilty and released. McCall fled town to Wyoming Territory, but the further he got from Deadwood the looser he got with his drink and his big mouth. Going so far as bragging about killing Hickok over a simple game of cards. McCall was rearrested in Laramie on August 29th and taken to Yankton for his trial. Court ran December 4th through the 6th with the jury finding him guilty of murder. Sentencing occurred in early January 1877 with a date of execution set for March 1, 1877.

For further reading on Wild Bill I would suggest reading They Called him Wild Bill by Joseph Rosa. Rosa is the best out there when it comes to scholars on Wild Bill.

On to your other comment "...that he may be just another Calamity Jane and all this may be fabricated." While some of her exploits may be fabrications; she is very much worthy of praise. Jane was a noted scout, nurse, mule skinner, and bullwhacker. She accompanied the 1875 expedition that found gold in the northern Black Hills. She was a ferocious drunk with a very compassionate heart always tending to those in need. There are a number of accounts in The Black Hills Weekly Pioneer of her attending to and nursing many different miners back to health. She also helped a great deal during the smallpox epidemic that hit Deadwood, reportedly never losing a patient. It was due to this assistance with the smallpox that she is buried next to Hickok. When she died in Terry, SD in 1903 the city fathers of Deadwood decided two things were to be done about her burial. One of Jane's last wishes was to be buried next to the only man she ever loved, Hickok. With Mike Russell leading the pack they decided that they should honor her wish for all the good that she had done for Deadwood, and it would a terrific joke to pull on Wild Bill to bury her next to him. Hickok and Jane did know each other in life, but she was the one that pushed the idea of their being married, especially so after his death.

I will leave you with what Peter Faulk wrote in the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotaian March 1 1877 on Hickok.

"As a fitting close to this tragic drama we may say of "Wild Bill," notwithstanding his eventful and exciting career as a scout of the union army during the war, and on the frontier and the wild plains of the west, amongst wild and lawless whites, and still more savage red men, he was still a quiet man and unassuming man, peaceable and harmless, except when menaced by the cold glitter of the revolver. At such times his nerve and cool daring were unparalleled. As a soldier, scout, marshal, sheriff and private citizen, his qualities enabled him always, by rapidity of execution and extraordinary fearlessness, to defeat and destroy his enemies when the odds were overwhelming. No open enemy could have taken his life, except by sacrificing his own, and it remained for McCall to assassinate him in an unsuspecting hour, when his back was towards the enemy. Though his life was bloody and adventurous, yet he was always a champion of the weak and oppressed; and if he wasn't a paragon of excellence, he was at least a man of brave impulses."