Davis Tutt

Davis Tutt (1836 - July 21, 1865) was an Old West gambler and former soldier, best remembered as being killed during the Wild Bill Hickok-Davis Tutt shootout of 1865, which launched the previously unknown Wild Bill Hickok to fame as a gunfighter.

Tutt was born in Yellville, Arkansas, a member of a politically powerful and influential family of Marion County, Arkansas. When he was a boy, his family became involved in the Tutt-Everett War, during which several of his family members were killed over the course of several years. Joining the Confederate Army in 1862, Tutt served during the American Civil War, and afterward ventured west, via Springfield, Missouri. It was while in Springfield that Tutt and Bill Hickok first met. The two became friends, and often gambled together, with Tutt often loaning Hickok money.

Tutt had previously loaned Hickok money, which historians have debated as to the amount, but it is safe to say that it was at least $25, as Hickok had stated that figure himself. It is generally agreed that the falling out between Hickok and Tutt was due to Hickok never repaying that debt, and Tutt embarrassing him by taking a watch owned by Hickok as collateral. Hickok allowed Tutt to take the watch, but warned him to never wear it in public. Hickok apparently looked on this as humiliating, whereas Tutt looked on not wearing the watch as humiliating, as it would show that he feared Hickok, which he did not. Although history has all but forgotten Tutt, while Hickok went on to be an Old West legend, Hickok at that time was an unknown, and this was his first true gunfight. The gunfight which followed, occurring on the square in Springfield, and which has since become one of the better known gunfights of the Old West, has been copied many times since by Hollywood as a model of what many think of a gunfight being.

Main article: Wild Bill Hickok-Davis Tutt shootout

External links

• Slap Leather, Section 1550