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The dead man's hand, a legendary 'cursed' poker hand usually depicted as consisting of the ace of spades, ace of clubs, eight of spades and eight of clubs with an undefined fifth card, has appeared or been referenced in numerous works of popular culture. It is thought to have been the hand which Old Westfolk hero, lawman, and gunfighterWild Bill Hickok was holding 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. It entered into popular poker parlance after the 1926 publication of Frank Wilstach's book Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers—50 years after Hickok's death.

Written fiction[edit]

In the novel Along Came a Spider by James Patterson, Jezzie Flannigan tells the story of how her father won his gun with a hand of aces and eights – she also uses 'Aces&Eights' as her computer password.

Dead Man's Hand is the name of the seventh book of the 'Wild Cards' series.

In 'Batman R.I.P.', while Batman is talking to The Joker in Arkham Asylum, the Joker sends a cryptic message to Batman by dealing himself a 'dead man's hand, with a twist.' The 'twist' is that the 8s in the hand are red cards, while the aces remain black. His final card is a Joker.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, McMurphy has a dead man's hand tattooed on his shoulder, 'a poker hand fanned out across his muscle - aces and eights'.^[1] This foreshadows his fate at the end of the novel.

The title of the fourth novel based on the film Final Destination is titled Dead Man's Hand, and takes place in Las Vegas. Also, a comic mini-series based on the film used the 'dead man's hand' as a means of foreshadowing.

There is a Las Vegas bar called the Nine of Diamonds in the novel Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon, 'out on Boulder Highway....According to Bigfoot Bjornsen, for whom this piece of western trivia had won him many a bar bet, the nine of diamonds had been the fifth card in Wild Bill Hickok's last poker hand, along with the black aces and eights.'

Film[edit]

At least two of John Ford's films feature the aces and eights hand as a foreshadowing of death. In Stagecoach (1939), the hand is held by Luke Plummer (Tom Tyler), soon to be shot by the Ringo Kid (John Wayne). In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Liberty Valance draws the hand just prior to his death.

In Frontier Marshal (1939), Wyatt Earp, (Randolph Scott) holds the aces and eights during a poker game.

In the 1941 Western The Badlands of Dakota, Wild Bill Hickok, played by Richard Dix, is shown to be holding the aces and eights 'dead man's hand' after he has been shot in the back.

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In Anthony Mann's film Winchester '73, 'Dutch' Henry lays down a full house, aces over eights, stating that he just missed a 'dead man's hand.'

In Along Came a Spider (2001), aces and eights is the winning hand that gave ownership of a Turkish hand-made shotgun to the father of Agent Flannigan. It later provides a clue about her involvement in the kidnapping plot.

The Coen Brothers anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs features the hand in its eponymous first vignette. The titular character takes someone's place at a poker table who was dealt this hand before leaving, and subsequently refuses to play it. ^[2]

TV[edit]

On The X-Files episode entitled 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose', the title character is playing poker with Agent Scully and is seen holding a full house of aces and eights (the ace of hearts being the fifth card).

In 'The Assassin' (Season 3 Episode 11) of the television series The Pretender, poker plays a key role, including the appearance of the dead man's hand at the end of the episode.

In a first episode of Quantum Leap ('How The Tess Was Won') a character attempts to rig a game of poker by dealing aces and eights to Sam's love interest. It is referred to as a 'dead man's hand' by Al.

In an episode of The Untouchables syndicated TV series (1993-1994), members of an Irish gang are playing poker when they are gunned down by members of an Italian mob. A short time later, other members of the Irish gang come to investigate the scene of the demise of their unfortunate colleagues. At one point, the leader of the investigating team examines the poker hand held by one of the deceased and comments matter-of-factly, 'Aces and eights'.

In Legends of the Hidden Temple, an episode from the first season was told about the legend of Wild Bill Hicock and the Dead Man's Hand.

In 'Noosphere Rising' (Season 1 Episode 7) of the television series Touch, a key is given to Jake Bohm (David Mazouz) by Dr. Teller (Danny Glover) with the number 1188 engraved on it. The number is identified by Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) as the 'dead man's hand', and is part of the number pattern of the fictional Amelia Sequence.

In 'The Lightning' (Season 1 Episode 14) of the television series Criminal Minds, Hotch plays cards with a death row inmate, hoping to reveal the location of another victim. Hotch claims to have a pair of aces and a pair of eights, a dead man's hand, which the inmate believes is what he should have. The inmate shows a straight: 7 of spades, 8 of hearts, 9 of spades, 10 of hearts, jack of hearts. Hotch reveals he was hiding another ace, thus beating the inmate.

In June 2012, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling introduced a faction known as the 'Aces & Eights'.^[3] The faction would use the Dead Man's Hand (black aces, black eights and the fifth card overturned) as a calling card for their attacks.^[4]

One edition of the Fox News Channel documentary series Legends and Lies: The Real West presented a biography of Wild Bill Hickok, including – of course – a description of the 'Dead Man’s Hand'.

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Paul Daniels incorporated the hand into a trick shown during series 6, episode 5 of his magic show, first broadcast 22 September 1984.

Found in season 13 episode 3 of Midsomer Murders 'Blood on the Saddle'

Found in season 5 episode 6 of The 100.

Music[edit]

The Ha Ha Tonka song 'Dead Man's Hand', the Motörhead song 'Ace of Spades', the Bob Dylan song 'Rambling, Gambling Willie', the Uncle Kracker song 'Aces and Eights' and the Bring Me the Horizon song 'Alligator Blood' all refer to the legendary poker hand.

Motörhead also have a song on the B-side of The One to Sing the Blues single, titled Dead Man's Hand, with lyrics: 'Read them and weep, the dead man's hand again'.

The song 'Aces & Eights' from the Lita Ford album Stiletto features 'The dead man's hand holds aces and eights' in the refrain.

The lyrics 'Who's gonna play those eights and aces?' appear in the song 'Fire Lake' by Bob Seger.

The lyric 'Aces and eights are the fate that you drew' appears in the song 'I Am the Storm' by Blue