Monday, June 7, 2010

Hickok's sidekick faster than all others?

Who do you think was the fastest gun in the West? Wyatt Earp, John Wesley Hardin? Billy the Kid? The answer is, none of these! According to Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp it was a sixteen year old kid Jewish boy from Boston, Nathan Bernard !

My lost note pad of Wild Bill Hickok and his sidekick, Nathan Bernard

Nathan Bernard passed down this journal to his son James, who in turn passed it down to his son Butler. The journal, which they wouldn't allow me to lay a finger on, was read to me word for miss spelled word slowly to enable me to scribble my own notes into my small note pad. This note pad was lost during my move to Florida permanently. Until my daughter up north was rummaging through a box in her attic, which I left behind, came upon the journal. When she sent the note pad down to me in Naples, I held it in my hand not knowing what I should do with it. At this time I was writing novels and decided I should write a novel about what I had scribbled into this valuable note pad.

Events of Wild Bill Hickok's last days

During the next two and a half days, myself and the two old men, sat in their parlor as they read to me from a journal which Nathan Bernard had written during his six weeks as Wild Bill Hickok's very close friend. This actual journal written in 1876 was the basis of this book, 'Wild Bill Hickok His Last Six Weeks'.

The happenstance of this Wild Bill Hickok book

I was born in Revere, Mass. a small beach town north of Boston. I moved to Naples part time in the 1990's. I took a trip one year back to my beach town, to reminisce while sitting on the sea wall, watching the small waves lapping at the shore line. I felt a tapping on my shoulder, it was a man who asked, "Aren't you Danny Goldstein?" He told me we played football together back in high school, and he told me his name which I didn't recognize nor did I recognize his face. All I remember was the name he told me, 'Joe' something. We talked about what we were doing with our lives. I mentioned that I had been writing children stories. He offered to me the chance to meet with the son of Nathan Bernard. I asked, "Who is Nathan Bernard?" He explained that Nathan Bernard was the side kick of the famous Wild Bill Hickok, during the short time he was in deadwood, South Dakota. A few days later I heard from 'Joe'. He had set up a meet with the old son , James Hickok, and his son Butler.

Not a Hickok Biography

Another Wild Bill Hickok biography? NO, and I state that emphatically. NO !
This is not a biography. I want to tell you upfront how this book, by way of a happenstance was written. It just takes in the last six weeks of Wild Bill's life