On this day, December 4, 1876, the "legitimate" trial of Jack McCall began in Yankton. McCall was charged with murdering Wild West legend Wild Bill Hickock.

Two descriptions of the event.  The first, from Find a Grave at http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=city&FScityid=131754

McCall, Jack 'Broken Nose Jack' d. March 1, 1877
Western Folk Figure. He killed "Wild Bill" Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota on August 2,1876. His trial began on December 4,1876 in Yankton, the Dakota Territorial Capital, and was found guilty two days later. On March 1, 1877, Jack McCall was hanged and his body buried in the southwest corner of the Catholic Cemetery. In 1881, all the bodies in that cemetery were moved to the Yankton Cemetery to make way for the "Territorial Insane Hospital". When McCall's grave and coffin were opened for the...[Read More]
Yankton City Cemetery, Yankton, Yankton County, South Dakota, USA
Plot: [unmarked]

The second, from the History of Yankton, South Dakota at

http://www.yankton.net/stories/091599/bus_jackmccall.html

The Jack McCall Trial

The trial of Jack McCall for the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok began in Yankton on Dec. 4, 1876, with Chief Justice Peter C. Shannon of the territorial supreme court presiding.

Representing the defendant were court-appointed attorneys Gen. William Henry Harrison Beadle, along with C. J. Shannon, a distant relative of the judge. U. S. Attorney William Pound handled the case for the government in the federal courtroom in what is now the north extension of the Sir Charles Apartments at Third and Capitol.

For the record, the 12-man jury consisted of John Treadway, Hiram A. Dunham, William Box, George Pike, Charles Edwards, I. N. Esmay, H. T. Mowry, Nelson Armstrong and M. L. Winchell, all of Yankton County ; and Lewis Clark, West Negus and J. A. Withee of Turner. 

And, some additional information about McCall.

From the Adams Museum in Deadwood at http://adamsmuseumandhouse.org/answers/jackmccall.html

 

Jack McCall
Little is known about Jack McCall, the man who gained notoriety by murdering Western legend Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood Gulch on August 2, 1876. Although no photographs of him have yet been found, newspaper accounts of the day describe Jack McCall as having “thick chestnut hair, a somewhat pointy head, a small sandy moustache, a sensual mouth, snub nose and crossed eyes.” He was also described as having “a florid complexion and a double chin.”